Hearing God: Is God Silent?

Hearing God: Is God Silent?

(Exodus 33:7-11; Acts 16:6-10)

10:30 am, Sun, Sept 15, 2013 Windsor UBC, J G White

In the mail last week I got my latest edition of Saltscapes magazine, and there was an article about the 1967 UFO incident in Shag Harbour.  Shag Harbour - area from which our Tidal Impact team came to us last month - this hamlet even has a little UFO museum today.  

Have you ever seen a UFO?  Do you believe earth has been visited by aliens?

Have you ever heard God speak to you, with a clear message?  And yet, for many, even many Christians, to hear messages from the Lord regularly would be considered weird, odd, unreal.  Decades ago, comedienne Lily Tomlin asked, “Why is it that when we speak to God we are said to be praying, but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?”

There is a Paradox in Prayer: we are expecting answers, asking for answers, but not expecting or almost ever hearing a voice.  

For all our lives we have been singing that the Lord tells us things and shows us the way.

Saviour, Like a Shepherd Lead Us

All the Way My Saviour Leads Me

He Leadeth Me

Lead On, O King Eternal

Jesus, Saviour, Pilot Me

Trust and Obey

Speak to Me, Lord, that I May Speak

And He Walks with Me, and He Talks with Me

What a Friend We Have in Jesus

Guide Me, O Thou Great Jehovah

But in the day-to-day lives of many, this close friendship with the Father, or Son, or Spirit, is very quiet; the talk is usually one-sided.  We may not want to admit it.

Scripture itself, the story of God’s people, expresses these moments.  Psalm 22, which Jesus quoted from the cross, begins:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?

Why are you so far from helping me,

from the words of my groaning?  

O my God, I cry by day, but you do not answer;

and by night, but find no rest. (22:1-2)

In extreme circumstances God can seem afar off.  But from day to day many believers could admit that their Lord is silent 99.44 percent of their lives.  But: God cannot be silent?

In this Year of Listening, it seems right to have a sermon series on Hearing God: how to listen to the Spirit.  I take some cues from the late Dallas Willard, American philosopher, Christian writer, Baptist.  

When Dallas was a young assistant pastor, in the church of his in-laws, one Sunday dinner was startling for him.  The meal was over, but folks lingered, savouring the last tidbits and reflecting on the morning service.  The Senior Pastor’s sermon has focused - with excited energy - on their upcoming building project of a new sanctuary.  The Pastor spoke of his vision for the church’s increased ministry.  He indicated how strongly he felt God’s guidance in the way the congregation was going, and he testified that God has spoken to him about thing that should be done.  (Willard, Hearing God, p. 16)

At the dinner table, Dallas’ wife’s grandmother seemed deep in thought.  She was a woman of unshakable faith and complete devotion.  Finally, she quietly said, “I wonder why God never speaks to me like that.”  (Ibid, p. 16)

That simple comment came like a bolt out of the blue to the young assistant pastor, Dallas, and forever changed his attitude toward glib talk about God’s speaking to us our about divine guidance. (Ibid, p. 17)

Perhaps many people truly think that some people - only some special Christians - get much of this God speaking to them.  I notice that, usually in a joking way, there is the expectation that pastors know God better others do!  

But I’ve also mentioned before the community turkey dinner Sharon and I attended a few years ago.  On the other side of me sat a woman I’d never met before.  After introducing ourselves, she asked, quite seriously, without ridicule, “Do you think you know God better than I do?”  No was my answer.  How hard it is to judge someone else’s relationship with the Lord, not to mention a complete stranger!

Alison read that great, descriptive scene from Exodus 33 of how Moses had conversation with the LORD.  This is just after Moses came down the mountain with the ten commandments, saw the uproar of everyone worshipping a golden statue, and threw down and smashed the stone tablets.  The people are rebuked by Moses, and the word of the Lord to them is that God will no longer go with them!  

Then we hear about how humble Moses would meet with God.  He went out to a special place, and spoke with God ‘face to face,’ as a with friend.  He seems to be the only one doing this, and yet, in the purpose of time, all believers are to have this kind of relationship with the holy God.  

Personal Divine communication not for special spiritual people; it is for all disciples of the Master. Years ago, Dallas Willard wrote an article for Christianity Today, asking: is Discipleship “for Super-Christians Only?”  No, of course not.  Today we ask, “Is Hearing from God for Super-Christians only?”  Again, the answer is No.  

In the biblical story of God’s people, the relationships deepen and grow.  Remember the beautiful promise in Jeremiah 31:34?  No longer shall they teach one another, or say to each other, "Know the Lord," for they shall all know me, from the least of them to the greatest, says the Lord; for I will forgive their iniquity, and remember their sin no more.

In the time of the Messiah, we hear Him, Jesus, say to his disciples,  “I have called you friends.”

In our lives of faith, we can be growing in our relationship and communication with the Holy Spirit year by year.  New ways, new language, deeper fellowship is possible.  

I am learning to use a cell phone right now, with my own mobile number…  So too I can learn that hearing from God is also for me.  Also for you. And we keep learning how.

Look again at that scene from Acts 16.  The Apostles, those first missionaries of Jesus, received guidance for travel and ministry from the Holy Spirit.  We read that Paul and Timothy set out traveling.  They were forbidden by the Holy Spirit to speak the word in Asia.  How did the Spirit forbid them?  Next they attempted to enter an area called Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.  Again, we may wonder how the men got this divine message.  When they got into the city of Troas, Paul had a vision: there stood a man of Macedonia pleading with him and saying, “Come over to Macedonia and help us.” This convinced the missionaries that God wanted them to go there.  Here we see the method - a dream - but wonder, perhaps at our own dreams: when is one from God, and when is a dream from indigestion?  From imagination?  

I’m confident that Paul and the others had clearly learned to know the Master’s voice, the leading of the Spirit.  In places like 1 Corinthians 12 we can read about the ability to distinguish between spirits, to discern what is of God and what is not.  This is an important spiritual gift to cultivate and receive from God.

Let me remind you of this Good News:  It is a reasonable expectation to hear from the Lord, and to develop a conversational relationship with God.  

Salvation is about a personal relationship with God, because of Jesus Christ, with Jesus Christ.  It is more than relying upon Jesus and His sacrifice by death to deal with our personal sin and mortality.  Salvation is a relationship with God, now, and forever.  It is a personal connection here with the Spirit of Jesus, to use Luke’s phrase.  Or, as John tells us, Christ promised His disciples, before He died, that the Spirit would be with them.  The Holy Spirit… will teach you everything, and remind you of all that I have said to you.  (14:26)

We must celebrate the everyday ways we know God speaks.  We can cultivate and learn holy conversation more and more.  It is not more far-fetched than other listening skills we naturally develop.  Not as strange as a UFO.

Brian Brown tells the story of being at the community pool with his family. Kids were screaming, playing, and splashing in the pool, music was playing, the lifeguard whistles were blowing and in the midst of the conversation, his wife shooshes him. He said, "What are you doing?"

"Shoosh, did you hear that?"

"Hear what?" he said.

"Listen!"

And over all of the noise, she had heard their youngest daughter screaming. As she listened to it, she then said, "OK, everything's alright. That's a happy scream."

He said he was blown away that, over all of the other voices, she not only recognized her child's voice but was able to identify what type of scream it was. Why? Because every day she talked with them and in the process learned the sound of their voices.

Maybe that's what it takes for us to understand His voice, that everyday communication and spending time saying to God, "Speak to me."

A parent learning the subtle sounds of her particular child is wonderful, amazing, and natural as can be.  The Spirit will give us super-natural skills to hear and know Himself.

We sang Rev. George Croly’s hymn, Spirit of God, Descend Upon My Heart.  This song prays, in such a personal way, for simple, clear fellowship with the Lord.

I ask no dream, no prophet ecstasies;

No sudden rending of the veil of clay;

No angel visitant, no op’ning skies;

But take the dimness of my soul away. (1854)

It is the taking away of the dimness of our souls that we ask for from the Heavenly Father.  Let us not seek messages from God in dreams and visions, with the visit of a celestial angel, the opening of the heavens.  These things happen: unusually.  But let us seek and learn the simplicity of the Shepherd’s voice, daily, as sheep who can learn this.  

God is not silent.  The ways of speaking and hearing are not purely physical - sound waves on the eardrum or things we can see with our eyes - but if God is personal, there is personal communication.  Two-way communication!

A twelve year old boy became a Christian during revival meetings. The next week at school his friends questioned him about the experience. "Did you see a vision?" asked one friend. "Did you hear God speak?" asked another. The youngster answered “no.” "Well, how did you know you were saved?" they asked. The boy searched for an answer and finally he said, "It’s like when you catch a fish, you can't see the fish, or hear the fish; you just feel him tugging on your line. I just felt God tugging on my heart."

As I said, last week, I went fishing in August. That’s almost as amazing for me as finally getting a cell phone.  I felt the mackerel tugging, and reeled it in.  

This fall, let’s seek our God to become more confident in how the Lord tugs at our hearts, and minds, and bodies.  How we can listen and hear God.  It is not as strange as seeing and believing in a UFO.  And, If I can learn to fish, if I can learn to use a cell phone, I can learn to hear God more.  And so can you.  Next Sunday we’ll check in on How God Speaks Today.

And maybe soon we be singing Chris Tomlin’s hymn, In the Secret...

I want to know You,

I want to hear Your voice

I want to know You more.

I want to touch You,

I want to see Your face

I want to know You more.