God Speaks to Us

"My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." God says he will speak to his sheep individually, call each by name, and lead us, and he does. Stephen and Saul of Tarsus are an example of this.

Given that the heavens and God’s kingdom in them surround us, it should not surprise us that God has told us that he not only speaks to us from out of those heavens, but desires to do so. Yet, for reasons largely arising from our social institutions’ need for control, which would be impaired if God were left free to override “society,” it does surprise us. We are, in fact, socialized from a very early age to regard spiritual “voices” in our consciousness as imaginary rather than real and people who insist on their reality as in need of medication to make the voices “go away.” And in learning to approach the matter in this way, no distinction is made between the voice of God and any other non-physical “voice” we may “hear.” Any voice that is not at least theoretically a publicly-accessible voice–in the sense that, if we had the correct equipment present at the site of the communication, we could record it, interpret it and let the public hear and judge it–is simply imaginary or delusional. Any contrary belief, if held sincerely and not merely as a means of manipulating others or as a point of strictly theoretical argument, is regarded as a sign of mental illness.

But there are scriptures which certainly appear to say not only that God speaks with us, but that he wants to do so, and wants us to listen to what he is saying. This post will quote several of the most obvious scriptures on this point, with simple, non-technical explanations. Each will be explained in greater detail in future posts; the purpose of this post is to collect them in one place.

I’ll start with the most direct of these scriptures:

The Jews therefore came around him and said to him, “How long will you hold us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.” Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you don’t believe. The works that I do in my Father’s name, these testify about me. But you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep, as I told you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand.  I and the Father are one.”

John 10:24-30 (WEB)

This certainly appears to say that those who are Jesus’ sheep presently hear his voice and follow it, doesn’t it? In this passage, Jesus clearly distinguishes past, present and future tense events. The Father has given Jesus his sheep, in the past, it is already done. Because Jesus, now, present tense, gives (or, is giving) them eternal life, they will never perish (future). In speaking of his sheep hearing his voice, Jesus uses the present tense. My sheep (presently) hear my voice, and I know them (right now), and they follow me (also in the present). While the relationship of a shepherd to his flock of sheep is metaphorical, nothing in the context really suggests that either the experience of hearing the shepherd’s voice or the act of following it are metaphors for anything other than literally hearing and following.

Indeed, Jesus uses this as a test by which it may be known who his real sheep are: his sheep are those sheep that hear his voice and follow him. But, as for the crowd that was questioning him, he said “you don’t believe, because you are not of my sheep.” Sheep that are unable to hear and recognize his voice are not his.

Jesus had earlier applied this same concept more generally to sheep, their shepherds, and sheep thieves:

 “Truly, truly I say to you, the one who does not enter by the door into the fold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber. But the one who enters by the door is a shepherd of the sheep. To him the doorkeeper opens, and the sheep listen to his voice, and he calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he puts all his own sheep outside, he goes ahead of them, and the sheep follow him because they know his voice. However, a stranger they simply will not follow, but will flee from him, because they do not know the voice of strangers.”

John 10:1-5 (NASB)

This extended metaphor has two sides: one that applies to thieves and one that applies to the true shepherd. Thieves, who come into the fold other than by the door, Jesus (verse 7), have to chase the sheep until they catch one, then pick it up and carry it away, because the sheep will not follow strangers, but will run away from them. Why do sheep run away from strangers? Because they do not recognize the voice of a stranger.

By contrast, when the shepherd comes, entering though the door, he calls his own sheep out of the fold–where they are mixed with sheep belonging to other shepherds. The shepherd calls each of his own sheep by name and leads it out. There is personal communication involved, calling to each sheep individually, leading sheep that each individually know and trust his voice. The true shepherd leads his flock by his voice, going ahead of them and leading them. He does not impersonally drive the flock. Once the flock has been called out of the fold, the shepherd leads, going on ahead of the sheep, leading them toward the green pastures and quiet waters he knows how to find (and the sheep don’t) (Psalm 23:2-3), and the sheep follow him. How and why do the sheep follow? They know and trust the shepherd’s voice.

So both halves of the action pictured in the metaphor work because the shepherd frequently speaks to his sheep, so they therefore have learned to recognize, trust and follow his voice.

At another point in this same context, Jesus explains that the way he knows his sheep and the way his sheep come to know him is like the way in which he and his Father know each other:

I am the good shepherd, and I know My own, and My own know Me, just as the Father knows Me and I know the Father; and I lay down My life for the sheep. And I have other sheep that are not of this fold; I must bring them also, and they will listen to My voice; and they will become one flock, with one shepherd.

John 10:14-16 (NASB)

Jesus’ intimacy with his Father–they are One–and his knowledge of his own sheep are so deep that they moved him to lay down his life for his sheep, to make it possible for him to bring us into his relationship with the Father. Now, as many have pointed out through the centuries, in the Jewish context of John 10, Jesus’ reference to “this fold” is a reference to Jews, and the “other sheep” who are “not of this fold”–who in fact, come from many “folds” (ethnicities and nations)–is a reference to Gentiles who Jesus includes among his sheep. Jesus is telling the Jews that the sheep in the various Gentile “folds” who “listen to [his] voice” when he calls them by name, are his sheep also, just as are the Jews who listen to his voice. All who listen to Jesus’ voice when he calls them are part of “one flock” with “one shepherd,” Jesus.

So the way I can know whether I am one of Jesus’ sheep is whether I follow his voice when he calls to me.

Jesus doesn’t need this test–he already knows who his sheep are.

And no one else can apply this test to me. Jesus is calling me by name. He may also be calling my human judges. But he is calling each of them separately, by their own names, not mine.

So I must ask for myself–do I hear Jesus calling me by name? And when I hear, do I follow his voice?

Following Jesus voice can lead to drastic, difficult consequences in this world. Other people won’t take kindly to our failure to follow their “program” for us, our apparent unpredictability (John 3:6-7) and our distressing insistence on our relationship with Jesus. But when persecution comes, Jesus has promised that he will not only speak to me, he will speak through me, if I give up worrying about what to say and yield my words to him:.

But be on guard against people, for they will hand you over to the courts and flog you in their synagogues; and you will even be brought before governors and kings on My account, as a testimony to them and to the Gentiles. But when they hand you over, do not worry about how or what you are to say; for what you are to say will be given you in that hour. For it is not you who are speaking, but it is the Spirit of your Father who is speaking in you.

Matthew 10:17-21 (NASB)

You might have expected Jesus to tell his sheep, when brought before a human king because of his life within them, to get a good lawyer? We already have the best lawyer, representing us before the Father, the real King. (1 John 2:1-2). Our role, when persecuted as a result of Jesus life within us–not prosecuted for doing wrong (1 Peter 3:13-17)–is simply to let our knowledge of him come out in words he provides on the occasion.

God’s words may not permit us to escape punishment at the human level. They are not words in our defense, but words in his defense. Remember the story of Stephen in Acts 7? When Stephen was brought to trial before the Sanhedrin, Stephen’s words defended God’ righteousness in sending Jesus to redeem the his obstinate Jewish people so forcefully that it made the whole council angry–so angry that they immediately stoned Stephen to death. But, before leaving our visible reality, Stephen saw the “heavens” opened and Jesus “standing (!!!) at the right hand of God.” (Acts 7:56). After God raised Jesus from the dead, he “seated” him at his right hand. (Ephesians 1:20). Now Jesus “sits,” having finished his work, and we “stand” in and for him. Acts 7:56 is the only reference to Jesus “standing” between the Ascension and the events in Revelation. Jesus stood to receive Stephen. Jesus gave Stephen a standing ovation–and had him tell the whole angry crowd about it!

But that wasn’t the end of Stephen’s story. One of the younger members of the council, who joined in the mob decision to stone him (Acts 8:1, 22:19-20), never forgot Stephen’s words. Those words continued to “goad” Saul of Tarsus, and he to actively resist resist or “kick against” those goads (Acts 26:14), to the extent that he spent several years zealously persecuting the Church, first in Jerusalem and then in foreign cities. (Acts 8:3, 22:3-5, 26:9-11). Saul’s persecution was severe enough to cause the church there to scatter, and those who scattered preached wherever they went, thus indirectly beginning the fulfillment of Jesus’ final charge to his disciples to be his witnesses not only in Jerusalem, but also in all Judea and Samaria and to the remotest parts of the earth. (Acts 8; Acts 1:8).

Saul, by his own later admission, beat and imprisoned many believers on his own authority, and cast his vote in favor of the death of those who would not renounce Jesus. He was undoubtedly responsible, at least in part, for the martyrdom of many early Jewish Christians, our siblings in Christ. But God did not leave either Saul or the words Stephen had planted in Saul’s mind and spirit here. The rest of the story is well known. When Saul went to Damascus in a later year to persecute Christians there, Jesus himself appeared to Saul, as a blinding light all around him and a voice which spoke from the heavens. In this appearance, Jesus asked Saul why he was persecuting “me”–in persecuting those who are one with Jesus, he was persecuting Jesus. Saul obviously understood this, because Jesus then answered his own question–it is hard for you to kick against the goads. Saul had been persecuting Christians in a desperate effort to evade Stephen’s message–the goads–Jesus calling Saul by name for all those years through Stephen’s mouth!

God told Saul where to go in Damascus to get further instructions and receive his physical sight back–after all of those years in voluntary darkness running away from the light God had spoken into him, coming face to face with Jesus’ glory had physically blinded him. Saul, who would be known as Paul in his preaching in gentile regions, started following Jesus’ voice and never looked back. The spread of the good news of Jesus around the world was the result.

So, back to Stephen, and to Jesus’ promise to speak through us when we are placed on trial–what would have happened if Stephen had taken the modern approach and hired a good lawyer instead?

No Stephen, no Paul. No Paul, no worldwide Church. Salvation remains for the Jews only.

God’s plans required that Stephen let him speak the truth that angered young Saul–and be killed for doing it.

And God knew what he was doing.

God still knows what he is doing–which always starts with speaking directly to us, calling us by name, and proceeds to leading us by his voice and speaking through us.

Next:  God Speaks to Us through His Spirit

The Voice of God (God Speaking to Us) Outline