God speaks. How can we hear Him?

By Michael Bahjejian


Idols can’t speak

Psalm 115: 3-8 reads,

But our God is in the heavens: he hath done whatsoever he hath pleased.
4 Their idols are silver and gold, the work of men's hands.
5 They have mouths, but they speak not: eyes have they, but they see not:
6 They have ears, but they hear not: noses have they, but they smell not:
7 They have hands, but they handle not: feet have they, but they walk not: neither speak they through their throat.
8 They that make them are like unto them; so is every one that trusteth in them.

Our God is a jealous God. He doesn’t want to be compared with men’s idols. We all know that other religions have gods who supposedly gave their followers writings and ordinances to obey to. However, God defines Himself as the only one who speaks. Therefore, hearing a voice like Mohamed did when the Koran was written or getting other teaching in a supernatural way or out of personal conviction is not considered by God as “speaking”. God defines Himself as the only one who speaks because His voice conveys more than words that can be heard. Indeed, His voice is the essence of His power. As our sister Colleen shared with us last Wednesday:
And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. Gen 1:3.
Who else can do that? To create light with words.


God can speak

We’ve seen that God’s speech is not only a voice that is spoken but also a voice that contains His creative power as it is written in the story of the creation. But there’s more. The Bible describes different ways of speaking:

Job 33:18 NIV
“For God does speak – now one way, now another-though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.”

God speaks in dreams, and visions of the night.

God started to talk to Abram, and then called Abraham directly in Geneses many times, either directly or through Melchizedek, king of Salem, then through the three men who visited him in Gen 18:1-2a.

God talked to Jacob through a dream that turned to be a real fight in Gen 32.

Moses had a vision of the day when God talked to Him from within the Burning Bush in Exodus 3 then he could often talk to God face to face.

And throughout the whole Old Testament, God talked to people through His prophets:
1 God, who at sundry times and in divers manners spoke in time past unto the fathers by the prophets,

Then He talked through Jesus, His Son:
Heb1:2 Hath in these last days spoken unto us by his Son,

He then talked through His Apostles, prompting Paul to say in
1 Th 2:13
For this cause also thank we God without ceasing, because, when ye received the word of God which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God, which effectually worketh also in you that believe.

Jesus quotes Deuteronomy 8:3b when He resists Satan’s temptation with the help of the Scripture saying that Man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God, (Mat 4:4b ) meaning at least that all the words of God written in the Bible come from the mouth of God, therefore are spoken.

And Paul goes further in 2Tim 3:16 declaring that “All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.”

God’s language is spiritual

God is spirit and his language is spiritual. I Cor 2:13 reads
This is what we speak, not in words taught by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truth in spiritual words.

God’s voice goes beyond words and Ps 29:3-9 describes the voice of God in action as if it was a description of God Himself.

Ps 29:3-9; 3 The voice of the LORD is upon the waters: the God of glory thundereth: the LORD is upon many waters.
4 The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is full of majesty.
5 The voice of the LORD breaketh the cedars; yea, the LORD breaketh the cedars of Lebanon.
6 He maketh them also to skip like a calf; Lebanon and Sirion like a young unicorn.
7 The voice of the LORD divideth the flames of fire.
8 The voice of the LORD shaketh the wilderness; the LORD shaketh the wilderness of Kadesh.
9 The voice of the LORD maketh the hinds to calve, and discovereth the forests: and in his temple doth every one speak of his glory.

And indeed, God’s word is God Himself as it is written in John 1:1:
In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God.

But the word of the Lord stands forever. I Pi:1:25

How can we hear God’s voice?

Maybe the real question is how we can understand God’s voice because we’ve seen that God speaks in various ways that enables everyone to hear from Him one day.

Psalm 63:11 reveals a secret to hear Him: we have to be good listeners and listen to Him twice when He speaks once:
11 God hath spoken once; twice have I heard this; that power belongeth unto God.

We also have to have a good attitude and acknowledge that if we’ve heard God’s voice, we have to soften our hearts
Heb 3:7-8a:
So, as the Holy Spirit says:
“Today, if you hear my voice, do not harden your hearts…”

Indeed, God is humble and wants to talk to our hearts as well as our ears. He knocks at the door and waits for people to open. He won’t smash the door open to come in, even if some people would rather see God solve their problems with Him that way. He won’t.

Conclusion

God’s voice from Mt Sinai was terrorising those who could hear it because it was mixed with trumpets sounds and voices and all kind of sounds of thunder that could brake trees as we read in psalm 29. (Heb 13:19b-20a)

God’s voice through the prophets would always put people on the defensive since the Law couldn’t give the peace with God and was mostly a judgement against men’s behaviour.

Jesus’ voice was hard teaching according to his disciples and most of them left Him. Even Peter who had taken His words to the letter was rebuked by Him when he tried to defend Jesus with a sword.

With the coming of the Spirit, God’s voice softens and Paul is accused of being weak in his speech by comparison with his letters:
2Cor 10:10 For his letters, say they, are weighty and powerful; but his bodily presence is weak, and his speech contemptible.

The reason of Paul’s ‘weakness’ could be that God had chosen to speak through our conscience, the little voice that was foreseen when God talked to Elijah in Horeb:
I Kings 19:11-13

And he said, Go forth, and stand upon the mount before the LORD. And, behold, the LORD passed by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; but the LORD was not in the wind: and after the wind an earthquake; but the LORD was not in the earthquake:
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the LORD was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
13 And it was so, when Elijah heard it, that he wrapped his face in his mantle, and went out, and stood in the entering in of the cave. And, behold, there came a voice unto him, and said, What doest thou here, Elijah?