Life Principle 13

: Listening to God Is Essential to Walking with God

Table of Contents

1. The Principle of Listening
2. God Speaks—Will You Hear? (Psalm 81:8)
3. Have You Ever Been Ignored When You Knew the Truth?
4. Read Psalm 81: God’s Appeal to His People
5. Why It Is Important for the Israelites to Recall God’s Goodness
6. Isaiah 51:1-16 — God Speaks for Your Benefit
7. Listen, for God Is Speaking to You
8. Application: Walking by Hearing

Beloved friend, you cannot walk with God if you will not listen to God. Life Principle 13 is simple yet profound: listening to God is essential to walking with God. The Christian life is a conversation, not a monologue. God speaks; we must hear. Let us open the Scriptures and learn.

The Principle of Listening

Walking with God is not merely believing the right things or doing the right duties. It is a living relationship in which the Lord speaks and His people respond. When we stop listening, we begin to wander.

God Speaks—Will You Hear? (Psalm 81:8)

Psalm 81:8 (NKJV)
“Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you!
O Israel, if you will listen to Me!”

God’s heart is not to condemn but to counsel. He wants to admonish, instruct, and bless His people. The condition is simple: listen.

Have You Ever Been Ignored When You Knew the Truth?

Yes, God can relate. He has spoken clearly through His Word, through His Spirit, and through His works, yet so often His people have not heeded. It grieves the Father when children who have ears refuse to hear. The same God who knows what He is talking about still patiently calls, “If you will listen to Me.”

Read Psalm 81: God’s Appeal to His People

Psalm 81 (NKJV)
To the Chief Musician. On an instrument of Gath. A Psalm of Asaph.

1 Sing aloud to God our strength;
Make a joyful shout to the God of Jacob.
2 Raise a song and strike the timbrel,
The pleasant harp with the lute.
3 Blow the trumpet at the time of the New Moon,
At the full moon, on our solemn feast day.
4 For this is a statute for Israel,
A law of the God of Jacob.
5 This He established in Joseph as a testimony,
When He went throughout the land of Egypt,
Where I heard a language I did not understand.
6 “I removed his shoulder from the burden;
His hands were freed from the baskets.
7 You called in trouble, and I delivered you;
I answered you in the secret place of thunder;
I tested you at the waters of Meribah.
Selah
8 “Hear, O My people, and I will admonish you!
O Israel, if you will listen to Me!
9 There shall be no foreign god among you;
Nor shall you worship any foreign god.
10 I am the Lord your God,
Who brought you out of the land of Egypt;
Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it.
11 “But My people would not heed My voice,
And Israel would have none of Me.
12 So I gave them over to their own stubborn heart,
To walk in their own counsels.
13 “Oh, that My people would listen to Me,
That Israel would walk in My ways!
14 I would soon subdue their enemies,
And turn My hand against their adversaries.
15 The haters of the Lord would pretend submission to Him,
But their fate would endure forever.
16 He would have fed them also with the finest of wheat;
And with honey from the rock I would have satisfied you.”

Why It Is Important for the Israelites to Recall All the Good Things God Has Done for Them

Memory strengthens obedience. God reminded them that He had removed their burdens, delivered them from Egypt, answered them in distress, and tested them for their good. When we forget what God has done, we lose confidence in what He will do. Recalling His past faithfulness prepares the heart to listen to His present voice. “Open your mouth wide, and I will fill it” is a promise for those who remember and trust.

Isaiah 51:1-16 — God Speaks for Your Benefit

God speaks for your benefit, so listen.
Isaiah 51:1-16 (NKJV)
1 “Listen to Me, you who follow after righteousness,
You who seek the Lord:
Look to the rock from which you were hewn,
And to the hole of the pit from which you were dug.
2 Look to Abraham your father,
And to Sarah who bore you;
For I called him alone,
And blessed him and increased him.”
3 For the Lord will comfort Zion,
He will comfort all her waste places;
He will make her wilderness like Eden,
And her desert like the garden of the Lord;
Joy and gladness will be found in it,
Thanksgiving and the voice of melody.
4 “Listen to Me, My people;
And give ear to Me, O My nation:
For law will proceed from Me,
And I will make My justice rest
As a light of the peoples.
5 My righteousness is near,
My salvation has gone forth,
And My arms will judge the peoples;
The coastlands will wait upon Me,
And on My arm they will trust.
6 Lift up your eyes to the heavens,
And look on the earth beneath.
For the heavens will vanish away like smoke,
The earth will grow old like a garment,
And those who dwell in it will die in like manner;
But My salvation will be forever,
And My righteousness will not be abolished.
7 “Listen to Me, you who know righteousness,
You people in whose heart is My law:
Do not fear the reproach of men,
Nor be afraid of their insults.
8 For the moth will eat them up like a garment,
And the worm will eat them like wool;
But My righteousness will be forever,
And My salvation from generation to generation.”
9 Awake, awake, put on strength,
O arm of the Lord!
Awake as in the ancient days,
In the generations of old.
Are You not the arm that cut Rahab apart,
And wounded the serpent?
10 Are You not the One who dried up the sea,
The waters of the great deep;
That made the depths of the sea a road
For the redeemed to cross over?
11 So the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness;
Sorrow and sighing shall flee away.
12 “I, even I, am He who comforts you.
Who are you that you should be afraid
Of a man who will die,
And of the son of a man who will be made like grass?
13 And you forget the Lord your Maker,
Who stretched out the heavens
And laid the foundations of the earth;
You have feared continually every day
Because of the fury of the oppressor,
When he has prepared to destroy.
And where is the fury of the oppressor?
14 The captive exile hastens, that he may be loosed,
That he should not die in the pit,
And that his bread should not fail.
15 But I am the Lord your God,
Who divided the sea whose waves roared—
The Lord of hosts is His name.
16 And I have put My words in your mouth;
I have covered you with the shadow of My hand,
That I may plant the heavens,
Lay the foundations of the earth,
And say to Zion, ‘You are My people.’”

Listen, for God Is Speaking to You

Three times in this passage the Lord says, “Listen to Me.” He points them back to Abraham and Sarah so they will remember His power to bless. He promises comfort, everlasting salvation, and freedom from the fear of man. He puts His words in their mouths and covers them with the shadow of His hand. All of this is for their benefit. Listening is not optional; it is the pathway into every blessing God has prepared.

Application: Walking by Hearing

Friend, God still speaks. He speaks through His written Word. He speaks by His Spirit to the heart that is still before Him. He speaks through circumstances that confirm what He has already said. The question is not whether God is talking; the question is whether we are listening.

When you stop listening, you start walking in your own counsel. When you listen, you walk in His ways, and He subdues your enemies and satisfies your soul with the finest of wheat and honey from the rock.

So today, quiet your heart. Open the Scriptures. Say with Samuel, “Speak, Lord, for Your servant hears.” Listening to God is essential to walking with God. Hear Him, and you will walk with Him.

Amen.