Hearing His Voice Clearly
Background
Speaking yesterday with a devout Christian brother about assurance in knowing God’s will, I had an indelible sense that the voice of Jesus is distinct and unique. Meditating on this has flowed into the teaching below.
Introduction
When I was a new believer there was lots of controversy about divine guidance. This tended to be polarised along Evangelical vs Pentecostal lines. In his classic, Take Another Look at Guidance, Charismatic teacher Bob Mumford compared discovering God’s will with a sea captain’s docking procedure: when the three lights at a harbour entrance are perfectly lined up and seen as one, the ship can safely proceed up the narrow channel. God’s lights to guide us are 1. The Word of God (objective standard) 2. The Holy Spirit (subjective witness) 3. Circumstances (divine providence). By contrast, in Decision Making and the Will of God: A Biblical Alternative to the Traditional View, conservative author Garry Friesen argues a radically opposite position. Today’s Christian, whom can be neither a prophet nor an apostle, as these gifts have ceased, does not have to find a hypothetical “perfect will of God”. The teaching of scripture is sufficient for all our decision making, though in extraordinary circumstances, special revelation might come via dream, vision, angel or a heavenly voice. Sydney evangelist Philip Jensen’s, Guidance and the Voice of God, is even more definitive. “Apart from his Spirit working through Scripture, God does not promise to use any other means to guide us, nor should we expect him to.” I doubt this agrees with the experience or theology of most contemporary believers. How could, for example, so many noted “prophets” in America be so sure that they had heard the Lord tell them Donald Trump would be re-elected? These issues once stressed me, but after following God for 50years I am much more relaxed. Intimacy with Jesus is the answer to everything.
How Did I Get it so Right and So Wrong
The very moment my Honours supervisor asked me to apply for a Ph. D, the Spirit immediately made me feel bad about it. I had been a believer for a very short time and didn’t even have time to pray or search the scriptures. After this happened a second time, random folk started to say things like, “You’re going to do a Diploma of Education next year aren’t you, John?” I really needed a direct answer from the Lord. I could sense my “flesh” (Gal 5:24) was powerfully attracted to the doctorate option, to cover the shame of having to repeat my last year of high school. Plus, as a lazy rebellious student I had held my schoolteachers in very low regard intellectually and didn’t at all desire to be like them. I came up with a plan. (Not recommended) By faith I went down to the university library with my Bible, opened a page at random and put my finger on a verse and read, “all that Jesus began to do and to teach” (Acts 1:1). The Lord’s direction was displeasing but unavoidable. Many years later I tried the same process. A few minutes before getting up to preach a knowingly inflammatory sermon, which in due course would get me sacked, I opened my Bible put my finger down and read, “‘You have permission to speak for yourself.’” (Acts 26:1). Same “method”, opposite ultimate outcome. Why? In the former case the Spirit spoke what the Lord wanted, against my personal desires, in the latter case I heard what I wanted. If I had faithfully followed Paul’s witness life could have much less painful, “I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me. And the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me.” (Gal 2:20).
Back to Jesus
What I can sense through prayer is that the Son was most conscious of his Father’s guiding presence when he, Jesus, was most pressed not to do his, the Father’s, will. This took place when the Lord was about to literally “take up his cross” (Matt 16:24). The time of the most transparent guidance in the life of Jesus was neither at his baptism nor on the Mount of Transfiguration, times when the Father in overwhelming pleasure spoke so clearly of his pleasure in his all-obedient Son (Matt 3:17; 17:5). The time of purest transparency of God’s voice was in Gethsemane where everything in Jesus’ ordinary mortal humanity (John 1:14; Rom 8:3) did not want to obey. Only here did the all-obedient Son cry from the depths of his humanity, “Abba, Father, all things are possible for you. Remove this cup from me. Yet not what I will, but what you will.” (Mark 14:36; Ps 42:7). Here Jesus is simultaneously aware of two ultimate profound realities: endless intimacy with God as “Father”, and his Father’s absolute sovereignty over all things, especially his own impending suffering (Rom 8:28; Eph 1:11). This tension between two seemingly incompatible realities imparted to the voice of Jesus a unique and recognisable authority to speak into our hearts and consciences.
My Sheep Hear
Though no two voices are identical, we are often misled by the projections of our own hearts (Prov 23:7 KJV) and the leadings of “the deceiver of the whole world” (Rev 12:9). However our Lord firmly promised, “If anyone’s will is to do God’s will, he will know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on my own authority.” (John 7:17). A simple example comes to mind. At a conference long ago I knew the Lord’s Spirit was telling me to do something I didn’t want to do, to step out and oversee the activation of WA Prayer Summits for the cause of Christian unity. My reluctant-obedience was a sign that I had been included in Jesus’ difficult “Yes” to the Father in Gethsemane concerning the way of the cross. The impact of my decision continues today (https://geonetworks.com.au/). When the Lord testified, “My sheep hear (v4. “know”) my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27), he was upholding something far deeper than an assurance imparted by any memorised formula of 3, 4 or 5 principles or propositions. This knowing of God’s voice comes from being taken into the eternal communion of Father, Son and Holy Spirit so we share by grace in God’s decision-making. Paul says, “If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. 2 Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. 3 For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” (Col 3:1-3). At the end of a difficult and not always obedient life, Jacob memorably testified of, “the God who has been my shepherd all my life long to this day,” (Gen 48:15). We give testimony to Jesus, the Great/Chief shepherd of our lives (Heb 13:20; 1 Pet 5:4).
Conclusion
God in Christ will never ask you to do something he has never been led through himself. We seek the guidance of him who was led through suffering and death into resurrection so as to become the Lamb of God (Rev 5:6) who reigns over all life’s circumstances. Such seeking must fill us with joyous expectation. Anxiety and fear of “missing out” on the Father’s will come sonly when we take our eyes (Heb 12:2) off him who is so constantly at work in us, putting us to death so that he might raise us up more and more to heavenly fellowship in his presence more (2 Cor 4:7-12; Gal 2:20; Phil 2:13; 3:10). Let Jesus be your confidence and you will be greatly guided in all the wisdom and will of God’s kingdom, now and unto eternal life. PTL