There might be some competition for the question I’m most often asked, and I’ve had a lot of questions asked of me during the last 25 years. The competing question would probably be, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” We could look at the answer to that in the future, but let me address the question that I believe I have heard more often.
What would that question be? It would be, “How can I hear the voice of God?” Many believers wonder if they have ever heard the Lord speak to them even once. That might be what they believe is their experience, but I contend that He has been speaking the whole time. After all, Jesus told us, “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27). The believer can know that Jesus’ words concerning this matter are a greater reality than his or her personal experience. I’ve found that when there’s an unfulfilled promise in my life, it’s time to let God’s word be true and to look at how I can position myself better to receive the promise.
I think that hearing God’s voice should be the Christian’s highest pursuit. After all, how can He lead us if we can’t hear Him? How can I be in the center of God’s will if I can’t hear where he’s telling me to go?
The first thing of which we should be aware is that the Lord’s voice in our life is a quiet, small voice. It’s not a voice we hear in our ears, but it is a whisper deep inside our hearts. Jesus is the Good Shepherd, and it’s not his “style” to yell at his sheep. He speaks softly because he wants us to draw near to Him in order to hear Him. He loves the connection!
I believe a great example of this is when Elijah, a man of God, had lost contact with the Lord’s voice. This proves that if it can happen to a godly man like Elijah, it could happen to anyone. He had just had a great victory at Mount Carmel by calling fire down from heaven in front of the false worshippers of Baal. Their god, who was not God, was effectively proven to be an impostor. Because of this, Queen Jezebel decided that Elijah must die. He was running for his life and had no idea what was next for him. He became so diminished that he was actually nourished twice by an angel with food and water. He went for forty days in the strength of that food until he came to Mount Horeb. There he hid in a cave until the Lord confronted him and asked, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” Here God showed him that His voice would not be heard in his current emotional state of confusion and turmoil. God asked Him to stand in the mouth of the cave. God came with a strong wind. It was so strong it loosened the rocks of the mountain, but God was not in the wind. Next came an earthquake, but God was not in the earthquake. Next God sent fire, but He was not in the fire. Finally, God sent a gentle blowing, and there, in the midst of a gentle breeze, God finally spoke to Elijah. It was then that the direction came from the Lord.
Why is this story told to us? It is there to reveal that we have to remove ourselves from all the confusion and demanding noise of this world if we hope to hear His voice. In our day, it would mean removing ourselves from the confusion of daily demands and pressures of work and relationships, turning off all the electronics, finding a quiet “cave,” and discovering that in this quiet place His voice has been speaking the whole time.
Yes, God’s voice is always going forth. We just need to be quiet enough to hear. This leads me to my second point. God is speaking to our hearts right now! It took me quite a while to realize that some of the thoughts which I thought were my own were really God speaking to me. These thoughts felt like they came from me, but upon further exploration, I discovered they were the Spirit of God speaking to my own spirit. We get a glimpse of this in Romans 8, “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God…The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God (Roman 8:14-16). As believers we live in the expectation that the Holy Spirit is leading us, “bearing witness with us,” and speaking to our spirits because we are his children. Begin to listen to your random thoughts. Yes, there are our own thoughts that can often be erratic and meaningless. But if we desire to do His will, we can expect that we have received the mind of Christ, and that this God-given mind is receiving instruction from the Lord all the time. I personally sharpened this skill by doing a simple exercise. I was young and attending a local church. I began to ask the Lord on Sunday mornings, “Lord, you have a message for your people today at church. Speak to me now before the service, and show me what you are going to say during the service.” I soon discovered that what I thought were my own random thoughts actually were repeated again in the songs and in the sermon. They weren’t random! I needed to pay attention more to what I’m hearing inside myself. It only makes sense. He told us, “My sheep hear my voice.” He’s speaking right now to our hearts. Soon we will learn to differentiate between our own random thoughts and the thoughts spoken by the Spirit to our own spirit.
Third, pay attention to the desires of your heart. “Delight yourself in the LORD; And He will give you the desires of your heart” (Psalm 37:4). If we really want to hear what God wants us to do (delight ourselves in the Lord), and we desire to obey him, we can trust that God will give us strong desires which will show us the direction He wants us to take. Then we must step forward in obedience and begin to plan how we can fulfill His calling.
Finally, hold on to the word you receive. I’ve never stepped out in obedience to a word I’ve receive and not had it tested. Obedience, like gold, is purified in the fire. If we find ourselves in a moment when we’re tempted to mistrust the word we’ve received, continue to move forward until the Lord speaks otherwise. Jesus said, “No one, after putting his hand to the plow and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God. (Luke 9:62). Sometimes we can insist on a new word when God wants us to obey the last word. We are tempted to “look back” and doubt the last time He spoke to us. During such time we can wonder why God’s not speaking and demand a fresh word, but actually He wants us to continue to follow His last sure word that he spoke to us. It’s hard, but this is a test of our faith which will produce gold if we follow through.
My prayer for you is that there will be an increase in your ability to hear the Lord’s voice. I pray you will find that quiet “cave” to hear His still small voice. I pray that you will learn to differentiate the voice of the Lord from the other random thoughts you have. I pray that you will sincerely desire to do the Lord’s will so that you can receive His desires in your heart. Finally, I pray that you will continue to be obedient to the last thing He has spoken to you. He will give us instruction for our next move when we have obeyed His last instruction.
The Lord bless you!
Jim