The Right Voice

04 Jun The Right Voice

Read 1 John 4:1-6

Thought for the Day: I need to follow the right voice!

When I was in Kindergarten, my parents had me participate in a learn-to-play baseball league. While I didn’t love it (I ultimately realized I’m more of a musician than an athlete), I finished out the season. At the very end, we had a town event for all the kids who participated in Little League. I was very excited because I got to march in with my team. But that day, something happened that has always stuck with me.

After the event was over, I went looking for my parents so we could go home. But, because ‘David’ is a very common name and I was so little, I accidentally followed the wrong voice. Someone else had called out my name and, when I got to them, I quickly saw that they were NOT my Mom and Dad. As you can imagine, little Kindergarten David was in tears. But, my parents quickly found me and took me out for frozen lemonade. That day, I learned what happens when we follow the wrong voice.

In the New Testament, John makes it clear that Christians must learn to follow the right voice. While many would-be prophets will try to get us to follow, we are to only follow the voice of the Holy Spirit. Rather than following every voice claiming to be from God, we must test the spirits. Fortunately, there is an easy way to know whether we are following the right voice: “By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God.”

With so many trying to influence us in our culture today, let’s keep it simple: anything that doesn’t point us to deepen our relationship with Jesus isn’t helpful. We must test the spirits and follow the right voice!

In Christ,
Pastor David (and Stan)