Hearing the Voice of God
God speaks to us. We hear God’s voice through scripture. His word is inerrant and infallible. It is trustworthy. If you want to ‘hear’ the voice of God, read the word of God. He also speaks to us through our thoughts, conversations with others, through circumstances, in our times of prayer, and through visions. Occasionally we will hear the audible voice of God.
Scripture is clear – God speaks to His people. Here are some verses about God’s voice:
“And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die” (Genesis 2: 16, 17 NIV).
“Then the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it” (Genesis 4: 6, 7 NIV).
“And after the fire came a gentle whisper. 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?” (1 Kings 19: 12, 13 NIV).
“The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him (metaphorically: Jesus), and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out” (John 10: 3 NIV).
“One night the Lord (Jesus) spoke to Paul in a vision: ‘Do not be afraid; keep on speaking, do not be silent. For I am with you, and no one is going to attack and harm you, because I have many people in this city’. So Paul stayed for a year and a half, teaching them the word of God” (Acts 18: 9, 10 NIV).
“If anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in and eat with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3: 20 NIV).
Finally, there is this passage from Ezekiel. I like the imagery.
“Then the glory of the Lord rose from above the cherubim and moved to the threshold of the temple. The cloud filled the temple, and the court was full of the radiance of the glory of the Lord. The sounds of the wings of the cherubim could be heard as far away as the outer court, like the voice of God Almighty when He speaks” (Ezekiel 10: 4, 5 NIV).
These are just a few of the many passages from scripture in which God speaks to His people. Adam heard the voice of God in the garden. Cain heard God’s voice calling him to master sin. Elijah heard the voice of God like a gentle whisper, not in the earthquake, wind, or fire. “What are you doing here?” is God’s reminder to Elijah that God has work for him to do – “Get going, Elijah!” Jesus tells us that He speaks to His sheep – those who follow Him. Paul heard from Jesus often. In Revelation Jesus speaks to the believers in the church in Laodicea. In the passage from Ezekiel, the Lord appears as a radiant cloud, His voice sounds like the rush of angels wings (“surely the presence of the Lord is in this place”).
God has always spoken to His people, and continues to speak to them today. God speaks to encourage, direct, comfort, and bless. God’s voice calls and sends.
In this post I share three examples of how God’s voice broke into my life, to give some examples what God’s voice sounds like to me, and to encourage all of us to listen for God’s voice, which often is just a gentle whisper.
It is easy to miss His whisper if we surround ourselves with ‘noise’ and busyness. How often do we miss the voice of the Holy Spirit when we are rushing around during the day?
It is easy to think that the ‘whisper’ is just our imagination or our own ‘inner voice’ if we do not spend time with Jesus. How can you recognize your friend’s voice unless you spend time talking and listening to him? The best way to do that is to spend time with the Holy Spirit in prayer. Lots of prayer.
When the Holy Spirit gives us instructions – “Pray for that person,” “prophesy over them,” and “go there and do this” – and you obey, blessings can be released for them and for you. And God is glorified as both of you recognize His hand in what you spoke and they received. After you pray or prophesy over someone it is not uncommon for them to say, “How did you know?”
Recently, God’s voice broke into my normal, mundane, everyday activities three times over the span of about 2 weeks. In the first example, God called me to ask a stranger for healing prayer. In the second example, God called me to prophesy over someone else. In the third example, God used a stranger to speak words of comfort and affirmation to me. Here are three simple stories of how God spoke to me and through me. These three ‘events’ occurred between January 9 and January 25, 2018.
I have a cardiac condition called atrial fibrillation. It is generally not dangerous for me, but when I am in afib I feel, as my cardiologist said, like a ‘wet noodle’. On January 9 I had been in afib all day when my daughter called and asked me to pick up my grandchildren at their elementary school. I said, “Yes, I’ll get them,” because sometimes when I get up and move around I feel better.
I drove to the school, praying all the way. “Lord, I rebuke this condition. I command my heart to be healed and for the rhythm to be restored” – prayers like that. When I got to the school, still in afib, I parked the car at the bottom of the hill (where I normally park) and walked up the hill. Whoa, that was a hard walk. When I reached the top, I got in line on the sidewalk, out of breath, to wait for the children to be released.
Here is how it works. Parents line up on the sidewalk (or park in their cars on the horseshoe-shaped drive). At 3:00 PM a teacher with a microphone comes out and walks down the line of parents, calling out the name of their child. The child comes out of the school, and then the child (or children – I have 4 to pick up) walk back to their car with their parent (or grandparent). Except each parent has a piece of pink paper roughly 8 inches by 3 inches with their child’s name on it. If you don’t have the paper, the teacher will not call out your child’s name.
And guess what? I left the 4 papers in my car! I realized this almost as soon as I got in line. No way was I going to walk down the hill and back up. I was still in afib. So, before the teacher came out with the microphone, I turned to the man in line behind me, who I knew was a regular, and asked him, “What can I do?” He told me, “No problem, just go to the office. They will release your kids from there.” “Oh, thanks,” I said.
He seemed like a nice guy. He was an African American who looked about my age. In fact, I sensed he was a Christian. I asked him about his student and he told me the class she was in. And then I heard the Lord tell me, “Ask him if he is retired.” So, I did. He chuckled and said, “No, I can’t retire. I am a pastor.” “A pastor,” I repeated. “What church?” He told me. It was not too far from the school.
I repeated again, “A pastor?” “Yes,” he said. And then I asked him, prompted by the voice of the Holy Spirit, “Would you pray for my heart?” “Sure”, he said. He asked me what was wrong and I told him. He shared a story of praying for someone he knew who had heart failure and how his prayers were effective.
He placed his hand over my heart and I placed my hand on top of his. In line at the elementary school he prayed for the rhythm of my heart to become normal and for my heart to be healed. I don’t remember much of what he prayed, but I do remember he quoted a lot of scripture. The people in line and in the cars watched the two of us wondering, “What is going on?”
And then, just like that, ‘pow’, my heart went back into a normal rhythm. At that moment the teacher with the microphone reached me. When she saw I didn’t have the pink papers she sent me to the Principle’s office – bad boy!
I didn’t have an opportunity to thank the Pastor. By the time I got out of the office he was gone. But I went back the next day to tell him about the effectiveness of his prayer.
There were two outcomes from what I believe was a Spirit-led and Spirit-filled encounter. First, I found out later he shared his testimony with his church about what happened at the elementary school and how I was healed (at least temporarily). Second, he and I had lunch last week and are beginning a dialogue that I believe will grow into a connection between our two churches.
That occurred on a Tuesday. On Thursday I joined my daughter and several others at our church to pray over the preschool program there. I was late so when I caught up with them they were in the director’s office praying for her. I was the last to pray. I did, and then I felt the Holy Spirit give me some words to speak over her. I told her, “The Lord is about to give you a new mantle, just like the one He gave to Elisha.” She was surprised and nodded her head. “That is confirmation for what I have been praying about,” she said. “And how did you know about Elisha? I have been studying him for the last few days.”
I didn’t know. The voice of the Lord put these words in my mouth and I spoke them. Several days later the director told the school board that after 20 years she was going to retire. She had been thinking and praying about a new direction in life and my prayer confirmed for her that she needed to make the move.
My words, inspired by the voice of the Holy Spirit, helped her make the decision. I had no knowledge of what she was wrestling with.
A few Thursdays later I was having lunch with my pastor. We talked about several situations in our lives. At some point I shared with him the condition with my atrial fibrillation and possible treatment options, including powerful blood thinners (which I really did not want to take) and a procedure called catheter ablation. The latter is relatively low risk, but not no risk.
We were seated across from each other next to the window in the restaurant. There was another table behind my pastor with only one patron seated at it. As I began to describe catheter ablation, the man at the other table, who was facing me, leaned over and said, “Excuse me, are you talking about afib catheter ablation?” I said, “Yes.” Then, with no prompting from me, he told us about his experience with afib, blood thinners and his ablation. It turns out his condition was identical to mine, he went to the same cardiology practice I was going to see, and he also was on blood thinners.
His words were very encouraging. The procedure worked well, he has been afib free for 2 years now. The blood thinners have no side effects. The cardiologists at that practice are all very good. And he is getting off all medication in a month or so. All good news. God used him to tell me, “Do not fear. I am with you,” and, I felt, God assured me that if I wanted medicine to heal me He would not be offended or interpret that decision as a lack of my faith in Him.
These three ‘occurrences’, in which God spoke directly to me or through another person, are not unusual for followers of Jesus. But last week Joy Behar, the host of a news/talk show on a major American television network mocked the Vice President of the United States while she was on the air. She claimed that the Vice President was mentally ill because he publicly acknowledged that he talks to Jesus and Jesus talks to him.
She said, “It is one thing when you talk to Jesus. It is another thing when Jesus talks to you . . . that’s called mental illness.”
Vice President Mike Pence is a strong man of God who is committed to following Jesus. Of course Jesus will speak to him.
Ms. Behar’s mocking criticism reminded me of the first verse in Psalm 1:
“Blessed is the man who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked or stand in the way of sinners or sit in the seat of mockers” (Psalm 1: 1 NIV).
Christians, especially in Europe and America, are being increasingly attacked for their beliefs. Society in the west is becoming so far removed from the influence of the Holy Spirit and the word of God that it can confidently label Christians who hear from God “mentally ill”. But change is coming. I believe God is raising up a remnant, whose role will be to pray down revival over all the nations.
That revival will begin with us when we remember these words:
“Who may ascend the hill of the Lord? Who may stand in His holy place? He who has clean hands and a pure heart, who does not lift up his soul to an idol or swear by what is false” (Psalm 24: 3, 4); and we cry out to Jesus, “Lord, do I have clean hands and a pure heart?” We need to repent! Revival begins with us.
To have clean hands and a pure heart means, among other things, praying for those who mock and criticize us for our commitment to Jesus. We are Kingdom people; we are called to have unoffendable hearts!
The last three verses of Psalm 24 are a wonderful picture of what revival will look like when it comes:
“Lift up your heads, O you gates; be lifted up you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is this King of glory? The Lord strong and mighty, the Lord mighty in battle. Lift up your heads, O you gates; lift them up, you ancient doors, that the King of glory may come in. Who is He, this King of glory? The Lord Almighty – He is the King of glory” (Psalm 24: 7 – 10 NIV).
I began this post with scripture about hearing the voice of God – the Voice of the Lord mighty in battle, the Voice of the King of Glory. He speaks to us and He uses you and me to speak words of encouragement, grace, confirmation, and direction to people around us. He is moving and working in our lives. Sometimes He is in the background, where we can’t hear or see Him. Sometimes He is right up front, talking to and directing us. But He is always present and always powerful. We ask, “Who is this King of Glory?” and the voice of the Lord shouting back to us, “The Lord strong and mighty” gains Him entrance into our hearts. We must listen for the voice of God. He is calling us to let Him ‘in’ so that through us His voice can be released into the world.
God still speaks and listens to His people. It is our responsibility to stay connected to Jesus, to leave room for Him in our lives, listen to Him, and to put into practice what He commands us to do.
The voice of Jesus does not just call us to action. He also calls us to rest, to a place of hope, peace, and joy. He calls us to Himself, where we are known by Him as “His beloved”. But too often we hear another voice, a counterfeit voice saying, “Yes, but you are not good enough.” Here is a quote from ‘Bread and Wine’ by Shauna Neiquest:
“When things are too crazy, the only voices I hear are the voices of fear and shame. I stop being able to hear the voice of God, the voice of rest, the voice of hope and healing and restoration, the voice that gives new life to dry old bones. And instead I hear that old song I’ve heard all my life: You’re not good enough. You’re not good enough” (pgs. 169, 170).
Beloved, rest in Him today and listen for His voice. He is speaking exactly the words you need to hear — words of truth, words of power, words of grace, and words of love and restoration.
Worship Him today. He alone is worthy!