In order to hear God correctly, we need to know who He is and what He thinks of us. The Bible has the message; the Spirit confirms it.

9 Perfume and incense bring joy to the hearts, and the pleasantness of a friend springs from their heartfelt advice.

The last two days, we have been discussing Hearing God and what His voice sounds like. Yesterday, we looked at God’s approach to us vs. the enemy’s approach to us. Today, we will deal with the enemy’s greatest weapon: Our feelings.

If the enemy can get us to believe the lie about who God is and/or who we are, then he can manipulate our feelings. For instance:

• If he can get us to doubt God’s motives (he did Eve), then we take matters into our own hands;
• If he can get us to doubt God’s love for us, then we go searching for love in all the wrong places;
• If he can get us to see God in any other way than a loving Father, then we fear Him and keep our distance;
• If he can get us to think of God as the Great Manipulator of circumstances and events, then we resent Him for bad things that happen.

When the Trinity created us in Their image, They gave us free will (see Genesis 1:26-27, 2:16-17). Our ability to choose is what makes us most like the Trinity. When we buy the lie of the enemy, we see God differently than who He really is and ourselves as other than we really are. The list in yesterday’s Proverbs demonstrates how successful the enemy is! We can be manipulated into being impatient, merciless, envious, proud, rude, self-centered, irritable, resentful, deceiving, despairing, and complaining (see the post below this one).

If we ever wonder how God feels about us, all we have to do is remember these two verses:

¹⁶ For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16

¹⁶ See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! And that is what we are! 1 John 3:1

If the heavenly Father thinks we’re worth being loved, and He respects us enough to allow us to make our own choices, let’s choose to love Him!

Abba, Thank You for loving me and for showing me how much You love me (and everyone) by dying on the cross. Thank You for rising from the dead and offering me a seat at Your table–even to sit with You on Your throne! You really DO love us, don’t You? “I worship You, Almighty God, there is none like You (sung by Charity Gayle).” Amen.