"Learning to hear the voice of God"

I Samuel

March 26, 2000

Introduction: The life of Wolfgang Amadaeus Mozart was portrayed in the mid-80s by the film, Amadaeus. In a film clip that Art and I want to show you from the movie Amadaeus, we see Antonio Salieri commenting on the life and music of the famous composer and conductor. Salieri lived in the days of Mozart and had a difficult time coming to grips with the genius of this younger fellow artist. As you watch this morning, make special note of what Salieri says about the voice of God. We have put two short clips back-to-back by way of introduction to our continuing series on vision and the part that the voice of God plays in leading us into His perfect will for us.
(Film clip here)
As portrayed by the movie, Salieri had a very definite conviction that God would speak, and did speak, through the music of Wolfgang Mozart. How was it that Salieri could recognize that what he was hearing was indeed the voice of God? The sublime beauty and the perceived perfection of the music fit Salieri’s expectation of what God would compose! In the second clip, the portrayal of forgiveness flowing with such power was surely God singing! How else but by the voice of God could such reconciliation flow out into and over the audience?
Well, Amadaeus IS just a movie, and the character playing Antonio Salieri voices words put in his mouth by a script writer and a director. Just what might the Scriptures have to say to us about the matter of recognizing the voice of God? If God is still involved in our world as we saw last Sunday, if He is still speaking as a shepherd speaks to his sheep and they recognize His voice, if His voice is still being heard in our day, how do we recognize it? Our goal this morning is to find some answers to the question, "How do we recognize the voice of God?” In his book, Hearing God, Dallas Willard suggests four practical benefits for the children of God in knowing His voice.
What might it mean to us in the matter of confidence if we could recognize His voice when He speaks? What might happen to our fears and our anxieties, our timidity and our cowardice if we had a foundation for confidence?
What could discerning His voice mean to us in the matter of protection? Who among us has NOT seen foolishness issuing out of the statement, “God told me to do this!” Who has NOT heard of tragedy overtaking the lives of the followers of cult leaders who supposedly speak for God?
Would being able to hear and identify His voice add quality to our experience of this one life we have to live? Is there anyone here who would NOT want to have the kind of faith that Samuel had? Or that David had? Or Hannah? Or Peter?
What would being able to hear His voice with assurance mean to us in our outpost in His kingdom? Could we not better execute our duties and our mission as soldiers of Christ if we were certain of our marching orders? If we knew what our assignment is for today regarding the King’s business?
It seems to me there are powerful reasons, huge benefits, and great blessings that could be ours if we knew how to recognize His voice when He speaks to us. So let’s look into the Scriptures and find our answers and tap into these blessings.
Turn with me to the book of I Samuel and let’s read about three different phases in the life of the man Samuel, the famous prophet/priest of Israel. In exploring his experience with God and God’s voice, we can come to some answers for our question this morning.
1 Sam 3:1-10 records the first phase. We could call this phase the “Learning to Discern” stage. The second level, found in I Sam 16: 1-13, we could designate the “Walking the Talk” years. The third portion of Samuel’s experience, by far the most unusual, perhaps in all the Scriptures, is found in I Samuel 28: 1-25. We could title this phase the “Obeying Though Disturbed” phase.
Let’s begin this morning in the beginning, I Sam 3. We know this text fairly well, having referred to it several times in the last few weeks. For the sake of time this morning, let’s cut and paste this text together. Verse 1: “Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the LORD before Eli… It happened at that time as… Samuel was lying down in the temple of the LORD where the ark of God was, that the LORD called Samuel; and he said, ‘Here I am.’
Then he ran to Eli and said, ‘Here I am, for you called me.’ But he said, ‘I did not call, lie down again.’ So he went and lay down.” This same interchange takes place two more times – God calling Samuel, and Samuel running to Eli, thinking that Eli has called to him in the night. Verse 7, a verse of commentary, tells us why all this is happening. “Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, nor had the word of the LORD yet been revealed to him.” When God calls the third time, the text tells us, (vs. 8b) “…Eli discerned that the LORD was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, "Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, "Speak, LORD, for Your servant is listening.'" So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Then the LORD came and stood and called as at other times, "Samuel! Samuel!" And Samuel said, "Speak, for Your servant is listening.
Now there are several insights we can draw from what we’ve called the “Learning to Discern” phase of Samuel’s life.
First, it’s important that we see the learning process that is taking place here. Recognizing the voice of the Lord is an educational process. Every voice has its own particular qualities. We come to know those qualities by experience. Samuel came to know that the voice he was hearing was not Eli’s but rather God’s.
What if I were to ask us to close our eyes, and then I asked Laryssa to stand and say a few words? But with our eyes closed, what if Tom stood instead and spoke? All of us who know Tom or Laryssa would immediately recognize whose voice was speaking. Our experience with them has given us clues!
It’s like that with the voice of God. If we look at the Lord Jesus as the revealer of the Father, we see that His voice has the quality of authority. The Gospel writers regularly remind us that the crowds who heard Jesus speak said He spoke as One with authority. There are no tremors in this Voice! There is no timidity in this Voice! The quality of command, the quality of power is associate with God’s voice.
Another quality to God’s voice is a characteristic spirit. We would expect the voice of God to be peaceful, joyful, and all the other things we know of the Lord Jesus. Even rebuke, for example, would be more gentle admonition than harsh condemnation. We would never expect the voice of God to be hysterical, would we? This quality just doesn’t fit what we know of His spirit. James 3: 17 says, “But the wisdom from above is first pure, then peaceable, gentle, reasonable, full of mercy and good fruits, unwavering, without hypocrisy.”
Remember the illustration from Wesley Stafford, the president of Compassion International? He was alone out on the prairie east of Colorado Springs in the first week of his new position as head of this organization. In the middle of his singing and praising God and looking to the future, he thought that Compassion might be sponsoring a million children by the end of the next twenty years. An almost audible voice said to him, “That’s all?” As he whirled around to see who had spoken way out there in the middle of nowhere, a follow-up question pierced his heart: “What about all the others?” Two questions translate into gentle admonition!
Don’t we all wish that the last rebuke we received had this spirit to it?
There are other qualities to the voice of God, but these two will get us started in our own study.
Secondly, beyond coming to understand the different qualities of His voice, we are to study His ways. Part of Samuel’s responsibilities growing up in the temple was to study the ways, the dealings of God with His people. There can be no question that Samuel as a young boy spent a lot of time in study. He was in training for future responsibilities. In the New Testament, we find the young Jesus interacting with the leaders of the temple in matters related to “His father’s business.”
Do we remember seeing this element - studying His ways - in the great commandment? Remember the great commandment? “You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your strength, and with all your mind; and your neighbor as yourself.” Learning to discern His voice will require that we engage our minds in the loving of God!
As I have been reading the book of Jeremiah this week, I’ve been making notes whenever I’ve read the word “voice”. Up through the first 8 chapters, I’ve been surprised at how often this term appears in Jeremiah’s text. Too many times God says to the Israelites, “This is a nation that does not obey the voice of the Lord their God…” He calls out, “Obey My voice and I will be your God…” I am studying these references to understand more how to recognize the voice of God.
A third element in the “Learn to Discern” dimension of recognizing God’s voice is coming to appreciate circumstances. The young Samuel would always remember this particular experience. He would never forget the details of the events of this night. I like how Frederick Meyer has said it: “God’s impressions within and His word without are always corroborated by His providence around, and we should quietly wait until those three focus into one point… If you do not know what you ought to do, stand still until you do. And when the time comes for action, circumstances, like glowworms, will sparkle along your path; and you will become so sure that you are right… that you could not be surer though an angel beckoned you on.” (The Secret of Guidance) Samuel, as a young man, was learning to discern the voice of God. So must we!
Now there is a second phase beyond the “Learn to Discern” one. The next phase we want to consider this morning I’ve called “Walking the Talk.” It is found in I Samuel 16:1-13. If we were to take the time to read these thirteen verses, we would be reminded of how God used Samuel to anoint David king over Israel, replacing the incompetent Saul.
Highlighting the text, we see God saying, “Fill your horn with oil and go; I will send you to Jesse the Bethlehemite, for I have selected a king for Myself among his sons.” Now Samuel argues with God over a few details, but finally, “Samuel did what the LORD said, and came to Bethlehem. And the elders of the city came.. (and he said), Consecrate yourselves and come with me to the sacrifice.’ He also consecrated Jesse and his sons and invited them to the sacrifice.
When they entered, he looked at Eliab and thought, ‘Surely the LORD'S anointed is before Him.’ But the LORD said to Samuel, ‘Do not look at his appearance or at the height of his stature, because I have rejected him; for God sees not as man sees, for man looks at the outward appearance, but the LORD looks at the heart.’
Then Jesse called Abinadab and made him pass before Samuel. And he said, ‘The LORD has not chosen this one either.’ Next Jesse made Shammah pass by. And he said, ‘The LORD has not chosen this one either.’ Thus Jesse made seven of his sons pass before Samuel. But Samuel said to Jesse, ‘The LORD has not chosen these.’ And Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Are these all the children?’” Pause with me here a moment. What a perceptive question on Samuel’s part! God is going to pick Himself a king from among Jesse’s sons, but all the sons in sight are rejected! Can we suppose for a moment that Samuel doubted the voice of God? Is it possible that Samuel misunderstood what God had said? Our text resumes: “And he (Jesse) said, ‘There remains yet the youngest, and behold, he is tending the sheep.’ Then Samuel said to Jesse, ‘Send and bring him; for we will not sit down until he comes here.’
So he sent and brought him in. Now he was ruddy, with beautiful eyes and a handsome appearance. And the LORD said, ‘Arise, anoint him; for this is he.’ Then Samuel took the horn of oil and anointed him in the midst of his brothers; and the Spirit of the LORD came mightily upon David from that day forward. And Samuel arose and went to Ramah.”
What we see Samuel doing here is the very thing he had been learning. He is having a conversation with God. He is listening to God’s voice and he is acting in accordance with God’s instructions. He rejects Jesse’s sons that God rejects, he chooses the son that God has chosen.
Again, there are insights we can draw from this phase of Samuel’s life. First, if we want to recognize God’s voice, we must be in a position to listen. As each of the sons of Jesse passes before Samuel, the prophet thinks, “Surely this is the one!” But none of them are. Samuel is hearing the voice of God saying, “Nope, Not him, No, Rejected, Unacceptable, Not this one either.” And Samuel will not choose any son that God has not chosen. He is committed to listening.
The question we must ask ourselves, with great honesty and sincerity, is “Do I really want to hear God speak?” How many times did the Lord Jesus say, "If anyone has ears to hear, let him hear"? What are the assumptions here? There are at least two: there must be many people who have ears but they have no real desire to hear what God would say to them. Secondly, God will not speak to those who do not want to hear Him. The conclusion we can draw is that we will never learn to recognize the voice of God if we are unwilling to listen to what He has to say.
We spoke last week of Dr. James Dobson, president of Focus on the Family. It is his testimony, when he needs to know what God wants him to do, that “I get down on my knees and say, ‘Lord, I need to know what you want me to do, and I am listening. Please speak to me through my friends, books, magazines I pick up and read, and through circumstances.’”
A corollary to this issue of being willing to listen is our willingness to obey. It is not likely that God will make His voice known if we have no intention of obeying. We will never come to recognize His voice if we are not willing to do what His voice says. We see the proof of that in our third and final passage.
This final phase of Samuel’s life (or perhaps more accurately, his death) we could call, “Obeying though Disturbed.”
Our final text is I Samuel 28, and here we find King Saul in a most difficult predicament. In a nutshell, Samuel has died, the Philistines have come in force against Saul and the Israelites, and Saul doesn’t know what to do. 28:6-7 tells us, “When Saul inquired of the LORD, the LORD did not answer him, either by dreams or by Urim or by prophets. Then Saul said to his servants, ‘Seek for me a woman who is a medium, that I may go to her and inquire of her.’ And his servants said to him, ‘Behold, there is a woman who is a medium at En-dor.’” In an act of complete desperation, Samuel goes to this woman in disguise and asks to speak with Samuel. Receiving assurances of protection against doing what had been forbidden, the woman calls up Samuel from the dead.
28: 12ff – “When the woman saw Samuel, she cried out with a loud voice; and the woman spoke to Saul, saying, ‘Why have you deceived me? For you are Saul.’ The king said to her, ‘Do not be afraid; but what do you see?’ And the woman said to Saul, ‘I see a divine being coming up out of the earth.’
He said to her, ‘What is his form?’ And she said, ‘An old man is coming up, and he is wrapped with a robe.’ And Saul knew that it was Samuel, and he bowed with his face to the ground and did homage. Then Samuel said to Saul, ‘Why have you disturbed me by bringing me up?’
And Saul answered, ‘I am greatly distressed; for the Philistines are waging war against me, and God has departed from me and no longer answers me, either through prophets or by dreams; therefore I have called you, that you may make known to me what I should do.’
Samuel said, ‘Why then do you ask me, since the LORD has departed from you and has become your adversary? The LORD has done accordingly as He spoke through me; for the LORD has torn the kingdom out of your hand and given it to your neighbor, to David.
As you did not obey the LORD and did not execute His fierce wrath on Amalek, so the LORD has done this thing to you this day. Moreover the LORD will also give over Israel along with you into the hands of the Philistines, therefore tomorrow you and your sons will be with me. Indeed the LORD will give over the army of Israel into the hands of the Philistines!’”
Now as unusual as this story is, there are two things clear to me: One, Saul cannot hear God because he has developed a character of disobedience. And two, Samuel is once again hearing the voice of God and obeying. There is no way that Samuel is going to speak to Saul apart from the permission, even the commandment of God. The only other tale in all the Scriptures that even comes close to this one is the account of the rich man and Lazarus in Luke 16. In that story, the dead man, in hell, is conversing with Abraham in paradise. That too could only have happened with the express permission of God.
The point that we can make is that coming to recognize the voice of God requires a character of obedience. Further, the character we develop in this life lives beyond our death. Samuel’s obedience extends into the realm of being disturbed. We don’t know what he was doing when Saul arrived at the medium’s home in Endor, but he must have been enjoying it, for he talks to Saul about being disturbed. Another point we can make is that once we come to recognize the voice of God, we will know it for all eternity. Once we become experienced in this matter, we will just know His voice with certainty for the rest of our days. I like the way Abraham Lincoln said it: “I am satisfied that, when the Almighty wants me to do, or not to do, a particular thing, he finds a way of letting me know it.”
We are out of time, but I want to leave us with some questions to ponder. Can we learn to hear the voice of God? Yes, we can. If Samuel, as a young lad, could start down that path, so can we. Do I want God in my life to that extent? God told Samuel to do some things that were dangerous. I won’t learn to recognize His voice if I only let Him speak on my terms, you know, only comfortable, riskless, safe terms. Do I want to hear His voice? What if He calls me to go to Africa? Do I want to hear His voice even when I’m not in a crisis? Do I only want to hear His voice to get me out of trouble? Do I regularly reflect upon what has happened in my day? Do I pay attention to recurring thoughts? Is there a time in my day when I just sit quietly?
Learning to recognize the voice of God can be done! Learning to discern His will for us is full of promise of life, blessing, and adventure. It’s time for us to get started! Our future depends upon it. Our vision for His kingdom awaits it. Let’s do it.


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