The VOICE of GOD

The VOICE of GOD

KJV John 10:27 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

I have a question about the voice of God. I remember one of my teachers telling me God only speaks to you through his Word. (The Bible)

I asked him if you were dropped off right now on an island all by yourself with no Bible would God ever speak to you again. His answer was :-(

I want to ask the question, what is the difference if one uses different terminology?
For example, one says to his wife,
1. God told me to go give Bob $200
2. I was quickened in the Spirit to give Bob $200
3. I was impressed of the Lord to give Bob $200
4. I feel led to give Bob $200
5. The Lord put it in my heart to give Bob $200

Is not all this the same thing? And can it indeed be the voice of God leading you?

Back to the Bible, no where in the bible does it tell Dan to give $200 to Bob.
Yes you can find a thousand verses to give, but, Joe, Tim, Mike and Ron all need money yet, only Bob received $200 because Dan says he heard the voice of God say, “GIVE BOB $200”

Does God speak to his sheep by the Spirit?

Can someone share your thoughts on this?

Great question! I am looking forward to hearing people's answers too.

My view is that yes God very definatly does talk to His sheep by the Spirit (love the Bob example!) like when he told Phillip to run after that chariot! It didn't say that in the Bible (well at least not in His Bible) but God thr Spirit told him to do it. All through out the ook of Acts The Spirit was speaking to and giving guidance to His church.

However for me i am sad to admit than in the most part this is theory. I believe it but do not daily walk in it, i think the reason being because 1. I like to talk to God but am not very good and being still and waiting to hear what He wants to tell me and 2. Because i have not got used to 'practising the presence of God' throughout my whole day, so i am not in the conctant fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

let me try..

God's voice that comes via the impression of the Holy Spirit should always be aligned with His moral will and precepts pertaining all matters found in the Written Word, at the least, not contrary to It; furthermore, responding decisions should also be made in accordance to His wisdom.

a small example may be as such that,

God told Dan to give Bob $200 for (drugs or food or family crisis?) Or should Dan pay his own debt first? (if he'd been heavily in debt himself)....etc. etc.

I tend to think the specificity of this sort of voice or impression comes clearer if one is in a consistent and close walk in Christ, i.e. in both the Living and Written Word, and in prayer and meditation.

Because i have not got used to 'practising the presence of God' throughout my whole day, so i am not in the conctant fellowship with the Holy Spirit.

I think it was the puritans, or maybe the quakers, who used a term, they would "center down" , quiet themselves inside to give themselves to hearing that small still voice of God.

Personally speaking I believe that God can and does speak to us throughout the day but most of us are to busy to hear. The methods He employs to speak are limitless, however the surest method is still His written Word. It needs to be noted though, that 2 camps exsist in the church, thoughs who seem to only hear through the word, they become legalist in thier dealings with others, and thoughs who seem to only hear through the interwitness (or something along thoughs lines), and they tend to become prideful. I always liked the berens : Act 17:10 And the brethren immediately sent away Paul and Silas by night unto Berea: who coming thither went into the synagogue of the Jews.
Act 17:11 These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.

Even in the hearing of the voice of of God there needs to be balance, may God give us all even weights and scales in the Hearing of His voice through the Word written and otherwise.

Most of what I have seen regarding this subject is that your personal character and conformity to Christ will determine what you 'hear." Therefore it is risky to establish a doctrine of mystically 'hearing' God apart from maturity in the Word and in conduct.

That God 'speakes' to us is certain. For example there is this verse from James...

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

Yet character is the filter by which we can hear God. For instance, what would a fool do with wisdom? Fools always want wisdom at the 11th hour, but would a fool even recognize wisdom if it was given?

In my experience, a person who can 'hear' wisdom is not a fool in the first place. (At least not an arrogant one ;-) )

If we get too confident of our ability to 'hear' God without the Word, we might associate our own inclinations with 'God's voice." (This is why Godly inclinations are a prerequisite for hearing Godly words.) For example an ex pastor of mine seemed to blur the lines between his own disposition and God's moods...when he was feeling melancholy the "spirit' must be feeling melancholy, and when he was in a jovial mood, the 'spirit' must be wanting to celebrate. Almost every Sunday, he would interupt the flow of worship services to tell the people that God wanted slower music now, or faster music...or he wanted testimonies. During the sermon he would veer off topic for a second and then explain his digression with a casual comment "Someone in here must have needed to hear that." (Implying that every word he uttered was spirit-led...)

Likewise, I can remember in times of personal distress I would pray with such sincerity untill I became convinced I had 'heard' from God. Indeed, sometimes these things would bear out and other times I wonder if I was hearing simply what I wanted to hear...looking back much of my prayers in those circumstances were immature...I was facing the wrong direction spiritually and yet I was 'hearing' the Lord and other people were 'hearing' the Lord for me as well.

The things we were 'hearing' are a GPS marker indicating how misguided, a passionate sincere Christian can be. The words we hear often indicate our sincere longings, fears, and beliefs.

Another example...once after a particular time of spiritual renewal a friend came to me sharing that the Lord had impressed upon him that I had fallen away. It actually pained me to tell him he was wrong...I didn't want to embarrass him. Yet he was often prone to give me words like this because he had assigned himself some role of a mentor in my life...and he couldn't accept growth in me. The 'word' he heard was just a reflection of his own beliefs about me.

Examples like this show me that the first order of business is not 'hearing' from God but applyng what we know to do from his Word and let Christ be transformed in us. Once we are more Christlike, our sense of 'hearing' will become more Christlike. So will our other senses and spiritual giftings. Even spiritual gifts are not safe in a person who is void of Godly character.

There is much interest these days in the experiences of a mystical union with Christ, such as hearing God inwardly. I readily admit my own personal journey has often taken me into this area of interest. However I am careful to not lean too much on these experiences...but regard them with healthy suspicion.

Not that I am suspicious of God's desire or ability to speak to me, but suspicious of me, a corrupt vessel, and my desire and ability to hear.

As someone wanting balance in this area, I admire the Whitefields, Edwards, and Wesley's. They were evangelicals precisely because they preached a living vital connection to Christ, but they always emphasized Christ-like character as the manifestation of this connection more then mystical abilities.

MC

I think it was the puritans, or maybe the quakers, who used a term, they would "center down" , quiet themselves inside to give themselves to hearing that small still voice of God.

Here's a very excerpt from "Remarkable Miracles:" About four o'clock next morning, I saw myself actually sinking down, getting smaller. I could see that I was on the trimming lathe, and was being trimmed down . So I began to praise the Lord. I did not dare to exert myself, nor did I want to, for fear of breaking the chain that was being woven round and through me. And I did not want to disturb Brother Allen. But I kept quietly saying, "Glory! Glory! " At each utterance I could see the shavings a-flying and felt that I was getting the victory.

This dear brother once spent 14 hours in prayer asking the Lord whether someone had died or not. I don't know about you but my heart is not there yet for that type of painful intercession.

Scripturally it's clear that God wants to order our steps and there are many scriptures that show this. Here's one of many, this one from Jeremiah 10:23 "I know, O LORD, that a man's life is not his own; it is not for man to direct his steps."

It's critical to spend time with Jesus in the prayer closet and in the scriptures if we wish to properly discern his voice. I've found that as I've spent more time with Jesus, He has told me what He wanted. I used to be utterly concerned with "getting it right" but have found that I'm truly seeking to follow Jesus, He will meet me even if I didn't properly discern His voice.

For a season, the Lord allowed me to do a "la, la, la" and say something was that really Jesus in my spirit but find He doesn't allow that any more and if I step into that I'm in the woodshed. God really does chasten His own and it saddens me to admit that I've often had to learn God's ways the hard way.

Praying through until God answers the cry of our heart sounds somewhat mystical but it's simply praying until there's a confirmation in our spirits that God will do what He has promised to do. That's all it is and it's illustrated nicely in a sermon by B.H. Clendennen that's available here.

God told Dan to give Bob $200 for (drugs or food or family crisis?) Or should Dan pay his own debt first? (if he'd been heavily in debt himself)....etc. etc.

By the way Dan doesn’t owe no man anything, he is wealthy and when he found out Bob couldn’t work for a week because of his surgery, He prayed for Bob to get well and as he was praying, God said, “Give Bob $200”

I used this for an illustration because I have experienced this often is my Christian life.

I remember one time when I was President of a youth ministry, The Lord impressed me to cut a check for a local Pastor, he was in no way affiliate with our group, in fact, I do not even know if he would agree with us. (We did not agree in a lot of doctrine) So, I went to the Pastor’s house gave the check to him, his wife looked at me teary eyed and said we (plus their children) did not have anything to eat. Thank you

Let me share one other testimony, it was about 8 years ago. We had all gathered for a Church fellowship at one of the church members house, the boxing match of the year was on (which I loved because I trained as a professional boxer) the popcorn the pizza the big screen projector. It was all ready then all the sudden the Spirit of God speaks to me to go downtown and witness. I thought Oh man during the fight of the year (I still loved boxing at the time) but I decided to obey God. I asked if any wanted to go, all I heard was No No No. I asked if someone could at least give me a ride No No No. So, I walked about 2 miles where I felt God was leading me and I seen a man walking down the middle of the street with a trash bag on his back, he looked so lost. I walked up to him opened up my mouth and preached Jesus. Within seconds he basically said, “What must I do to be saved” I lead him to the Lord right in the middle of the street. He reached in to his pocket pulled at a compass and said, “I want to give this to you, last night I slept in an alley and while on the couch I heard a voice say reach into the couch, as I reached into the couch I pulled out this compass and heard a voice again say follow this compass and you will find the truth. I began following this compass and it lead me right to you” When I ran into him I said Jesus loves you. This man gave himself to the Lord then we put him in one of our rehabilitation homes.

My point is this I grew up in a home where a relationship with Jesus was so important. I have been blessed to have a mother teach me the things of God from my youth. I grew up thinking it was the norm to hear God’s voice to lead you by the Spirit. But years of being in an interdenominational ministry it seems like this is so far from the Church today,

WHY?????

Josh

EVAVGELIST wrote:
So, I walked about 2 miles where I felt God was leading me and I seen a man walking down the middle of the street with a trash bag on his back, he looked so lost. I walked up to him opened up my mouth and preached Jesus. Within seconds he basically said, “What must I do to be saved” I lead him to the Lord right in the middle of the street. He reached in to his pocket pulled at a compass and said, “I want to give this to you, last night I slept in an alley and while on the couch I heard a voice say reach into the couch, as I reached into the couch I pulled out this compass and heard a voice again say follow this compass and you will find the truth. I began following this compass and it lead me right to you” When I ran into him I said Jesus loves you.

I can't answer your question, but what a testimony. Maybe just a thought on an answer, people are scared, scared where it will take them and what that leading/speaking/prompting will have them do. Christianity is 'others', serving man on behalf of God, so more often than not our comfort is not high on his agenda. Also giving people to much licence to hear God, might have you ending up with a pastoral mess.

My point is this I grew up in a home where a relationship with Jesus was so important. I have been blessed to have a mother teach me the things of God from my youth. I grew up thinking it was the norm to hear God’s voice to lead you by the Spirit. But years of being in an interdenominational ministry it seems like this is so far from the Church today, Why????

Here's an illustration from my own life. It's been just over 2 years now that Jesus stepped in and delivered me from smoking. I didn't try harder but He stepped in and I was delivered. Thank you Jesus!

After being delivered, then how could drive a car that I smoked in? So rather than pray about it, I simply traded it in and my poor wife kept her old car and I got a brand new one.

The Lord rebuked me for this and I ended up selling it nearly $2,000 less than its actual value to a dear preacher from North Carolina at the Lord's direction and I used the money I received to buy my wife another car and then I drove the old car.

This has happened numerous times with me and finally I'm slowly learning His ways. So we don't hear God's voice because we don't want to do what He says. Maybe I'll have to do something I really don't want to do... That's been my heart and thankfully He has been dealing with me about this.

Secondly, I've found that if I had an agenda in some particular way about whatever the issue of prayer is, then it's quite easy to assume that my voice is God's. So this stripping down, is to where I no longer have an agenda and am willing to do whatever He tells me to do.

That's a great testimony and that should be the normal course of our lives to simply do what He asks. His will is always consistent with the scriptures. Thank you for sharing that testimony...

Thanks for pointing us back to the Word, MC.

If we get too confident of our ability to 'hear' God without the Word, we might associate our own inclinations with 'God's voice."

Without attending to the Word, on a consistent/daily basis, voices of any kind can be doubtful. Even with human voices, such as preachers' voices, nomatter how great,when not substantiated by God's own Word, can easily be used by the devil with all sorts of twists and turns if not careful.

I remember years back, I met a young Christian wife, at the time, her family was struggling with income, but she told me that she had to tithe because her pastor said so.. meanwhile, she had no clue as to how to pay her bills and feed her kids..

This is why, in my previous post over the Dan and Bob example, I mentioned whether Bob is heavily in debt. The Scripture's instructions of handling money and the responsibitlity with our money are very clear, as well as giving, despite what other voices said , are very clear. Various Jewish offerings, put together, in all seriousness, are way more than tithing ,10%..so, if we do not know what Paul teaches about giving ..in my friend's case, she ended up having to borrow to give to her Pastor and not paying her bills. Indeed it's true, with all the wolves in the present church buildings, how can we know unless we attend to the Word, with the Berean attitude.

"If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.

This is sort of foolish of me, thinking back, my testimony to this verse is hilarious, well, pathetic really. When I was a very young Christian, whenever preachers preached this verse to me, I would go home and pray like crazy for God to 'zap' me some of this wisdom. Naturally, to no avail, years gone by, I still prayed for wisdom, but would not attend to studying the Bible, nope,still no wisdom for me after praying a great big bunch. I thought that wisdom was some kind of mystical substance that God would somehow inject in my brain if I only prayed hard enough for it. No one ever told me that wisdom is found in the Word !!

Examples like this show me that the first order of business is not 'hearing' from God but applyng what we know to do from his Word and let Christ be transformed in us.

Yes, absolutely, no guessing game, no imaginations,God speaks to us every single time we attend to His Word, yes, every single time, all the needed answers, instructions, comfort.. can be found in the precious Words He had written down for us. And all the wisdom we would ever need, does begin with the fear of Him.

Praise Him!

Oh, I believe in the Word of God 100%, but what I am saying is once you know God’s voice you know his voice. John 10:4-5 4 And when he putteth forth his own sheep, he goeth before them, and the sheep follow him: for THEY KNOW HIS VOICE. 5 And a stranger WILL THEY NOT FOLLOW, but will flee from him: for they know not the voice of strangers.

I hope you don’t get me wrong, I believe we need to study God’s Word however; I have had friends who have been kidnapped at times, duck taped from head to toe, beaten with rifles for preaching the gospel. When this happened they did not have a Bible handy, but they still heard the VOICE OF GOD in the midst of it all.

I hope this will help, I remember during training, I would train so much I knew my trainer’s voice, it would constantly go through my head, chin down, hands up, side to side….. I knew his voice so well because of hours of training. When it came down to the fight (boxing match), there could be a thousand people yelling, right, left, look out, jab, jab,…….but when I’m in the ring I hear nothing but my trainers voice, and a strangers voice I would not follow, in fact, if I did I would probably pay a consequence (get knocked out).

What I am about to say is hard to communicate on paper but let me try. Anyone can quote Scripture, a Satanist, a false preacher, anyone. But not everyone can be a vessel that the VOICE OF GOD flows through. For example: I hear a lot of preachers preaching false doctrine using Scriptures that are twisted. Oh, they quote Scripture but it is not the voice of God. The devil quoted Scripture to Jesus but whose voice was it that spoke? Oh, he used Scripture but it was the voice of the devil that was heard. I don’t know this is hard to write. Just another thought.

About terminology, why do some look down on someone who says God said…… but it is OK to say the Lord put it in my heart???

Josh

I always feel uncomfortable when people say "GOD...me to _______" Many men I went to Bible college with would say "GOD lead...", "GOD told..." "put it on my heart" but lots I would discern it was not right, and foolishly I would challange them, and reason with them that it may not be HIM, then time would come, and things did not go according to GOD's socalled instructions then they would avoid me. I was hurt, but knew that HE lets me fall on my face in presumption, because HE loves me, and desires we do it right together with HIM in Spirit, and truth.

Sure enough I step out in faith, and occasionally "walk on water" in the kingdom of GOD, but let your WORD's be few when attributing GOD direct revealation, even if you really have a scoop, HE sometimes shows just what you need, so don't always brodcast it, rather I would wait pray, and share if it seems right, but without drawing conclusions.

Quinn