God's Voice, My Agenda

Like so many other Christians, I’ve often thought how nice it would be if God would speak audibly to me every day. We know and believe, of course, that God does speak to us through the scriptures, but wouldn’t it be even better if he would speak to us more directly? Wouldn’t it be better?

Peter tells us, “No, not necessarily.” He and the other disciples, eyewitnesses to the majesty of Jesus, were some of the privileged few who “heard this very voice” of God from heaven. And yet he tells us that in the Scripture we have “the prophetic word more fully confirmed” (2 Pet 1:16-19). This does not pit the written Word of God against the spoken Word. But it does tell us that the written Word is every bit as much the “voice of God” as his audible voice, and every bit as powerful, too.

So why, then, don’t we come to the Bible with the same sense of expectation of hearing from God that we would have if we could dial him up on our phones? There are plenty of answers that are sometimes given to a question like this, but I want to suggest an often-unexpressed excuse that plagues our sinful hearts. I’ll frame it this way. If you could hear God speak to you in an audible voice today, what would you want him to say? Would you want him to say something encouraging? Would you want him to explain something that is perplexing? Would you want him to give you advice on that project you are starting or on that person you are meeting?

None of these desires are necessarily wrong; God is a person and he really does care for us. And the Scriptures give us plenty of encouragement and explanation and advice. But the Scriptures also give us a lot of commands, and I’m not sure I’m (ever) eager to hear God give me a command. I’ve got plenty of things to do. God’s voice sometimes feels like the voice of a boss that I want to avoid so my to-do list doesn’t grow any longer than it already is.

Yes, God commands when he speaks. He is our Father and he is our Lord; so we, his children and his servants are to obey what he commands. But far from the demands of an exacting boss, the commands of God are not merely for the benefit of the one who commands. They are also for our own good, freeing us from the daily grind of what I or anyone else expects of me (the work of the kingdom of man) and liberating us to find fulfillment in what God expects of me (the work of the kingdom of God). We’re not so opposed to tasks and responsibilities and expectations. Our real battle is to prioritize the tasks, responsibilities, and expectations of God’s kingdom over our own.

If we long for God’s voice to not only comfort and clarify our troubled souls but also to command our lives for a higher purpose, then as we read and meditate on the Word of God we should pay attention to the promptings of his Holy Spirit. We should expect God to give orders for our days, prayerfully committing ourselves to carry them out, even if that means leaving a few of our other tasks for another time.