Recognizing Yahweh's Voice (11/29/10)

Shalom,

 

    Please begin by reading John 10:22-27.

 

    Jesus speaks very clearly in this passage.  His sheep follow him because they know and listen to his voice.  It's an extremely easy concept to figure out.  The better we know his voice, the better we'll be able to follow him.  But remember, the reverse is also true.  If we don't know his voice, we'll have much trouble following him.  Listen means to hear and obey, to pay attention and respond.  This is the way the servant is supposed to respond to his master.  The word translated as "know" is also very strong.  It means to have deeply intimate knowledge of, even to the level of sexual intimacy.  The best way to know the voice of our Lord Jesus is to be intimately connected to him.

    It's typical in our Western mind-set to want a clear formula for how to get to know the voice of Jesus.  We tend to think there must be at least one obvious and direct instruction as to how to do this in the Bible.  Many people have attempted to wring one out, but it's just not there.  The only way we can come to intimately know the voice of our Lord is by spending time in his presence.  There are no shortcuts, only experience will help us achieve this clear recognition of his voice.

    One of the basic characteristics of true love is communication.  It's natural for lovers to share everything.  The more we love our Lord, the more we should be drawn into his presence, and it's there we'll get to know his voice.  Don't settle for anything less than a true and holy intimacy with the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Don't just accept what others have to say about what Yahweh is speaking, get to the place where you personally hear what he's speaking.

    James 4:8 says, "Come near to God and he will come near to you."  Isn't this a great promise?  And think about this: Much of what our Lord says to us isn't only meant to convey matters of great eternal or strategic significance.  Most of what he says is like the communication between lovers it's likely to be deeply personal.  This is likely to be difficult for us to grasp and learn because we struggle to perceive our God in this manner.  In spite of our flaws, our mistakes, or our failures - Yahweh really just wants to talk, to share his deep love for us.

 

    There are many ways to hear the voice of our Creator God.  We're only going to cover two of them.  The first way is to know Yahweh's Word, the Bible.  Every Christian can discern biblical truth as surely as the most educated theologian.  It's not a matter of our level of education, but it's about the level of passion in our seeking.  Discernment doesn't necessarily come through education.  Education helps, but a seeking heart is the biblical requirement.

    The devil has tried very hard to keep Yahweh's truth from the "common" people.  He's conspired to put it exclusively in the hands of a limited number of "professionals."  Some say that we must attain to a certain depth of knowledge or education and also understand the science of biblical interpretation before we can properly discern the meaning of the Scriptures.  Jesus himself said, "I praise you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because you have hidden these things from the wise and learned, and revealed them to little children."  Jesus knew that the elite Jewish scholars knew a lot, but not the basics that even little children understand.

    1 Cor 8:1 warns us that "knowledge puffs up."  Worldly knowledge can give us a big head, an overblown ego.  We tend to rank one another on the basis of man-made standards of education.  Hos 4:6 warns us, "my people are destroyed from lack of knowledge."  We must be aware that pursuing truly biblical knowledge is what keeps us close to our Lord God.  We must continually seek our Lord and his grace, knowing we depend on him for absolutely everything worthwhile.  We especially need his grace to remain humble as we pursue and seek the knowledge of his Word.  If we don't, the knowledge that should set us free can bring us down because of our pride.

    Only when we keep our sensitivity tuned to the Spirit's presence will we be able to receive proper biblical knowledge without being puffed up or arrogant.  The presence of the Holy Spirit in our lives must be as important as our knowledge of biblical truth.  The daily activity of spending time in the presence of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit will keep us from getting too big for our britches and feeling overly proud of our level of knowledge.  And anything we think we're hearing from our Lord must be rightly aligned with what we know of his Word, or we need to reevaluate who we're listening to.  Yahweh may speak things to us that we can't find direct mention of in our Bibles, but what he speaks to us will always be in tune with the concepts and standards laid out for us within his Word.

 

    The second way to hear Yahweh's voice is to work at listening to the ongoing guidance of the Holy Spirit.  The Bible was never meant to replace the Holy Spirit in our lives, and the Holy Spirit wasn't meant to take the place of the Bible.  They both have different functions in leading us to Yahweh's truth and keeping us knowledgeable of our Father's will.  We have too many churches and individual Christians who lean more on one aspect of this truth than they should.

    The Bible alone is used for establishing doctrine and standards.  The "voice of the Lord," the Holy Spirit, is to give us day-to-day guidance as well as revealing the strategic will of our Lord to us.  The Bible doesn't cover every decision we must make in our lives with the depth we'd like.  Whom should we marry, our choice of profession, where we should live, and other life decisions aren't directly covered or revealed.  These decisions have a fundamental impact on us, so we do need our Lord's counsel which is what the Holy Spirit provides for us.  The supernatural effects of what the Bible teaches us are enhanced by the ongoing instructions we receive from the Holy Spirit as we seek and pray for guidance.

    We can read that Jesus wants us to know his voice, but some of the Protestant theologies currently adhered to not only hinder this, but actually prohibit Christians from knowing their Lord's voice.  These theologies can be traced to the extreme interpretation of the prime Reformation motto, SOLA SCRIPTURA.  This means Scripture Alone.  This was first written in reaction to the Catholic teaching of the Pope's infallibility, that his word exceeded the authority of the Bible.  The Protestant motto can be credited as the primary force that broke the dominance of the elitist clergy during the Dark Ages and began the release of many spiritual advances.

    The Reformation believed that a Christian should never accept a doctrine that's in conflict with the written Word of God.  But they carried it too far.  This important truth was never intended to imply that we don't need to know the voice of our Lord for personal guidance.  Christianity is far more than just knowing accurate doctrinal positions.  It's much more than just knowing some Bible facts so you can get confirmed or become a member of a church.  True Christianity is a restored, living, intimate relationship with our Lord God Almighty.  This is much more than knowing what the Bible reveals about him.  It's knowing him and being able to recognize his voice when he speaks to us.

    Even in the Old Testament, what we call the time of the Law, each person was required to know and obey the "voice of the Lord/Yahweh."  I found four instances when Yahweh specifically spoke to his people about their need to hear his voice or their failure to listen to his voice.  Ex 15:26 tells the Israelites that they need to "listen carefully to the voice of Yahweh and pay attention to his commandments."  Ex 19:5-6 says, "If you will indeed obey my voice and keep my commandments."  Get the picture.  It's not just about obeying the commandments.  They also needed to listen to their Lord and Master's voice.

    There are also some terrible and dire warnings about not listening to Yahweh's voice.  Deut 8:20 says, "you will be destroyed for not obeying the voice of Yahweh your God."  Deut 9:23 says, "you rebelled against the command of Yahweh your God; you neither believed him nor listened to his voice."  The written Word, even with all the commandments of the old covenant, was never meant to take the place of hearing our Alighty God's voice.  They didn't individually have the Spirit abiding in their hearts, but they were to be able to know and recognize the voice of Yahweh as he spoke through the prophets.

    We often attribute the deep problems and troubles Israel faced with their inability to keep Yahweh's commandments.  But these passages clearly show us that the blame lies just as much on their refusal to listen to his voice.  We must be careful that we don't make then sme mistake.

 

    If fundamentalists have come to understand the Bible, it's only because of the grace of our Lord God.  If charismatics have come to know something about the power of Yahweh, it's only because of that same grace.  If pentacostals know anything about combining the written Word with the Spirit's direct guidance, again it should be attributed to grace.  None of these groups has anything to boast about.  All that we receive is by the grace of our Lord Jesus alone.  Hardly anyone has come to a deep understanding of biblical truth without stumbling because they became puffed up with pride by that knowledge.  And few have come to know Yahweh's power without stumbling because of that same issue of pride.  Even so, we need much more knowledge and much more power and much more ability to combine the two than we have right now if we're to follow our Lord where he's taking us.  The road ahead of us will require apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors, and teachers to work together beyond anything we've ever seen in the past.

    We should keep in mind that many of the great spiritual endeavors throughout history were started against the counsel of the time's spiritual leaders.  Most of the men we call the great reformers had to trust that it truly was their Lord God who was speaking to them because the established leadership of their times didn't receive their "new" revelation with pleasure and eagerness.  Without the liberty of the Holy Spirit, we'll often miss Yahweh's will.  Without the Scriptures we'll drift into error.  Both are essential if we're going to stay on the path of life and be Kingdom builders.  Don't allow tradition to be used to condemn what you know your Lord God is speaking to you.

    Hearing the voice of our Lord takes time and effort.  There are no formulas to follow.  There are no programs to enroll in.  There's only intimacy with your heavenly Father and his Son through the presence of the Holy Spirit.  The way we best learn our Lord's voice is to hear him speaking to us on a regular basis.  It's not difficult, it's just that we don't have any human standards to judge it by.  Relax and spend time in your Lord's presence.  Trust him to be there.  He wants to talk to you personally and intimately.

 

    Blessings & Peace,    Mike