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HEARING GOD’S VOICE SERIES
THE
AUDIBLE VOICE OF GOD
In this message, we want to talk about the audible voice of Holy
Spirit. In the book of Acts, we have an incident that we will look at. We will
bring certain incidents together. We will include some passages from John and
some from I Samuel to see the audible voice of God. God does speak audibly
although God does not speak audibly many times. But when we talk about audible,
it is more or less a spiritual voice that has a side effect on the natural sound
waves or that produces certain sound waves in the natural. Sometimes the voice
is discernable but some times, it is indiscernible.
Please understand that we are touching on the 5 percent area of the
normal way the Spirit operates; 95 percent of the time the Holy Spirit speaks
through the inward witness and the inward voice of the Holy Spirit. The other 5
percent are what we call the spectacular. All 100 percent are supernatural but
some supernatural things are not quite that spectacular. Like for example when
we speak in tongues and we just come before God, that is supernatural but it’s
not quite so spectacular. And in the same manner, we see that there are some
things that are very spectacular, and audible voice is very spectacular. I mean
it’s not every day that God will speak with His audible voice, lightening
flashing, thunder roaring, earth shaking, angels singing
and the booming voice of God comes down and says, “Thus says the Lord of
Hosts.” It’s not every day but yet the audible voice can be heard but not
understood. That is the amazing thing if you understand that the audible voice
of God can occur. In other words, there is a spiritual vibration caused by the
spiritual voice speaking. And it affects and has a side effect on the natural
realm and there are some natural voices that are heard where some people could
hear it and not understand it. Some can hear it and think it’s
some thing else. It doesn’t occur every day. So after this
teaching when you go out and you hear a sound like woo, woo, don’t automatically
say that it’s the audible voice of God. On the other hand, we realize
that maybe God wants to speak to us that we may have missed out. This is the
purpose of this teaching.
Acts 9 we have Paul who was not an apostle
yet but called to be an apostle. On his way to
He heard the voice of the Lord saying,
“Saul, Saul, why do you persecute Me?” Then Paul says,
"Who are you, Lord?" The Lord says, “I am Jesus.” That was
frightening for him. He was against Jesus. He was after Jesus’ disciples. And
here Jesus said, “I am Jesus.” Then Jesus began to speak to him about his life,
about his ministry. We believe that Saul was born again at the same time. How
do we know that he was born again? No. 1 when he addresses the Lord, he called
Him Lord. No. 2 the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned him to the ministry. In Acts
26, Paul was sharing his testimony and he said how Jesus Christ sent him to be
a witness. Jesus said that He has called him to be a minister onto the Gentiles
to whom now He sends him. Jesus will never send an unbeliever. So obviously,
something has happened - Paul was now born again. At the very instant when he
met Jesus there was that glory that came, he responded, and there was this born
again experience the mystery of God. That is the second reason. The third
reason why we believe that he is born again is that when Ananias came to see
Saul and he was at
But as he heard this audible voice of God,
there were other people with Saul. On the way, there when God spoke to him
something happened to his companions.
Acts 9:7 The men who were traveling
with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. They heard
a voice but they saw no one. That is insufficient for teaching we need Acts 22
in order to give more background before we can draw some principles from that. In
Acts 22 Paul in sharing his testimony in verse 7 And I fell to the ground
and heard a voice saying to me, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” And I
answered, ”Who are you, Lord?” And he said I to me, “I
am Jesus of
But his next phase is interesting when you
compare to Acts 9. It says in verse 9 Now
those who were with me saw the light but did not hear the voice of the One who
was speaking to me. Isn’t it funny
in Acts 9 it says they heard the voice and in Acts 22 it says they did not hear
the voice. Thus, the bible contradicts itself, no. Every time you think there
was a contradiction, it is more because there is a revelation. When you find
the revelation involved, it will harmonize the seemingly contradictory
scriptures. The scriptures do not contradict at all.
You will find in some scriptures it tells us that Judas went and hang himself. It’s in the gospel. Then in the book of Acts chapter one it tells us that Judas fell down and his bowels gushed out and he died. The question is how did Judas die. Some times when you witness to people, they ask, how did Judas die? How Judas died is not concerned with you right now. Then when you witness to some people they ask you, where did Cain get his wife. Where did Cain get his wife is another question but where are you going after this life is a more important question. When you are right there on the brink of eternity, you are about to die off not knowing what will happen in eternity and you are asking where did Cain get his wife. Get saved first then find out where. So here is a seeming contradiction but that is not. Incidentally, Cain got his wife from one of the descendants of Adam because in those days when the bible is silent it does not mean that nothing was happening. None of the daughters of Adam were recorded. And in those times, when even one chapter has passed in the book of Genesis, it could some times mean about one hundred years. As far as Judas was concerned, some bright Alec says that when he hanged himself the rope was a bit thin. It broke and he fell down on his stomach because he possibly was heavier on that part and there was a sharp rock underneath where he was hanging and it pierced him right on the stomach. But if you study the bible language, the word hang is actually in the infinity tense. They should have put the word “to” there. He went to hang. Possibly, it never happened at all. He went to hang himself. Put in the incidents together as he was there in a hurry thinking to hang himself in remorse and in guilt, with ropes all over the place he tripped over and there were sharp rocks all over the place and he burst out and he died. He went to hang but he didn’t hang himself yet before he fell. Anyway, that is another possibility.
Here is where Acts 9 says they heard the
voice. Acts 22 tells us they did not hear the voice. In the Greek, there is an
interesting ending to the “phone” which is the word voice. “Akouo” is the Greek word for the word
hear. What happened is they used a special ending in the ”akouo”
in Acts 9 to mean they heard some thing without understanding. When you tie it
back to Acts 22 where it says they did not hear the voice, it means that they
did not discern the voice and what he was speaking. You could hear a sound
without discerning what it means. It could be a voice that is speaking in
discernable language but you did not hear the language and all the enunciation
of the language in proper sound. Therefore, you could not comprehend and
understand. The audible voice of Jesus just sounded like a sound to them. They
heard of course Paul’s conversation. They never heard the voice in a true
sense. They may not even have known that it was somebody talking.
That is not the first time that such a
thing occurred. In the book of John chapter 12:28 Father, glorify Thy name.
Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it
again.” The crowd standing by heard it and said that it had thundered. They
didn’t hear any voice they only heard a thunder. That’s all they heard. They
just heard some sound and they possibly wouldn’t know that it was a voice
speaking. Some of them could have heard some sort of words. This was the other
statement some of them made it say, “An angel has spoken to Him”. Jesus and His
disciples heard the actual voice that’s how they could record this.
Spiritual Condition to Hear the Audible Voice
That seems strange to us because it is the
same voice and how can people hear it differently? The audible voice of God is
still a spiritual voice. Because it’s still a spiritual voice depending on the
spiritual condition or state of the hearer, they may not be able to discern it.
Some people think that you will always be able to pick the audible voice up and
discern it with the natural hearing. No, there still need to be a spiritual
state or condition to hear. If God were to speak audibly right now, to the
whole church and we were to hear the voice of God proclaiming, “Glorify Me,”
some of us will still not hear it. Although it’s called the audible voice of
God, it’s still the spiritual voice that needs spiritual discernment, spiritual
perception, and spiritual position to hear that voice. Otherwise, we may just
say it thundered. Somebody else say, “I heard that voice saying, ‘Glorify Me,’
and they may get into an argument. They would think it’s your imagination.
It still takes faith even though it could
be an audible voice. Some of us are wishing for the audible voice then we don’t
need faith any more. No, you still need faith. Because there will still be
those who cannot hear the audible voice. If you are not in the spiritual
position even though the audible voice comes, it will be mumbled up. We will
not be able to discern it. We will just say it thundered. Those who heard the
voice we will say that they are imagining. The bible says there is actual voice
speaking to Jesus. And there was also the voice of the Lord Jesus speaking to
the apostle Paul and the rest didn’t hear it. They couldn’t discern the voice.
It says they did not hear the voice.
What a strange occurrence in the audible
voice? We began to see here that the spiritual audible voice of God could only
be discerned based on our spiritual position. Sometimes we need a certain
preparation to hear it. And that’s where we want to see what are
the conditions. We don’t just want to hear it. We want to understand
what we hear. We want to hear with understanding. We want to be able to receive
the impartation that the voice is bringing forth. Remember this is not the
common way that God speaks. But He may and He does from time to time. He can speaks in signs.
When William Branham was ministering at a
certain place and he was being baptized there was a voice that came as he came
out from the water. An angel spoke and people saw a huge cloud that was in a
figure of the Lord Jesus. And even the natural meteorology department said it’s
a phenomenal cloud unheard and unseen before. But the thing that is interesting
is that somebody else who sees the same natural phenomena cannot see the spiritual
image. Even though they could be looking at the exact thing, they could not see
the spiritual image. Neither could they even hear the spiritual image. That’s
the strange thing for the audible voice of God is still in the spiritual realm.
It only has what I call a side effect in the natural world.
When Elijah was on the mountain the bible
tells us that he heard that still small voice. And when we read that scripture
in I Kings chapter 19 we think that if we were there we could hear it. Not
necessary so. I Kg. 19:11 And he said, “Go
forth, and stand upon the mount before the Lord.” And behold, the Lord passed
by, and a great and strong wind rent the mountain, and broke in pieces the
rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind, and after the wind an
earthquake; but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a
fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a still small voice.
There was a lot of noise up there although there was nobody else but
Elijah. Strong winds are not silent. Strong winds are noisy. If you have ever
sat under a tree especially certain types of tree when a strong wind is
blowing, it sounds some thing like people talking. There are some spiritual
sounds that sound like noise to the natural. Just like if you are in a
graveyard at mid-night and you are not really strong in the Lord. I can assure
you that there are natural sounds you hear which you think is something else,
perhaps some ghosts having a conference.
So there were this strong winds and it blew through the place. It broke the rocks so the rocks were falling; the winds were howling and then the earth was quaking. And there was this still small voice. It takes great discernment to know that is not a pussycat that got lost in the mountain. Elijah heard that still small voice. I want you to notice some thing here. When he first heard it, he didn’t discern the voice yet. In spite of all these noises, he heard a noise that was not just natural a still small voice. And God apparently didn’t speak to him at all yet until he walked out in response to that voice. So, he must have heard some sound that he could discern, although he could not discern what it was yet.
The bible tells us in I Kg. 19:13 When
Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at
the entrance of the cave. And behold, there came a voice to him, and said,
“What are you doing here, Elijah?” Do you notice there were differences
between the still small voices and suddenly a voice came to him.
There were two parts to that voice. In the first part, there was a sound
but he could not discern the words. Yet in spite of all the noise, the winds
were howling, the earth was quaking, and the rocks were falling and added to
that the fire was burning. He heard an exceptional voice that he knows that
this is God’s voice trying to tell me some thing. Some of us in the natural
have experienced that. Maybe your loved ones or your
children who are quite far away and you hear a sound. We hear the sound, we
recognize the sound but we don’t discern the voice. We had to pay attention and
go near and say, “Are you calling me?” You heard some sound but you are not
sure whether it’s the person speaking or not. It sounds like the person but you
are not sure. Sometimes over the phone when the lines get very weak, you hear
the person talking. You said, “Hold it you are too soft. Can you speak louder?”
You hear sounds but you don’t discern the voice. Apparently, there are two
stages to that voice. The first part he heard a still small voice. But he knew
that’s God’s voice. That was fantastic. The wind was howling, earth was
quacking rocks were falling, fires were burning and he heard the sound and of
all the sounds he know this is the one. He wrapped himself with a mantle and
went out to the entrance of the cave. As he stood there then the voice said,
“What are you doing here Elijah?”
It’s an interesting phenomenon as we look
at the voice of God. That God can speak audibly and there are some side effects
on the natural. It does not mean that when God speaks we will naturally hear
it. So, what are the conditions that we have to meet in order to be in a place
to hear God’s voice and understand it should He choose to speak audibly? There
are conditions that we have to meet. They are found in the book of I Samuel
chapter 3:2 At that time Eli, whose eyesight had began to grow dim, so that
he could not see, way lying down in his own place; the lamp of God had not yet
gone out, and Samuel was lying down within the temple of the Lord, where the
ark of God was. The Lord called, “Samuel, Samuel.” And he said, “Here I am” and
ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not
call you; lie down again.” So, he went and lay down. And the Lord called again,
“Samuel, Samuel,” And Samuel arose and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am for
you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now
Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been
revealed to him. And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose
and went to Eli, and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling
the boy.
Within Our Sphere of Experience
Now here is the Lord calling Samuel and in
verse 10 And the Lord came and stood forth, calling as at other times,
“Samuel, Samuel.” Now this is in the middle of the night. Samuel was
sleeping and he had never heard the audible voice of God yet. And here, he
heard God audibly calling him. He could hear his name but thee was a little bit
of muddling here. He heard the voice as if it was Eli’s voice. We all are
experienced enough to know a person’s voice. Sometimes people’s voice does
sound like each other but generally, each one has a particular voice. Everybody
has a different voice. The interesting thing is that when you hear the audible
voice of God you may hear it as if it was somebody else’s voice. Some heard it
like thunder that means it must have really sounded in the natural to that of a
thunder. So, the audible voice of God does sound a lot like some natural sounds
within the circumference of our experience. Sounds like sounds that we have
heard in our experience. We need to discern that when God does if He so
chooses.
We see in No. 1 here Samuel heard it and he thought that it was Eli. He must be so convinced to come to him three times. Remember all the other of Eli’s sons was also there. Why, of so many people staying in that place he yet also says it was Eli’s voice. Because it sounds like Eli’s voice. The audible voice of God when you actually hear it sounds like somebody else's voice you know. And it can sound like some natural sounds that you have heard. It’s just like when God bring to your mind scriptures. The scriptures He brings to you are within the circumference of your vocabulary. For example, God could say to a little teenage girl in prophecy and say, “Thus says the Lord, ‘Do not be afraid, I am with you.’” Maybe to a little kid who had received the same prophecy God says, “Don’t be scared.” The actual words of prophecy come out differently because the vocabulary of each one of them is different. When the Holy Spirit wants to speak in a sense, He could some time supernaturally bypass the limited vocabulary of a person. But in another sense, He is also limited to the vocabulary of that person. In a sense when the audible voice of God is speaking to us, there are all these experiences and natural knowledge we have. You would hear it to a certain extend because our mind associate a new experience with the old.
How do you learn some thing new? When you
learn some thing new, you associate the new thing with the old things you have
learned. For example, if you have never tasted a durian (a South East
Asian thorny fruit) before, how do I tell you about a durian? She had
not eaten a durian before. How do I describe the taste of a durian
to her? If I were to describe to her I would have to take from her experience.
I will say it has a bit of this cheese smell and you mix it with a little bit
of socks that you haven’t washed for two weeks. Add butter on it. So, I try to
take her experience and put it together to form a new. Our natural mind works
this way to learn some thing new. We take about two, three things of the old
and form some thing new. Then the new thing that we learned becomes added to
our knowledge then we got more things to compare now.
When we hear the audible voice of God we tends to associate with sounds that we have heard. Suppose
that in the nighttime you hear this voice “nei, nei, nei.” What comes to your
mind? Immediately your mind would straightaway go into your computer data and
pull out some sounds that sound similar. Because our mind
works that way. It wants to straightaway associate it with some natural
thing straight away. Should God speak audibly to you? You may hear it to be a
voice of someone familiar. You may hear it to be the natural sounds that are
mixed in it but it’s a fresh new voice all by itself. That is the first
phenomena. Samuel thought that it was Eli because it was within his experience.
Why does he think that? It is because Eli would keep calling for him any way.
In the Midst of God’s Will
The second area that we see here is that
he heard an actual name being called, “Samuel, Samuel.” He heard an actual
voice speaking to him. And he ran to Eli. So apparently, he was in the position
where he could hear quite discernibly. The second reason is this, Samuel
continually ministered before the Lord. Now it’s easier to discern God’s
voice when you are in the midst of doing the will of God. When in John chapter
12 the voice sounded from heaven and said, “I have glorified it and will
glorify it again.” The rest of them said it thundered. But Jesus was hearing
the perfect voice because He was in God’s will. Some
of His disciples possibly heard the voice too. Some others have some knowledge
of angels and said angels spoke. How they interpreted the voice was based on
their spiritual level and condition. So, we see here that Samuel was fully
obedient to the level he was. No matter what your spiritual
condition you don’t have to be super spiritually and strong to hear all those
things. A young Christian can hear the audible voice of God provided he
or she is right where God wants him or her to be. Samuel was a little boy and
he was faithful as far as he was concerned.
Response
The third area here is in verse 10 that is
the fourth time the Lord came and called Samuel, Samuel. If you respond to the
audible voice of God in some way, it will keep on speaking. Samuel did respond
but he responded to the wrong person. Notice that voice didn’t speak anything
else. You remember the two stages of Elijah we mentioned in I Kg. 19 He heard a
still small voice then he went out. Then only the voice starts speaking. So, he
hears some sounds. He couldn’t discern it yet. The audible voice of God when He
speaks to us, there will be no revelation given until you acknowledge your
recognition. In other words, it’s like a phone ringing and you don’t hear any
thing until you pick up the phone. So,
in the audible voice of God, you won’t just suddenly get a message until you
give a response.
Notice that Samuel has to say, “Speak Lord
for thy servant hears.” Then only the voice starts speaking to him. He demands
a response. Let me tell you sometimes people have heard the audible voice of
God and not discern it and they have missed the message. Of course, you don’t
respond to every sound. Remember all the spectacular things are confirmed by
the inward witness. Anytime had God spoken in a spectacular way you will sense
a bubbling in your in your spirit man. How did Elijah discern all the sounds in
I Kg. 19? The winds were howling, the rocks were falling, the earth was
quaking, the fires were burning, and a still small voice was sounding. How did
he discern? Because there was on sound that created a response in his spiritual
perception. You could discern the voice of God, the sound, with your spirit
man. In the early hours of the morning when I was praying, I heard a voice
calling my name. I had to hear carefully two or three times before I realize
that it was a voice calling me. It’s only when I responded and say, “Yes Lord.”
Then He knows that He is recognized and then He starts speaking. We need to
respond before we get the rest of the revelation.
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