I took my son hunting on Saturday morning, where we approached a pond that was filled with hundreds of ducks. It isn’t waterfowl season, so we couldn’t shoot them, but I wanted to try out my duck calling skills.
“Watch this,” I whispered as we crouched behind a bush. Then I let out my very best duck quack. Immediately, every duck in the pond went from casually feeding and bathing to swimming quickly and nervously away from that strange sound. I tried again, hoping to calm them and get a response, but it only got worse. In fact, some of them flew off. We realized the jig was up and stepped out from our hiding spot, and all of the sudden there were hundreds of ducks in the air.
I used it as an opportunity to teach my son about how important it is to know the voice of God. There are all kinds of voices in the world trying to tell us how we should live, and many of them claim to be from God. Even in contemporary Christianity, there are counterfeits who want you to think they speak for God. They want to lure you in and control you, or, as Peter puts it, “And through covetousness shall they with feigned words make merchandise of you: whose judgment now of a long time lingereth not, and their damnation slumbereth not.” In other words, they manipulate God’s word to get money or something else out of you. Have we not all seen this type of behavior?
That’s why each of us needs to have a real relationship with God where we are immersed in His word and we have the Holy Spirit within us who leads us into all truth.
When we have a healthy relationship with The Lord, He leads us in right paths, and we won’t be deceived by false teaching.
Jesus said this in John 10, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Do you know Jesus’ voice? Can you distinguish His leading as you live out your life? You should be tight enough with Jesus that you know His voice when you hear it, and you can easily recognize a phony.
Hear what He says again in John 10, “But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
I may have thought I was doing a pretty decent job of impersonating a duck, because I don’t hang around ducks all the time. But every duck on the pond knew something was wrong as soon as I opened my mouth, and they swam away even though they couldn’t see us.
False teachers and those who don’t spend time with God in prayer and in the Word may think that false teaching sounds pretty good and right, but those of us who know The Lord and the Bible know immediately when we are being fed mistruth.
Sometimes false teaching is immediately obvious, and other times you’re hearing a teaching somewhere, and you may not even be able to put your finger on it right away, but something within you knows that something about it isn’t right. Then somewhere in the teaching the jig is up as you recognize something that contradicts the scripture.
You’re not going to be able to discern the voice of God unless you are spending time with Him. Each of us must have a relationship with God that is personal and real, where we spend time with Him and He continually transforms us more and more into people who know and follow His voice.
Do you know the Lord?