You Don't Need a Middle Man
You Do Not Need a Middleman to Hear
from God
There is a quiet assumption that many people carry into their faith lives without ever examining it. It sounds something like this: hearing from God is for certain people. The spiritually advanced. The long-tenured believers. The ones who have it together. Everyone else gets the secondhand version, the screenshot of what God said to somebody more qualified.
If you have ever felt that way, you are not alone. And more importantly, you are wrong.
John chapter 10 contains one of the most direct and clarifying statements Jesus ever made about the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep. He says plainly that his sheep hear his voice, that he knows them, and that they follow him. Five simple words carry the weight of an entire theology: my sheep hear my voice. Not my gifted sheep. Not my pastoral sheep. Not my long-time-believer sheep. His sheep. Full stop.
That means the conversation is already happening. The question is whether you are listening.
Would God Really Talk to Someone Like Me
Jesus paints a picture in John 10 that is worth sitting with. It is early morning outside Jerusalem. Several flocks of sheep have been gathered together overnight into one large stone pen. Hundreds of animals, all mixed together. A shepherd approaches the gate. You are one of those sheep, and from a distance, all you can make out is a silhouette. But then you hear the call. Not a whistle. Not a general shout. He calls you by name. And while every other sheep keeps chewing grass, your head comes up. Because you know that voice.
That is the image Jesus is drawing. The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
So would God really speak to someone like you? The answer is not conditional on your track record. Hearing from God is not a reward distributed to the best-performing sheep. It is not something you audition for, and it is not something you can disqualify yourself from by the weight of your past. When you believe that God only speaks to people who have it together, all you are doing is keeping yourself from hearing a voice that is already calling your name. He is still speaking. The only thing those beliefs change is your ability to receive it.
How Do I Know It Is Really Him
Knowing that God speaks is one thing. Knowing how to identify his voice among all the other competing voices is another challenge entirely. Jesus addresses this too, and the distinction he draws is worth writing down.
His voice leads you. Every other voice drives you.
There is an old account from the region around Jerusalem, set around the time of World War I. A group of soldiers came upon a shepherd and his flock one evening. Hungry and opportunistic, they began driving the sheep away while the shepherd slept. They pushed and prodded and shouted, doing whatever it took to move the flock in the direction they wanted. When the shepherd woke and saw what was happening, he did not chase them down or fight. He simply stood up and called his sheep. Every one of them turned and came back.
The soldiers were behind the flock, driving them. The shepherd used only his voice, and the sheep came to him.
Driving voices have three consistent characteristics. They push rather than lead. They rush rather than restore. And they take rather than give. Verse 10 of John chapter 10 captures the contrast sharply, with Jesus describing the thief as one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, while he himself comes to bring life to the full.
The voice of shame tells you that you have ruined everything. The voice of fear tells you to play it safe. The voice of pressure rushes you along without caring who you are or what you need. None of those are the shepherd. The shepherd goes ahead of you. Wherever he is calling you, he has already been. He forgave from a cross before he ever asked you to forgive anyone. He goes first.
How Do I Hear Him When Everything Else Is So Loud
This is perhaps the most practical question of the three, and the answer is simpler than most people expect. You cannot tune out all the noise. There is too much of it, and it is too persistent. But you can tune into him.
Think about the voices in your life that you can pick out of a crowd. A spouse. A parent. A close friend whose voice you would recognize anywhere, not because it is the loudest, but because it is the most familiar. Familiarity is the key. The more time you spend with someone, the more clearly you can hear them even when everything else is loud.
This is exactly how it works with God. In 1 Samuel, when God called Samuel's name, Samuel kept thinking it was the priest Eli. The text explains why: Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The voice was real. It simply was not familiar yet.
For many people, the voice of Jesus is still a strange voice. Other voices have been given so much more airtime, so much more daily attention, that they have become the default setting. The solution is not to eliminate every distraction. The solution is to spend more time in his word, more time in his presence, until his voice becomes the one that sounds most like home.
Before You Were Listening, He Was Looking
The passage in John chapter 10 does not begin at chapter 10. It begins in chapter 9, with a man who has been blind since birth, begging by the road. Jesus heals him. The religious leaders, rather than celebrating, interrogate and ultimately throw the man out of the community entirely. And when Jesus hears what happened, he goes and finds him.
Hundreds of years before that moment, God made a promise recorded in Ezekiel 34. He said he himself would search for his sheep and look after them. Not a better middleman. Not a more qualified representative. He said he would come himself. And when Jesus walks up to the man that the shepherds had thrown away, that is God keeping his word.
He came himself. He comes still.
That is the truth beneath all of this. Before you ever listened for him, he was already looking for you. The one who has been in church their whole life and still feels distant. The one who walked away and somehow found their way back. The one who was hurt by someone who claimed to speak for God. The one who was thrown out of a family, a marriage, a community. He went looking for all of them.
Which means you do not need a middleman. You never did. All you need is to be his. And if you are, he is already calling your name.
The only question left is whether you will follow.
Are You Listening? A 5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide Based on the sermon series "Are You Listening?" from Awaken Church
Day 1: He Knows Your Name
Reading: John 10:1-5, 27
Devotional: It is easy to believe that God reserves his voice for the spiritually accomplished -- the pastors, the prayer warriors, the ones who seem to have it all together. But Jesus does not say "my gifted sheep hear my voice" or "my faithful sheep hear my voice." He says "my sheep." Full stop. No qualifier. The shepherd in this passage does not shout into a crowd and hope someone responds. He calls each sheep by name. That kind of intimacy is not earned through religious performance. It is given freely to those who belong to him. If you have been waiting to feel worthy enough to hear from God, stop waiting. He already knows your name.
Reflection Questions:
● Have you been quietly disqualifying yourself from hearing God's voice? What has fueled that belief?
● What would change in your daily life if you genuinely believed God was speaking directly to you, not just to the people around you?
Practical Application: Write down one area of your life where you have been waiting for someone else to hear from God on your behalf. Bring that specific thing to God in prayer today, on your own, trusting that you have direct access to the shepherd.
Day 2: The Shepherd Who Leads
Reading: John 10:10-14; Psalm 23
Devotional: There is a meaningful difference between a voice that leads and a voice that drives. The shepherd in John 10 goes ahead of the flock. He enters the valley first. He faces the threat first. Wherever he calls you to go, he has already been. The driving voices in your life -- fear, shame, the pressure of others -- push from behind, and they do not care where you end up as long as you keep moving. Psalm 23 paints the same picture: the shepherd leads beside still waters, through dark valleys, and toward restoration. He is not shouting at you from a distance. He is walking ahead of you, calling you forward into something he has already prepared.
Reflection Questions:
● What are the loudest driving voices in your life right now? Are they pushing you away from something good or toward something harmful?
● In what area of your life do you most need the shepherd's leading rather than the pressure of a driving voice?
Practical Application: Identify one decision you are currently facing. Run it through this filter: Is the voice guiding me pushing me from behind for someone else's benefit, or is it leading me toward something that gives life? Sit with that question in prayer before making any move.
Day 3: Familiarity Breeds Clarity
Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-10; John 10:27
Devotional: Samuel heard God's voice three times before he recognized it. The reason was simple: he did not yet know the Lord. The voice was real and present, but it was not yet familiar. Familiarity is not a spiritual gift reserved for a few -- it is built through consistent, daily exposure. Just as you can pick a loved one's voice out of a crowded room not because it is the loudest but because it is the most known, God's voice becomes clearer the more time you spend with him and his word. The noise around you is not going to get quieter. But his voice will get clearer as you tune into him rather than trying to tune everything else out.
Reflection Questions:
● Which voice in your life currently sounds most like home to you -- God's voice or something else? What does that reveal about where you have been spending your attention?
● What would it look like to begin your day with Scripture before reaching for your phone or engaging with the noise around you?
Practical Application: For the next seven days, open your Bible before you open anything else in the morning. Start with John 10. It takes approximately three minutes to read. Do this consistently and pay attention to whether God's voice begins to feel more familiar by the end of the week.
Day 4: The God Who Comes Himself
Reading: John 9:35-38; Ezekiel 34:11-16
Devotional: Centuries before Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem, God made a striking promise recorded in Ezekiel 34. When the leaders of Israel were throwing people out of the fold rather than searching for the lost, God did not promise to send a better middleman. He said, "I myself will search for my sheep." That promise was not symbolic. When Jesus heard that the man born blind had been thrown out by the religious leaders, he went and found him. Not a representative. Not a messenger. He came himself. That is the God you serve. He does not wait for you to find your way to him. He comes down into the dirt, into your circumstances, into your blindness, and he finds you first.
Reflection Questions:
● Have you ever felt thrown out -- by a church, a family, a community -- and concluded that God must have agreed with that verdict? How does this passage challenge that conclusion?
● What does it mean to you personally that God promised to come himself rather than delegate your rescue to someone else?
Practical Application: Spend time today reading Ezekiel 34:11-16 slowly and prayerfully. As you read each promise God makes about how he will care for his sheep, write your name into each verse. Let the personal nature of that promise settle into your heart.
Day 5: Will You Follow?
Reading: John 10:27-28; James 1:22-25
Devotional: Hearing is not the destination. Following is. Jesus does not say his sheep will hear a good message and reflect on it thoughtfully. He says his sheep will follow. Samuel got up out of bed. Moses went back to Egypt. The man born blind fumbled his way toward the pool of Siloam with mud on his face, unable to see where he was going, but trusting the voice that had spoken to him. Obedience is not the condition for hearing -- it is the evidence of it. James makes the same point: hearing the word without doing what it says is like looking in a mirror and immediately forgetting what you look like. The shepherd has been leading. The question that remains is not whether you have heard him. The question is whether you will move.
Reflection Questions:
● What is the step of obedience that God has been calling you toward -- perhaps for weeks, months, or even years?
● What has been keeping you in your seat? Is it fear, uncertainty, shame, or the noise of other voices? Name it honestly before God today.
Practical Application: Take the step. It does not have to be a large or dramatic movement. Write down the specific act of obedience God has put on your heart and set a concrete date by which you will take it. Tell one trusted person in your life what that step is so that you have someone walking alongside you in accountability.
There is a quiet assumption that many people carry into their faith lives without ever examining it. It sounds something like this: hearing from God is for certain people. The spiritually advanced. The long-tenured believers. The ones who have it together. Everyone else gets the secondhand version, the screenshot of what God said to somebody more qualified.
If you have ever felt that way, you are not alone. And more importantly, you are wrong.
John chapter 10 contains one of the most direct and clarifying statements Jesus ever made about the relationship between a shepherd and his sheep. He says plainly that his sheep hear his voice, that he knows them, and that they follow him. Five simple words carry the weight of an entire theology: my sheep hear my voice. Not my gifted sheep. Not my pastoral sheep. Not my long-time-believer sheep. His sheep. Full stop.
That means the conversation is already happening. The question is whether you are listening.
Would God Really Talk to Someone Like Me
Jesus paints a picture in John 10 that is worth sitting with. It is early morning outside Jerusalem. Several flocks of sheep have been gathered together overnight into one large stone pen. Hundreds of animals, all mixed together. A shepherd approaches the gate. You are one of those sheep, and from a distance, all you can make out is a silhouette. But then you hear the call. Not a whistle. Not a general shout. He calls you by name. And while every other sheep keeps chewing grass, your head comes up. Because you know that voice.
That is the image Jesus is drawing. The shepherd calls his own sheep by name and leads them out.
So would God really speak to someone like you? The answer is not conditional on your track record. Hearing from God is not a reward distributed to the best-performing sheep. It is not something you audition for, and it is not something you can disqualify yourself from by the weight of your past. When you believe that God only speaks to people who have it together, all you are doing is keeping yourself from hearing a voice that is already calling your name. He is still speaking. The only thing those beliefs change is your ability to receive it.
How Do I Know It Is Really Him
Knowing that God speaks is one thing. Knowing how to identify his voice among all the other competing voices is another challenge entirely. Jesus addresses this too, and the distinction he draws is worth writing down.
His voice leads you. Every other voice drives you.
There is an old account from the region around Jerusalem, set around the time of World War I. A group of soldiers came upon a shepherd and his flock one evening. Hungry and opportunistic, they began driving the sheep away while the shepherd slept. They pushed and prodded and shouted, doing whatever it took to move the flock in the direction they wanted. When the shepherd woke and saw what was happening, he did not chase them down or fight. He simply stood up and called his sheep. Every one of them turned and came back.
The soldiers were behind the flock, driving them. The shepherd used only his voice, and the sheep came to him.
Driving voices have three consistent characteristics. They push rather than lead. They rush rather than restore. And they take rather than give. Verse 10 of John chapter 10 captures the contrast sharply, with Jesus describing the thief as one who comes to steal, kill, and destroy, while he himself comes to bring life to the full.
The voice of shame tells you that you have ruined everything. The voice of fear tells you to play it safe. The voice of pressure rushes you along without caring who you are or what you need. None of those are the shepherd. The shepherd goes ahead of you. Wherever he is calling you, he has already been. He forgave from a cross before he ever asked you to forgive anyone. He goes first.
How Do I Hear Him When Everything Else Is So Loud
This is perhaps the most practical question of the three, and the answer is simpler than most people expect. You cannot tune out all the noise. There is too much of it, and it is too persistent. But you can tune into him.
Think about the voices in your life that you can pick out of a crowd. A spouse. A parent. A close friend whose voice you would recognize anywhere, not because it is the loudest, but because it is the most familiar. Familiarity is the key. The more time you spend with someone, the more clearly you can hear them even when everything else is loud.
This is exactly how it works with God. In 1 Samuel, when God called Samuel's name, Samuel kept thinking it was the priest Eli. The text explains why: Samuel did not yet know the Lord. The voice was real. It simply was not familiar yet.
For many people, the voice of Jesus is still a strange voice. Other voices have been given so much more airtime, so much more daily attention, that they have become the default setting. The solution is not to eliminate every distraction. The solution is to spend more time in his word, more time in his presence, until his voice becomes the one that sounds most like home.
Before You Were Listening, He Was Looking
The passage in John chapter 10 does not begin at chapter 10. It begins in chapter 9, with a man who has been blind since birth, begging by the road. Jesus heals him. The religious leaders, rather than celebrating, interrogate and ultimately throw the man out of the community entirely. And when Jesus hears what happened, he goes and finds him.
Hundreds of years before that moment, God made a promise recorded in Ezekiel 34. He said he himself would search for his sheep and look after them. Not a better middleman. Not a more qualified representative. He said he would come himself. And when Jesus walks up to the man that the shepherds had thrown away, that is God keeping his word.
He came himself. He comes still.
That is the truth beneath all of this. Before you ever listened for him, he was already looking for you. The one who has been in church their whole life and still feels distant. The one who walked away and somehow found their way back. The one who was hurt by someone who claimed to speak for God. The one who was thrown out of a family, a marriage, a community. He went looking for all of them.
Which means you do not need a middleman. You never did. All you need is to be his. And if you are, he is already calling your name.
The only question left is whether you will follow.
Are You Listening? A 5-Day Bible Reading Plan and Devotional Guide Based on the sermon series "Are You Listening?" from Awaken Church
Day 1: He Knows Your Name
Reading: John 10:1-5, 27
Devotional: It is easy to believe that God reserves his voice for the spiritually accomplished -- the pastors, the prayer warriors, the ones who seem to have it all together. But Jesus does not say "my gifted sheep hear my voice" or "my faithful sheep hear my voice." He says "my sheep." Full stop. No qualifier. The shepherd in this passage does not shout into a crowd and hope someone responds. He calls each sheep by name. That kind of intimacy is not earned through religious performance. It is given freely to those who belong to him. If you have been waiting to feel worthy enough to hear from God, stop waiting. He already knows your name.
Reflection Questions:
● Have you been quietly disqualifying yourself from hearing God's voice? What has fueled that belief?
● What would change in your daily life if you genuinely believed God was speaking directly to you, not just to the people around you?
Practical Application: Write down one area of your life where you have been waiting for someone else to hear from God on your behalf. Bring that specific thing to God in prayer today, on your own, trusting that you have direct access to the shepherd.
Day 2: The Shepherd Who Leads
Reading: John 10:10-14; Psalm 23
Devotional: There is a meaningful difference between a voice that leads and a voice that drives. The shepherd in John 10 goes ahead of the flock. He enters the valley first. He faces the threat first. Wherever he calls you to go, he has already been. The driving voices in your life -- fear, shame, the pressure of others -- push from behind, and they do not care where you end up as long as you keep moving. Psalm 23 paints the same picture: the shepherd leads beside still waters, through dark valleys, and toward restoration. He is not shouting at you from a distance. He is walking ahead of you, calling you forward into something he has already prepared.
Reflection Questions:
● What are the loudest driving voices in your life right now? Are they pushing you away from something good or toward something harmful?
● In what area of your life do you most need the shepherd's leading rather than the pressure of a driving voice?
Practical Application: Identify one decision you are currently facing. Run it through this filter: Is the voice guiding me pushing me from behind for someone else's benefit, or is it leading me toward something that gives life? Sit with that question in prayer before making any move.
Day 3: Familiarity Breeds Clarity
Reading: 1 Samuel 3:1-10; John 10:27
Devotional: Samuel heard God's voice three times before he recognized it. The reason was simple: he did not yet know the Lord. The voice was real and present, but it was not yet familiar. Familiarity is not a spiritual gift reserved for a few -- it is built through consistent, daily exposure. Just as you can pick a loved one's voice out of a crowded room not because it is the loudest but because it is the most known, God's voice becomes clearer the more time you spend with him and his word. The noise around you is not going to get quieter. But his voice will get clearer as you tune into him rather than trying to tune everything else out.
Reflection Questions:
● Which voice in your life currently sounds most like home to you -- God's voice or something else? What does that reveal about where you have been spending your attention?
● What would it look like to begin your day with Scripture before reaching for your phone or engaging with the noise around you?
Practical Application: For the next seven days, open your Bible before you open anything else in the morning. Start with John 10. It takes approximately three minutes to read. Do this consistently and pay attention to whether God's voice begins to feel more familiar by the end of the week.
Day 4: The God Who Comes Himself
Reading: John 9:35-38; Ezekiel 34:11-16
Devotional: Centuries before Jesus walked the streets of Jerusalem, God made a striking promise recorded in Ezekiel 34. When the leaders of Israel were throwing people out of the fold rather than searching for the lost, God did not promise to send a better middleman. He said, "I myself will search for my sheep." That promise was not symbolic. When Jesus heard that the man born blind had been thrown out by the religious leaders, he went and found him. Not a representative. Not a messenger. He came himself. That is the God you serve. He does not wait for you to find your way to him. He comes down into the dirt, into your circumstances, into your blindness, and he finds you first.
Reflection Questions:
● Have you ever felt thrown out -- by a church, a family, a community -- and concluded that God must have agreed with that verdict? How does this passage challenge that conclusion?
● What does it mean to you personally that God promised to come himself rather than delegate your rescue to someone else?
Practical Application: Spend time today reading Ezekiel 34:11-16 slowly and prayerfully. As you read each promise God makes about how he will care for his sheep, write your name into each verse. Let the personal nature of that promise settle into your heart.
Day 5: Will You Follow?
Reading: John 10:27-28; James 1:22-25
Devotional: Hearing is not the destination. Following is. Jesus does not say his sheep will hear a good message and reflect on it thoughtfully. He says his sheep will follow. Samuel got up out of bed. Moses went back to Egypt. The man born blind fumbled his way toward the pool of Siloam with mud on his face, unable to see where he was going, but trusting the voice that had spoken to him. Obedience is not the condition for hearing -- it is the evidence of it. James makes the same point: hearing the word without doing what it says is like looking in a mirror and immediately forgetting what you look like. The shepherd has been leading. The question that remains is not whether you have heard him. The question is whether you will move.
Reflection Questions:
● What is the step of obedience that God has been calling you toward -- perhaps for weeks, months, or even years?
● What has been keeping you in your seat? Is it fear, uncertainty, shame, or the noise of other voices? Name it honestly before God today.
Practical Application: Take the step. It does not have to be a large or dramatic movement. Write down the specific act of obedience God has put on your heart and set a concrete date by which you will take it. Tell one trusted person in your life what that step is so that you have someone walking alongside you in accountability.
Posted in Weekly Devotional
Posted in God\'s voice, discernment, baptism, follow me, heairng from God, obedience, listening
Posted in God\'s voice, discernment, baptism, follow me, heairng from God, obedience, listening
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