GOD’S VOICE – WHAT DOES IT SOUND LIKE?
If you really want to “torque” some people off – make them mad enough to bite a 10-penny nail in half – try announcing at your next Bible study or meeting with Christian friends that during your prayer time God spoke to you and He gave you something to tell them. (Don’t try this with your secular acquaintances: You will be forever labeled a “whacko, intolerant fanatic.”) After the initial shock wears off, there are basically two things they want to know about your encounter, and what the message was is not one of them. The two things they want to know are: 1) Why would God speak to you, especially since you’re not a preacher, elder, or deacon; and 2) What did He sound like?
I think that the second question is an important, valid question. After all, if I am going to be spending most of my prayer time listening for direction and revelation from God, shouldn’t I know what His voice sounds like? Will He speak to me verbally, like you and I having a conversation? How do I know that it’s not just me answering my own questions? Or worse yet, how do I know that what I’m hearing is not Satan trying to mislead me?
Jesus used a phrase similar to the following one at least three times in the Gospels: “If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear.”(Mt 11:15, Mk 4:23, Lk14:35) Jesus wasn’t speaking to a group of deaf or deformed people in these instances; each of the people who were following Him around had a set of ears that they listened with. Ears are part of the human body, and hearing is one of the five human senses. So, what did He mean when He said that?
The problem with trying to describe what it “sounds” like to “hear” from God is that we wind up using “flesh” words to describe a “spirit” event. God is Spirit, and He communicates to our spirit, although He may – and often does – use “worldly” means to deliver His message. When Jesus made those statements, He was encouraging His followers to listen to and hear the message from the Father with the “heart” and “ears” of their spirits, in addition to the ears of their bodies. Only then would they truly comprehend His message.
Although it is certainly not outside the realm of possibility, as nothing is impossible with God, you are probably not going to hear a verbal manifestation of God’s voice. It would be nice if we could experience the Lord’s voice the way Charlton Heston’s Moses hears it in the movie The Ten Commandments, or the way Jim Carrey’s Bruce experiences it in Bruce Almighty. I have heard of instances where a person facing imminent danger or peril has clearly heard a human voice warning them, when there was absolutely no other person around; but that’s just not the norm.
If I may be so bold, it’s been my experience during my prayer time that God communicates His thoughts to me through something like ESP – “Extra Sensory Perception” – except that I would term it “Extra Spiritual Perception”; that is, He impresses His thoughts and words on my spirit and mind. This is Biblically supported in 1 Cor 2:10-14:
“The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man’s spirit within him? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words.”
On other occasions, this voice seems to be coming to me like a very quiet, gentle whisper. Do you remember that account of the Lord visiting Elijah at Horeb, the
“The Lord said (to Elijah), ‘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.”
I’m just thankful that I haven’t had to experience everything Elijah endured to hear that “gentle whisper!” (Here’s an interesting side note for you: Did you know that the Bible says that Elijah traveled 40 days and 40 nights to have this meeting and hear from the Lord? Remind you of Someone else taking 40 days and 40 nights to hear from God?)
Still other times He impresses on my spirit a scripture He wants me to look up and read. This is always an awesome experience, because when you take your Bible and go to the reference He gives you, it’s always like He’s right there saying the words to you – like the words are alive, with a special meaning just for you! Unfortunately, I think that far to often people abuse this form of communication when they take verses from scripture and try to make them say what they want to hear.
But I think the best way for me to answer the question about how you know when you are hearing God’s voice is to ask you a question about your adolescence. Do you remember what you were told the first time you asked someone whom you trusted that all important question that burns in the heart of most every young person the moment their hormones start kicking in: “What is love,” or “How do you know when you are in love with someone?” Didn’t the “bottom line” answer, after the sugar coated explanations of some of the symptoms of love, go something like this: You know, because you know, because you know, because you know…? Well, I’ve got news for you; the same thing applies to hearing from God – “You know, because you know, because you know…!”
Now, I know; the first time you heard that phrase from someone, you probably thought that this answer was just a “cop-out” from a person who just didn’t know what being “in love” was like, or who had never experienced loving someone. That was, until you experienced the first pleasures and pangs of being in love yourself! That was when you discovered that the answer given to your question was correct: Being “in love” is not something you could ever adequately describe or put a “handle” on; it can only be described by experiencing it! But, once you do experience it, you’ll never forget what its like – and you will never have to ask someone to describe it again.
We receive Biblical support for this concept of “you know, because you know…” from Jesus Himself in the Gospel of John when He talks about being the good shepherd. In John 10:3-5 He says,
“The watchman opens the gate for him (the shepherd) and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”
Please note that the last part of this scripture indicates that those who are His sheep also recognize the “stranger’s” voice, and know not to follow him. Also, to take the analogy one step further, consider that the sheep are all about listening for the shepherd, while he tends to their needs and safety.
While you are over there in the Gospel of John, let me remind you of a scripture that says if you’re born again, you have heard the Father at least once in your lifetime. In John 6:44-45(NKJV), Jesus tells his disciples and the Jews following Him this:
“No one can come to Me unless the Father who sent Me draws him; and I will raise him up on the last day. It is written in the prophets, ‘And they shall be taught by God.’ Therefore, everyone who has heard and learned from the Father comes to Me.”
This scripture also supports the fact that when we do hear from the Father, we had best be doing what He tells us to do, if we want to hear from Him again. I can assure you, if you have not come to Jesus, you’re not going to be hearing from the Father on other issues; it’s just not going to happen!
Finally, here’s the most important thing that you must believe and get into your Spirit: GOD WANTS TO TALK TO YOU AND HAVE YOU HEAR HIM; and He will do whatever it takes to have that happen, if you are earnestly listening to Him! How do I know that? Just look at the Bible, which, coincidentally, is called the Word of God; almost every book, has some example of God actively trying to communicate with His people!
Sometimes He spoke directly to people without an intermediary; other times He spoke through other people, such as the prophets. Once He spoke through a donkey, and still another time, through a burning bush. Other times He used angels and visions to communicate with those waiting to hear from Him. Do you see what I’m saying? All of these different ways that God has used to communicate with people are precedence for what He can, and will, use today to speak to you and me!
You can even see that in the Old Testament, He has to rely on “flesh” means to communicate, because no one had the Spirit of God living in them; whereas in the New Testament, His communication is in the “spirit”, with and through those who have the Holy Spirit living in them. As in any family, if you are a son or daughter in the Family of God, it is part of your heritage to hear from your Father, if you are listening to Him!
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