Following on from the Bible study’s discussion on hearing God’s voice and being guided by the Holy Spirit, I have been pondering on the voices we hear (you have to do something while swimming… it’s a lonely sport!)
Schizophrenia is a mental disorder characterised by a disintegration of thought processes and of emotional responsiveness, often manifested by auditory hallucinations, paranoid or bizarre delusions, or disorganised speech and thinking. And yet there are always different voices vying for our attention every day, even if we don’t class ourselves as mentally ill or schizophrenic! What are those voices? How do we discern between them? How do we learn to train ourselves to be godly?
Our own voice, our own thoughts
Though we may not talk to ourselves in an audible voice, there are thoughts running through our minds all the time which shape our beliefs and actions. We have a soundtrack going on in our minds constantly, sometimes turned down so low we fail to recognise it. Generally speaking, depending on our personality and upbringing and the different circumstances we face, the voice can be saying good things or bad things, true things or lies.
There are basically two extremes we can fall into with this voice. The first is to have an over-inflated opinion of ourselves, believing ourselves to be pretty good, not really in need of much change, rather like Prince Edward in the film ‘Enchanted’ who, when asked if he liked himself, says smugly “What’s not to like?” Paul warns against this attitude when he says “Do not think of yourself more highly than you ought, but rather think of yourself with sober judgment” (Romans 12:3) If our voice is always raising ourselves up and putting other people down, there could well be a problem.
The other extreme is to have too low an opinion of ourselves, a “Woe is me!” mentality, a false humility, poor self-esteem, no regard for ourselves at all. People with this kind of ‘voice’ typically run themselves down all the time, never believing they can do anything good at all. This voice can seem very persuasively spiritual, since humility is a Biblical concept, but there is a world of difference between true humility and the insincere, needy, desperate-for-affirmation lowliness of never believing yourself to be worth anything at all, when God clearly values us, despite our sins and failings, enough to send Christ to die for us.
Other people
Every day other people say things to us and about us and it can be hard to distinguish between truth and lies here as well. If we are fortunate, we have people around us who will build us up and encourage us whilst also being truthful. All too often, though, the voices of others confirm either our own arrogance or our own desperation; they tear down rather than building up. As Casting Crowns vividly say in their powerful song ‘Voice of Truth’,
‘But the waves are calling out my name and they laugh at me
Reminding me of all the times I’ve tried before and failed
The waves they keep on telling me time and time again:
“Boy, you never win,
You never win.” ‘
In addition to the voice of people we actually know (friends, family, colleagues, neighbours), there are all those other voices out there: celebrities, advertising, authors, actors and so on. It can be hard not to be bombarded by all these voices, all telling us different things, all clamouring for our attention.
The enemy
Christians have an enemy, whether we like it or not, whether we acknowledge it or not. Peter tells us “Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” (1 Pet 5:8) One way that he seeks to devour us is through that insidious voice, sowing seeds of doubt, discouragement and despair into our minds. Just as he did with Eve in the Garden of Eden, asking that apparently innocent question, “Did God really say…?”, the devil asks uncomfortable questions and seeks to undermine faith and trust at every opportunity. His voice can be very persuasive and seem very truthful, but ultimately we have to understand that he is a liar and the Father of lies (John 8:44) When he lies, Jesus says, he is speaking his native language. We have to learn to discern those lies, to weigh up what we hear and not be deceived. When the devil used God’s own Word to tempt Jesus in the wilderness, Jesus could defeat his lies by the truth, knowing the full context of the Scriptures, knowing God’s will and heart for his life so that the plausible-sounding words did not divert Him from doing the Father’s will.
God’s Voice
Finally, the voice we need to hear and long to hear is God’s voice. We have the promise that His sheep will hear and know His voice (John 10:16). We have the assurance that God’s Spirit will lead us (Rom 8:14) Several times in the early chapters of Revelation comes the phrase “Whoever has ears, let them hear what the Spirit says to the churches.” (Rev 2:7, 11) Clearly, God can and does speak to His people – in dreams, in visions, in impressions, in words, in an audible voice at times. Moreover, because of the very character of God, we know that what He says is true. He is truth and what He says is true. He is good and what He says will do us good. He is love and what He says is said out of love.
That’s not to say that it is easy to hear God’s voice or that what He says always makes sense to us! (We can waste a lot of time trying to make sense of it at times!) But as we pray, meditate, read God’s Word, and ultimately learn to listen, we will hear that Voice of Truth, telling us a different story, telling us ‘Do not be afraid!’ (hundreds of time in the Bible) and we can learn the joy of fellowship with the Spirit.
Casting Crowns say
“Out of all the voices calling out to me
I will choose to listen and believe the Voice of truth”
We have a choice as to which voice we listen to. That’s what training ourselves to be godly is really about. May we learn to listen more to the Voice of Truth than to all the other voices calling out to us.
Listen to the song here: