M2-S8: LISTENING FOR THE VOICE OF GOD
SUMMARY
- The past no longer exists and the future hasn’t arrived.
- All the treasures of God’s presence, love, and power are present in this moment.
- This present moment is the only thing that matters.
- We learn God’s general will through Scripture.
- We learn to walk with God by listening for his voice in the moment.
SCRIPTURE FOCUS
John 10:1-16
This is a text about life to the full, about being saved, about entering the gate into an entirely different kind of pasture than we’ve known before.
It’s also a text about relationship. It’s about competing relationships, about those who are directly a threat to the sheep, and those who seem useful until the chips are down, and about the one whom we can count on to lay down his life for his people. And it’s also about knowing the difference.
There’s this recurring theme in this verse about knowing the voice of the shepherd. Sheep are dumb, right? But they know the shepherd’s voice. They can distinguish it from the stranger who is a threat, and from the hired hand who is unreliable at best, and who truly cares for them and leads them in safe pastures.
THE BEAUTY OF THE PRESENT MOMENT
We’ve been working to turn our attention toward God’s presence. We know he is with us and we are learning to be confident and secure in his presence. We are people who dwell on the past and either fear or long for a future that may never arrive.
But Jesus is calling us to walk with him in the present. This present moment is the only moment that is real, it’s the only moment that exists. And the most wonderful thing about this present moment is that God is present with us in this moment. That’s simply another way of saying, “the kingdom of God is at hand”. God’s love, power, and presence fill this moment like water fills the oceans of the world. He will never love us more or less than he does in this moment right now.
That’s such a beautiful reality for us to walk in—the scriptures we talked about last week called it “walking in the light as he is in the light”.
KNOWING THE VOICE OF JESUS
But Jesus is inviting us into more. Our text is a relationship text and it calls us not only to turn our attention to Jesus in the present moment and to realize all that that means, but this present moment is a call to relationship!
How many of us discern God communicating with us on a regular basis—not only through Scripture but in a practical, tangible way that guides our steps?
This is the kind of “walking in the light” and “hearing his voice” that I’m talking about.
Tonight we’re considering the fact that God wants to communicate with us, but that his means of communicating with us are not always obvious. He can’t just speak to us out loud very often—we think that would be cool sometimes, but other times it might just complicate our relationship with him.
So as we are learning to practice the presence of God, we’re going to learn to practice hearing God’s voice in the present moment. How not only to be awake to his presence, but responsive to him as if he had something to say to us. Because he does!
PRACTICE
Paul explains that prayer should be an ongoing conversation with God (we talked about this in our last module). “Rejoice always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances; for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus.” 1 Thess 5:16-18
We are forming a new habit of continuous, honest conversation with God, ready and willing to do his will. Our independent nature is to turn self-ward more than God-ward throughout our day, so it takes intentionality to establish a new habit of doing life with God, moment by moment. It starts with awareness like we said that then leads to communication–the more you communicate, the better you relate and know God and his voice. Being connected to God’s presence and in communication with him throughout our day builds a closeness in relationship with God, just like it does with people.
Sometimes we think we can only communicate with God in set prayer times or when we have something significant to pray about. But God desires even the unrehearsed, gut-level, honest conversation throughout the moments of our day.
Have you ever noticed that you have a continuous conversation with yourself all the time? Think about it. Your mind is always racing with thoughts. You are probably having some right now, either about what I’m saying or random thoughts reminding you that you need to stop at the store on the way home. We think “what should I have for lunch?” “should I go to the meeting tonight?” “what should I do about that problem at work?” “I’m stressed about meeting so-and-so tomorrow!”
What if instead of speaking to ourselves, we spoke those to God as if he was right next to us. Get honest with God, process what’s most on your mind throughout the day, and keep your mind open to his thoughts. That’s how you deepen and develop an authentic relationship with God.
So, what does this look like… Let’s say you are getting stressed at work and the hourly alarm goes off and you see the reminder to “look up”. You become aware–God’s here with you! Now, open the conversation in your head to God, even as you are rushing to meet that deadline. It can be as simple as “God, I am super stressed out right now. I don’t know how I’m going to get this all done. Please help me finish this and rest in your peace and presence even as my day runs away with me.”
Maybe in that moment, you realize that you aren’t doing what you are supposed to be doing. This is where we get real honest with God and let his spirit remind you of His ways and His truth. Don’t hide from him, instead lean into the conversation of “Come help me Lord. Help me do the next right thing.”
It can feel awkward to get over feeling like God has better things to do than care about our meager problems and concerns. Does God really care about where I go to lunch today? I feel like I’m bothering him with all my problems.
Converse with God about everything! The goal is to be mindful all the time and to open our mind to talk with God about all your thoughts, worries, work challenges, decisions, temptations, and failures throughout your day. Instead of just talking to yourself about them, talk it over with God.
So we know how we should talk to God, but how does he talk to us? Scripture is God’s word to us. It reveals His loving character, just nature, and perfect will. That is why it is so important that we read our bibles, so that we might know God’s character and will. This is part of how we draw near to him and get to know him and hear his voice. But the bible doesn’t communicate specifically but rather more generally. It isn’t going to tell you who you should call that day to encourage or what you should have for lunch.
But Jesus said his Spirit lives in us and He will lead us into all truth and life –if we are listening. We need spiritual ears attuned to God’s voice. We expect God to show up and communicate in big, dramatic ways but God doesn’t often speak the way we expect. Rather he speaks in a subtle, gentle whisper that is barely discernible–so quiet in fact that it can be mistaken for our own thoughts unless we listen closely and learn to discern his voice. Why? He knows that people who don’t seek his guidance won’t listen anyway. His thoughts are like little nudges that you’ve probably felt before in your conscience. God does speak to us, we just need to learn how to recognize it.
The practice this week is to see prayer as talking with God about EVERYTHING that most occupies your mind–because that’s where you really live, and that’s where God wants to do life with you. As you do this, you’ll find that God cares for you personally, even about the little things.