Am I Listening to the Voice of God?

My thoughts on reading The Pursuit of God: The Human Thirst for the Divine by A.W. Tozer

Chapter 6 – The Speaking Voice

As a speech/language pathologist, I enjoy thinking about communication, whether it is social or technical, spoken or written.  I’m pretty well educated in the events and lessons of the Old and New Testaments of the Bible.  Yet, in this latest chapter, Tozer again taught me concepts that had never occurred to me before and had never been taught to me in 30-some years of listening to sermons and Sunday School teachers. The ideas are simple and straightforward, so they reveal the ongoing need for me and for all of us to just see God for Who He has revealed Himself to be.  We know He is complicated beyond our understanding, so we try to match that complex expectation with our human ideas, not realizing that He has made the greatest truths of Himself simple and straightforward so that anyone of us can understand.

The first of these great truths is that God is speaking.  I think of Genesis and how God spoke the universe and all of His creation into existence, and I think of that as being past tense; however, the truth is that His voice continues to resound throughout all of existence.  Tozer explains, “the expression of the will of God is the breath of God filling the world with living potentiality.”  For each of us, this begins when He creates each individual by choosing the parents for a fledgling soul, the time in history in which he or she will experience life on Earth, and what continent, government, and culture will surround him or her.  God gifts each one with talents and strengths as well as weaknesses so that each of us is given potentiality according to God’s wisdom and timing.

“Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with Whom there is no variation or shadow of turning. Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures.” ~ James 1:17-18

The second truth is that the voice of God is all-powerful, for His voice alone creates and sustains the energy we call life.  From the tiny amoeba to the giant blue whale, God’s voice is the life force that grows dandelions and redwood trees, but it also sustains the dynamic activity of all the weather systems and tectonic forces here on Earth.  Not only that, but His mighty voice is so free and far-reaching that it is constantly creating and sustaining energy and life throughout all the star systems in all the galaxies in all of creation, across eons of time and space, where there are natural phenomena we are only beginning to recognize and attempt to understand.

“God, who made the world and everything in it, since He is Lord of heaven and earth, does not dwell in temples made with hands. Nor is He worshiped with men’s hands, as though He needed anything, since He gives to all life, breath, and all things. And He has made from one blood every nation of men to dwell on all the face of the earth, and has determined their preappointed times and the boundaries of their dwellings, so that they should seek the Lord, in the hope that they might grope for Him and find Him, though He is not far from each one of us; for in Him we live and move and have our being.” ~ Acts 17:24-28a

While Christians, for the most part, revere the written Word of God, they (and I) have historically paid little or no heed to the spoken Word. We have been taught the idea that the Scripture is sacred, truly the written word of the One True God. We accept that. We aim to live according to its precepts and follow the wisdom contained therein, as we are commanded.

“Knowing this first, that no prophecy of Scripture is of any private interpretation, for prophecy never came by the will of man, but holy men of God spoke [as they were] moved by the Holy Spirit.” ~ 2 Peter 1:20-21

“All Scripture [is] given by inspiration of God, and [is] profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work.” ~ 2 Timothy 3:16-17

While we tend to think of the Bible as ancient teachings that we can apply to our modern world today, God doesn’t exactly view the situation in that way.  The third truth is that He is still alive and well, so His voice is still active, moment by moment, day by day. Our challenge in the modern world is to hear it even as the ancients did. The most obvious place we can hear His voice is by reading scripture and allowing God’s Words to speak to our spiritually receptive hearts.

“Be diligent to present yourself approved to God, a worker who does not need to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.” ~ 2 Tim 2:15

I once heard the story of a woman who determined to do exactly what the Bible said under every circumstance. Her little boy was a mischievous rascal, and one day, her patience worn thin, she closed her eyes, flipped her Bible open, and pointed at a random selection of scripture. She read, “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.” (Ezekiel 18:20a) Let us hope that she had more sense than to act on that!  This is not an example of a “diligent” student of the Bible, who is “rightly dividing the word of truth”. God expects us to familiarize ourselves with His word, so that we do not misinterpret piecemeal sections of individual scripture.  He wants us to gain the wisdom to understand the overarching message of Who He is, so we can therefore accurately discern what His character dictates in various situations.

“How can a young man cleanse his way? By taking heed according to Your word. With my whole heart I have sought You; Oh, let me not wander from Your commandments! Your word I have hidden in my heart, That I might not sin against You.” ~ Psalm 119:9-11

Still we must remember that the Word of God, whether written or spoken, is eternal, even as He is eternal. It is powerful, even as He is powerful. It is alive and continually creating and generating life energy, even as God is so. The reason this is possible, that God’s person is synonymous with His Word, is that the second person of the godhead, Jesus Christ, actually is the Word.

“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The same was in the beginning with God. All things were made by him; and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life; and the life was the light of men.” ~ John 1:1-4 (KJV)

It is impossible for us to overestimate the the life-giving power of God’s Word. Tozer reminds us, “The Word of God is quick [alive] and powerful. In the beginning He spoke to nothing, and it became something. Chaos heard it and became order; darkness heard it and became light.”

The fourth truth included in this chapter by A.W. Tozer was the idea that “God lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years. God breathed on clay and it became a man; He breathes on men and they become clay. ‘Return, ye children of men’ (Psalm 90:3) was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreed the death of every man, and no added word has He needed to speak. The sad procession of mankind across the face of the earth from birth to the grave is proof that His original word was enough.”

We understand about the creative process where God breathed on clay and it became a living soul, the first of mankind. But what does Tozer mean when he says, “He breathes on men and they become clay”? After Adam and Eve ate the fruit of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, they changed. Sin had entered the garden and their hearts in the form of doubt and disobedience. No longer could they commune with God heart to heart and spirit to spirit, because His holiness could not coexist with darkness. No longer would they live eternally in His presence. Instead, they were forced, by their own poor choices, out of the garden of life and into the sinful environment of death that they had caused.

• Instead of being spiritual beings, they were limited to a material/physical existence.
• Rather than being eternally alive in the presence of God, they were limited to a temporal existence on the earth, separated from God.
• In place of a life of empowerment through communion with God, they were enslaved by the power of sin.

Everything we see here on Earth is but a degraded shadow of God’s intended magnificence for His creation, and yet, still, His life and creative energy are teeming everywhere we look. For this reason, those who claim that there is no god, according to the Creator, will have no words to defend themselves.

“For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, [even] his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse.” ~ Romans 1:20

Because God foresaw the Fall of mankind, He included a divine plan to reconcile men and women to Himself, and that plan was revealed in Jesus Christ.

“He was in the world, and the world was made by him, and the world knew him not. He came unto his own, and his own received him not. But as many as received him, to them gave he power to become the sons of God, [even] to them that believe on his name: Which were born, not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God. And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” ~ John 1:10-14 (KJV)

The voice of God calls out to all, searching and seeking for those who will listen.

“Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.” ~ Revelation 3:20 (KJV)

May I digress for a moment?  Right after I got out of college, I took the only job I was offered after sending out dozens of resumes and applications in my field.  I had wanted to move to a specific out-of-state location, I needed someone willing to oversee my clinical fellowship year, and I hoped to earn enough to support myself and begin to pay off my student loans.  Unfortunately, the federal government had just put a cap on the payment of speech/language services, so people in my field were losing their positions, and hiring was severely depressed nationwide.  As a consequence, the job I took offered only 50% of what I should have been earning once I finished college.  Said all that to say, after I got situated in my new home and new job in a pediatric clinic, it wasn’t long before I realized that I needed to supplement my income.  I thought about addressing envelopes at a local mail-serve company or doing retail sales in the evenings, so I got up early one Saturday morning, got dressed and prepared to head out the door to start filling out applications and going through the interview process.

Just as I stepped over the threshold, I heard His voice in my ear, speaking two words… nursing home.  The problem was, I didn’t have any real depth of nursing home experience, where your clients are frequently facing life and death situations.  Nevertheless, I turned around, sat down, and “let my fingers do the walking” through the yellow pages.  The first nursing home listed was Avante’, so I called and asked to speak to their head speech pathologist.  When I asked her if she had any need for part-time help, she responded, “Boy, did you call at the right time!”  I warned her that my experience was limited, but she insisted, “It’s a piece of cake — I’ll teach you myself.”  Keep in mind, she hadn’t even met me yet!

Those words — nursing home — would have been meaningless to many others, but when God spoke them to me, they represented a clear direction and an answer to my specific prayers.  This is just one very small example of the day-by-day love God extends to each of His children.

I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will guide you with My eye.  ~ Psalm 32:8 (NKJV)

Reflections:

• Have I asked Jesus to be the Lord of my life, and for His Holy Spirit to transform me with His gift of eternal, spiritual life?
• Now that I am attuned to God’s Spirit, do I make the time to ask Him for direction before I make important decisions?
• Do I listen for His ”still, small voice” — a voice that always aligns with His Word, but is personalized as God whispers directly to my spirit the words that are relevant to my circumstances?

BUY 4HIM

WHERE THERE IS FAITH

From the album Chapter One …a Decade

By 4HIM

(Click to listen)

I believe in faithfulness
I believe in giving of myself for someone else
I believe in peace and love
I believe in honesty and trust but it’s not enough
For all that I believe may never change the way it is
Unless I believe Jesus lives

CHORUS
Where there is faith
There is a voice calling, keep walking
You’re not alone in this world
Where there is faith
There is a peace like a child sleeping
Hope everlasting in He who is able to
Bear every burden, to heal every hurt in my heart
It is a wonderful, powerful place
Where there is faith

There’s a man across the sea
Never heard the sound of freedom ring
Only in his dreams
There’s a lady dressed in black
In a motorcade of cadillacs
Daddy’s not coming back
Our hearts begin to fall
And our stability grows weak
But Jesus meets our needs if only we believe

CHORUS

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