Are You Willing to Hear the Voice of the Lord?

One of the great areas of interest for many followers of Jesus is ‘hearing God.’ In his book When You’re All Out of Noodles, Ken Jones writes about a lesson he learned one day at the office on this subject.

Ken writes, ‘when I walked into my office, I noticed something I had never seen before. It was round, about the size of a dessert plate, and plugged into the wall, giving out constant noise. It wasn’t a loud noise, just constant. What in the world is that thing? I thought as I stopped to stare. I finally asked the receptionist about it. She said, “It’s an ambient noise generator. If it’s too quiet in here, we can distinguish the voices in the counseling offices, and we want to protect their privacy. So we bought the noise generator to cover the voices.” Her explanation made perfect sense to me but didn’t it have to be louder to mask the conversations, I asked. “No,” she said. “The constancy of the sound tricks the ear so that what is being said can’t be distinguished.” Interesting, I thought. Very interesting. One kind of noise to cover the sound of another. It made me think and pray. No wonder, Lord. No wonder I strain to hear what you have to say to me.… The constancy of sound—little noises, soft, inward, ambient thoughts, and fears and attitudes—tricks the ears of my inner man and masks your still, small voice. God isn’t silent. We just have trouble hearing him.¹ In the ministry of Jesus, there came a day when this trouble in hearing God came to the forefront. We can learn some things about the subject of hearing God, and that’s our focus on this week’s Light on Life.

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#S2-001: Secrets to Hearing God: Are You Listening? [Podcast]

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Each week’s podcast contains a call to action. The Word of God will not produce in your life unless you put it into operation.
This weeks call is:

Romans 8:14-16 tells us that children can expect to hear Him. Are you willing to hear God’s voice? — that is, are you open to His direction?

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Each week’s podcast also contains a question designed to encourage testimony. Testimony is vital to a believer’s life. We overcome by it (Rev. 12:11).
This week’s question is:

Question: What is your answer to the questions above? Please leave your response in the comments section below.

Episode Resources

You can find additional information on the subject of John’s Gospel in the resources listed below.

About Emery

Emery committed his life to the Lord Jesus Christ over 40 years ago and has served as both a full-time pastor and an itinerant minister. Both he and his wife Sharon of 37 years emphasize personal growth and development through the Word of God. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is both the focus and the hallmark of their mission. Read more about them here.

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Podcast Notes

Hearing the Voice of the Lord During Jesus Ministry

John 12:27–32 (ESV) — 27 “Now is my soul troubled. And what shall I say? ‘Father, save me from this hour’? But for this purpose I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven: “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd that stood there and heard it said that it had thundered. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now will the ruler of this world be cast out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.”

There are two groups mentioned in this passage:
- those who heard the distinct words from the Lord God of heaven.
- And those who heard it but thought that what they heard was thunder.
The first group got the message.
Second group? Well, they thought they received a weather report.
The question today is this if you were there that day, would you have gotten the message the Father God was trying to communicate?
Now, I don’t mean this to sound like those who heard was more spiritual than those who didn’t.
You’ll see that point as we progress through this podcast.
So, let’s take a closer look at the two groups in this account.

Those Who Heard the Voice of the Lord

We know proof positive that at least one person heard with understanding the voice from heaven — that was the Lord Jesus Christ.
He heard the Father clearly.
The scripture doesn’t go any further than that — that is, it doesn’t declare that anyone besides Jesus heard the voice with understanding.
Yet, you could make that assumption.
Why? — because we have a scriptural record of what the Father said: ‘I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.’
We have these words.
Jesus didn’t write the Gospel of John — John did.
So then, how did we get that record?
Either Jesus told someone what He heard His Father say or, someone else, maybe a disciple, maybe John might have recorded what they heard.
It’s one of the two.
Now, since the scripture doesn’t relate to which option it was, we can only guess.
So, we won’t do that.
We will rather leave that up to each of you individually to decide on your own.

Those Who Didn’t Hear the Voice of the Lord

Now, there is a second group in this Jesus account in John twelve.
There is a group who couldn’t make out what the Heavenly Father said.
This group heard the sound but couldn’t distinguish the words.
The communication was all jumbled to them.
Jumbled? Yes, to the point of thunder — jumbled to the point that the startling sound must be angelic.
Why did one group hear the message while the other didn’t?

General Facts about Hearing God

I know that this area of hearing God was one of the great areas of interest for me when I first came to Jesus over forty years ago.
In the church I attended, people were always telling God stories of how the Lord spoke to them.
I wanted the Lord to speak to me, but I didn’t hear anything.
Finally, after about six months of ‘heavenly silence,’ I threw up my hands in disgust and blurted out to the Lord, ‘This is not fair – you are speaking to all of these other people, but you are not speaking to me.’
Immediately the Lord responded, and I heard Him for the first time.
Here is what He said — ‘it’s because you haven’t learned how to listen.’
God speaks in many different ways.
That’s the record of scripture.

Hebrews 1:1–2 (NKJV) — 1 God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, 2 has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds;

Did you hear that? — many times — in many ways.
I was unfamiliar with all of His ways.
So, the question is not is God speaking, rather are we listening or even more do we know how to hear.

The Nearness of God

One thing we do know for certain and for sure from this account in John’s gospel is that the response of the Father God to Jesus’ request to glorify His Name was immediate.
There are lessons we can learn from the swiftness of this answer.
Obviously, the Lord God was listening to every word of Jesus, and guess what? — He is doing the same with your every word.
That’s right; God will hear you just as quick as He will hear Jesus.
And why is that?
Because you are offering up prayer in His Name — that is in Jesus’ Name.
The Name of Jesus takes Jesus’ place on the earth.
When you pray something like Jesus prayed here – ‘Father God, glorify your name.’
God will respond with the same immediacy as He did to Jesus.
Now, some people think that the Lord hearing your every word is bad news.
But, it isn’t — it’s good news.
The Father’s immediate response to Jesus means that He does respond that way to you.
And, why wouldn’t He respond that way?
You see, the Father God Himself loves you.

John 16:27 (ESV) — 27 for the Father himself loves you, because you have loved me and have believed that I came from God.

There was a time when I needed an answer from the Lord.
I didn’t care if it took all night long to get it either.
Kneeling with that single-minded purpose, I went at it — determined to stay at it all night long, if that’s what it took.
Five minutes after I started, five minutes — that was it — the Lord gave me the answer I needed.
Can I tell you, I was kind of disappointed that the answer came so fast.
I mean, I was set on hearing the voice of God.
Through that immediate response, the Lord showed me, number one, that He loved me.
He also let me know, I believe, that it’s not about all the effort that I was going to put into prayer that night.
That’ not why the answer came so fast — it came because of His exceeding Grace and His love for me.
God hears you when you pray.
Every one of you — don’t doubt for a minute.
It’s a Bible fact.
Here is another passage in Daniel that proves it.

Daniel 10:10–12 (ESV) — 10 And behold, a hand touched me and set me trembling on my hands and knees. 11 And he said to me, “O Daniel, man greatly loved, understand the words that I speak to you, and stand upright, for now I have been sent to you.” And when he had spoken this word to me, I stood up trembling. 12 Then he said to me, “Fear not, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart to understand and humbled yourself before your God, your words have been heard, and I have come because of your words.

We could even drill down into this a bit further — that is — are you willing to hear?
Now, there are some mechanics to hearing God.
Those start with understanding spirit, soul, and body.

1 Thessalonians 5:23 (ESV) — 23 Now may the God of peace himself sanctify you completely, and may your whole spirit and soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.

If you desire to know more about how you hear, you can find some of that info in the following podcasts:
But, the question being proposed today is not about knowing how to hear — that is understanding the mechanics — but are you even willing to hear in the first place?
Now, you would just suppose that the answer to that is yes.
Why wouldn’t anyone want to hear God?
He is so good — so lovely — so majestic — so beautiful — so righteous — so pure.
I mean, He’s your heavenly Father.
There’s a family bond between you and He that is undeniable and one that He will not break.
He loves you so infinitely that He sent His only Son on your behalf.

Why You Should Want to Hear the Voice of God

Now, you understand that when I am talking about hearing the voice of God, I am not speaking of an audible voice.
I am speaking of hearing Him down in your spirit.
That’s where 99.999% of direction comes from — your heart — your spirit — your insides.
Pay attention to your insides.
Direction is available for every child of God in every situation.

Romans 8:14–16 (ESV) — 14 For all who are led by the Spirit of God are sons of God. 15 For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, “Abba! Father!” 16 The Spirit himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God,

So, child of God, are you hearing Him?
If not, why not?
Is there something holding you back?

What’s Keeping You From Hearing the Voice of the Lord?

So at this point, the question is, why wouldn’t you want to hear Him who gave His all for you?
I mean, what’s tripping you up here?
Whole volumes of teaching could occur here, covering many aspects of spiritual life.
Let’s look at just one possibility as the Apostle John records it in one of his letters.

1 John 4:16 (ESV) — 16 So we have come to know and to believe the love that God has for us. God is love, and whoever abides in love abides in God, and God abides in him.

‘We have come to know and believe the love God has to us: did you hear that?
Some have such a great sense of unworthiness until they are not sure that God will even look their way, let alone speak to them — let alone direct them.
A sense of unworthiness, you could say ‘sin-consciousness, you could say not knowing about your redemption in Christ, all of this is a great hindrance to spiritual progress.
To overcome the fight against this sense of unworthiness, personally apply 1 John 4:16 — change the ‘we’ to ‘me.’
Instead of reading this as ‘we have known and believed the love that God has to us’ – put yourself in the verse by reading it as ‘I have come to know and believe the love that God has for me.’
So, now, ask yourself the question: have you come to know and believe God’s love for you?
You see some agonize in this area of knowing and believing that God loves them.
And if you do, your hearing from Him could be clouded.
Sometimes we mentally agree to the fact of God’s great love for us.
That is, we know it as a mental fact.
‘Oh yeah, God loves me.’
Just ask anybody on the street does God love them, and you would get a majority positive answer.
But, mental assent doesn’t work in life’s battles.
Mental agreement carries no more weight in our everyday life than any other mental fact: like George Washington was the first President of the United States, or spaghetti takes 7 minutes to cook, or my wife has several cute dimples on her face – oh yeah, and by the way God loves me.
That’s not what John was saying in this epistle.
He is not saying that we are to know the love of God mentally.
The Greek word ‘know’ — we have known and believed the love God has for us — is the word ‘ginosko,’ and it is experiential knowledge.
This is knowledge gained through use or observation.
Notice another little piece of grammar in 1 John 4:16 concerning the word ‘know.’
The word is in the past tense — we have ‘known’ the love God has to us.
A past tense ‘knowing’ would imply that the knowledge we have today comes from yesterday’s experience.
We have experienced His love in the past, and we have that love as an anchor for our soul as a sure and steadfast thing.
But, there is another part to this equation — not only do we have to know His love, but we also have to believe it.
We have to believe that God loves us not just mentally but enough to speak to us in our lives.
So, that brings up a question, and with that thought, here’s the question of the day.
Why do you have to believe God’s love toward you if you’ve already experienced it?
Because life is for the long haul, it is not just one experience — it’s a whole series of events and happenings.
And, just because the Lord has moved in your life today and you’ve experienced His great compassion for you doesn’t mean that you won’t need Him tomorrow.
In fact, can I just tell you, you will always need Him.
And so, that means you always need to believe Him — you always need to call upon Him.
Your contact with God is by faith.
You will always need to believe that He will respond to you when you reach out to Him.
And with that thought, here’s the illustration of the day.

The Illustration of the Day: God’s Answering Machine

What if God Had an Answering Machine? Imagine praying and hearing this:
“Thank you for calling My Father’s House. Please select one of the following four options:

1. Press 1 for requests.

2. Press 2 for thanksgiving.

3. Press 3 for complaints.

4. For all other inquiries, press 4

What if God used the familiar excuse: “All of the angels are helping other customers right now. Please stay on the line. Your call will be answered in the order it was received.”
Can you imagine getting these kinds of responses as you call on God in prayer?

1. “If you’d like to speak with Gabriel, press 1.

2. “For Michael, press 2.

3. “For any other angel, press 3.

4. “If you want King David to sing you a psalm, press 6.

5. “To find out if your relative is here, enter his/her date of death and listen for the list that follows.”

6. “For reservations at My Father’s House, simply press the letters J-O-H-N on the keypad, followed by the number 3–1–6.”

7. “For answers to nagging questions about dinosaurs, the age of the earth, and where Noah’s ark is, wait until you get here!”

8. “Our computers show that you have called once today already. Please hang up immediately.” 9. “This office is closed for the weekend. Please call again Monday.” End of message.²

When The Voice of the Lord Comes Calling

The Lord never responds this way to you when you call on Him.
Aren’t you glad about that?
But, what about your response when it’s the other way around?
That is when the Lord calls on you to help.
You know the Lord desires your help to establish His plan — His Kingdom on planet earth.
But, when He calls, you must respond to Him.
You know so much of the time, our thoughts are on our needs — our situation.
Our mindset is ‘What can God do for me.’
What about changing that mindset to ‘What can I do for God?’
Or even better, ‘What can I do together with God?’

2 Corinthians 6:1 (ESV) — 1 Working together with him, then, we appeal to you not to receive the grace of God in vain.

And with this verse now in your hearing, here is the Definition of the Day.
The words ‘working together with’ those three words are one word in Greek.
It is the word ‘synergeo’ which means to collaborate or work together on a common enterprise or project.
We are workers together with God on His great Kingdom plan.

Mark 16:20 (ESV) — 20 And they went out and preached everywhere, while the Lord worked with them and confirmed the message by accompanying signs.

Do you see the words ‘worked with them?’
It’s the same Greek word in 1 Corinthians 6:1.
Our mindset should be that of joint builders, fellow collaborators. Can we say ‘personally vested’ in building God’s Kingdom.
In the end, of course, God’s part is the greater part.
He does the heavy lifting.
The Lord supplies the increase.

1 Corinthians 3:6–9 (ESV) — 6 I planted, Apollos watered, but God gave the growth. 7 So neither he who plants nor he who waters is anything, but only God who gives the growth. 8 He who plants and he who waters are one, and each will receive his wages according to his labor. 9 For we are God’s fellow workers. You are God’s field, God’s building.

The point of this illustration is that you will always need to call Him — ever believe Him — and forever take Him at His word.
And when you do, He will respond and, by that one avenue — and there are others — you will know and believe the love that God has for you.
But this knowledge, that God loves and wants to communicate with you will not impact your life if your understanding of His love for you is only mental.
The scripture says, you have to know and believe.

Other Scriptural Examples of Hearing the Voice of the Lord

So, you remember that those who heard God’s voice but didn’t understand it thought that what they heard was thunder.
Thunder is a descriptor of God’s voice used in many other places in scripture.

Thunder and God’s Voice

Take, for example, these passages in the book of Job.

Job 37:2 (ESV) — 2 Keep listening to the thunder of his voice and the rumbling that comes from his mouth.

Job 37:5 (ESV) — 5 God thunders wondrously with his voice; he does great things that we cannot comprehend.

Job 40:9 (ESV) — 9 Have you an arm like God, and can you thunder with a voice like his?

So you see thunder is connected to God’s audible voice.

2 Samuel 22:14 (ESV) — 14 The LORD thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice.

Psalm 18:13 (ESV) — 13 The LORD also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire.

Psalm 29:3–7 (ESV) — 3 The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD, over many waters. 4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty. 5 The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks the cedars of Lebanon. 6 He makes Lebanon to skip like a calf, and Sirion like a young wild ox. 7 The voice of the LORD flashes forth flames of fire.

So, these verses show that the Lord’s voice indeed is like thunder.
The question though we looked at today is, are you willing to hear Him, in your heart — in your spirit?
Say yes to that and then learn all you can about these areas in God.
You guys have a great God week, and we will see you next time for another edition of Light on Life.

How to Cut Through the Voices of Insecurity

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References:

Craig Brian Larson, 750 Engaging Illustrations for Preachers, Teachers & Writers (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Books, 2002), 235. ↩
Source unknown, Galaxie Software, 10,000 Sermon Illustrations (Biblical Studies Press, 2002). ↩

emeryhorvath.com

Equipping people to pursue God's glory

Are You Willing to Hear the Voice of the Lord?

Podcast: Light on Life Season Seven Episode Forty-Three

by Emery Horvath

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