The Master's Voice

Does anyone remember the old RCA commercials featuring the dog listening to the phonograph entitled "His Master's Voice"? It showed a pup named "Nipper" with his head cocked to one side as he heard his master's voice coming out of the speaker.

Have you ever noticed like "Nipper" that when you spend time with someone you very quickly can pick their voice out of a crowd? Several weeks ago I was in a noisy, crowded gym helping to coach a basketball game. I was sitting on the bench talking with one of the players when I heard a noise and I said to Kristin, "That's Eloise!" I looked across the court and there was my daughter and son-in-law with their daughter, Eloise. She had cried out and I was able to pick out her three-month-old voice out of a crowd.

The same thing happened when my daughter was six weeks old. My wife came into an auditorium of about 2,000 people and when our daughter cried, I looked down from where I was seated and immediately knew where my daughter was.

In John 10, Jesus talks about this phenomenon of recognizing another's voice. Notice John 10:4. "His sheep follow him because they know his voice."

The Bible is filled with the stories of people who followed Jesus because they recognized His voice: Noah, Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Ruth, Esther, Daniel, and Paul are just a few examples of people like you and me who recognized the voice of Jesus.

How did they know his voice? They spent time with Him. They lingered in His presence. They didn't allow distractions and "noise" to drown out the voice of the one they had come to love. And so when He spoke, they listened and followed.

The key to knowing where Jesus wants to lead in our lives is to spend enough time in His presence that we learn to recognize His voice, so that when He speaks we know it's Him.

With so many things clamoring for our time and attention, sometimes it's easy to let the time slip away that we could be spending in His presence, learning the sound of His voice.

Let's set aside time this coming week to listen to the Master's voice.