Do we really listen to the voice of God
JOHN 10:22-30
I would like to focus on one verse this morning:
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me” (Jn 10:27)
There are many committed Christians who ask the question “How can I know the will of God for me. Where does he want me to be?"
It is one I have been asking myself for months
But what do we actually mean when we say we want to know the will of God?
It should mean that we want to know His plan for our lives.
We want His guidance in specific decisions so we can make wise choices.
The question we should be asking is,
"How can I know the voice of God?"
Because it is knowing the voice of God that results in finding the will of God. God wants you to know His will:
4Jesus said "It is written: ’Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. (Matthew 4:4)
The word "comes from" speaks of a continuing action.
It isn’t a once and for all
God speaks today and we need to learn to listen.
Story: One unknown author wrote this:
“At least one time in every sermon, God breaks through the words of the preacher and speaks directly to the people.
It may be in a single sentence or in just one phrase.
We can ill afford not to listen to the entire discourse with care, otherwise we may miss that one illuminated and searching sentence in which God speaks to us--a sentence that brings conviction, penitence, hope, strength, or renewed faith!
So many of us miss that one special word from God because we are comparing the preacher’s manner with that of some other preacher we have heard recently.
From now on, just listen intently for that one portion
God intends to be applied specifically to your heart!"
There are two Greek words translated as "word" in the Bible.
They are the Greek words are "logos" and "rhema".
"Logos" refers to "an expression (articulation) of thought"
It is the embodiment of a concept, idea or thought. It is more than that because Jesus is called the Logos of God.
The Logos of God is someone we can know
"Rhema" refers to the personal, living or life-giving Word of God.
In our Gospel reading this morning, Jesus is asking the question: Who are you listening to?
when he says in John 10:27
“My sheep listen to my voice”
There are MANY VOICES out there clamouring for our attention:
What are these voices in the world?
1. THE VOICE OF MAN:
The voice of man is easy to recognize. It blares out over our television sets
It is the audible voice of another human being:
Sometimes the voice of man may give wise advice, but sometimes the voice of man conflicts with the voice of God.
Often it is the voice we hear on our television screens
2. THE VOICE OF SATAN:
Don’t underestimate this. So many people don’t believe in Satan, yet he is still there. But don’t be caught up in the caricature of a man with a trident fork and spiked tail
The voice of Satan was first heard by man when he spoke to Eve in the Garden of Eden (Genesis 3:l,4,5).
Satan’s voice lies, deceives, and always attempts to lead man into sin away from God.
You can easily recognize this when you read of the temptations of Jesus by Satan in Matthew 4:l-l3.
Evil spirits (demons of Satan) also have voices:
For examples in Acts 8 we read
For unclean spirits, crying with loud voice, came out of many that were possessed with them... (Acts 8:7)
Story: I have only once been confronted by the voice of an evil spirit and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up
There was a woman who used to come to our Church in Basle, who once asked me to come with her to Reinhold Dettwiler, a Christian minister well known in the Deliverance Ministry in Switzerland.
When he started speaking to her, her voice changed into a shrill and she started clawing the walls.
She was never delivered of this evil spirit because she wanted to keep it
3. THE VOICE OF SELF:
The voice of self is man talking to himself.
You can read examples of this in Luke l6:3 in the parable of the Crooked Manager where the manager says to himself:
3"….. ’What shall I do now? My master is taking away my job. I’m not strong enough to dig, and I’m ashamed to be
The Bible warns us to about merely listening to our own voice
4. THE VOICE OF GOD:
We see Jesus talking about this in John 10:3-5
3The watchman opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."
It is uncanny how sheep recognise your voice
Sooty – the Sheep in our back garden recognises Maddy and my voice – but when friends come round and call her, she looks puzzled!
Jesus compares us to sheep listening to the voice of their Shepherd.
It is the characteristic of sheep not to know where they are going. They must be led.
Jesus said His sheep would know His voice and follow Him instead of the "strange" voices of man, self, or Satan.
And you only do that if you listen to Jesus speaking to you regularly
Somehow we need to learn to stop talking at him – and LISTEN to him
Story: I like the story I read about US President Franklin D. Roosevelt.
Apparently President Roosevelt got tired of the same inane small talk and smiles that he had to put up with at the innumerable White House receptions that he attended.
So, one evening he decided to find out whether anybody was really listening to what he was saying.
As each person came up to him with extended hand, he flashed that big smile and said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning."
People would automatically respond with comments like "How lovely!" or "Just continue your great work!"
Nobody listened to what he was actually saying, except for one foreign diplomat.
When the president said, "I murdered my grandmother this morning," the diplomat responded softly, "I’m sure she had it coming."
Conclusion
If we are his sheep, we will listen to his voice.
So how do we know when God is leading us somewhere.
I think there are five indicators
1. The opportunity arises
2. You have the attributes capable for carrying out the opportunity. There is no point in feeling called to be a tight rope walker when you have a pathological fear of heights
3. After praying about the matter, you have the inner compulsion to proceed. Perhaps God gives you a prophetic word, as I have had a number of times at key times of moving
4. After reading your Bible, you sense that God is affirming your call through what you are reading.
Story; When I started a Church in Switzerland that is still 20 years later working among the refugees in that city, Maddy and I and the two other leaders share our vision with the leader of the largest church in Basle at the time the Alban Arbeit
The pastor Johannes Czwalina invited us to talk to his church of about 800 young people and we sang a song “El Shaddai.
At the end of the service a young man came up to me and said God had given him three verses of confirmation for me.
He had written three verses on a Post-it (registered trademark)which he stuck on my guitar and walked off
The first verse was Isaiah 43:19:
See, I am doing a new thing!Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.
The second was John 4:38
38. I sent you to reap what you have not worked for. Others have done the hard work, and you have reaped the benefits of their labour."
The last one was Exodus 14:14
14 The LORD will fight for you; you need only to be still."
I rather wish I had listened to the last one a bit more, being an argumentative person!!
5. You ask advice of your spouse if you have one and trusted friends what they think. That last one comes at the end and isn’t foolproof, but their advice is worth seeking
Jesus said: My sheep listen to my voice; I know them and they follow me
We can’t follow him if we don’t listen to his voice. We won’t recognise his voice if we don’t spend time getting to know him. We won’t be fulfilled if we don’t follow where he leads us.
My thanks to Dennis Deese for some inspiration and stories
