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Recognizing the Voice of God

The watchman opens the gate for him, 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.    John 10:3-4

There is an old legend of why God chose Moses to lead his people.
One day when Moses was out tending the flocks of his father-in-law, Jethro, one sheep wandered off in the wilderness. Moses went after it. He followed the sheep until he found it in a ravine, drinking from a natural spring. " I did not know you ran away because you were thirsty" said Moses. "Now you must be weary." So Moses put the sheep on his own shoulders and carried ti back to the flock. Then thought, "because he has shown pity and brought back one sheep belonging to a man, I will put him in charge of my flock, Israel"1.

This is not how God chose Moses in reality. He was chosen from birth, but he was allowed to spend many years herding sheep before he became leader over Israel. Moses learned to have a shepherd's heart, rather than the heart of a nobleman.

Jesus is telling his flock that the heart of God is a shepherd's heart, unlike their rulers and priests who act more like thieves and robbers. In it he reminds them of one special characteristic of God that is like a shepherd:
He knows them by name. A thief or mere hireling does not know them, or care.
And they know Him. They know his voice.
(story of shepherds and flocks)

I was thinking about this.
Do we really know the voice of God when we hear it?
I am not sure we always do in day to day things.
And remember the account of Elijah in the wilderness, running from Queen Jezebel--God hid him in a cave and sent in turn, a great wind and then an earthquake. Elijah did not hear the voice of God in either.
But he did hear it in the quiet calm voice of the Holy Spirit.
I am inclined to think that Elijah recognized the soft voice of God because he had learned to recognize it over many years of listening and responding.

So how do we recognize the voice of God?

1. By getting used to what God's voice sounds like
Spending time listening to what God says.
That also means spending time listening to the voice of God in the pages of the Bible.
But this is critical.
There are so many voices out there. So many wanting you to listen to this and listen to that.
And there is our own voice. How tempting it is to wish that our voice was God's voice.
But it is not, and our thoughts are not God's thoughts most of the time.

Getting used to what God says is at first, getting used to the content of what God does say.
When Jesus was tempted he knew the voice of Satan was bogus, because he knew what God has already said.
You can weed out a lot of what you hear by knowing it is far away from anything God would say.

I have heard a story that the way banks used to teach bank employees how to recognize counterfeit bills was by keeping them away from them.
An employee who got to know intimately the look and feel of the real thing is more likely to spot a counterfeit.
Get to know what God is likely to say and when you hear those conflicting voices, you will know what to listen for.

2. Getting to know the characteristics of the voice of God.

In the Palestinian world, and I suppose this is true for any shepherding, the shepherd leads from in front, not from behind.
In other words the sheep follow the shepherd they know and do so willingly.
The converse is that the shepherd does not drive them from behind.
That may be how you herd cattle into a stall or a pasture, but it is not how a shepherd leads sheep.
And I don't think it would work for cattle for long either.

So if you are feeling driven, it is likely not the voice of God.
That sense of anxiety and feeling hunted and harried is not from God.
You can see it too, because the decisions we make when we feel anxious and pursued from behind are usually not good choices.

God's voice, first of all just sounds true when we hear it. It has a way of validating itself.
You know deep down inside this is the real thing.
And then it brings a sense of confidence and peace when we agree to follow it.

The voice of God does not leave us feeling worthless or condemned.
That is the work of our adversary. Jesus says Satan stands before God to condemn us.
If you are left with a sense of condemnation, then that is not God's voice.

But wait a minute, someone says, "isn't it God who stirs up our conscience when we do wrong?"
Yes, the Holy Spirit is the one who convicts us of sin.
But there is a difference between being shown where you went wrong to being condemned.

Here is a good way of differentiating.
When God convicts us of something that is amiss, it is for the purpose of getting us to change it.
That implies that it is possible to change the situation or to do something about it.
Maybe to stop doing what we are doing, or to avoid doing it altogether.
Or maybe it may be to remind us that we have done wrong and need to apologize or to make amends.

A personal example:
For the three plus years I have been the interim moderator at the Chinese Church I was paid an honorarium monthly.
But I was never given a T-4 (a receipt in Canada you attach to your income tax).
And about the same time, I switched from doing my own tax form, going through it line by line.
I took it to a tax preparation company with all my forms and let them fill it out and file electronically.
I just totally forgot to declare the money I had earned.

Then one day as I was doing something else, like a light bulb, it went off in my head--I didn't declare that income.
So I got my past years income tax forms and went off to our accountant who helped me file for those past years and also to get deductions I would not have thought about. But I had to pay back taxes with interest. That's life.
But the moment the light went off, it was an "Aha" moment.
No argument. I knew I had failed to do what was right.
More important, God was showing me what I had to do to put it right. It was not sin up to that point.
Had I said, "they'll never find out", then it would have been sin.
I knew that to be true because I know what God says about that sort of thing.
Both helped me to know what action I needed to take-- past knowledge of what God does say, and that internal sense of "oh yes, that's right"

The presence of God brings a sense of "rightness" and peace.
 It leads you to want to do better.

Condemnation on the other hand is what happens once it is too late and Satan just pushes your face into the mud again and again.
Satan will never point out your sinfulness because that might lead to you repenting and taking a new course.

But God will bring it to mind while there is still something you can do about it.
No condemnation, just the knowledge that there is something that needs fixing or that the course you are on will not lead to any good.

When you show that you are willing to do the two above-- that is:
A. Listen to the voice of God in scripture and to do it.
B. To pay attention to God when He straightens you out.

Then as you spend time in quiet, listening and reading, He has made us another promise:
It is recorded in John's gospel as well.
I have this verse underlined in my Bible too and when I flip through its pages, I see it regularly.
It reminds me of something I don't want to miss out on.
Jn 14:21 Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him.”
From time to time God will speak directly to you about something important in your life and when He does you will know the voice of God.
And that is something I never want to miss out on.
But to make sure I do hear and that I do know, I have to be doing the first two: listening to what God says in scripture and then be obedient doing it.
And then I have to listen to the voice of God correcting me, and being obedient to that too.

Jesus says when we are willing to listen to what God says to us on those occasions, He will speak to us about other matters as well.
How will you know its God's voice?
Because you will have spent the time getting used to it in these other matters.

Apparently Cattle-rustling is a major problem in Uganda. The Ugandan army daily attempts to reunite cattle with their owners. The biggest difficulty lies in proving ownership. This article recounts how one elderly lady settled the issue:
The BBC's Nathan Etungu witnessed the process beginning in a village north of Mbale. He told the BBC's Network Africa that when an elderly woman stood before the herd a remarkable thing happened. She called her cows by name and to the amusement of the soldiers, as each cow heard her voice, it lifted its head and then followed her.
As far as the army was concerned, it was as strong a proof of ownership as one could find. 2.
And strong enough proof of ownership is that we listen for the voice of Jesus and learn to recognize it and follow it.


Preached  April 13, 2008
Dr. Harold McNabb
West Shore Presbyterian Church
Victoria, British Columbia
Notes
1. William Barclay, The Daily Study Bible, "The Gospel of John. Volume 2" The Saint Andrews Press
2.Heard on Paul Harvey (2-28-03); "Ugandan Cows Know Their Names," BBC.com, (2-25-03)

Online Resources Consulted
http://www.preachingtoday.com/
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