Recognizing God’s Voice
Faith Basics, part 2
Wildwind Community Church
David K. Flowers
Sept. 2, 2007
Jn. 10:22-27
God may not be where you think he is. Many hundreds of years before Christ, the prophet Elijah receives an order from God – he is to prepare himself to meet God, for God is about to pass by. Let’s see what happens.
1 Kings 19:11-13 (NIV)
11 The LORD said, "Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by." Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake.
12 After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.
13 When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, "What are you doing here, Elijah?"
Usually we get the cart before the horse. We want to know what God wants us to do in this situation or that. We want him to tell us who to marry, or what school to attend, or whether or not to take a promotion, or whether it’s finally time for us to think about getting out of a relationship. But my friends, this is jumping the gun. This assumes that we’ll recognize God’s voice when he speaks to us! But what if we miss him? What if we’re looking for him in the wind, or in the earthquake or the fire, when all along he’s in the gentle whisper?
Here’s a video clip about guy who is praying – who is specifically asking God to tell him something. God responds pretty specifically to his prayer, but he doesn’t recognize God’s voice. Watch this.
[Roll clip from Bruce Almighty]
Last week I talked you about putting yourself into a place where it will be possible for you to hear God’s voice. We need to quiet down, listen up, look around, and move over! But just because you’re listening doesn’t mean you’re automatically going to know God’s voice when you hear it. Bruce Almighty was praying for a sign. He received a sign – a ton of them – and he missed it. It is easy to miss God’s voice – to be expecting something other than what we get.
Jesus himself is called The Word of God. He was God’s voice to a world that was constantly looking for God. Where’d he end up? Hanging on a cross. Why? Because God’s voice didn’t sound like people thought it would sound. They didn’t recognize it when they heard it. The gospel of John has this account of Jesus:
John 10:22-27 (MSG)
22 They were celebrating Hanukkah just then in Jerusalem. It was winter.
23 Jesus was strolling in the Temple across Solomon’s Porch.
24 The Jews, circling him, said, "How long are you going to keep us guessing? If you’re the Messiah, tell us straight out."
25 Jesus answered, "I told you, but you don’t believe. Everything I have done has been authorized by my Father, actions that speak louder than words.
26 You don’t believe because you’re not my sheep.
27 My sheep recognize my voice. I know them, and they follow me.
We pray “Lord, tell me what I should do. Give me direction. Give me a sign.” But like Bruce Almighty we can pray this prayer sincerely, and then not recognize God when he speaks to us. We can be blinded by our own expectations. See expectations are powerful. They filter out what we see and hear. People come into this gymnasium every week with expectations for what church is like. When this place does not meet those expectations, the response is usually one of two things:
1. Disappointment – That wasn’t church to me at all.
2. Delight -- Wow. Not what I expected, but there’s something special about this place.
Interesting isn’t it? That’s how people seemed to respond to Jesus. The religious people were almost all disappointed. All their lives they had studied scripture. They had expectations for what the Messiah would do and say. Jesus didn’t meet those expectations, and so they were disappointed.
Now the regular people – the poor, the sick, the sinners – they had expectations too. They expected that no matter what, they would continue to be put down and ignored like they always had been. Jesus failed to meet those expectations, and when he did, they were delighted. They loved him. He didn’t act at all like all the religious people they had seen, and for them that was a good thing. Jesus mystified them because here was a teacher, a holy man, who kept company with them and loved them and wanted to know them. They had never seen anything like it.
My friends, I want to tell you this morning that your response to God will be disappointment or delight, based on your expectations of him. The more rigid we are in defining who God is and what he is allowed to look like, or sound like, or smell like, the more likely we will be to miss him when he shows up, or when he speaks. The more we think we know, the more we’ve got another thing coming. It was not the religious scholars and “good” people who recognized Jesus. It was the sinners, the poor, the people who were considered trash in their time.
Bruce Almighty misses God. The religious scholars missed God. In our text for this morning, Elijah did not miss God – but he found God in a place where we would not expect God to be. That’s where God probably is in your life right now –the places where you wouldn’t expect him to be. In the places that seem inappropriate for God to be, the places that you hope he might not find out about, the places where he can easily be ignored or missed. He’s in the gentle whisper.
Jesus said, “My sheep know my voice.” How do children learn the voices of their parents? By hearing them over and over, and also by hearing over and over the voices of those who are NOT their parents. This morning I want to give you three characteristics of God’s voice so you can know what to listen for and what to disregard as you seek to hear from God.
The first thing I want to tell you this morning is that God speaks words that focus you on God. This cannot be overstated. Even when God speaks to you about you, it will always be in order to focus you on him. Always. Thoughts about your inabilities, your deficiencies, your weaknesses, your worries, your flaws, your inadequacies – those are not from God. When you are hearing from God, awareness of those things will lead you where? Straight to God. Straight toward God’s abilities, God’s sufficiency, God’s strength, God’s peace , and God’s perfection. You know what else isn’t from God? Thoughts about how you can handle it, you’ve got it made, you can do anything you set your mind to, you must believe in yourself, if you can dream it you can do it, you are the one who makes life happen. Do you see how those thoughts lead you away from God just as much as the negative ones? See, it’s not whether we hear positive or negative things that matters. What matters is where they come from. The negative things we listen to are lies because God’s sufficiency overcomes them all. The positive things we usually listen to are lies because it is God who is sufficient, and not us.
When God is speaking, you will hear things that will turn you back to God. “Look on the bright side” is not something God will say to you. BTW, it’s not a bad idea at all to look on the bright side, I’m not saying that’s a bad thing – I’m just saying that if you’re wanting to hear from God, and what you hear is “Look on the bright side,” God didn’t say that. God will always speak words that will focus you on him. Here’s what “Look on the bright side” sounds like when you hear it from God.
Philippians 4:13 (NCV)
13 I can do all things through Christ, because he gives me strength.
See? It always points back to God. It’s not about our deficiencies and shortcomings and it’s not about our super abilities and strength. It’s about God. When you are hearing voices beating your shortcomings into you, that’s not God’s voice. When you are hearing voices pumping you up and making you think it’s all about you and your ability, that’s not God. Follow me? Thoughts that focus you on you are not from God. I can do all things – through Christ, because he gives me strength.
This has another application for us that I don’t want you to miss. Thoughts that focus you on you are not from God. And my friends, thoughts that focus you on things that are not from God are not from God. This sounds incredibly obvious, but we miss this constantly. What do I mean by this?
Fear is not from God. Anxiety is not from God. Guilt is not from God (except for legitimate guilt over sin). Lust is not from God. Greed is not from God. Despair is not from God. Negativity is not from God. A huge number of decisions people make are based on fear. “If I do this, I’m afraid this or this or that might happen, so I’ll just go nowhere and do nothing so I’m safe.” That thought is never, ever, ever from God. God will never focus us on our fears. Why? Because our fears do not matter because I can do all things through Christ who gives me strength, right?
Just because we fear something doesn’t mean we should avoid it, and just because we do not fear something does not mean we should jump right into it. Fear may give us important information about something, or it may not. Fear is an emotion, it is not a basis on which we should be making decisions. If you are seeking God’s direction about something and are filled with fear, that’s not from God. Don’t point to fear in your life as a sign that you should stay away from something. If I ask you to come up front and share something with the congregation, don’t use your fear as an excuse to keep from doing it. If a ministry director asks you to serve in a ministry, don’t say no out of fear. The voice of fear opposes the voice of God.
1 John 4:18 (NIV)
18 There is no fear in love. But perfect love drives out fear, because fear has to do with punishment. The one who fears is not made perfect in love.
God will have us face concerns realistically, and evaluate possibilities reasonably. God will never have us lost in fear, worry, despair, anger, lust, greed, or any other negative emotion.
So point 1 today is that when God is speaking, God will always focus us on God, and never on ourselves or on emotions or things that do not come from God.
Second this morning is that God speaks words that calmly beckon you into the future, and require you to take action. Think about this for a moment. Aren’t there times when you find yourself focusing on something you did or said in the recent or distant past, and clearly sense that perhaps God is bringing those things to mind? Here’s how you know. If along with those thoughts you are feeling a need to apologize, to make amends, to bring healing, to restore a relationship, or to actually be pro-active in DOING something, that is from God. If all you are doing is feeling lousy and thinking about how pathetic or stupid you are, or how pathetic and stupid the other person is, that is not God. Why? Because first, God will focus you on God, not on your own weaknesses or those of someone else, and second because God speaks words that calmly beckon you into the future and require you to take action. Apologizing, making amends, bringing healing, restoring a relationship – those are all things that require you to take action – to step into the future and do something. God will not call you to gloat, to feel superior or inferior, or to live in the past in order to punish yourself. Those things do not come from God.
We are called to live in the present moment, and in the future. But this gets back to fear again. The future is our number one biggest fear, whether it’s an hour away, or half a lifetime away. Why? Because the future is where all the uncertainty lies, and uncertainty is our greatest fear. See, you already know what happened yesterday. You know what’s happening now. The trouble is five minutes from now. And worse yet is ten minutes from now, and the further we get into the future, the more we fear because there is more and more uncertainty. But God calls you to live in the future. Even if in the present moment you are just reflecting on an event from your past, if God is in that he will call you to do something – to take some action, and we can only take action in the future, whether it’s ten seconds from now or ten days from now or whatever.
In fact, did you know that the future is the container for all our fears and all our opportunities to serve God? Think about it. You might regret the past, but you only fear the future. You may have served God well yesterday or you may have blown it, but your next opportunity to serve him is in your next decision – and that’s in the future.
And that brings us back again to what? To fear. Fear and opportunity are competitors in this life. Always. Think about the stock market. Fear and opportunity. Think about starting new relationships – fear and opportunity. Think about buying that new car or new house or having another baby – fear and opportunity. Think about sharing God with your next-door neighbor. Think about trying out for the basketball team. I don’t know how long you have to live, but as long as you live, you will always have opportunities to serve God. And every single opportunity will come to you served up with a slice of fear, because opportunities are always in the future, and the future is always unknown, and the unknown is our main source of fear. My friend, God’s voice will always calmly beckon you into the future. C’mon Dave, are you gonna start that new church? But God, I’m afraid. Yeah. So are you gonna? C’mon are you gonna launch that new business or new ministry? But God, I’m afraid. Yeah. So are you gonna? C’mon, are you gonna go to that person’s house and have that awkward conversation? But God, I’m afraid. Yeah. So are you gonna?
Fear usually causes us to become one of two things when it comes to moving into the future, and neither of them are from God. First is paralyzed. We allow our fear to cause us to do nothing and to miss our opportunity. Second is erratic. We just scurry around taking all kinds of compulsive action without really sitting down to think about it. We are less afraid of compulsive action than we are of honestly analyzing the situation and making a plan. This is not from God, who says in his word:
Isaiah 1:18 (NIV)
18 "Come now, let us reason together…"
When you are hearing God’s voice, it will calmly beckon you into the future. It will give you room to think clearly, to analyze your situation. Let’s do a brief case-study to see if you’re learning how to apply this yet. Let’s say you’re in the middle of analyzing a potential opportunity in your future, and you sort of hear this whisper in your ear and here’s what it says. “You’re not a person of very much faith, are you? If you really trusted God, you would just jump into this and stop analyzing it.” Based on what I have told you so far, is this voice from God? Of course not. Why? Because God does not call us to act compulsively. God will not guilt trip us about our lack of faith and throw us into a state of confusion. In a moment like that, if you know your Bible, you can say, “The fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. I’m thinking this over, staying open to God and asking for his leading. Putting myself down because maybe I’m not very faithful steals the peace I am meant to have. Besides, God isn’t going to lead me by criticizing me – criticism isn’t from God.” If you know God’s Word, you can do that. You could follow that up with something else from God’s Word, “Search me Father, and know my heart – try me and know my mind. See if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in life everlasting.” Remember what Jesus said,
“My sheep recognize my voice. I know them and they follow me.”
If you seek to serve God, you must learn God’s Word, because that is where God has made his voice heard. Everything I am telling you today comes from things we can clearly know about God from his Word. It’s essential that you are learning it.
Third and finally this morning, God speaks words that continually draw you toward him. Nothing that drives you away from God is from God – even if it’s something you know eventually God might want you to be involved with. I met with a new Christian a while back who was reading the Bible a lot, and finding it so upsetting he was considering not even being a Christian anymore. He just couldn’t get his mind around it and rather than bringing peace it was scaring him to death. You know what I told him? I said “Go home and put that Bible on the shelf and leave it there until you sense yourself wanting to pick it up again. God would never have his word drive a wedge between you and him. Until then, focus on his love for you and his forgiveness of your sin. Come to church and absorb the messages – let that little bit of God’s Word into your life – pray on it and see what God makes of it.
God speaks words that continually draw you toward him. Several years ago I was doing very heavy spiritual reading – Thomas Merton, Thomas a Kempis, Dallas Willard, Richard Foster, St. Theresa of Avila, etc. Only rather than being freed by these writers to serve God more faithfully, I was consumed with constant guilt over my shortcomings compared to them. I thought the problem was me. I met with a spiritual director who said, “Put those books down and don’t pick them up again until they bring you freedom and not bondage. God would not have books meant to point the way to him serve as a barrier between you and him.” My friends, God speaks words that continually draw you toward him. God’s objective, God’s intention, is to live life with you every day, every moment, gently guiding and leading you toward increasing peace and love and joy. Guilt, the crushing sense that we are not good enough, trying to do more than we’re capable of doing – all of this serves to break our spirits and drive us away from God.
I told you last year when I started running that I had one goal for every workout and that was not to push it so hard that I didn’t want to do it the next time. With running what matters most is that you keep doing it. The same is true with serving God. The most important thing is not some ten day fast this month, but that you are still serving God next month, one way or another.
I don’t speak often of the devil, but the Bible clearly teaches of one who is an enemy of our souls – who aims to defeat us and see to it that we do not stay with God. Look what we see:
Revelation 12:7-11 (NLT)
7 Then there was war in heaven. Michael and his angels fought against the dragon and his angels.
8 And the dragon lost the battle, and he and his angels were forced out of heaven.
9 This great dragon—the ancient serpent called the devil, or Satan, the one deceiving the whole world—was thrown down to the earth with all his angels.
10 Then I heard a loud voice shouting across the heavens, “It has come at last— salvation and power and the Kingdom of our God, and the authority of his Christ. For the accuser of our brothers and sisters has been thrown down to earth— the one who accuses them before our God day and night.
My friends, many of us spend more time listening to the voice of the accuser than to God. Many of us know his voice better than God’s. The one who heaps guilt upon us, paralyzes us with fear, overwhelms us with tasks to do for God, beats us up when we don’t follow through with them, and poses as God in our ears. “Some faith you have, you weakling. You call yourself a Christian? Who are you to use that name? Are you kidding me, with all the flaws you have, to call yourself a Christ-follower? What if Christ had been in the room with what you just did? Shame on you.”
And we go along with it because unfortunately, this is what we have come to expect from God. But the truth is, that isn’t God at all. We haven’t learned the difference between the voice of God and the voice of the accuser, or just our own ridiculous ideas.
I’m going to wrap up today’s message, but I want to tell you something important as we close. I don’t want you to get the impression that it will always be comfortable to hear God’s voice. There are situations where God’s voice WILL make you uncomfortable, and I’m going to talk to you about a few of those situations next Sunday. But I’ve given you plenty to think about for now. Would you pray with me?
God, we speak to you all the time. Would you give us an expectation that you will speak back, and teach us what your voice sounds like? May today’s message hang in our heads and begin shaping our understanding of your voice beginning immediately. Amen.
