And it is not a single voice in creation, is it? Creation is more the result of a conversation – especially in the account of the creation of mankind. What does it say? “Let us make man in our image, in our likeness…So God created him; male and female he created them.” In some ways you could say from the very beginning we have been wired for conversations – not a solo life. We need words. We need other voices. “…this is what our brains were wired for: reaching out to and interacting with others. These are design features, not flaws. These social adaptations are central to making us the most successful species on earth.”: Social: Why Our Brains Are Wired to Connect, neuroscientist Matthew D. Lieberman, director of UCLA’s Social Cognitive Neuroscience lab…”
The power of voice is remarkable. In writing they call it discovering your “voice”. It is what distinguishes you from others and allows you to communicate with a reader. Finding your particular voice is essential. “To me the trick is getting your own ego out of the way. What voice does the material want? Find that. You the writer are not there to impose “your” voice on the material. Your job is to surrender to the material–and allow it to tell you what voice it wants in order to tell itself.”
In opera, the great singers refer to “the voice” in the third person. “The voice” needs rest. “The voice” is ready. It has a life of its own. It is living in you but you do not own it.
The voice is important in every field. “New research shows that a deep voice confers benefits in competition for leadership positions in business. A research team from Duke University and the University of California studied the speeches of the male CEOs of almost 800 public companies. They found that the CEOs with the deeper voices managed larger companies and thus made more money. A decrease of 25% in voice pitch (22.1 Hz) is associated with an increase of $187,000 in annual salary. Moreover, CEOS with deeper voices also enjoy longer tenures.
Have you ever thought about what God’s voice was like when he spoke the universe into being? Was it Charleton Heston’s voice of Moses? Was it thunderous and overpowering as when He spoke to Job? Was it the “still, small voice” with which He spoke to Elijah? Was it Cecil B. DeMille or Clint Eastwood? I’ve begun to think of it not so much as a “Big Bang” voice but as a conversational voice of creation and collaboration. “How about some light?” “How about some land and sea.” “That’s good. Now let’s add another touch of this but not so much of that.”
I know one thing. It was a voice of authority – and that does not necessarily mean loud. As a teacher in a classroom of middle school kids I learned that a quiet voice carries more authority than a booming voice. If you had to get loud then you had lost control. The teacher with genuine authority is the one who can quiet a classroom with a quiet voice.
In Matthew 7:29 the writer says, “When Jesus had finished saying these things, the crowds were amazed at his teaching, because he taught as one who had authority, and not as their teachers of the law.” Every teacher or communicator or leader or performer longs for that voice that has a life of its own and speaks with genuine authority. “I am the Shepherd and the sheep know my voice.”
Daniel Day Lewis read 100 books on Abraham Lincoln and studied all the accounts of Lincoln’s voice before starring in the role. He told an interviewer it was so important to capture the voice of Lincoln because “the voice is the fingerprint of the soul.” While we don’t know what the voice of Jesus sounded like we do know he spoke with authority. We do know his voice made demons afraid, religious authorities angry and jealous, the sea calm and the people amazed. His voice had power and genuine authority.
The word in Matthew and other places that describes the authority of Jesus is “exousia” which means influence or the power of choice. Paul uses it to describe someone who has self-discipline or power over themselves. Luke uses it 15 times and one of the effects of genuine authority is amazement. People are not used to it.
It is different from one who is authoritarian. Authoritarians are typically inauthentic, insecure, lacking in trust and easily threatened. That is not authority, is it?
When the Word becomes flesh in John 1 he has genuine authority even though He is not recognized by His own creation. “He was in the world, and though the world was made through him, the world did not recognize him. He came to that which was his own, but his own did not receive him.” What does the world desire? Not authority but authoritarians. It desires power, prestige, position and privilege – and that is not genuine authority. Jesus came with the authority of humility as Paul says in Philippians 2. “Who, being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be grasped, but made himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant…”
I read something this week about a personality psychologists label “the dark triad”. It is a combination of three characteristics. First, the narcissist. Second, the psychopath. Third, the manipulator or Machiavellian. When combined you have a personality that is completely ego oriented with no feelings of remorse or empathy and someone who manipulates people toward their own ends. In other words, sometimes the world clamors for the “dark triad” because it can no longer recognize the “trinity of light” that created the world. The world opts for the “anti-Trinity”. Ironic, isn’t it?
Then in John 1:12 it is written that “to all who received him, to those who believed in his name, he gave the exousia to become children of God.” Unlike an authoritarian who controls power, Jesus gives it to those who recognize him. He gives the right to become children of God.
2. God does speak and He speaks in different ways, doesn’t He?
To some He speaks directly and unsolicited. Adam and Eve, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Moses, the prophets. He speaks to Paul and Peter in the New Testament. He just speaks with no invitation or pleading from them – and more often than not their lives are changed or re-created.
To some he responds. Think of Job’s request, “Let the Almighty answer me!” and He does. It’s entirely different for Elijah. He does not speak in the whirlwind or the storm – but in the still, small voice. For David, he speaks to confirm his plans to fight particular enemies. For Jacob, he speaks in a dream. For Gideon, he speaks through a sign. But I would like to take a look at that story because I think we have lost some of the meaning over the years. We talk about setting out a fleece as normal but we should be careful. The story is in Judges 6-8.
Judges 6:11-16: “Go in the strength you have.”
Judges 6:34-40: “Allow me one more test with the fleece.”
Judges 8:27: “All Israel prostituted themselves by worshiping it there and it became a snare to Gideon and his family.”
Gideon may be more of an example of a person who was not looking for guidance as much as complete certainty – and that desire for absolute and continuing certainty eventually became a snare for him and his family. He could not live with ambiguity.
Often we test God because we are afraid of failure or risk. We are more anxious to be right than to be obedient. Gideon agonizes and makes excuses even when he sees the power of God’s Spirit first hand. In a way, he wants to be Superman – not Indiana Jones. Superman overwhelms with supernatural strength. Indiana Jones takes risks and loves the adventure. Gideon does not want risk or adventure in the end. He wants a guarantee.
I like what Pope Francis says about ambiguity and certainty in a recent interview:
“But I am always wary of decisions made hastily. I am always wary of the first decision, that is, the first thing that comes to my mind if I have to make a decision. This is usually the wrong thing. I have to wait and assess, looking deep into myself, taking the necessary time. The wisdom of discernment redeems the necessary ambiguity of life and helps us find the most appropriate means, which do not always coincide with what looks great and strong. And yet, he says, seeking and finding God in all things is still an area of uncertainty. One stands with humility before God. If a person says that he met God with total certainty and is not touched by a margin of uncertainty, then this is not good. For me, this is an important key. If one has the answers to all the questions — that is the proof that God is not with him. It means that he is a false prophet using religion for himself.”
God speaks but there is still the requirement to follow his voice in the uncertain times.
3. If God speaks (and He does) then He expects us to listen.
There is a distinction between hearing and listening. I remember my Mother saying to me, “Do you hear me?” My response was, “Yes, I hear you but I am not listening.” Hearing is recognizing there is a sound. Listening is paying attention to that sound. God wants us to listen and not just hear the sound. He wants us to obey.
In fact, the root word for obey is “audire” which means to listen. Obey literally means to “lean toward the sound and intently listen”. That is what my Mother was asking. Are you listening to me?
God’s authority in our lives is measured by our “becoming” the children of God…and that becoming is a process – not a one-time event. We grow into being children of God. We start with practicing our scales and then we move from there. We don’t move until we have the basics. Then God says, “Good, now we are going to try something a little more difficult and complicated…but The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” We are never on our own but we are growing more skilled and trustworthy. Part of becoming is earning trust – and that is different from earning acceptance or earning love.
When are first becoming children of God we experience God’s instructions all the time but as we grow we should need to hear directly from God less and less as we mature. Think about the way you hover over your own child when they are learning new skills. At some point, you say “Now go over there and do that on your own.” It doesn’t mean they leave the room or you abandon them. It means you want them to grow. If we continue to need miracles or constantly hearing the voice of God telling us what to do about every little thing in our lives then we are not growing.
In some ways, the old hymn “I Need Thee Every Hour” sends the wrong signal. Yes, we need God but not in the way we sometimes portray it. Sometimes we lead people to think God does not want us to grow and develop strength. It can become a selfish desire to constantly hear from God about every decision. Obedience does not mean needing to be constantly told what to do. It means listening and living by what He has already said. We do not always need new instructions. We need to practice the basics. Look at Micah 6:8. “He has showed you, O man, what is good. And what does The Lord require of you? To act justly and love mercy and to walk humbly with your God.” What is the commandment of Jesus? “Love on another.” Those are the basics. St. Augustine put it this way, “Love God and do whatever you please: for the soul trained in love to God will do nothing to offend the One who is Beloved.”
Too often we are so saturated with “God words” that they have become wall paper. We want God to speak all the time about the smallest issues of our lives. Do you have Google? “Turn left in 1,000 feet. Turn right at the next exit.” That is not obedience. That is not trust. That is immaturity. I think it is increasingly true in the Christian life that we do not have every risk covered or every issue explained or every uncertainty removed before we act in obedience.
“The golden rule for understanding spiritually is not intellect, but obedience. If a man wants scientific knowledge, intellectual curiosity is his guide; but if he wants insight into what Jesus Christ teaches, he can only get it by obedience.”
― Oswald Chambers
“All God’s revelations are sealed to us until they are opened to us by obedience. You will never get them open by philosophy or thinking. Immediately you obey, a flash of light comes. Let God’s truth work in you by soaking in it, not by worrying into it. Obey God in the thing He is at present showing you, and instantly the next thing is opened up. We read tomes on the work of the Holy Spirit when…five minutes of drastic obedience would make things clear as a sunbeam. We say, I suppose I shall understand these things some day. You can understand them now: it is not study that does it, but obedience. The tiniest fragment of obedience, and heaven opens up and the profoundest truths of God are yours straight away. God will never reveal more truth about Himself till you obey what you know already.”
— Oswald Chambers
So…God speaks and His voice has authority. We hear Him in many different ways. We listen and obey as we are becoming mature and trustworthy children of God.