I’m going to point out three distinctive features of hearing God’s voice. Three features which are significantly different from much of what is traditionally accepted as normal religious conduct or activity. This message, in many ways, is very revolutionary. It sounds simple but when you really take it to your heart and begin to apply it, you’ll find that it will change your standards. It will change your values. It will very probably change the way you live.
The three features of hearing God’s voice are these. Firstly, hearing God’s voice is personal. Secondly, hearing God’s voice is intangible. And thirdly, hearing God’s voice is present in the sense of time. It’s not past. It’s not future. It’s always present. Just grasp those three features. It’s personal; it’s intangible, and it’s present in time.
Now let’s think about what that indicates. First of all, hearing God’s voice is very personal. Every voice is individual and unique. No two voices are exactly alike. Voices are one of the most individual features of human personality. That’s why Jesus said about His sheep, “They won’t follow a stranger because a stranger’s voice is different.” Our protection is hearing the Lord’s voice, relating to Him individually, personally, not just relating to a historical figure or to some movement or some doctrine, but relating to the Lord Himself through His voice.
There is a way of designing a safe, for example for use in a bank, in which the thing that opens the safe, that triggers the combination, is a certain voice (maybe the voice of the bank president or the bank manager) and no other voice can cause that safe to open. That just shows us how absolutely distinctive and individual a person’s voice is. There’s a voice that can open that safe that will not open to any other voice. To me, that’s a parable because I think that’s what the heart of the believer should be like. I think our heart should be like a safe, something that treasures the most valuable things we have. And I think that there should be only one voice that opens up that safe, the voice of the Lord Himself. We come into terrible grief and problems if we open the safe door of our heart to the wrong person. That’s what causes most of the tragedies and problems in the world today: people open their hearts to the wrong person. Think of your heart from now on as a safe with a combination in the door, and that combination will respond only to one voice, the voice of the Lord. You know, when you open up to the Lord, you’ll never be harmed, you’ll never be deceived, you’ll never be disappointed. But many of you have learned from experience, if you open the door to the wrong person, if you respond to the wrong voice, many harmful troubles and problems can result.
You see, that’s the shepherd/sheep relationship. David said in Psalm 23, verse 1: The Lord is my shepherd, I shall lack nothing. Out of that personal relationship every need of David was assured that it would be supplied. But Jesus says, “My sheep hear my voice.” How can the Lord be our Shepherd? Only if we hear His voice. But if we do, then He’s our Shepherd and all our needs are supplied. Isn’t that beautiful? Cultivate hearing the Lord’s voice.
Lord Jesus, I pray You’ll help me to open up the ‘safe’ of my heart only to Your voice, and not to any other voice that would try to deceive or to harm me. I know You’ll never disappoint me, so help me to listen only to Your voice, so I’ll be preserved from trouble and problems! In Jesus’ Name, amen!
