My friend Melissa invited me to meet with her at a restaurant in an area of the city with which I was unacquainted, so I programmed it in to my phone to use the navigation system.  Using its navigation system has always been risky because my phone only has access to data when I am at home on my WIFI; I have had problems with the program losing access to the directions in the middle of a place I did not know, leaving me to fend for myself.  My husband suggested I take his phone instead, to avoid that problem this night.  I happily took his suggestion…and his phone.

As I began my drive, I heard the comforting voice of the GPS navigation lady telling me to turn right.  A few seconds later, I heard the muffled voice of my phone’s GPS navigation lady telling me to go a different direction.  I guess I had not turned off my phone’s GPS and I wasn’t sure if that one was sending me to the same place or the place we had previously set up but had changed at the last minute.  Well, this will be a fun trip, I thought.  It will be like two friends arguing over directions on how to get somewhere, I will have to be sure to listen to the right one.

As I chose the direction that my husband’s phone’s voice told me to go, my phone’s voice began to redirect me continually to get me to go the way it thought I should be going.  At every road I passed, my phone’s voice would tell me to turn right to get me off my present course.  I reassured myself as I looked at my husband’s phone that told me I didn’t have to get off the present road for about ten miles.  His phone’s voice was silent in the midst of my phone’s “anxious” and many redirections and I realized how that is often how listening to God’s voice is.

Sometimes God gives us a direction to go, and then there is silence.  We do not hear a further direction from him because we are currently on course, and there is no redirection needed yet.  On the other hand, we may experience an awful lot of voices telling us to go a different direction than the one on which God has sent us.  Some of those come from Satan wanting us to get off course.  Sometimes they come from well-meaning friends.  Just like when Peter told Jesus he would never have to go to the cross.  Jesus rebuked the voice of one trying to get him to take a different course by saying “Get behind me, Satan.”  (Matthew 16:23 NIV).  Jesus knew the direction he had gotten from God, and knew that the direction that Peter was speaking was sending him the wrong way.  Sometimes redirecting voices come from opportunities that would take us off-course.

Jesus says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” –John 10:27 (NIV)

We need to stay on course.  Know His voice.  Don’t be afraid when you hear other directions to go but have not heard anything from Him for a while in regard to where you are going. If you are still on course, you may not hear anything.  Trust what you have heard.  Keep going.  He is faithful to get you there!