Whose Voice Are You Listening To?

WHOSE VOICE ARE YOU LISTENING TO?

I'm sure you've heard stories before of how babies who are still in the womb can recognise and react to their mother's voices? Well I have a slightly unique twist on that story ... when my son Samuel was a couple of weeks old, he was lying on the couch in the lounge one day and the TV was on. Then I noticed him quickly turn his head towards the TV, so I looked at what was on that had caught his attention – it was the start of a TV show called “Sewende Laan”, and that’s when I realised that throughout my pregnancy, when I got home exhausted after a full day at work, and I just needed to unwind for a while, I would watch “Sewende Laan” while I got supper started. My baby lying on the couch, had recognised the theme tune, and he was trying to see where this sound that he knew so well was coming from!

My first thought was: “That’s so cute!”

My second thought was: “Yikes! How much “Sewende Laan” did I watch for him to know the tune??!!”

Today, I want to ask you – all of us – a question: Which voices are turning your head? Which voices get your attention? And which voices are you perhaps ignoring, or tuning out?

Let’s look at 1 Samuel 24: 1 - 11.

After Saul returned from pursuing the Philistines, he was told, “David is in the Desert of En Gedi.” So Saul took three thousand able young men from all Israel and set out to look for David and his men near the Crags of the Wild Goats.

He came to the sheep pens along the way; a cave was there, and Saul went in to relieve himself. David and his men were far back in the cave. The men said, “This is the day the Lord spoke of when he said to you, ‘I will give your enemy into your hands for you to deal with as you wish.’” Then David crept up unnoticed and cut off a corner of Saul’s robe.

Afterward, David was conscience-stricken for having cut off a corner of his robe. He said to his men, “The Lord forbid that I should do such a thing to my master, the Lord’s anointed, or lay my hand on him; for he is the anointed of the Lord.” With these words David sharply rebuked his men and did not allow them to attack Saul. And Saul left the cave and went his way.

Then David went out of the cave and called out to Saul, “My lord the king!” When Saul looked behind him, David bowed down and prostrated himself with his face to the ground.

He said to Saul, “Why do you listen when men say, ‘David is bent on harming you’? This day you have seen with your own eyes how the Lord delivered you into my hands in the cave. Some urged me to kill you, but I spared you; I said, ‘I will not lay my hand on my lord, because he is the Lord’s anointed.’ See, my father, look at this piece of your robe in my hand! I cut off the corner of your robe but did not kill you. See that there is nothing in my hand to indicate that I am guilty of wrongdoing or rebellion. I have not wronged you, but you are hunting me down to take my life.”

The context of this passage is that Saul is still king over Israel, but he knows that David is God’s anointed. Saul is afraid the David is going to try and take his life to take the throne, and so Saul is on the hunt for David, and here he brings 3000 soldiers to make sure David doesn’t escape.

The thing that struck me when I read the passage was verse 9. David says to Saul, “Who have you been listening to? Why are you so convinced I’m out to kill you?”

If you read through the entire story of David's life from the time Samuel anoints him to be king, David never sets out to make himself king. He’s always acutely aware of the fact that he is in God's timing and that this whole him becoming king thing is God's plan for his life! He never ever tries to take Soul's life; he never ever tries to take the throne for himself; he continues to wait until God places him on the throne. Several times in Scripture we hear David declare that he will not touch God's anointed – God is the only One who can remove Saul from the throne.

And yet somehow Saul has convinced himself that David is planning a coup, that he is going to try to take the throne by force, and that his life is in danger.

And this passage gives us a key insight into the difference between these two men ... Saul has been listening to other people, bad advice, and rumours, as well as his own guilty conscience, while David had received equally bad advice from his men, but he chose not to listen to it!!

In this time of turmoil and trouble and strife and news of all shapes and forms and opinions, there are voices in our ears and in front of our eyes and in our heads all the time. Everyone with a smartphone is able to write and publish their version of events and post it on Facebook and Twitter and their whatsapp status!

It's so easy for us to hear an absolute information overload!

Now, to be clear, listening to the news and going on social media isn’t wrong in and of itself. Christians should be informed about what’s happening in the world. But it is so easy to become overwhelmed by all the voices, all the stuff we read online, all the self-promotion and fear-mongering and tales of trauma and tragedy, that we become fearful, depressed, angry and hurt.

And this isn’t a new phenomenon. Scripture has many examples of people who listened to the wrong voices.

First, and probably the most well-known of them is the story of Adam and Eve. The whole story of them being cast out of the garden of Eden is because they listened to a voice that had no right to be speaking into their lives! They knew the voice of the father; they knew Him intimately; Adam had close companionship with Father God ... and yet they listened to a different voice; they took different advice, different instruction from what for the God had told them to do ... And the results? The consequences with dire!

One other example is in the Book of Numbers, when the children of Israel were about to cross into the Promised Land. 12 spies were sent into Canaan to go and see whether it would be easy for the Israelites to go in and to conquer and to settle there, or whether they would face a challenge when the crossed over the river. When the scouting party returned, 10 of them gave a negative report. They said that the people in Canaan were too big and that their defences were too strong – the Israelites would never be able to move in there! Even though the Lord Himself had told Moses this was the land he was giving them, and even though 2 of the spies came back with a positive report (which by the way was actually the truth), the people were so convinced and terrified by the bad news they heard, that on the spot they wanted to appoint a new leader to take them back to Egypt, to ask Pharaoh if he would please take them back as slaves! Those 2 voices of hope and courage were drowned out by the voices of fear, and because of that hundreds of thousands of people wandered around in the desert for years - and many of them died without ever reaching the Promised Land again.

What are the consequences of us listening to the voices of the world, rather than the voice of the Father? Could they be just as serious for us?

I read this quote by Kaylene Yoder – she says: “When we allow ourselves to pursue the imaginations and desires of an uncontrolled mind we become enslaved to the diseases of it. We become overtaken by sexual immorality, fear, depression, filthy language, anger, and bitterness, to name a few. Yet God's Word says we are given power over this mind that is prone to run wild. We are giving the authority and the ability to control our thoughts. We are urged to be transformed by the renewing of their minds. We do this by indoctrinating ourselves with what is true right, pure, noble, anything Christ would find praiseworthy.”

When we do what 2nd Corinthians 10 verse 5 tells us, when “take every thought captive and make it obedient to Christ”, then we become more clear-minded and self-controlled.

We become better able to test and approve what God's will is when His is the only voice we’re listening to and paying attention to!

So what are some of the things that distract us from hearing God voice? What are the other voices that we listen to that cause us to think and sound just like the world around us?

Well, there are a lot of distractions – here are a few I thought of:

Our friends, Facebook, the news, WhatsApp statuses, shared audio notes, Twitter, our colleagues and family members ...

Let me just say again, the Bible does say that we need to take wise counsel, that we shouldn't make all of our plans on our own but that we do need advice and information – so I'm not saying that any of these things are bad for us or bad voices to listen to in and of themselves.

What I am saying is that we too easily listen to those voices without consulting the Lord, without prayer, or even worse we listen to those voices instead of consulting God, instead of praying, instead of reading the Word ... and we rely on those sources, those other voices, to inform our minds, to inform our hearts, to inform our emotions, to inform our speech.

As Believers we don’t stick our heads in the sand and avoid all news and all information and everything that is happening in the real world – of course not!

When we become Christians, we don’t become immune to the things that are happening in the world – the Word says we are in the world, but not of it.

But we do need to choose where our thoughts dwell and what truth we believe. Then we choose how and what we will think, how we will feel, and what we will speak, after we filter our thinking and hearing of what comes in from the world through the truth of God's Word, through prayer, and through the power of the Holy Spirit.

How do we know when we aren’t listening to God’s voice as much as we should?

It’s when we realise that we‘re feeling angry all the time; that we’re feeling shaken rather than secure; that we’re feeling desperate and despairing about relationships and situations; when our fear is bigger than our hope ... then we know that we are listening to the wrong voices!

And that's when we need to press pause. That’s when we remember that we need to tune those other voices out to a background hum, and tune the Father’s voice in, clearly, in the forefront of our eyes and our ears and our minds.

Now I can imagine at this point, some of you are saying: “That sounds great, but I don’t really what the Lord is saying, or how to hear His voice ...”

In Jeremiah 7 verse 13, the Lord says to the people of Israel: “I have spoken to you time and time again but you wouldn’t listen, and I have called to you, but you wouldn’t answer ...”

So, I have a couple of things to say about that ...

First, if we go back to what we were saying about the other voices that distract us from what the Father is saying, I know I’m probably going to step on some toes here, but one of the things that can distract us is running to other Christians to see if they have a word for us!

Now again, there’s definitely a time and a place to be hearing from good, Bible-teaching writers and speakers, of course. But they shouldn’t be our first avenue for seeking the Lord’s voice.

Sadly, in our instant gratification world, many people hop from Stephen Furtick to Priscilla Shirer to John McArthur, from channel to channel, from Facebook page to Facebook page, Instagram to Instagram, until we find something that answers our questions or makes us feel better.

Now that’s not always a problem, but it can be like putting a plaster on a cut, instead of getting treatment for the wound.

None of these voices should take the place of seeking to hear the Lord speak for ourselves.

Remember what He said in Jeremiah? He’s wanting to speak to us, He’s always speaking – the problem is us not listening.

I heard someone say that our prayers are full of speaking, but we often fail to hear God because our prayer time usually runs out when we run out of words ... Friends, can I encourage us to spend more time in prayer and in reading the Word listening, than we do speaking?! And can I encourage us to take our time in His presence, to linger and wait and trust Him to speak in His way, in His time – which may not be our time?

In Jeremiah 33 verse 3, the Lord declares: “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

There are so many ways that the Lord longs to secure our faith, stir up our hope, encourage our love and calm our fears. His may not be the loudest voice in our ears, but it will always be the most consistent, most edifying, most honest voice we hear.

And just in case I’ve confused anyone, I don’t necessarily mean an audible voice – the Lord can “speak” through His Word, through a “knowing” in our spirit, through a peace in our hearts, through answered prayer, through close friends confirming something we think we heard from the Lord ...

If you still have your Bible with you, please turn with me to Psalm 19 verses 1 – 6:

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of his hands. Day after day they pour forth speech; night after night they reveal knowledge. They have no speech, they use no words; no sound is heard from them. Yet their voice goes out into all the earth, their words to the ends of the world. In the heavens God has pitched a tent for the sun. It is like a bridegroom coming out of his chamber, like a champion rejoicing to run his course.

It rises at one end of the heavens and makes its circuit to the other; nothing is deprived of its warmth.”

These verses tell us that God is speaking all the time and everywhere, if we would just slow down and down enough to hear him. He’s speaking to us in all of creation, declaring who He is.

Just think about it ... yes, I know the world is chaotic, there is no such thing as “normal” anymore – yet in all the chaos, in all the turmoil, in all the information and misinformation and confusion, has the Earth stopped rotating? Have any other stars moved out of their positions? Has rain started falling up instead of down? Did the Sun start rising in the North instead of the East? Of course not! All of creation is showing us that God is still in control! He’s not shaken and nothing has taken Him by surprise, nothing in history and nothing has foiled His plan for the world or for your individual life!

Life is confusing, it's hard to make any plans in your diary in pen any more because we never know what the next family meeting will be about. But folks, we know who holds the world in the palm of His hand, and Who holds me and you safe and secure in the palm of His hand. And because we know Him, we have no reason to fear, no reason to shake and quake and quiver the way that the people in the world do. Situations and circumstances may be shaky but we need to not be shaken because the one in Whom our faith resides is unshakeable, He’s unchangeable, He's movable. There’s a Jason Upton song where he speaks about the Lord and he describes Him as "Like a river You keep on going, from source to sea the same", and because of Him we too can be constant and unmovable when we face the challenges of this life.

Go with me back to Psalm 19, and let’s read verses 7 to 11:

“The law of the Lord is perfect, refreshing the soul. The statutes of the Lord are trustworthy, making wise the simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, giving joy to the heart. The commands of the Lord are radiant, giving light to the eyes. The fear of the Lord is pure, enduring forever. The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous.

They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold; they are sweeter than honey, than honey from the honeycomb. By them your servant is warned; in keeping them there is great reward.”

Where do we go when we don't know the way to go? When the whole world is shouting at us, and it seems like everyone has something to say, everyone has an opinion, and everyone is right in his own eyes, and the Lord doesn’t seem to be hearing our prayers? We can go to the Scriptures. God’s Word is trustworthy, it is right, it is sweet and it is rich, and in hearing and obeying the Word is much wisdom and much reward.

Psalm 5: 3 encourages us to both lay our petitions down before the Lord and wait patiently for Him to answer. We so often miss the part about being willing to wait for The Father to speak, instead of rushing to find other voices that will answer us faster. But the waiting, that’s what gives us time to digest and internalise His Word, time for the Word to soak into our hearts and our minds, and to change our thinking and believing, where change is needed.

So how do we choose to find joy in the turmoil? Because I think it's clear that it's a definite choice that we need to make to not become overwhelmed by the negative and the bad that we're hearing all around us. How do we choose to tune out all of the other voices, so that we can hear and pay attention to God's voice?

#1 We need to remind ourselves who God is. This is why our praise and our worship is so important - time we spend with the Lord where we're not asking Him for anything necessarily, but we simply declare how wonderful, and how powerful, and how good He.

#2 We need to be reminded of God's promises. The Word tells us that God is not a man that He can lie - everything that He has said in His Word is true, so when we need to find truth, when we need to know what's going on, or what's going to happen, or how it's all going to work out, or what we need to do, we can turn to our Bibles. We can read the many promises in Scripture, and we can know that every single one of them, in God's time and in His way, will be fulfilled.

#3 We need to be reminded of who we are in Christ. The Children of God are saved, they are redeemed, they are justified, they are righteous. We are healed, we are chosen, we are adopted, we are loved! Let the world and the Devil throw any accusations that they wanted at us - we know who we are as Children of God, and we stand firm on the promises and the truths of Scripture.

#4 We need to realign our thoughts and our feelings with the truth, and remember there is only one Truth, which is God's truth. Romans 12: 2 tells us: “do not conform any longer to the pattern of this world but be transformed by the renewing of your mind.” When we persistently and consistently do as Philippians 4: 8 - 9 tells us, thinking about what is true and clean and noble and pure and right, our unrestrained thought processes can be transformed! God won't magically give us “happy thoughts”, though. It takes effort and long-term dedication on our part. We are called to participate in the retraining of our minds, and the only way to do this is to read truth, to hear truth, to know truth, and to persevere in truth, in our thoughts, in our feelings, and in our emotions.

#5 When we know who God is, when we know who we are, and when we know what is promised to us in Scripture, we can then view our lives and our situations through a new filter. In this time of trial, and trouble, and turmoil that we're in, Believers need to be wise and alert, and be focused on the things of God - not so that we can avoid the world, but so that we can interact well in the world, so that we can make a Kingdom difference in our workplaces, in our families, in our communities, everywhere we go, because we see and approach life differently when we know who God is.

I’d like pray for us: Lord we praise You and we magnify Your Name. When all around us seems insecure, and confusing, and hard to handle, we know that Your strength and Your peace are unchanging, unalterable, and all-encompassing. I pray that by Your Holy Spirit power You will strengthen and encourage Your children today. Lord, may we be diligent and deliberate to shut out the many voices that try to confuse us and make us afraid. May we prefer the One voice, the voice of The Father, Who speaks life, and joy, and hope into the lives of His people. Amen.