How to Recognize Jesus’s Voice and Follow Him

Christian discipleship is profoundly Christ-focused. Everything centers on Him. Yet at times, Christians fill their lives with so much religious activity that they lose their conscious awareness of the Holy Spirit’s presence within them. Martha lost sight of Jesus, even though He was sitting in her living room! Both Martha and Mary were Jesus’s disciples. But Martha was stressing out in the kitchen while Mary sat at his feet and experienced the joy of his presence (Luke 10:38-42; Psalm 16:11). Martha equated serving Jesus with following him. But in her frenetic service for Him, she neglected her relationship with Him.

³⁸While they were traveling, he entered a village, and a woman named Martha welcomed him into her home. ³⁹She had a sister named Mary, who also sat at the Lord’s feet and was listening to what he said. ⁴⁰But Martha was distracted by her many tasks, and she came up and asked, “Lord, don’t you care that my sister has left me to serve alone? So tell her to give me a hand.”

⁴¹The Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are worried and upset about many things, ⁴²but one thing is necessary. Mary has made the right choice, and it will not be taken away from her.”
Luke 10:38-42 CSB

"You reveal the path of life to me;
in your presence is abundant joy;
at your right hand are eternal pleasures."
Psalm 16:11 CSB

Spiritual disciplines make room in our lives for Jesus. Reading Scripture creates space for the Holy Spirit to shape us and speak to us. Through prayer, we commune with God and learn what is on his heart. We meditate, practice the Sabbath, fast, serve, and worship so our heart, mind, will, and soul are aligned with our Lord’s. But if we aren’t careful, our discipleship can degenerate into religious activity as an end rather than a means. That was the Pharisees’ downfall. They were excellent at performing rigorous religious exercises, but they were disoriented to God. They read Scripture fastidiously, yet they didn’t recognize the Messiah of Scripture when he stood before them (John 5:39).

"You pore over the Scriptures because you think you have eternal life in them, and yet they testify about me."
John 5:39 CSB

The key to following Jesus is recognizing his voice. Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). The imagery is of a first-century shepherd. At night, several herds might be kept in the same enclosure. As the shepherds led their flocks out of the pen each morning, they would call out to their sheep. Hearing a familiar voice, the sheep would step into place behind their shepherd and follow him. Jesus claimed that his followers would recognize his voice in the same way.

Of all the challenges people face as disciples, learning to recognize Jesus’s voice is among the most confusing. People want to follow Jesus, but they may be unsure which direction he is leading them.

Should I major in medicine or engineering?
Is God leading me to be a missionary in Thailand or a businessperson in Tennessee?
Which of those two godly people should I marry?

It’s relatively easy to choose between a good option and a bad one. But what if more than one choice could potentially be God’s will?

There are discipleship programs today that vehemently deny that God guides people’s lives personally as he did in the first century. They advocate doing Bible readings and saying daily prayers, but not with any expectation that Christ will provide specific guidance in the process. The flaw in this approach is that the Bible, which is our only manual for living the Christian life, is filled with accounts of God guiding people specifically. Scripture certainly must be interpreted in context, but I’m wary of people who declare that the behavior God demonstrates from Genesis to Revelation doesn’t apply to us today.

The Bible is God’s primary means of speaking today. It’s his megaphone. In it, God has clearly made his will known on matters of salvation and Christian living. The Holy Spirit will not provide additional revelation to Scripture, nor will he say anything that contradicts the Bible. He will apply Scripture to the unique circumstances of your life. For example, while Peter was praying in the house of Simon in Joppa, the Holy Spirit told him to go with the men being sent to him from Cornelius (Acts 10:19-20). Nowhere in Scripture does it say, “Thou shalt go to Cornelius’s house.” If Peter had relied solely upon the words of Scripture, he would never have met with the Gentile centurion. The Holy Spirit opened Peter’s understanding of Scripture concerning salvation for the Gentiles so he could join God’s activity.