If we want to hear God’s voice, we have to ask the question ‘what does God’s voice sound like?’ Dallas Willard, in his book ‘Hearing God’, says ‘Certain factors distinguish the voice of God, just as any human voice can be distinguished from another’ and says these factors involve the quality of the voice of God, the spirit of the voice of God and the content of the voice of God.
The Quality of God’s Voice
Stanley Jones says, ‘The inner voice of God does not argue, does not try to convince you. It just speaks and is self-authenticating.’ (‘A Song Of Ascents’, P 190) In the creation narrative in Genesis 1, we read ‘God said, “Let there be light” and there was light.’ (Gen 1:3) God speaks and creation happens. God speaks and things happen. God speaks and we cannot deny He has spoken. We are not always sure how we know this, but there is a weight, an impact, an authority to His voice which every other voice lacks. God speaks and something happens. Just as He created our entire universe through the power of His word and just as He sustains the universe through His powerful word (Hebrews 1:3), when He speaks to us, there is an authority which makes things happen.
The Spirit of God’s Voice
There are many voices in the world which seek to dominate our thinking. One of the chief characteristics of God’s voice is that it builds up and does not tear down. Other voices may be critical and belittle us, but God’s voice, even when it chastises us, does not leave us guilt-ridden or dejected. It’s like the ‘sting’ we get when we put an antiseptic cream on a wound; we gasp initially as the pain hits us, but then the cream does its work and we can feel the wound being healed. God’s voice will never leave us wounded beyond repair. It will always cleanse us, heal us, restore us and set us right again.
The Content of God’s Voice
Dallas Willard says ‘the content of a word that is truly from God will always conform to and be consistent with the truths about God’s nature and kingdom that are made clear in the Bible.’ (quoted in Richard Foster’s ‘Sanctuary of the Soul’ P 81-82) God does not change (Malachi 3:6) and so what He says to us will always be consistent with His revelation of Himself. We need to be soaked in Scripture so that we know as much of God’s character as we possibly can (see 1 John 4:1, Acts 17:11) False teachers, misguided enthusiasts, bigoted opinions abound and it’s very easy to be taken in by persuasive speech, powerful rhetoric and manipulative marketing, so it is imperative that we learn to recognise the content of God’s voice.