Hearing God's Voice

How do I make the right decisions in life? What does God want me to do or not do? Where should I live? Where should I work? Who should I be friends with? Who do I stay away from? Where is he leading me? The questions of life are difficult to answer. Many seek wisdom in the word, as they should, but still wonder, what is God really saying to me?

In our prayer journey, we come to a topic of prayer, that can help us answer these difficult questions of life. But first, we must head up the mountain.

Have you ever gone up onto a mountain to pray? That sounds pretty amazing actually. Pack a few bags, get your hiking gear on, and start climbing. And I love the purpose behind it, not necessarily to sight see, or for exercise, but the purpose is spiritual, to meet with God.

The scripture we’re going to look at today, as we continue our prayer series, is going to lead us up a mountain side with Jesus, and three of his disciples, to have an encounter that will change them all forever.

We’ve examined different forms of prayer in this series, prayer as relationship, prayer as intercession for others, praying in faith, and praying in power.

Now today, we come to a moment when the spiritual reality of our universe becomes so very clear. Often in prayer we are doing the talking, but today we examine the moment when God speaks back to us.

Today we examine Luke 9:28-36. Previous to this moment, Jesus had explained to the disciples that if they wanted to follow Him, they would have to take up their crosses and follow Him. Remember that? But Jesus hinted, some of those who were listening would see God’s kingdom in power.

So begins our scripture for today. Verse 28: “28 About eight days after Jesus said this, he took Peter, John and James with him and went up onto a mountain to pray.”

Jesus takes his inner circle up the hill. When I think about Peter, John, and James, they are three radically different people. Peter was outspoken, extroverted, loud, inspiring, and bold. John was introverted, more quiet, deep thinker, creative, contemplative. James was outspoken, firm, intense, and fiery. Which reminds you of yourself?

Just like Jesus brings these three disciples up the mountain, God may from time to time call you into a time of deep prayer. It doesn’t have to be up a mountain, it could be in the bedroom or living room.

But you’ll get a sense that the Lord wants to speak to you. And I encourage you, if you sense that hunger from the Lord, to speak to you, go into a time of deep prayer.

For many of us today, that may be a bit of a foreign concept. For some here today, our prayers may be kind of short. But I want you to consider the possibility of a deeper prayer time. Maybe you feel you don’t have the time, but, consider time spent scrolling on the phone, or watching television. Maybe we have more time than we might realize.

That’s the first key for today, watch for a call from God, that he desires to meet with you. You’ll feel the hunger and draw in your heart, obey it.

So Jesus and his three disciples are climbing this mountain, getting higher and higher, the sun is shining, the wind is blowing, and up they go. Finally Jesus finds a place, and he kneels down and begins to pray. He prays and prays, as the disciples watch.

Verse 29: “29 As he was praying, the appearance of his face changed, and his clothes became as bright as a flash of lightning.”

Can you imagine this moment? They’ve been with Jesus for a while now, they’ve seen him heal people, multiple the bread and fish, and they’ve wondered, who is this man? But now, this moment comes, when they see something none of them will ever forget.

For a brief moment, they see Jesus as he truly is. When Jesus put on flesh his true glory was veiled. But in this moment, the disciples see behind the veil.

His body glows like lightning. I was at a coffee shop with my friend pastor Josh, and we were talking and suddenly there was a lightning strike out the window, and I saw it! If you’ve ever seen lightning, it lights up the sky. Jesus’ glows with brightness!

How does this relate to us? When we pray, we enter a different world.

We begin to see true reality. This world is filled with many deceptions, and our perceptions of situations we face are often skewed, or completely wrong. Our desires get in the way, and we can’t see clearly the right thing to do.

When we enter prayer with God, God begins to speak to us, and our perception is adjusted to match with actual reality.

You ever been upset with someone and you meet with them, and by the end you realize it was all just a misunderstanding? You weren’t perceiving reality accurately, and the encounter with the person adjusted your perspective.

This kind of prayer we’re talking about today is all about encounter with God. Shane and I were talking about this at prayer meeting, you might say it is like meditation as we approach God, we meditate on His word, but at some point as we approach in deep prayer, it becomes encounter.

As we encounter the real God, we perceive things we couldn’t otherwise know. And then we leave the encounter changed.

As Jesus transformed into shining light, something else suddenly happened.

Verse 30-31, “Two men, Moses and Elijah, appeared in glorious splendor, talking with Jesus. 31 They spoke about his departure, which he was about to bring to fulfillment at Jerusalem.”

Moses and Elijah appear there with Jesus, also appearing in glorious brightness. Can you imagine this moment? The two greats of the old testament, Moses and Elijah, speaking with Jesus face to face!

And the disciples get to hear a very special conversation, for they are speaking to Jesus about his soon coming departure, the word in Greek, is 'exodos.' The time was quickly coming, that Jesus would be taken from this world, into the world beyond our world.

Too often I think we view this current world, planet earth, as the most important place. But really, our travel through this earth is very brief, compared with infinite time, in either heaven or hell, this life is nothing more than a short bus ride to a destination we can’t yet imagine. Too often I worry we mistake the bus ride for the main reality, when it’s simply a passage to the permanent place.

When we pray, and we learn to listen for God’s voice, we also, like the disciples will get to “overhear” important information. The disciples get to listen in on a conversation between Jesus and Moses and Elijah, about Jesus’ coming departure from the Earth.

If we’re listening carefully. But the disciples were having some issues.

Verse 32, “Peter and his companions were very sleepy, but when they became fully awake, they saw his glory and the two men standing with him.”

As Jesus was praying, they fell asleep. And they wake up, to see Jesus shining like a star, and the two greats of the old testament standing there with him. I love how scripture doesn’t shy away from some somewhat embarrassing moments for the disciples.

In talking about hearing God’s voice in prayer, I must admit that it’s tricky. Particularly if we are desperate for a particular answer to the prayer.

If I’m praying for a sick friend, and I’m asking the Lord, are they going to be ok? I might be tempted, as I wait for an answer from the Lord, to fill in the answer for God, and say to myself, yes, she will be fully healed. That is the danger.

When we reach a quiet time in prayer, and we begin to listen for God’s voice in silence, how do we discern God’s voice from our own voice?

I try to remind myself, that the most important fact is this: I want to know what God is saying, even if it’s not what I want to hear. Because what God says is always right.

Next, verse 33: “As the men were leaving Jesus, Peter said to him, “Master, it is good for us to be here. Let us put up three shelters—one for you, one for Moses and one for Elijah.” (He did not know what he was saying.)”

Peter expects that Moses and Elijah will stay. As Luke the author notes in parentheses, Peter didn’t really know what he was saying.

It’s a good reminder, we can’t bring God down to Earth, we can only engage with Him in prayer, and then continue to live our lives.

We can’t live in the moment of encounter forever, one day we will, when we’re in heaven, the joy of encounter will never end there, but for now, we spend time with God in a different way. As we travail through the Earth his full presence is veiled to us.

Next, verse 34: “While he was speaking, a cloud appeared and covered them, and they were afraid as they entered the cloud.”

Long ago when Moses had climbed Mt Sinai to receive the law, he entered into a cloud of God’s glory. And now in this moment, the disciples are surrounded by a cloud of God’s glory.

And they were afraid, can you imagine a cloud of God’s glory surrounding you? Truly amazing!

The cloud symbolizes God’s presence. It begins with the fear of the Lord, as they enter, they tremble before a holy God. And I’m sure they are filled with amazement.

Something similar happens when we pray. As we go deeper and deeper, seeking God’s face, and drawing near to Him, we begin to sense His presence, like a cloud of glory all around us.

This all takes time. It takes patience, as we talk to God, and declare His word, and worship Him, and we begin to pray for people we love. But then we must seek His face.

That’s probably the biggest issue with hearing God’s voice. We have to seek His face. If we begin to seek God’s face, quietly, simply in prayer, we will begin to hear His voice.

Next, verse 35: A voice came from the cloud, saying, “This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.”

The disciples, surrounded by a bright cloud, stunned, amazed, shocked, standing there with Jesus in the midst of this cloud of God’s glory, hear a voice speak within the cloud.

God the Father speaks about Jesus, saying of Him, he is my son, I have chosen Him, listen to Him.

The disciples no doubt are amazed, and realize, Jesus really is the Son of God. He is not just a man, he is God almighty. We’ve gotta listen to Him.

For us today, we don’t often hear God’s actual audible voice. It’s not impossible, many have. Though I think that sort of thing is rare.

But what I’m talking about with hearing God’s voice, appears in a different way.

And I want to be clear, when we talk about hearing God’s voice, it doesn’t just happen in prayer. It can happen in church, while reading the Bible, even while we’re going about our day, and God desires to communicate something to us. He can speak to us through another person, or an internal nudge or sense.

God speaks to us in numerous ways and one of the treasures of the Christian life is learning to listen for those unique ways in which God speaks to us.

But in regard to hearing God’s voice in prayer, most often, when I’m in deep prayer, and I’ve gotten past the initial stages, and I’m in deeper, seeking God’s face, and I’m starting to get quiet, most often the way I begin to hear God’s voice is through an internal reality.

Most often it appears in one of two ways, first, an internal knowing. It’s hard to explain, but you just sort of know something that you didn’t know before. God reveals it to your heart. It’s a revelation from God, a truth God places in our hearts, and suddenly we know.

I’ll give an example, sometimes we will think of someone and have an instant knowing that we need to pray for them.

When I’m having a hard day, I’ll get several text messages from people, God has sent a heart-knowing to them, and they reach out to see if I’m ok, and they pray for me.

Similarly in hearing God’s voice in prayer, we may receive a heart revelation, a heart download, of knowing. Suddenly, we know.

Secondly, God may speak in a soft, quiet internal voice. You may even see the words appear in your mind. This I think is a bit less common, but it does happen.

The still small voice that Elijah heard in the cave whispered gently to him, that he ought to continue his mission, despite all the hurt he had been through.

So be open to a soft internal voice, from the Lord.

One thing to be aware of is, God’s voice will always align with His written word.

If God’s voice told me to go hurt someone, I can know that’s not God’s voice, it’s the enemy, and I’m going to rebuke that. Also, if God’s voice just so happens to keep telling me to do whatever I want, I can know that’s not God’s voice, but my own internal voice, trying to be in control instead of letting God.

God’s voice will always guide us in the right direction. Be cautious, if you’ve felt you’ve heard something from God, take it to the Lord in prayer, take it to scripture, and take it to your pastor and friends. Because sometimes we can mishear God.

When Chelsey and I felt the call to leave The Salvation Army and join the Nazarene church, yes we heard God’s voice, but we took huge steps to confirm, through prayer and fasting, consultation, and testing of the word, to see if God would open doors. And God kept confirming His word to us.

So the plan is simple. We go into prayer, we seek God’s presence, we get quiet with Him, and we listen for His voice. We may not hear anything, but if we do, one of the best things is to write down what you perceived from the Lord, and then begin to seek confirmation.

Once you've received the word, you'll get a sense of conclusion. The moment has passed, and now it’s time to come down from the mountain.

Lastly, verse 36: “When the voice had spoken, they found that Jesus was alone. The disciples kept this to themselves and did not tell anyone at that time what they had seen.”

The disciples heard God speak. Now they return to the lands below, changed forever by the things they experienced.

Sometimes after I’ve heard a word from God, I’ll try to stay there longer, and I begin to shoot question after question to God, trying to get more information, but that is not wise. Don’t keep trying to gain new details, simply accept what was shared, and begin to chew on it.

But now comes one final factor to consider about hearing God’s voice. Whatever you heard from God, you now have a duty to use that information in the right way. Sometimes that's a blessing, sometimes it can feel like a burden. But don’t hide what you’ve learned, use it for God’s glory. He told you for a reason.

Let's review the process of Hearing God's Voice:

We pray.

We wait.

We listen.

We encounter.

We hear His voice.

We are transformed.

We leave changed.

Now we use what we’ve learned for His glory.