If ever there was “a word from the Lord” that relates to the subject at hand, it would be that found in John 10:27. Jesus is speaking, or rather, teaching, and He says, “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.”
Beepers and pagers are everywhere! From physicians to police, to clergy, there they are, clipped to belts and protruding from pockets---fiendish reminders of the mastery of electronics.
Getting one’s attention in this way has its comical moments. One doctor claims he got so ruffled when his beeper sounded as he drove down the highway that he threw it out the window and tried to shut off his cigarette. Another person though, emphasized the positive value of being able to stay in touch with his office. He had a certain amount of peace of mind, not only in knowing he can be reached if needed, but also in being assured that if he doesn’t get beeped, he isn’t needed.
This development in communications is a good reminder of the kind of open line that we should be maintaining with Heaven. Let’s check the ears of our hearts. Are they dull because of sin? Do we have the confidence of a clean conscience? Can we be reached of are we not within calling distance? It may be that God is trying to get our attention. He has something to say that we need to hear. He sends a signal, but we are often not in a position to hear. “He that hath an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says unto the church” (Revelation 2:7, KJV).
In our day the air is filled with voices that clamor to be heard. In order to avert confusion we must learn to be discriminate listeners. The voice which matters most is God’s. In I Samuel chapter three, we read about how young Samuel had to learn to detect the voice of God in the sanctuary. We must discipline our ears and hearts to hear God’s voice as well and respond to it. The question is, How can we hear the voice of God so that we, like Samuel, might know His will for our lives? Let me suggest four avenues.
First, there is the voice from WITHIN. Here I speak of the conscience—the eye of the soul which looks out either toward God or toward what it regards as the highest. We have to make an effort to keep our consciences so sensitive that we walk without offense. Paul testified to the importance of a clear conscience in II Corinthians 1:2: “For our rejoicing is this, the testimony of our conscience, that in simplicity and Godly sincerity, not with fleshly wisdom, but by the grace of God, we have had our conversation in the world, and more abundantly to you-ward.”
Again, Paul warned Timothy that next to his faith, a clear conscience was his most essential weapon: I…sent you out to battle for the right armed only with your faith and a clear conscience. Some, alas, have laid these simple weapons aside, and as far as their faith is concerned, have run their ships on the rocks” (I Timothy 1:18,19, Phillips).
Don’t lay aside this wonderful weapon that God has given you. Grieve not the Holy Spirit. He does not usually come with a voice like thunder; His voice is so gentle that it is easy to ignore or miss altogether. How glad I am that even as calloused and insensitive as we are at times, the conscience is still there. It is a mechanism that God has built into our human framework.
But someone may ask, “What is the difference between the conscience and the Spirit of God?” Very simple---one is a Person, while the other is a psychological function of the mind. The conscience is an educated thing. In the life of an unbeliever, it can be very dangerous. But as the child of God allows the Holy Spirit to re-educate conscience, it becomes that for which God originally intended—a vehicle for implementing and sustaining righteousness. As Paul put it, “I am speaking the truth in Christ, I am not lying; my conscience bears witness in the Holy Spirit” (Romans 9:1).
Yes, Go is especially present in the conscience of all persons by way of testimony and judgment; that is, He is there to call our actions to mind, a witness to bring them to judgment, and a judge to acquit or condemn. The voice from within: the conscience.
Secondly, there is the voice from BEHIND, experience. Accumulated knowledge is one of the best teachers. An ancient proverb puts it this way: “A prudent man profits from his own experience; a wise one from the experience of others.” We should carry our experiences around like coins in our pockets---ready to use them when needed.
Just before the children of Israel entered the Promised Land, Moses delivered a series of farewell addresses, the first of which looked backward. He reviewed their wilderness wanderings and the reasons for them. An eleven day journey from Mt. Horeb to Kadesh took over forty years! How slow they covered the ground. And how often we have to go over the same ground again and again. We marvel at Israel’s slowness to learn, while ignoring our own. We, like they, are often kept back by unbelief because we are tuned into God’s frequency. We don’t have our ears on and we ignore the prompting from above.
Paul tells the Corinthian believers that the history of Israel’s wilderness wanderings was written for our admonition, upon whom the end of the ages are to come. Thank God for the voice of the past.
Thirdly, there is the voice AHEAD---vision, that is, our goals, dreams, and ideals. We long to accomplish in life what God intends for us to accomplish. Every day we pray, “Thy kingdom come, Thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” That glorious day is just ahead.
To reach our full potential in Christ---this is what we aim for. And hope for the future keeps us pressing on. When hope is alive, the night is less dark; the solitude less deep, fear less acute. It is like the sun, which as we journey toward it, casts a shadow of our burden behind us. And thus our motto becomes: “Life with Christ is an endless hope; life without Him a hopeless end.”
There is a second sense in which the voice ahead calls to us. Beyond this life there is the hope of heaven. It’s sound beckons us, calling, “Come up hither.” Listen often and it will sustain you amidst the negative, depressing noise of the world.
Evangelist Merv Rosell relates a story from his childhood when he and his brother contracted diphtheria. They were wrapped in white sheets and taken to the contagious ward of the hospital. He could still see his mother’s face, pressed against the glass of the ward, peering lovingly at her two boys during those days and nights of suffering. Little Robert wept day and night. Although the nurses tried to comfort him as best they could, it was almost impossible to give him relief in his complicated condition.
The nurses tried to comfort Merv as he explained that it was his brother who kept crying. After two weeks they explained how they had moved Robert to a sunny room on the other side of the hospital. A week later, their mother came to take Merv home. On the way home, Merv asked his mother, “Is Robert home yet?” His mother answered that he had been at home for several days.
As they pulled up to their house, Merv jumped out of the car and ran up the steps shouting, “Robert! Hey Robert!” But there was only silence. He persisted in calling his brother’s name. Finally, his mother drew him aside, and sitting him on her lap, she tried to explain that Robert wasn’t “home” to this house, but to his “heavenly” home.
Merv said, “You mean he’s dead!” But even as carefully as his mother talked about the resurrection and temporary loss and reunion and the joys of heaven, all little Merv could do was shout over and over, “But he’s dead!”
Standing by the front door was a crowd of boys calling for Merv to come out and play ball—welcoming him back to the neighborhood again. He marched from the dining room to the front door and shouted, “Kids, get out of here! Beat it! Don’t come back again. Don’t you know my brother’s dead? I’ll never play ball again. He’s dead, I tell you. Get out of here and leave me alone!”
They backed away, stumbling through the lilac bushes and out to the street wondering what had happened to Merv. He walked back into the dining room. It was now the loneliest, emptiest house he had ever known.
But that’s not the end of the story. For since those days there came to Merv an ever-deepening faith in the reality of eternal life through the teaching of that godly mother, the quiet assurance that what she said in those days and lived out in the subsequent years, is actually the truth, a fact, not just a fantasy.
Paul put it well when he wrote, “If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men” (I Corinthians 15:19). We shall live again. This blessed hope is the substance of every human heart that stands beside the little white crosses; the brown mounds of earth; the small coffins---every lonely heart that stands alone, save for the assurance in Jesus Christ, the Son of God.
Lastly, there is the voice from ABOVE: God’s voice. Many ask, “Does God speak to man audibly?” And to that there is a divergence of opinion. However, on one thing we can all agree: God communicates through His written Word. “All scripture is given by inspiration and is profitable for doctrine and for reproof, and for correction, and for instruction in godliness.”
The study of God’s Word, for the purpose of discovering His will is the secret discipline which has formed the greatest characters. The healthiest Christian, the one who is best fitted for godly living and godly labors, is he who feeds most on Christ. Here lies the benefit of Bible reading.
The Bible is the mirror of its Author, meant first of all, to reveal, unveil, magnify and glorify Him from whom it originally went forth. Holy Scripture should be thought of as “God preaching.”---God preaching to me every time I read or hear any part of it—God the Father preaching God the Son in the power of God the Holy Spirit. God the Father is the Giver; God the Son is its Theme; God the Spirit, its Interpreter.
God has spoken, says the Bible, and godliness means hearing His Word with the hearing heart---giving attention, assent, and application to its truth.
Yes, God is still speaking, but the question is, Are we listening? Centuries ago, John the apostle penned these words, convinced that they were from God: “Look at me. I stand at the door. I knock. If you hear me call and open the door, I’ll come right in and sit down to supper with you…Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches” (Revelation 3:20,22, Message Bible).
