What Does the Voice of God Sound Like? You would think that as ministers, we more than most would know how to hear God speak, but the dirty little secret is that in many cases, we are nearly as clueless as people in our congregations. Listening to God and hearing his voice takes experience, practice, and understanding. My hope today is to assist you perhaps a little, to both recognize and respond to the voice of God in your own life. It is important to say up front that I am not an expert in either listening to God or hearing Him speak. I can tell you from experience that no one is. God is not one to get exclusive with anyone, no matter who they are or how big their church is. Pastors of mega-churches can be just as dull of hearing as pastors of small churches and the reverse is true, but rather than get all philosophical about it, let s get into this today. Naturally, some basics are in order. The primary way that God speaks to us is through his word, the Bible. These are the words he has already spoken and it is important and vital that we stay personally devoted to scripture each day no matter how experienced we are as a minister. One danger for us who climb into a pulpit each week is that we can get used to faking it. We can use all the right phrases and throw in some scripture without many realizing we have not done the labor necessary to preach. Ignoring scripture on a personal level will kill your ministry in short order. Preaching old sermons and relying on past experiences only goes so far. We all need a fresh word from God and that comes through continually soaking ourselves in scripture. Jesus told his disciples in John 14:26 that the Holy Spirit would bring his words to our remembrance. This is the first key to discerning God s voice and listening to him speak.
It is common for God to speak to your present circumstance or situation by quoting his own word back to your conscience or thought process. How often I will pray for something and a scripture will bubble up to the top of my thinking that perfectly answers what I am praying about. So, this first key to hearing God speak is to remain acquainted with his word. You would be surprised how many ministers have stopped that fresh relationship with God through his Word to their own detriment. We need The Holy Spirit in our preaching. He is recognizable when present or absent. The best way to ensure his presence is to keep current with the word. As most of you know, God doesn t speak to our physical ears unless by a miracle. I do submit to you that there is ample scriptural evidence that He does speak and speak often to us in our day and age. A careful examination of scripture indicates that his voice is multi-faceted and he communicates with us through a variety of different means. Romans 1:20 informs us that he speaks to his creation through nature. He certainly doesn t mean that trees and animals start talking, yet God can communicate with us through nature and inanimate objects because well, He is God. Since he created everything, His DNA is in everything and therefore an instrument to communicate Once again, I am getting a little too philosophical, so let me get more specific. In I Kings 19, Elijah the prophet is fleeing from Queen Jezebel. BTW, that is never a good strategy. Jezebels always must be confronted, but that is for another time. In any case, in his journey, you all know the story. He goes into a cave and God reveals himself. The scripture says: Go out and stand before me on the mountain, the Lord told him. And as Elijah stood there, the Lord passed by, and a mighty windstorm hit the mountain. It was such a terrible blast that the rocks were torn loose, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind, there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. And after the earthquake, there was a fire, but the
Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire, there was the sound of a gentle whisper. Let s park here for a moment because there is a lot of insight to discover about listening and hearing God speak. Elijah is the most powerfully tuned in servant of God in the world at this time. No one hears God and obeys God better than he. Scripture pulls back the curtain and allows us to see him at a difficult time of weakness. He is running for his life from Jezebel and complaining to God that no one else serves Him or cares about the things of God. In other words, he is having a pity party. Now I know very few of you can relate to that, but let s move on. God speaks to Elijah and tells him to come to the cave entrance. The Bible tells us that the Lord himself passed by. We don t fully understand the magnitude of that statement, but in any case, nature responds violently when God passes by. First, a mighty windstorm blows so hard against the mountain that rocks are torn loose, but here is the commentary: The Lord was not in the wind. What does that mean, the Lord was not in the wind? God passes by and a massive hurricane happens, yet scripture says, God was not in the wind. Very curious. Next, a massive earthquake. The earth shook, but once again, the Lord was not in the earthquake. Next, a fire breaks out that is significant. We are not given the details about how large the fire was, but once again, we are told, the Lord was not in the fire. Finally, the sound of a gentle whisper. The King James says, a still, small voice. Then God communicates his will, purpose, and destiny to Elijah. It would take weeks to fully unpack all this and of course, we only have a few minutes, so allow me to share a principle here. God does spectacular things all around us but often communicates very gently to us for when he speaks. Far too many leaders are looking for lots of noise and hoopla as evidence of God s presence, but truthfully, the most significant things you will receive from God come through a gentle whisper. Examine your own experience and see if that isn t so.
As leaders, we need to find and then hear that still small voice. We need to recognize it when we hear it, but sometimes the noise of our activities drowns it out. God speaks and when I say speaks, I am no longer talking philosophically. He speaks to us in prayer. He speaks to us at odd times and through different means. So a second key way he speaks to us is through worship. Psalms 22:3 informs us that God inhabits or lives inside the praises of his people. When we genuinely worship God in song or prayer, we enter God s residence where he communes with us. As a young pastor, my wife Patti and I had two little girls. We were a happy family and were not planning on having more children. My associate pastor and I attended a men s seminar in New York City. While there, men were invited to come to the altar area and lift their hands to worship God. So, I lifted my hands and instantly, a unique thought dropped into my consciousness. The impression, which I now recognize was the still small voice of God, said, you will have two sons. First off all, children and family were not in my mind at the time. I was dialed into the teaching that was taking place at the seminar. This statement was straight out of left field. God did not just say, I am going to give you a son, but two sons. A long story short, but my wife gave birth to two sons in a row; btw, neither were immaculately conceived, so keep your heresy torches at bay. I now recognize that as an incident of God speaking to me. Many of us can testify to an experience when thoughts seemingly out of nowhere dropped into our consciousness and fit like the opening of a combination lock. It is not my intention to suggest that experience trumps scripture; quite the contrary. Any word from God must stand up to the scrutiny of biblical testing. However, God gets to be God in who, how and where he speaks into our present situation and circumstances.
Well, how do we position ourselves to find and hear that still, small voice? I like what it says in the Old Testament about Daniel. Every day, he opened his windows and prayed towards Jerusalem. That gives us a picture to imitate. Open the window of your heart and turn your attention towards Jesus. Ask him to lead you and guide you and speak to you. He certainly is not likely to speak to an ear that is blocked up with human reasoning, unbelief or sin. I have watched leaders go through all kinds of spiritual calisthenics to hear that voice. All night prayer meetings. City wide prayer meetings. Fasting meetings etc. All have their place under God but do not necessarily by their practice produce results. Sometimes the only thing all night prayer meetings produce is tiredness. The gentle whisper of God comes to us in many ways that match our own personalities and lifestyle. To be honest, I get an incredible amount of inspiration doing normal things like taking a shower, listening and singing along to worship music on my iphone in my car, taking a walk somewhere or even waking up from a nap. When your heart is seeking God; when you genuinely want to hear God, not to show off to other people, but to be more in tune with his will for your life, God will start speaking. My own late mother was facing a crisis in her life and started praying. A colorful bird showed up at her window the next morning. She began to weep, instantly recognizing God heard her prayer. That would not have the same effect probably on anyone else, but God knew my mom and communicated himself to her through a bird. No voice was heard, yet my mom heard God that day which impacted her life for eternity. I tend to recognize the voice of the Lord to me because it doesn t match my current thoughts, feelings or activity. The word of the Lord also brings a sense of peace. I know that some will struggle theologically with the idea of hearing from God apart from reading scripture alone, but if you read scripture, you will have to admit how many avenues God used with Bible personalities to communicate
himself to them and how much of the Bible s teaching is centered on hearing God in the now. Paul said in I Corinthians 13:9 that we prophesy in part. No time to get into all that particulars of that verse, but in essence, not one of us has the whole picture regarding God or his communications to us. God would not entrust his entire counsel and will to any one man because as John pointed out, he knows what is in man. None of us could handle hearing all that he has to say all the time. God in his grace feeds us his voice in portions and give several people parts of the tapestry that communicates his full counsel. Well, there I go getting philosophical again, but it is nonetheless true. We need each other as a body because God imparts his voice through different means via gifts to many members. That is really the essence of I Corinthians chapters 12-14. The third and final key I want to share with you, and perhaps the most controversial is to open your receptors to hear God around you. He can use just about anything to speak to us if our spiritual receptors are open. Hebrews 5 tells us that the spiritually mature have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil. You know, I cannot watch Disney s The Lion King without tearing up and feeling the presence of God when Simba talks to his dead father. Yes, I realize that the Lion King is completely out of sync with Christian beliefs, so save your emails. Nevertheless, God has used that film to impact me on a destiny level. My point is that God speaks and communicates to us in unconventional ways. Does that mean I watch every Disney movie I can to hear him speak? Of course not. It is not the movie per se, but God using things in our environment to speak with us when we least expect it. A mentor of mine walked into a room years ago and pulled the string to turn on the ceiling light. Unexpectedly, He sensed the presence of God. How do you put that in words? You can t. He stood there for several moments, pulling the string and turning the light on and off. God began bringing scriptures to mind and out of
that common experience, he preached an incredible message that changed many lives. God speaks in unique ways. One often used words you find at the end of many of the Psalms is the word, Selah. Scholars are mixed at the exact meaning of the word, but in essence, after communicating something significant about God, the writer would conclude by saying Selah or ponder and meditate on what was just said. When God speaks to you through his word or in some other way that is line with scripture, we need to selah. Take time to mediate on what God is saying and how we can position ourselves to serve him. Well, we re out of time again, but I hope that this small offering has helped you get a little closer to hearing and responding to the voice of the Lord in your own life. By no means, are these the only ways God speaks, but are just meant to encourage you. We mentioned three keys to hearing God today and I put that in a free download you can receive that here. Thanks again for listening. As always, we end with a quote. This one is from Rick Warren who said this: We often miss hearing God s voice, because we aren t paying attention.