Speak Lord, I'm Listening
Introduction

Tuning in to God

       Much of this book was written on airplanes and in places like Kenya, Brazil and India. Nearly every weekend I find myself in another state or nation, as I travel and teach from the Bible. I’m amazed at how people in different cultures have learned to hear the voice of God in so many different ways. Then, one day it dawned on me. I was under the impression that the way I had learned to hear God speak to me (from my background and culture) is the same way everyone else hears his voice. I was sadly mistaken!

       So, during the past few years, I have been on a personal journey, compiling the many ways God speaks to his people from all over the world. Not surprisingly, I realized I had been somewhat narrow-minded in how I thought the Lord could speak to me. I was missing his voice many times. He had been speaking to me over and over again, and I didn’t even realize it! It was similar to young Samuel in the Bible who heard someone speaking, not recognizing it was God. Samuel had not yet learned to recognize the voice of his heavenly Father.1

God’s distinct voice stands out above the noise

       The following story reminds me of the time, over 40 years ago, when I heard a voice that begged my attention. It was at a friend’s house where I could hear the muffled voices of a group of girls having a party upstairs. Among the muted sounds of the girls’ laughing and talking, I kept hearing a reoccurring, distinct voice that captured my attention. “Whose voice is that?” I inquired of a friend. He knew the girl’s voice because it was a friend of his—LaVerne.  It was the first time I had heard her voice, and I was intrigued. In fact, I was so intrigued that I married her seven years later, and now I know her voice anywhere.

       Jesus told his disciples that sheep follow the shepherd, “because they know his voice.”2 How did they know his voice? They had learned from experience to trust the voice of their shepherd.

       To hear God’s voice clearly, we must have a growing love relationship with God and trust him. It’s that simple. The more intimately we get to know God, the more intimately we will recognize his voice through the noise of life. 

       The Bible is filled with examples of ordinary people who heard the voice of a mighty God speaking to them. Adam and Eve walked and talked with God in the Garden of Eden. The Lord startled Moses at a flaming bush in the desert when he called him to deliver the Israelites out of the bondage of Egypt. God advised Joshua to be strong and courageous and gave David fresh strategies for each battle against his enemies. The Lord told Mary she would be the mother of Jesus. God affirmed Jesus at his baptism through a voice from heaven, and Paul was thoroughly transformed by the Lord’s voice on the Damascus Road.

       God delights in revealing himself to us. He promises to answer if we call on him. “Call to me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”3 When we pray, we engage ourselves in conversation with God, and God responds.

       God has heard and answered my call many times during my lifetime. He spoke to me about my need for Jesus at age 11 when I first gave my life to Christ. He showed me I was a hypocrite at age 18, causing me to repent and submit to his Lordship. When I was a young adult, the Lord spoke to me and my fiancée to get married and become missionaries. We obeyed.

       In 1980, the Lord spoke to me about starting a new kind of church built through small groups. My wife, LaVerne, and I gathered a few others together and started a new church that grew into a worldwide church movement.

       These are only a few major highlights. God has made himself known to me countless times over the years. He has spoken to me on thousands of occasions in a variety of ways.

       Sometimes I have found it difficult to hear his voice clearly. Many times I thought I had heard the Lord’s voice only to find out I had actually missed it. At other times I felt like I was tuning in a radio to a particular frequency—but I had to ignore the whole mass of static and strange voices coming in, in order to zero in on the one for which I was searching. There are so many thoughts running through my mind. What is God’s voice and what is not his voice?

       I have found, after forty years of learning to listen to the Lord’s voice, that God is speaking; we’re just not always listening. I invite you on a journey with me as I share with you what I have learned about the many ways the Lord speaks to us, including ways that we may often miss. There is nothing more important than learning to hear his voice because one word from God will change your life forever!

Selective hearing?

       Even Jesus’ disciples did not always hear correctly or recognize his voice. When Jesus joined two of his disciples on the road to Emmaus and began to talk to them, they didn’t recognize him even though they had walked with him, talked with him and eaten meals with him for the past three years.4 Perhaps they were so immersed in the details of the dark events of the past few days that they couldn’t hear clearly.

       I imagine there was a good chance they did not see Jesus because they simply did not expect to see him. He appeared to them in an unfamiliar form, at an unexpected time, and their ears and eyes remained closed.

       Before we criticize these disciples, we must ask ourselves, “How often do we experience the same loss of hearing today?” Could it be that the Lord sometimes speaks to us in ways that are unfamiliar to us, and we don’t recognize his voice? We lament that we can’t hear him speak, but in reality he has been speaking all along. Could it be that our understanding of hearing his voice is limited? Maybe we have preconceived ideas of how God will or will not  communicate with us, and they limit us in hearing from God when he speaks.

       I’m convinced we should not get too selective about the method in which the Lord speaks to us. Instead, we need to stay open for the Lord to speak to us any way he desires. I spend much of my time traveling throughout the world teaching the Bible. One of the things I miss most when traveling is being with my family. I really miss spending time with my wife, LaVerne. However, because of the technologically advanced age in which we live, I can usually communicate with her regardless of where I am in the world. I don’t care whether the message comes by phone, fax, email, letter, or by a note, I just want to hear from her.

       In the same way God desires to build a relationship with us. One way our relationship is built is by having ongoing dialogue with him. It is talking and listening to each other. From the very beginning of time, God desired a two-way communication between him and mankind. Adam and Eve were tuned to God as they “...heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day.…”5

       This is how God wants to relate to us today as well. It is God’s desire to walk with and to communicate with his children. He longs for you to hear his loving, distinct voice.

       In this book, we will explore how the Lord speaks to us in more than fifty different ways, grouped in eight general life settings. In the first chapter, for example, we will start with the first and most important way of hearing God speak—through his written word, the Bible. This is the purest and surest way that God speaks to us. Jesus said, “If you continue in My word, then you are truly disciples of Mine; and you will know the truth, and the truth will make you free.”6 We will never go off track if we obey the word of God.

        Throughout the coming chapters, let’s seek God together, discover the ways in which we have experienced his voice, and learn about the many ways to hear him above all the noise of life. He is waiting.

1. I Samuel 3:7

2. John 10:4

3. Jeremiah 33:3

4  Luke 24:13-32

5. Genesis 3:8

6. John 8:32 (NAS)