Hearing God's Voice

There are two people searching for God’s voice: those who have never heard it, and those who have forgotten the sound of it.

The most terrifying thing about speaking to God is He might answer. The second most terrifying is He might not. I have known numerous people to use one or both of these as an excuse to not seek Him out.

There are so many times in a Christian’s life when we wonder about the voice of God. How are we supposed to hear it? Why, if we have the same Holy Spirit as the prophets, do we not hear the thunderous voice from the sky and clouds? Is He even there? Were they literally just hearing thunder in clouds back in the Bible and everyone was high from fasting? Is it a lack of faith on our parts that inhibits us from hearing the voice of God?

In my own life, finding Him came from desperate desire to prove Him wrong. After a year of research, trying to disprove the Bible and God, I finally came to a place where I didn’t care if He answered or not. I just had to let down my carefully constructed defenses and let come what may.

I speak to God on the daily, and, yes, He speaks to me too. God loves to have conversations. Everything from the beginning of creation to the day we are reunited with Him has been put together so that we can have community with Him. So, either I am crazy, or those who think I am crazy are missing out on something I can only describe as incredible.

It’s ok to feel lost and alone. It does not make you weak. It does not make your faith weak. It does not mean that you are abandoned.

In 1 Kings 18, Elijah calls fire down from heaven in front of hundreds of people. In the very next chapter, while fleeing for his life, he falls into such a deep depression that he won’t get up and wants to die.

The first step of discovering God’s voice is seeking Him. The second is waiting for His response.

“The LORD said, ‘Go out and stand on the mountain in the presence of the LORD, for the LORD is about to pass by.’
Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the LORD, but the LORD was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the LORD was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the LORD was not in the fire. 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.” (1 Kin. 19:11-13)

Elijah knew how to discern the presence of God. Most of us would assume that some sort of tornado, or an earthquake, or a fire would definitely be God speaking to us, but God spoke to Elijah in a gentle whisper.

"The reign of God cannot rain on you while you are on the throne." -Ernest Gentile

Seeking God takes humility. It requires admitting that we do not have everything together and we are desperate for something more. Humbling ourselves is hard.

Waiting for God’s voice is also difficult. It means surrendering control.

“He says, ‘Be still, and know that I am God;’” (Psalm 46:10a)

“Be still,” in this verse comes from the Hebrew “rapha,” which means to be weak, to let go, or to release.

Just as God can only meet with a humbled heart, He can only speak to a surrendered heart. I believe this is the reason it seems so often that God is trying to break us.

So what are we supposed to take from that? It seems like God wants us to be these broken, crawling things in a constant state of groveling and austerity. That would totally suck. But, thank God, that’s not at all what He’s going for. Paul understood this well and, I think, painted a very helpful picture for us.

“But he said to me, ‘My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.’ Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ’s power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ’s sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong.” (2 Cor. 12:9-10)

It’s not that we need to be sadists. Let’s get real: God wants us to have perfect joy (John 15:11). The point of all of this is that it’s not on us: it’s on Him. If we are in full surrender, then He can take full control, and then we can be fully happy.

God’s will for us has already been spoken. If we can become familiar with the character and will of God in Scripture, we will easily recognize Him at work in our own lives. Obedience to His commands leads to understanding his voice.

If you want to know God’s voice, read His word.

If only you had paid attention to my commands, your peace would have been like a river, your well-being like the waves of the sea. (Isaiah 48:18)

There is an idea Buddhism called Nirvana, which literally means to “turn out the light.” It revolves around a complete dissociation from “reality.” Like all Dharmic religions, Buddhism has the belief that everything on this world is merely an illusion and the true enlightenment, Nirvana in Buddhism, will allow us to join with "the unity" and even leave the illusion of self behind.

There is a similar idea when it comes to God, in the sense that all life, all love, and all truth comes from him.

“In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind.” (John 1:4)

The huge difference is that we, through our submission to God, turn the light on, not off.

We’ll hear God’s voice when we surrender completely into Him. We’ll hear it in the laughter, in a tear, in the quite moments. We’ll know his gentle whisper even after the winds and earthquakes and fires, and we may even hear it loud as thunder if we dare enter the cloud of his presence. For now, though, we surrender everything to him. We let go, we collapse, we fall…we truly fall in love: we fall into Him.

And here is the simplest and most difficult instruction that I will ever give: let go, be weak, and give up. You are lost. Let God take over.

Discussion points:

What is going on in your life that God seems to be silent about? Have you searched the Scriptures for insight into your situation?

Sometimes God can be screaming at us and we don’t recognize it because we are unfamiliar with His voice. Begin living out your life in obedience to what you already know He’s said, and see if you don’t start noticing how He’s been speaking into your life this whole time.

Humility is hard. Surrender is hard. Peace is easy. How can we help each other with the hard parts?