Psalm 45:10a Listen, O daughter, Consider and incline your ear (NKJV)
I love this picture! My daughter Gabi drew it last year. The girl in the picture is listening to her Beloved’s voice as she walks in a peaceful field.
My husband and I have been talking a lot on hearing the voice of the Lord. We can get so busy being about our busyness that we don’t spend intimate time with our Lover, or we drown out His voice.
The Thorndike Barnhart Comprehensive Desk Dictionary (1950) defines the word “listen” like this: try to hear; attend closely for the purpose of hearing; give heed to; pay attention.
The Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible (Thomas Nelson Publishers Nashville 1990) says it like this: ST8085 Hebrew shama; To hear intelligently (often with implication of attention, obedience) consider, discern, obey, perceive, understand.
1 Kings 19:11-12 Then He said, “Go out, and stand on the mountain before the LORD.” And behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind tore into the mountains and broke the rocks in pieces before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
There is just something special about hearing my Beloved’s voice…..even when He is chastening me. There have been times that I haven’t heeded His voice and there are times that I have.
One time, I was in South Dakota washing the dishes when the Lord told me to pray for Luis, our oldest son. I stopped what I was doing and prayed fervently for him. His Dad was also praying at the same time in another state. We didn’t know what was going on until later. Luis called the next day and this is what he said, “Hi Mom. Do you know what happened to me yesterday? I was doing a roofing job on a 10 story building and stepped back thinking I had more room and stepped off the roof. I was falling and all of a sudden, something stopped me Mom and put me back on the roof!” Praise Jesus! Isn’t that exciting?!
Another time, our youngest daughter-in-law was heading back home on a curvy winter road and was going off the road towards the woods when “something” set her right on the road again. I had heard that lovely still small voice, “Pray for Tabby.” At that exact moment.
There was another time the Lord woke us up in answer to a prayer from our youngest son, Chris. He had gotten off work early and was heading home to surprise his wife (It was swing shift, or 2nd shift to some people.) when he got stuck in the snow. Ron was able to hop in the truck and run down and pull the van out.
There have been a few times we have been told to pray for Gabi for her safety and she has come home to tell us things that had happened at the exact times we prayed.
A friend of mine told me about a time she went to get a piece of pizza and the Spirit told her not to eat it. The woman at the pizza place had scooped it up with her hands. Well, my friend ate it and ended up very sick.
There have been a couple of times the Spirit told me not to say something and I plowed ahead anyway and caused a lot of trouble for some people I love.
The Lord is always wanting to impart to us, to lead us, to protect us and to help us. He loves to just fellowship with us. What we have to say is important to Him and it should be the same for us towards Him.
What is He telling you today? Will you incline your ear and consider and obey Him? Will you believe Him? All His promises are yes and amen. He keeps His word and He knows stuff. Be blessed as you incline your ear to your Beloved!
