I remember my first few years in my job. I felt like I was constantly calling people who knew more than I did, asking for advice. I’d call Allen Black, now dean of Harding School of Theology, with questions about texts I was preaching or teaching. I’d call Harold Shank, former preacher at Highland, with questions about a sermon series. I’d call Evertt Huffard, former dean at Harding School of Theology, with questions about how to handle leadership issues. I felt like I often didn’t know what to do and thus I’d search out someone whom I felt probably would know what to do–someone with far more experience, wisdom and perspective than me.
It seems to me that a lot of us are in a similar spot when it comes to life. Life’s always throwing us something we’re just not quite prepared for. No amount of school–academic or hard knocks–can prepare us for everything. And it’s not uncommon for us to find ourselves facing situations where we’re just not sure what to do. Do we take the treatment the doctor’s recommending or get a second opinion? Do we quit that job that’s stressing us out or just keep pressing on? What do we do with that challenging child? How do we care for that aging parent? What do we say to a friend who has a drug addiction or eating disorder? How do we deal with feelings of same sex attraction?
We’d like to hear from one who knows a whole lot more than we do. One with more experience, wisdom and perspective. We’d like to know we’re not alone as we face these situations. We’d like to hear from God.
So, in this brief series we’ve made two basic claims:
- God has a voice. God not only hears. He speaks. God is eager communicate with us. He wants to share his companionship with us, his experience, wisdom and perspective with us.
- God’s voice is declared in manyways. God speaks through circumstances. God communicates through dreams and visions. God speaks through beings like angels and people. God speaks powerfully through Scripture. And God speaks through the still and small voice of his Spirit. God desires to share his wisdom in a wide number of ways.
This morning we are taking up one final claim: God’s voice can be discerned.We live in a world with a lot of voices. There, in fact, too many voices willing to tell us what to do, what to believe, how to act. They are on television. They are on podcasts. They are on FaceBook, Twitter, and other forms of social media. And through our smartphones these voices are available twenty four hours a day. They never stop talking. The problem then is this: How do we know any particular voice, any particular message, any particular input we are receiving is from God? How do we sort God’s presence and guidance out from all the other noise that’s filling the space twenty four hours a day?
There’s a fascinating story told three times in Acts. It’s Paul’s conversion story. It’s told once as it happens. It’s told twice more as Paul has opportunity to share his testimony with others. The second time the story is told, it’s told this way:
6 “As I was on my way and drew near to Damascus, about noon a great light from heaven suddenly shone around me. 7 And I fell to the ground and heard a voice saying to me, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me?’ 8 And I answered, ‘Who are you, Lord?’ And he said to me, ‘I am Jesus of Nazareth, whom you are persecuting.’ 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understand the voice of the one who was speaking to me. (Acts 22:6-9 ESV)
Notice the contrast here. Literally, Luke, the author, writes that Paul “heard” the voice of Jesus. Then, Luke literally writes that Paul’s companions did not “hear” the voice of Jesus. We gain some clarity about exactly what this means by comparing the different versions of the story:
- 7 The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearingthe voice but seeing no one. (Acts 9:7 ESV)
- 9 Now those who were with me saw the light but did not understandthe voice of the one who was speaking to me. (Acts 22:9 ESV)
- 14 And when we had all fallen to the ground, I hearda voice saying to me in the Hebrew language, ‘Saul, Saul, why are you persecuting me? (Acts 26:14 ESV)
First we are told those with Paul heard something. Then we are told they didn’t understand what they were hearing, literally Luke writes they didn’t “hear.” Finally, we’re told Paul, alone, heard the voice.
In other words, what seems to have occured is this: those with Paul did hear somethingaudible. It registered in their ears. But they couldn’t discern it as anything divine. They couldn’t determine that it was of God or not. They couldn’t differentiate it from all the other noise around them. Paul, alone, heard it as the voice of Christ. Only Paul was able to determine that what they were hearing was the voice of Christ.
The question is: how do we get that kind of hearing? How do we get to the point that we know that what we are hearing is God’s voice, Christ’s voice?
The apostle John addresses this with these words:
Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God, for many false prophets have gone out into the world. 2 By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, 3 and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God. (1 Jn. 4:1-3 ESV)
The word “spirit” here is a reference to the message of others who claim to speak for God, as well as to any supernatural force which may be prompting the speaker. John is saying that we are not to automatically believe a message or a speaker simply because they claim to be from God. Neither are we to automatically believe a stirring in our heart or a thought in our mind because we think it is from of God. We are to test those “spirits.”We are to develop an ability to discern whether that spirit is truly God’s voice or not.
Jesus says this:
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. (Jn. 10:27 ESV)
Jesus envisions us as sheep who have come to be able to discern his voice, our shepherd’s voice, from any other voice. And when he speaks, we can pick out his voice from all other voices. We know it’s his voice. And we thus follow it.
But again, the question is, how do we get to this point? We gain some perspective in this passage:
If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels, but have not love, I am a noisy gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 And if I have prophetic powers, and understand all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have all faith, so as to remove mountains, but have not love, I am nothing. 3 If I give away all I have, and if I deliver up my body to be burned, but have not love, I gain nothing. 4 Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant 5 or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; 6 it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. 7 Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 8 Love never ends. As for prophecies, they will pass away; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when the perfect comes, the partial will pass away. 11 When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I gave up childish ways. 12 For now we see in a mirror dimly, but then face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13 So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love. (1 Cor. 13:1-13 ESV)
The three great traits that characterize life with God, according to Paul, are these three: faith, hope and love. These three abide. Here’s another translation:
13 The three most important things to have are faith, hope and love. But the greatest of them is love. (1 Cor. 13:13 NIRV)
Above all, what God is trying to do is to shape us into people who are full of faith, hope and love–love being the dominant quality of the three. And that has a very practical implication for this topic of hearing God’s voice. Here it is: If a “spirit” leads to greater measures of faith, hope and love, it is from God. If it doesn’t, it isn’t. If some circumstance, some prompting in our heart or mind, some experience we have, some word we hear or read or receive–we’ll call that “spirit”–leads us to greater measures of faith, hope and love, we can trust that this is probably the voice of God. Why? Because God’s greatest goal, according to this text, is to help us become people full of these qualities. Thus, if we find that some voice is leading to that goal, it may very well be that we are now hearing the voice of God. But if that spirit or voice is leading in any way to the opposite of faith, hope or love, it’s likely that we are not hearing the voice of God–no matter how holy, or sacred, or special that voice may seem to be.
Inigo (Ignatius) of Loyola was a Basque soldier who was seriously wounded in a battle with the French at the town of Pamplona, Spain. He was transported to his brother’s castle in Loyola where he endured two operations to repair his shattered leg. With a great deal of time on his hands as he recuperated, and with a significant injury to provide some perspective on life, Ignatius began to think about his future. Until this point in life he had nurtured dreams of doing great deeds of chivalry and winning the favor of a great lady. But as he began to read the life of Christ and his followers, another dream took hold—that of following Jesus wholeheartedly.[1]
He noticed a radical difference within himself when he would dream about continuing his life of fighting wars and trying to win women versus when he would dream about imitating Christ and his followers. The former made him happy for a short while but then left him dry and unhappy. The latter led him to lasting joy. Writing of himself in the third person, he put it this way:
From experience he knew that some thoughts left him sad while others made him happy, and little by little he came to perceive the different spirits that were moving him; one coming from the devil, the other coming from God.”[2]
He came to call them “false” spirits and “true” spirits. A false spirit was any voice or inward pull away from faith, hope and love. A true spirit was any voice or inward pull toward faith, hope and love.[3]Here’s how he fleshed it out:
| When a “spirit” (circumstance/ prompting/ experience/ word, etc.) leads to…
⇧ faith, hope and love and ● a sense of God’s closeness; ● peace; ● a sense of purpose; and ● a desire to share all of this with others, this IS God’s voice.
You are in a state of CONSOLATION. |
When a “spirit” (circumstance/ prompting/ experience/ word, etc.) leads to…
⇩ faith, hope and love and ● a sense of God’s absence; ● anxiety ● boredom or apathy; and ● a desire to keep all of this from others, this is NOT God’s voice.
You are in a state of DESOLATION. |
Loyola noticed that when thoughts came to him about continuing his life of warfare and wooing women, he was ultimately filled with the opposite of faith, hope and love–a sense of God’s absence, anxiety, boredom, and a tendency to keep things from others. He called this a state of “desolation.” But when thoughts came to him about giving up that life and instead following the way of Christ, he was filled with faith, hope and love, a sense of God’s closeness, peace, a sense of fulfilling greater purposes in life, and a desire to share all of this with others. He called this a state of consolation.[4]
There are, he says, a host of other things we can do to help discern if what we are hearing is indeed God’s voice. Besides this trio of faith, hope and love, and besides the consequences of some voice of spirit in our life, how else might we know if what we’re hearing is God’s voice or not? He provided at least these five questions:[5]
- Is this spirit consistent with God’s purpose for me? [Scripture]
- Is this spirit consistent with my God-given passions? [Desires]
- What advantages/ disadvantages are there to following this spirit? [Reason]
- What would I say to someone else who came to me with questions about this spirit? [Imagination]
- In my final days, how would I feel about what I did today with this spirit? [Imagination]
I spent the first few years of my life in a very small town called Sunspot. Fewer than 100 people lived in Sunspot. Each evening, my brother and I would be outside playing, often with friends. And then we’d hear something. Above the sound of our friends, above the sound of the wind that was always whooshing through the aspens and pine, we’d hear something. It was the voice of our mom. She’d be leaning out her bedroom window. She’d be calling, “Chris! Craig! Time for dinner!” We could always pick out her voice. It always called us back home. It always beckoned us to a warm house, and a kitchen table filled with food made from scratch and made with love.
Every day, there’s a voice calling for you. It’s the voice of your Father, his Son, and the Spirit. It’s a voice always calling you home. Always eager to guide you and give you what you need when you need it. All you need to do is learn to listen. Learn to pick that voice out. And learn to come when it calls. Because it’s the voice of the one who loves you the most.
[1]William A. Barry, Finding God in All Things(Ave Maria Press, 2009), 11-12.
[2]Quoted pg. 11 in Mark E Thibodeaux God’s Voice Within.
[3]Thibodeaux, 12.
[4]Thibodeaux, 57.
[5]Thibodeaux, 166-182.
