Hearing God’s Voice
Over the last year breakfast burritos have become one of my favorite foods. This morning I stopped at Qdoba’s (a Mexican fast food type of place similar to Chipotle) and purchased a breakfast burrito. In the process I decided to attempt to speak Spanish to the person behind the counter. It worked for a minute until he decided that I must be fluent in Spanish and began to speak Spanish back. Of course I had to reveal my pathetic Spanish speaking abilities by switching back to English. This guy must have been thinking, “Another stupid gringo who thinks he can speak Spanish.” I wish I could speak fluent Spanish, but the truth is I can barely order a breakfast burrito.
There is a similar problem that occurs in the church with God. A lot of people speak “Christianeze”, but that is like some gringo who can barely order a breakfast burrito in Spanish. I’m not so sure God speaks Christianeze at all. In reality hearing God’s voice has a lot less to do with some kind contemplative, mind altering experience than it does with simply taking time to know God’s word. The question remains, how do we hear god’s voice in a world filled with voices screaming for attention every waking minute?
For many years I sought after God’s voice. I would pray for an audible voice, a dream like Joseph had, or some kind of supernatural sign that would guide my way. I never received that kind of communication. I have received a very different kind of communication. One that I think is much more reliable and less affected by the Qdoba’s I ate the night before.
If I really want to go to a Spanish speaking country and communicate with the people there I am going to have to learn more Spanish. If I am going to communicate well I am going to need to learn more that a list of vocabulary words, I am going to have to be able to conjugate verbs. The same is true when it comes to hearing God’s voice. The book of Hebrews begins by reminding us of how God speaks. God has spoken through the prophets, and more recently through Jesus. I believe this passage is speaking specifically about the life of Jesus, the incarnation. Of course his life is recorded in the New Testament.
Hearing “God’s Voice” is more about understanding what He has already said than it is “hearing” Him through some kind of gut feeling or unusual thought (those are all too common in my head, and it is painfully clear to me that most of those are not from God). Ephesians 5 tells us to live wise and James tells us that we should pray for wisdom and God will give it to us. It seems wise to apply the principals and wisdom found in God’s word to our lives. When there are difficult decisions, consult Scripture and seek out the counsel of trustworthy friends.
Maybe God has given you some kind of clear communication that cannot be denied. Maybe you have dreams given to you by God or you hear the literal voice of God. I don’t, at least not yet. So throughout my life I have resorted to simply living wise. Of course sometimes I do a better job than others. I continue at every turn to try and live wisely. I still pray for God to make things abundantly clear and just tell me what to do, but so far I have had to rely on Scripture and wise council.
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