Hearing His Voice

Hearing His Voice
Words of Faith 1-21-26
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy © 2026
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
Faith Fellowship Church - Melbourne, FL
www.faithfellowshipweb.com
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Hebrews 3
[7] So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, [8] do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the desert, [9] where your fathers tested and tried me and for forty years saw what I did.
[10] That is why I was angry with that generation, and I said, 'Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known my ways.' [11] So I declared on oath in my anger, 'They shall never enter my rest.' "

How do you get a hard heart? How do you get to a place where you can no longer hear God? Is it one particular sin committed along the path? Or perhaps the result of years of sin before a person knows God?

One of the big problems in our Christian walk is that we can harden our hearts toward the Lord and stop listening to Him, no matter how great His work has been in the past. The writer of Hebrews wanted to warn those scattered that there are serious consequences when we fail to hear the Lord with our hearts and trust Him.

He reminded readers of the detour into the wilderness referenced in Psalm 95. The marvelous thing, however, is that this text is not a scolding. It is a call to worship. It is an invitation to connect with God. It is an explanation of what happened in the wilderness, but even more, it is a call to hear from God in a new way. We can't do that with a hard heart.

Actually, heart hardening happens in a very simple way. It is usually not related to any sin in particular. Heart hardening occurs when we hear His voice and do not obey. It may be in the most simple of directives or the largest of calls. That is why the writer says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts..."

We are reminded that we are all on a journey toward the land of promise, the Lord's Rest. The only way we can mess that up is to hear His voice and then rebel against His guidance. The children of Israel had seen the most miraculous displays of divine care imaginable—  plagues, locusts, frogs, smiting of the firstborn, and passage through the Red Sea. Yet in the desert, they tested God.

At Meribah and Massah in the desert, the people grumbled and quarreled, asking whether God was really among them, and God brought forth water from a rock. God is always there, ready to meet our needs. When He speaks, we are to respond.

I am convinced that this is one of the ways we really get stuck. If we harden our hearts in one area, we will not be able to hear God in other areas. It is not that God will not speak to us. But if our hearts are hardened over obedience to one request, we will not be able to hear and obey in another—  and there we are. Stuck.

The goal of the journey of faith is learn to trust God wholly. When we trust God wholly and not ourselves, we enter into His Rest. The Lord's Rest is a place of complete trust in His grace and provision. It is a place where we hear His voice and obey. It is a place where we no longer labor to have our own way. It is a place where the Law is not needed because we dwell close to God in His grace. So, as the Holy Spirit says: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts."

Lord, I am listening. Give me ears to hear and a heart to obey. Show me anything, no matter how large or how small, where I need to trust You and obey You. Show me anything that is hardening my heart or blocking me from hearing Your voice. In Jesus' name, Amen.

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© Jeffrey D. Hoy 2026
Dr. Jeffrey D. Hoy - Faith Fellowship Church (EFCA)
2820 Business Center Blvd.
Melbourne, Florida 32940 (321)-259-7200
Jeff.Hoy@faithfellowshipweb.com
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Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture is quoted from the New International Version (R) of The Holy Bible. Copyright (c) 1973, 1978, 1984 by International Bible Society. Used by permission of Zondervan Publishing House. All rights reserved. Words of Faith (c) 1997, 2026 Jeffrey D. Hoy.