....And behold, the Lord passed by, and a great and strong wind
rent the mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord
was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in
the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the
fire; and after the fire a still small voice. And when Elijah heard it, he
wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the
cave. I Kings 19:11-13
It was probably the most discouraged and troubled hour of
Elijah's life. But Elijah nevertheless was able to distinguish between hearing
noise and hearing the voice of God. God was not in the wind. God was not in the
earthquake. God was not in the fire. But when Elijah's heart began to hear the
voice of a gentle stillness, he knew he was hearing God. The most important
gift on this earth, and it is a gift imparted to every follower of the Lamb, is
the ability to know the voice of God, to distinguish it from all other voices.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I
know them, and they follow me;
and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish, and no one shall snatch them out of my
hand." John 10:27-28
Books are coming off the press by the carload, teachings
are being given – often almost in a whisper, that claim to show you how to hear
the voice of the Lord, as if it were a skill to be developed. But the more you
read those books and the more you expose yourself to those teachings, the more
confused you will become: the more vulnerable you will be to every weird spirit
that comes drifting down the road. Because you're making a science out of a
faculty you already have. You're complicating something that must be kept
simple.
"My sheep hear my voice and I
know them, and they follow me....."
Hearing With The
Heart
How do I hear the voice of the
Shepherd? With these ears? Sometimes I hear with these ears words that I know are coming straight from the lips of the Son
of God, uttered perhaps by a friend or
a stranger. I don't need to wait for a voice of thunder to waken these ears.
They can hear, if my heart is right.
Do I hear with my mind? At times a thought comes into my mind which is
pure Christ, I know it came from him, but if I start playing games in my mind,
asking questions and waiting for answers, I will soon get strange answers.
Much deeper than my ears or my mind, I hear the voice of
the Shepherd with my heart, my will. If my heart is fixed on the
Lamb of God in thanksgiving and worship and praise for his great
kindness, for who he is, for his death on the cross, then somehow in any one of a
million ways – in whatever way he chooses – Jesus makes me to know the next
step. If my heart is fixed on Jesus, I don't have to hear a voice telling me to forgive, I
know that is his will. I don't have to hear a voice telling me to pay my bills
and make certain wrongs right. Or to stop making a pig of myself at the table,
or to be thoughtful of those people I have often taken for granted.
But if there is something I don't know
which I need to know, some change I haven't understood that needs to be made,
somehow the Shepherd will make me to know. I will hear
his voice. And, it will almost never be an audible voice. Rarely will
it be one of those many voices that rise and fall in our minds. When he
speaks, the Shepherd's voice will be as different from those "mental
noises" as the voice of a gentle stillness differed from the
wind, earthquake and fire.
The Idolatry Of The Means
The means
by which the Shepherd speaks will continuously change, remaining a mystery, so
that we can never develop a system of hearing the Lord like dialing
the weather or conducting a séance.
So many believers start out following the Lord with great
joy. Wisdom from heaven visits their minds; they understand the
things of 'God; they minister; they help others to find the Lord.
Then comes a testing time, a dry period, when they seem to experience
confusion. They long for that clear-cut relationship they had before. A voice
is heard which claims to be the voice of the Lord. It promises blessing, asks some innocent act of obedience to
itself. As they respond to this voice things seem to "click".
The voice demands another act of obedience. Again the
response seems to bring blessing. Then imperceptibly the demands this voice
makes start becoming strange. The voice divides and becomes two. Then five. Now
the believer is on a fast for some grandiose cause. Or locked in a room
refusing to see people, or in the jungle trying to figure out what to do next,
or flying to Jerusalem to be one of the two witnesses of Revelation, or simply
part of some "prayer group" that operates more like a séance than the
kingdom.
"How can such things happen?"
we ask. "How can it be that people can start out in all sincerity,
following Jesus, listening to his voice, practicing his mercy, and end up so
far in left field? Doesn't the living God promise to instruct us and teach us
in the way that we should go? Doesn't he promise to guide us with his eye?
Doesn't Jesus assure us that if we ask our Father for bread
we won't get a stone?"
How can it be that people who start out presumably hearing
the voice of the Shepherd end up hearing a cacophony of voices that literally
drives them out of their minds? The same Jesus who promises to make his voice known
to his sheep warns us to beware of false prophets who come to us
in sheep's clothing, who claim to be fellow sheep following the same Shepherd
listening to the Shepherd's voice, but inwardly they are ravenous wolves who
devour and destroy. Jesus makes us responsible for knowing the difference
between a false prophet and a true one. And the same Spirit who spoke through
the Son of God and who has guided and directed the church down through twenty
centuries also counsels us to test the spirits that speak to us, through men or
in our heads or through the air itself. He makes us responsible for
knowing the difference between the Spirit of God and spirits that purport to be
of God but are from the Pit. And what do
these false prophets and lying spirits do? Time and again they lead us into the trap
where we are more taken up with hearing a voice than we are with doing the will
of the Lord that we already know.
So instead of doing the will of God, which is mercy,
instead of going forth and proclaiming the word which
is Jesus crucified and risen, we sit around waiting for some spiritual
voice to tell us what shirt to put on.
People are being taught, "Don't
get out of bed unless the Lord tells you to get up." "Don't shop at
The Superstore unless the Lord shows you to." "Don't do
anything until the Lord tells you." The Lord has already called them to
rise up and follow
him in the doing of the good and merciful will of God, to think with sanctified
brains, to labor with sanctified hands, to speak words that reflect his grace. But instead, these troubled
souls sit around waiting for some hollow voice to say, "Now, my child, get
up." "Not The Superstore, my child, Farmer Jack's." And before
long a voice indeed is heard that will even tell you what socks to
put on. But is it the voice of God?
Beloved, do no
believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are of God; for
many false prophets have gone out into the world. By this
you know the Spirit of God: every spirit which confesses that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh is of God...... I John 4:1-2
The Word Was Made Flesh
What does it mean that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh? It means that Jesus came into this real
world of flesh and blood, won the victory in this realm of flesh and blood, and
so he never leads you into a realm of sheer spirit – not in this life. When you
start hearing spiritual voices that offer to lift you into spiritual heights –
1ook out!
Jesus didn't call us to listen for
voices. He has already made us to hear his voice, called us to follow him in the doing of
the Father's gracious will. He has already told us exactly what God's will is:
"....go and
learn what this means, 'I desire mercy and not sacrifice'...." Matthew
9:13
Mercy.......
Goodness......Forgiveness....... God's peace. And if we should have problems
translating his mercy into day-by-day living, Jesus will help us. Through the
Spirit he will make his specific will known in the voice
of a gentle stillness as we faithfully do what lies in front of us. "0h,
but I don't know what Jesus wants me to do today!" What do you mean you
don't know what Jesus wants you to do today? You know that Jesus wants you to
love God with all your soul, strength and mind. You know that Jesus wants you
to pray and not to faint, to trust the heavenly Father. You know he wants you
to forgive, to love your neighbor, to give to him who is in need, to humble
yourself, to do good to those who give you a hard time, to proclaim the
kingdom.
To hear the Shepherd's voice is not to
hear voices but to acknowledge that the words of God which have already come to
us, through Jesus' gracious lips, are true, by believing them, by doing them.
"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them,
and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish,
and no one shall snatch them out of my hand." John 10:27-28
If your heart is drawn to the Jesus of the gospels, you will hear his
voice and you will be known by him and you will follow him, and he will give to you eternal life and no one will snatch you out of his hand.