Bethany Hicks

Have you ever paused to consider the impact of what you listen to? 

For several weeks now, I've had an old children's song playing in my spirit: "Be careful, little ears, what you hear..." Every day, we are surrounded by voices—news reports, social media updates, podcasts, and conversations—each offering a perspective or a story and all vying for our attention. To add to this daily dose of opinions, we have an election year that has ramped up the intensity of emotions and expressed convictions. With so many voices around us, the question is—who do we listen to? And if God is always speaking, how can we tell whether what we are hearing is His voice or not when emotions run high and opinions clash?

Part of maturing in our faith is learning to recognize His voice even when it comes through sources that might surprise or challenge us. Since God once spoke through a donkey in the Bible, we can know He may still use unexpected vessels today. Jesus said, "My sheep hear My voice," meaning that if you’ve trained yourself to listen to Him, you can know when He’s speaking—no matter how or through whom the message comes. 

Let’s explore three important points about how the voices you listen to shape your faith and beliefs.

1. What You Hear Becomes What You Believe 

In Romans 10:17, we read that "faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God." This powerful truth reminds us that what we listen to—whether it’s God's voice or the world’s noise—will shape what we believe. As believers, it’s crucial to discern when God is speaking and when He isn’t so we don’t attach our faith to the wrong voices.

In today’s world, especially with the rise of social media, this ability to discern has become more urgent. Every post we scroll through presents us with new voices, opinions, and ideas. While some of these voices are helpful, others can lead us away from truth.

One of the roles of prophetic ministry is to not only help the body of Christ learn to recognize God’s voice for themselves but also to help people discern when it is not God speaking. This is important because the voice you listen to is the voice you will act on. The Holy Spirit, who lives in each believer, helps us test the voices we hear so that we can align with God's truth. Every day, we have to decide which voices we’re going to allow to influence our lives—those that bring life or those that lead us astray.

2. The Danger of Listening to the Wrong Voices

Not all hearing is equal and not every voice we hear is from God. Some can lead us down destructive paths. This is nothing new. In the Garden of Eden, Eve listened to the serpent instead of God, and that choice led to humanity’s downfall. Adam and Eve attached their faith to what the enemy said instead of what God had spoken to them. Today, the enemy still uses the same tactic—planting lies, doubts, and accusations to steer us away from the truth.

Satan is called the "prince of the power of the air" (Ephesians 2:2), and in today’s culture, he has certainly taken advantage of his reach through the airwaves by using the voices around us to plant seeds of doubt, fear, and division. When we listen and agree with these voices, we give them power in our lives. Our agreement with the voice of the enemy is shown through our gossip, slander, or even negative self-talk.

Jesus reminds us that "...he who has ears to hear, let him hear" (Matthew 11:15). As followers of Jesus, we're called to carefully discern and test every voice we hear and filter out those that don’t line up with God’s ways.

3. The Power of Hearing God's Voice

While many voices compete for our attention, only one voice leads to life, peace, and godly faith—the voice of God. The more we train ourselves to recognize His voice, the more our faith grows, and the harder it becomes for other voices to shake us.

The media, with its endless stream of information, can easily drown out the still, small voice of God if we allow its influence to overshadow His voice in our lives. Jesus has empowered us by His Spirit to distinguish His voice from the myriad of others by paying attention to how we hear (Luke 8:18). In today’s world, that means being mindful not just of what we listen to, but how we engage with it.

If you find yourself getting swept away by the latest trends, opinions, and controversies, you can employ a key of discernment that Jesus shared in Matthew 7:15-20 to separate God’s voice from harmful voices: Look at the fruit. If what you’re hearing brings life, hope, and faith, it’s likely from God. But if it brings fear, accusation, or division, it’s time to tune out and refocus on His Word. 

Faith is built by what we listen to, whether good or bad. So, take a moment to honestly evaluate whether the voices you’re allowing into your life are producing the fruit of the Spirit or leading you into fear, doubt, and division. We are citizens of an unshakeable Kingdom; and to be unshakable in a world that’s constantly shaking, we need to root our faith in God's voice—the only voice that brings true life and lasting transformation.