We may not have listened all the time, but that voice has always been there. The one that tells you to do this or that. The one that, if heeded, protects you from harm. The one that brings peace within.

Elijah heard this voice. When he was being pursued by Jezebel, who sought to kill him, Elijah fled to Mount Horeb. The Bible records that while he was there, there was "a great and strong wind ... and after the wind an earthquake; ... and after the earthquake a fire; ... and after the fire a still small voice" (I Kings 19:11, 12). Elijah recognized that God was not in the wind, the earthquake, or the fire, but in the still small voice.

This is the same voice that you and I hear as we are earnestly seeking God. The thoughts we hear are more than mere human intuition or guessing. They are God talking directly to His child, leading, protecting, and helping. This voice is always present because God is always present. He is always awakening us to His ideas.

If we believe that it's difficult to hear God's direction, we need to learn more of our eternal oneness with God. Man does not exist separate from God. He is God's idea; thus he is always one with the divine Mind. This spiritual oneness with God is real and practical.

The Bible records that some prophets heard God's voice audibly as He directed them. At other points it indicates that God "spoke" through thoughts and actions.

When Moses questioned his ability to lead the children of Israel out of Egypt, for example, God not only spoke to him but also showed two tangible signs of His ever-present power (see Ex., chap. 4). Speaking of this incident, Mary Baker Eddy writes, "God had lessened Moses' fear by this proof in divine Science, and the inward voice became to him the voice of God, which said: 'It shall come to pass, if they will not believe thee, neither hearken to the voice of the first sign, that they will believe the voice of the latter sign'" (Science and Health, p. 321).

That "inward voice" Moses heard was the result of his humbly turning to God for direction and guidance. The result was his leading the Hebrews out of slavery.

Like Moses, we can learn to discern that inward voice that is "the voice of God." This is important, because it is through God's directing that we fulfill our own individual mission. Obedience to God in thought and action is in keeping with what Isaiah heard from God: "This is the way, walk ye in it, when ye turn to the right hand, and when ye turn to the left" (Isa. 30:21).

When discord is rampant in our experience, what has happened? Perhaps we've been mentally listening to the voice of the carnal mind rather than to God's all-wise and loving counsel. This voice of carnality, which would try to gain our attention and keep us from turning to God, isn't real. It is the opposite of divine Truth—in other words, error. That's why it can be rejected.

We discern the voice of Truth by turning to God and quietly listening for His thoughts. This lifts our thought above the clamor of materiality to spiritual Truth. This is the state of thought that Christ Jesus demonstrated, the state of thought that is innate to man, God's beloved child. It brings healing and peace.

I have a friend, who, when her son was still an infant, felt this genuine peace. Her son had been ill for a few days. Each day she and her husband prayed for their son, but he was still restless and uncomfortable. Deep down my friend and her husband wanted to feel God's presence, and they wanted their son to feel it as well. Then one night as she was laying her son down in his crib, she prayed specifically to hear and feel God's guidance and comfort. As she listened, she felt Him guiding her thought to this comforting realization: that His goodness is all. This message was, to her, the inward voice; it was divine Truth.

Through her study of Christian Science she had been learning of God's allness. She was learning that man reflects God's perfection. She also had been learning that opposites cannot dwell together. Good and evil, health and sickness, can't really exist at the same time in the same place. And happiness and sorrow can't both be present at the same moment.

My friend realized that she had a choice. Accept that her son was not God's image and likeness, or spiritually understand that he was the exact image and likeness of God. In other words, she had a choice whether or not to heed the message that this inward voice had conveyed.

She consciously chose to accept her son's God-given perfection as the basis of his being. Throughout the night, thoughts of her son's perfection comforted her. Fear, worry, concern, dissolved. God's peace was felt. Her son was healed.

She heard that inward voice, and anyone can. The sweet, reassuring voice of Truth.

I CORINTHIANS

Eye hath not seen, nor ear
heard, neither have entered
into the heart of man, the things
which God hath prepared for
them that love him. But God hath revealed them unto us by his Spirit.

I Corinthians 2:9, 10