I am indebted tremendously to Jack Deere for bringing clarity to these ideas. His book is entitled, Surprised By the Voice of God. It is available from local bookstores or online at www.Christianbook.com if you would like to read more about this subject.
This morning I bring you the last message in the series –
Who Hears the Voice of God?
In our military forces there are a couple of million men and women who are serving, ready to defend the country and to advance the agenda set by our civilian leadership anywhere in the world. Within those military forces there are elite forces, specially trained men and women whose skills and dedication stand out above the crowd. The Army Rangers and the Navy Seals are two of those groups.
The men in these small groups train hard and have extraordinary courage. As a result they are able to do amazing things to advance military missions.
Some Christians believe that only choice Believers hear the voice of God. He reserves the honor of hearing His voice only for those blessed with some extraordinary skill, talent, or spiritual gifts. WRONG!
So who can hear the voice of God? Any Spirit-filled Believer! However, there are some choices you can make that will sharpen your spiritual ears and it those choices I’d like to talk about with you today.
1. Those who hear God’s voice are AVAILABLE to Him as His friends.
My wife occasionally will grab my attention with a sharp rebuke: “Are you listening to me?” I must confess that often she’s right. I am physically present at the dinner table, nodding appropriately in response to her conversation, but I’m not really available to her. I’ve drifted mentally to another place, to solving another problem, or thinking about something else. My inattention diminished our relationship at that moment.
There are levels at which we connect with people and rightly so.
∙ In the inner circle of our life, our spouse, our kids, and our closest friends have nearly complete access. We are available to these people. They can call on us anytime, anyplace, for just about as much support as we can give. We listen to them, care about them, and converse deeply with them.
∙ Moving out a level, there are those who are in our circle of friends to whom we are available most of the time. We’ll respond to their request for our help, listen to them, and share much our life with them.
∙ Moving out to the third level of connection we find neighbors and co-workers. We are available to these people at certain times and places for specific kinds of conversation. We are more generally guarded with established boundaries of access.
Those who most clearly hear the voice of God are those who have formed a deep friendship with the Lord.
Think of people in the Scripture who heard from God. Who heard the Lord’s voice best?
Jesus, of course. Why? Because He lived very, very close to His Father. Time and time again in the Gospels we are told that Jesus retreated to spend time alone with God. What was He doing? He was enjoying conversation with the Father.
Another man who heard God’s voice was Abraham. Three different times God spoke of Abraham as His friend. This man wasn’t perfect, either. He lied twice about his relationship to his wife to save his own skin! He doubted God’s promise and took his wife’s serving girl as a concubine. But, his heart was ready to receive correction and he constantly returned to the Lord with a confessional heart. He was thus called, “the friend of God” and heard the voice of the Lord guiding, directing him.
Moses spent such time with God that it caused his skin to shine! His face was so radiant when he came down from 40 days in the presence of the Lord that he wore a veil. His love for God is so evident in the words of Exodus 33:15-18 NLT Then Moses said,
“If you don’t go with us personally, don’t let us move a step from this place. If you don’t go with us, how will anyone ever know that your people and I have found favor with you? How else will they know we are special and distinct from all other people on the earth?” And the Lord replied to Moses, “I will indeed do what you have asked, for you have found favor with me, and you are my friend.” Then Moses had one more request. “Please let me see your glorious presence,” he said.
Are you a friend of God?
He has made an offer of friendship that stands. To the sinful people of Judah He said, Jeremiah 29:10-14 NIV
“When seventy years are completed for Babylon, I will come to you and fulfill my gracious promise to bring you back to this place. For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the LORD, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. 13 You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you,” declares the LORD. . .”
That promise stands for us yet today. Make yourself available to Him. Seek after God with your whole heart, longing for Him with intense love, and you’ll hear His voice. Don’t confuse seeking after Him with having a ‘little daily devotion’ or attending church or even with some ritual religious practice. Seeking Him as a friend is learning to share His life, loving He loves, making Him the priority person in your daily decisions.
2. Those who hear God’s voice are those who respond with OBEDIENCE when He speaks.
Jesus said, John 5:30 I seek not to please myself but him who sent me.
He obeyed what God told him to do even when the will of God was still not fully revealed. Do you? When God speaks, He is looking for complete obedience much the same as any parent would.
When our children were little, we knew that spending a great deal of time attempting to explain and/or rationalize our decision to our kids was an exercise in foolishness. They could not comprehend the larger picture. When they were toddlers the issue was simply obedience. When they were 2, 3, and 4 it was enough to say, “Do it because Daddy said so.” Let me say parents, gaining the respectful obedience of your little child is critical BEFORE they enter Kindergarten. If you do not teach them total obedience in those early years, prepare yourself for a living hell once they get to age 10! I’m not suggesting you are cruel, that you beat them, or that you mistreat them. But they need to learn that your word is enough, that obedience is not only expected, it is demanded.
As a wise parent, I realized that it would take more time for my 3 year old son to finish a task that I assigned to him. I was willing to be patient, willing to wait for him in his immaturity. I knew that I could not issue a string of instructions. His immature little brain could only process one item at a time.
So it is with our Heavenly Father. He speaks and expects an obedient response. If we are immature in faith, He will be patient as we get pointed in the right direction. But until He sees some obedience, He generally will not speak further.
As my children matured, I was much more willing to share my goals, reasoning, and plans with them. I asked for their co-operation as I gave them direction. But I was willing to allow them to obey or to take the consequences of rebellion. I was not a screamer or a nag. I would gladly direct them, but if as teenagers they wished to rebel, I was also willing to release them to taste the fruit of rebellion. They could not expect to have my complete approval or assistance in their rebellious.
As we mature, the God speaks in much the same way. He directs us, but allows us to choose. Often we have better understanding and we know more of what He is doing. Yet, at times, our will and His will are at variance. We have, in that moment, a choice.
When we choose rebellion, we break fellowship with Him. He cannot participate in our sin, nor will He speak time and again to deaf ears. 1 John 3:21-24 NLT Dear friends, if our conscience is clear, we can come to God with bold confidence. 22 And we will receive whatever we request because we obey him and do the things that please him. 23 And this is his commandment: We must believe in the name of his Son, Jesus Christ, and love one another, just as he commanded us. 24 Those who obey God’s commandments live in fellowship with him, and he with them. And we know he lives in us because the Holy Spirit lives in us.
As that Scripture promises, when we choose to obey wholeheartedly, we are privileged to live in fellowship with Him. The word, “fellowship” is translated “live in” in the NIV. It is the same NT Greek word we find in that passage about the Vine and Branches in John 15. It is a word that literally means to settle down, to be at home. What a great concept. When God speaks and we obey, we gain the privilege of being ‘at home’ and settled in a loving relationship with Him that allows for a continuing conversation.
Are you obeying God? Are you responsive to His will AS YOU UNDERSTAND AND KNOW IT TODAY?
If you’re not letting Him guide you in the smaller issues of personal morality, of forgiveness, of use of time and resources, HOW do expect to hear from Him about the larger issues of meaningful ministry or life’s purpose?
3. Those who hear God’s voice are HUMBLE.
Isaiah 55:8-9 “For my thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways my ways,”
Declares the LORD. “As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways and my thoughts than your thoughts.”
Do you REALLY believe that? Conceit is a subtle sin. It settles into our minds when life is good and things are going well and largely we aren’t even aware of its presence. But you know that conceit has taken hold of you when find that you’re not asked God’s direction on a regular basis.
In the 60 days since the attacks on America that killed thousands and left us fearful and uncertain about the future, people have started to pray, acknowledging their need of God. Planes crashing into symbols of our economic and military might also brought our vain conceit crashing down. The idea that something as common as a letter in our mailbox could carry anthrax has shook Americans to the core. We live now with the understanding that other plagues are out there that could be used against our health. Tho’ remote, the possibility exists that terrorists have obtained the material and technology to create a small nuclear weapon that could devastate one of our major cities. So we pray. If you think about it, that is really sad, isn’t it? As a nation we increasingly ignored God, removed Him from our day to day lives, living in His blessings and misinterpreting them as the result of our own power and wisdom. Only a terrible tragedy revealed how much we need God, what evil lurks around us, and the importance of seeking Him always.
Are you humbly asking God for His direction, His care and listening for His voice? Or, do you think you’ve got it all figured out? Even good and godly people are sometimes deceived by conceit.
Jack Deere says, “Humility is profound confidence in the mercy of God rather than human efforts or intentions.... A truly humble person knows that no matter how great his abilities or character, he can do nothing apart from Christ.”
Don’t confuse humility with weakness or fear. Humility is a choice of both the strong and the weak. A weak man may shout all the louder for his fear and confusion, trying to hide his insecurity. He fails to show humility.
A strong man may fail to consider others, to seek counsel. He, too, shows a lack of humility.
The truly humble person knows that no matter his strength, his blessings, his talents, his failures, his brokeness — he can only please God to the extent that he listens to Him and depends on Him as a child depends on his faithful father. God’s word about Humility is clear: Philippians 2:3-11 NIV
3 Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit, but in humility consider others better than yourselves. 4 Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.
5 Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus:
6 Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped,
7 but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant, being made in human likeness.
8 And being found in appearance as a man, he humbled himself and became obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
9 Therefore God exalted him to the highest place and gave him the name that is above every name,
10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.
Cultivate the humility that allows you to keep an open ear for the Spirit’s leading in both good times and bad.
One last caution in this area: Watch out for the deadly sin of religious pride!
Jesus reserved his strongest words of condemnation, his fiercest attacks – not for ordinary sinners, not for people fallen into immorality, not for doubters or the fearful – but for those who thought that because their lives looked so good on the outside, they must surely have the inside corner with God. The Pharisees were largely good people that we would love to have as neighbors. They kept the law, went to churches, and raised nice kids. But they also looked down on people who didn’t quite get it together. They gathered their self righteousness around themselves and withdrew from those they considered inferior to themselves. Their arrogance cut them off from God!
Psalm 138:6 Though the LORD is on high, he looks upon the lowly, but the proud he knows from afar.
Let’s commit ourselves not to repeat their error. Here inside of our nice church in a respectable neighborhood, it is easy to feel some distance from the filth of the sex shop or from the squalor of the crack house. With our marriage safe and strong, it is easy to condemn the person who is struggling with their relationship.
We can comfort ourselves by praising arrogant leaders who look good. We can laugh at the jabs they take at the abortionists, the immoral, the greedy, the homosexuals, etc. But.... as we put down others, pride swells creating spiritual deafness. The voice of God grows more faint as religious pride consumes us.
Come back to the Cross. Renew your understanding that you and the crack house addict stand on level ground as sinners dependent on the grace of God.
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God is speaking today! He has not lost His voice.
He speaks to all who listen, not just to some elite group of the bright, beautiful, or unscarred!
1. Make yourself available to Him today, won’t you? “Draw close to Him and He’ll come close to YOU,” that’s the promise found in James 4.8
2. Commit yourself to obey His directives, no matter how small, so that He will continue to speak to you about the larger matters of your life.
3. Stay humble so you will listen for God’s voice. Choose humility and defeat pride that leads to becoming spiritually deaf.
Lord, give us ears to hear what Your Spirit is saying to our hearts. Amen
