My sheep hear my voice (I)

After many months of struggle when I finally surrendered to the Lord many years ago at the tender age of 29, the difference was pronounced. That side of conversion I knew He was real, and in the newness and freshness of it all, I heard from Him all the time! But the fellowship that I'd landed in never talked about hearing from God, and one of the leaders told me “You intimidate me when you say God told you such and such!” While there are a couple of things to say here, this morning I want to concentrate on the expectation the Lord has for us that we hear His voice.

Three times in John 10 Jesus talks about his sheep knowing his voice (verses 4,16 and 27). And when something is repeated, it is because it is important. On two of these occasions, Jesus says of the sheep that hear His voice and they follow Him. And the two things are closely related. In particular they follow Him, because they know His voice (verse 5). But the converse is also true, they know His voice because they follow Him. In the same context Jesus makes it clear that there are other voices. In particular the thief (the evil One) has a voice (verse 10a).

In fact there are three “voices” that we “hear.” I’m not talking about audible voices, although I do not exclude God speaking in an audible voice. The boy Samuel heard an audible voice (1 Samuel 3:1-8)! What I am talking about are first of all our own thoughts, then the thoughts of the enemy the thief, and finally the genuine voice of the Shepherd (Jesus verse 11). And perhaps the reason the many churches shy away from teaching and practicing hearing the voice of God, is because it’s far too easy to confuse the various voices. This morning I want to say two things. The first is that the thief came only to kill and to steal and to destroy. So if it’s about killing, stealing and destroying, it’s not the shepherd’s voice. The second thing is to emphasize that accurately hearing the voice of the shepherd and following Him in absolute surrender, are inseparable.

Father, Your Word tells us that we need to test all things (1 Thessalonians 5:21 ). And this is never more true than when we think we have heard from You. Using a different metaphor, Jesus tells us that He only does what He sees the Father doing (John 5:19), and then He tells us that we will do greater things than He because he goes to the Father (John 14:12). I’m not there yet, but You tell us these things to challenge us to make them our goal, things to aim for. And we cannot even start to do this, if we don’t hear from You or “see” what You are doing. I’m fond of saying that there is always more, and this is never more true than in this area. So once again I pray “Speak Lord your servant is listening” in Jesus Name Amen