And The Lord Said: #3 Discerning the Voice Of God
Today we need to explore how to discern the voice of God from all the other
voices that clamor for our attention.
It’s important for you to realize that I am using the term “the voice of God”
To refer to the impressions of thought instead of audible sound.
God certainly can speak to you in an audible voice,
He spoke through a donkey to get a fellow by the name of
Balaam’s attention.
I’m more experienced with impressions of thought,
To me that’s normative.
I know that God speaks to his people.
That it is normal to converse with God,
To hear from Him specifically.
Last week we looked at a variety of ways God speaks to us.
Some of those ways or pretty dramatic—
Visions and angels and the like.
More common for me is through reading the Bible,
Prayer and Spiritual teachers.
The form that this dialogue takes on is impressions.
An impression is a thought that I did not have before.
An inspiration, a new idea, a direction I hadn’t considered before.
You might call it a hunch or intuition,
But with a hunch you have a feeling its from God.
An impression is God communicating with you directly.
The impression can be direct and specific—
For example you’re reading God’s word:
Proverbs 28:9 (NCV)
If you refuse to obey what you have been taught,
your prayers will not be heard.
You read it and then all of a sudden you realize that there is an area in
your life that you aren’t being obedient in,
your still trying to be God,
living based on your own standard of what is
good and evil.
You realize,
“that’s why my prayers don’t seem to get passed the ceiling.”
Now you know why and
you know you need to take care of business.
That’s an example of God speaking to you.
I have to admit that this example is a real easy one.
When you need direction on things that are not laid out in scripture so nicely,
Things can get a little more complicated.
It was recommended that I try something—
Here’s how things unfolded—
You know you need to practice the spiritual discipline of Bible reading.
But where do you start reading?
The suggestion was just to ask God where in the Bible He would like you to
read.
So I ask—“Lord, where would you like me to read in your Word.”
An impression:
The Gospel of John
Then I ask, “Lord which chapter?”
Another impression: 15
So far so good.
I take it one step further John 15,
“ Lord, at which verse should I start?”
An impression: 48.
Ok John 15:48, let’s go.
One problem—only 27 verses in the 15 chapter of John.
I related this experience to our intern Robert and he said to me that the Lord told
him that I wasn’t listening hard enough.
Even though I try to eliminate distractions to give God my full attention. And I ask the Holy Spirit to remove spiritual hindrances.
And I have an attitude of submission to do whatever He tells me.
I have found that I still don’t always hear correctly.
Recognizing the voice of God is an art form.
It’s not a science and not a procedure.
It’s more a way of being,
A way of being present and attentive,
Filled with expectation that God is speaking to you.
This art form has some fundamentals.
First realize that there are some voices that you don’t want to listen to.
There is the voice of the disapproving parent,
Full of punitive should’s and must’s and ought’s.
A demanding and driving voice that can never be satisfied.
There is the voice of Egoism:
Do what pleases yourself, what profits you.
A self indulgent voice that disregards others.
There is the voice of the wisdom of this world:
Follow the lemmings over the cliff.
Everyone is doing it.
A voice of conformity and rationalizing behaviors.
There is the voice of Satan
Eat the apple it will be good for you.
And if that voice is not tempting,
its cutting you down.
It is the voice of seduction and oppression.
1 John 4:1 (NCV)
So do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see if they are from God.
There is a exercise that will help you discern the voices.
(Brian Incigneri, Discernment: Recognising God’s Voice, http://www.ccr.org.au/discern.html)
Make a compare and contrast list.
Divide a piece of paper into five columns.
In the first column using a single word
Make a list of what you think God’s voice is like:
For example:
Loving, encouraging, gentle,
Strong, tender.
Reconciliatory, redeeming
Being a Christian means you have already had at least on personal encounter with
God.
Think back to that time when you first accepted that fact that you
needed a savior,
believed that Jesus was the only savior,
and accepting and believing committed yourself to
being his disciple.
That’s a time when God was speaking directly to you,
Recall from your experience the emotional timbre of God’s
voice.
Write it down.
Recall how you felt as God was speaking to you.
Write it down.
In the second column using a single word
Make a list of what you think Satan’s voice is like:
Slick, easy, sneaky, political.
Divisive, conspiratorial.
What’s the emotional tone of a “put-down,”
condemning voice for you?—write it down.
What’s the emotional tone of temptation
sound like to you? Write it down.
In the remaining three columns generate a list of single words that describe
the voice of the disapproving parent, of egoism, and worldly wisdom.
Use your list for determining if the impression you’ve received is God’s voice or
one you want to disregard.
Evaluate your impression, ask yourself:
Whose voice does this sound like?
A second fundamental is that:
If an impression is from God the thought will never contradict Scripture.
Jesus said:
Luke 21:33 (NLT)
Heaven and earth will disappear, but my words will never disappear.
What is written in your Bible doesn’t change.
If some action is censored by the scripture,
It means for all time the behavior is not in keeping with living a
devout and holy life.
The voice of God will be consistent with what He has already said.
This is a great tool for discerning the voice of God.
God will not tell you to do something that contradicts what He has
already revealed in scripture.
Third Fundamental:
If an impression is from God the thought will never lead you off the path of
love
Jesus taught us:
Matthew 22:37-40 (NLT)
“‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”
The path of love,
Love for God, demonstrated by obedience to His will
Love for Self, becoming the person God created you to be
Love for Others, seeking to meet their need
Love for Earth, being a wise steward of what God has entrusted
you with.
If your impression would lead you off into some action that is contrary to
living this way, the impression is not from God.
Now from fundamentals let’s move into some practices that help us discern the voice of God.
Practice number one: Solitude
When a friend calls you up on the phone,
You hear their voice and you recognize it.
You’ve learned the sound of their voice
You’ve learned the sound of their voice by spending time with them.
You spend time with God through solitude.
Luke 5:16 (NIV)
Jesus often withdrew to lonely places and prayed.
It is always good advice to do what Jesus did.
Jesus withdrew from the demands of his day to spend time alone with the
Father.
“Solitude is a time when we withdraw from the company of others in order
to give God our undivided attention.
We shut out the external stimulation of our lives and allow
ourselves to become quiet on the inside.”
(John Ortberg, An Ordinary Day with Jesus, p 168)
Solitude involves an “escape from sounds, noises,
other that the gentle ones of nature.” (Dallas Willard, The Divine Conspiracy, p.357)
Solitude involves not only the elimination of outward distraction but the
inner calming of our spirit.
We need to shut off our internal noise.
That’s difficult, it’s something you have to practice
That inner quietness of spirit allows us to listen.
To be present before God.
Then we can say with Samuel,
1 Samuel 3:10 (NIV)
"Speak, for your servant is listening."
Use the practice of solitude to give undivided attention to listening for the sound of God’s voice.
Practice Number two: Be aware of your feelings
Feelings are very fickle,
What I may think is God voice may only be an over abundance of chocolate
surging through my system.
But my emotions play a very important roll in recognizing
God’s voice.
There is a special feeling that I look for—
It is the feeling of peace.
1 Corinthians 14:33 (MSG)
God doesn't stir us up into confusion; he brings us into harmony.
If God wants me to do something that I don’t want to do,
I probably won’t feel happy about it,
But there will be resignation with peace to accomplish what I
have been told.
I will not be in conflict with myself.
What God tells me to do may stretch me,
It may take me out of my comfort zone,
There might even be anxiety about performing what God wants,
But there will be peace knowing I am supposed to do it.
I wont be confused, I’ll be confident that God is directing me.
Use that sense of inner peace, to figure out if an impression is from Him or some
other voice that you should disregard.
Practice Number three: Engaging your reason.
Reason is the ability, some say the gift of God, to think logically.
Common sense,
thinking things through,
mental clarity that finds coherence,
all plays a roll in discerning God’s voice.
Use your intellect, your reasoning to determine if you are hearing God’s
voice or one you should ignore.
Here too we must be careful because sometimes God seems to tell us to do
What first seems rather unreasonable
Exodus 4:1-4 (MSG)
Moses objected, "They won't trust me. They won't listen to a word I say. They're going to say, 'God? Appear to him? Hardly!' " So God said, "What's that in your hand?" "A staff." "Throw it on the ground." He threw it. It became a snake; Moses jumped back—fast! God said to Moses, "Reach out and grab it by the tail."
To Moses, God’s command seems unreasonable,
but there is a logic here that compels him to obey.
Jesus tells Peter whose been fishing all night, not catching anything to push out
again and cast is net on the other side of the boat
Luke 5:5 (NIV)
Simon answered, "Master, we've worked hard all night and haven't caught anything. But because you say so, I will let down the nets."
To Simeon Peter, Jesus’ request seemed rather pointless,
but there is a logic here that compels him to obey.
Use the brains God gave you to figure out if an impression is from Him or some
other voice that you should disregard.
How do you recognize God’s voice?
What do you hear when God speaks to you directly?
Recall we are not speaking about audible voices,
But impressions upon our thoughts.
We considered six things today that help you to discern God’s voice from all the
others that vie for your attention.
We considered role of Timbre
The combination of qualities of God’s voice that distinguishes it from other
voices
We considered at role of Scripture
God will not contradict what He has already revealed in the Bible
We considered role of Love
God will never instruct you to leave the path of love
We considered role of Solitude
In order to recognize the sound of God’s voice we must purposely pull away
to spend time listening.
We considered role of Peace
God will not confuse you or confound you,
there will be a sense of peace concerning what God has spoken to you
about.
We considered the role of Reason
God will not require you to disengage your brain.
Next week we are going to look at How to Confirm the Voice of God.
You get an impression,
You believe that God has spoken to you.
How do you make sure you’re not being deceived?
We’ll consider that next time.
Between now and then
Discerning God’s voice can only be learned by trial and error.
(Brian Incigneri, Discernment: Recognising God’s Voice, http://www.ccr.org.au/discern.html)
So ask God this week to converse with you,
To speak with you directly,
To guide you, encourage you,
When the impressions come, and you think they
are from God, write them down,
and next time I’ll show you how to confirm them.
So you can say with confidence
And the Lord said to me…