God’s Work and Voice in Me, Part 7F: To Speak or Not to Speak, that is the Question

If God is still speaking to us, why don't we hear him more? This presentation reviews the reasons given in Scripture.

And we can’t have it both ways!

Once again, I will be doing mostly quotations with organizer cards. I plan to cover each of the Scriptures quoted, more thoroughly and one at a time, in later devotional presentations and blog posts.

Link to the Video associated with this blog post:

Slide 1. Heading: Reasons We Can’t Hear

Slide 2. Heading: We Aren’t His Sheep

If we aren’t his sheep.

Slide 3. You Don’t Believe Because You Are Not of My Sheep

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.

John 10:25-27 (WEB)

Slide 4. Because You Don’t Believe Me, You Don’t Hear Me

But because I tell the truth, you don’t believe me. Which of you convicts me of sin? If I tell the truth, why do you not believe me? He who is of God hears the words of God. For this cause you don’t hear, because you are not of God.

John 8:45-47 (WEB)

Slide 5. My Message Isn’t Really In Your Hearts

I know that you are from Abraham’s family. Yet you want to kill me, because my message isn’t really in your hearts. I am telling you what my Father has shown me, just as you are doing what your father has taught you.

John 8:37-38 (CEV)

Slide 7. Heading: Sometimes God Really Isn’t Saying Much — New, at least.

I have the Bible. If I’m not doing what I’ve been told, should I expect to hear more?

Slide 8. A Famine of Hearing God’s Words–Amos

Behold, the days come,” says the Lord Yahweh,

    “that I will send a famine in the land,

    not a famine of bread,

    nor a thirst for water,

    but of hearing Yahweh’s words.

They will wander from sea to sea,

    and from the north even to the east;

    they will run back and forth to seek Yahweh’s word,

    and will not find it.

Amos 8:11-12 (WEB)

Slide 9. God Said “Rest in Me,” but they Refused to Listen

Very well then, with foreign lips and strange tongues

    God will speak to this people,

to whom he said,

    “This is the resting place, let the weary rest”;

and, “This is the place of repose”—

    but they would not listen.

So then, the word of the Lord to them will become:

    Do this, do that,

    a rule for this, a rule for that;

    a little here, a little there—

so that as they go they will fall backward;

    they will be injured and snared and captured.

Isaiah 28:11-13 (NIV)

Slide 10. They Found the Word of the Lord Offensive and Stopped their Ears

To whom can I speak and give warning?

    Who will listen to me?

Their ears are closed

    so they cannot hear.

The word of the Lord is offensive to them;

    they find no pleasure in it.

But I am full of the wrath of the Lord,

    and I cannot hold it in.

Jeremiah 6:10-11a (NIV)

We certainly mustn’t be offensive, must we?

Slide 11. The Prophet’s Obligation to Present God’s Words Even if Ignored

Ezekiel, I have appointed you to stand watch for the people of Israel. So listen to what I say, then warn them for me.  When I tell wicked people they will die because of their sins, you must warn them to turn from their sinful ways. But if you refuse to warn them, you are responsible for their death.  If you do warn them, and they keep sinning, they will die because of their sins, and you will be innocent.

Ezekiel 33:7-9 (CEV)

Slide 12. About the Prophet Who Predicts Peace

Then the prophet Jeremiah replied to the prophet Hananiah before the priests and all the people who were standing in the house of the Lord. He said, “Amen! May the Lord do so! May the Lord fulfill the words you have prophesied by bringing the articles of the Lord’s house and all the exiles back to this place from Babylon. Nevertheless, listen to what I have to say in your hearing and in the hearing of all the people: From early times the prophets who preceded you and me have prophesied war, disaster and plague against many countries and great kingdoms. But the prophet who prophesies peace will be recognized as one truly sent by the Lord only if his prediction comes true.”

Jeremiah 28:5-9 (NIV)

But, wait a minute!

Jesus promised peace to those who follow him, and he keeps that promise!

Slide 13. Heading: Reasons We Don’t WANT God to Speak

Even as God’s children, though, there may be reasons we don’t want God to speak.

Slide 14. Heading: Rebellion OR Fear

These reasons may be summarized as either rebellion or fear. I will start with the fears.

Slide 15. Heading: WE Don’t Want to be MISLED or to MISTAKE God’s Voice

“Oh!!! But what if you’re wrong???” people tell us. We fear–we don’t want to be misled or to mistake God’s voice. God never really endorses this fear, but he has some answers for it.

Slide 16. The Way to Know Whether God Said It is to Be Willing to Do It If He Did Say It

Jesus therefore answered them, “My teaching is not mine, but his who sent me. If anyone desires to do his will, he will know about the teaching, whether it is from God, or if I am speaking from myself.  He who speaks from himself seeks his own glory, but he who seeks the glory of him who sent him is true, and no unrighteousness is in him.”

John 7:16-18 (WEB)

Slide 17. Jesus’ Sheep Don’t Recognize a Stranger’s Voice

I tell you for certain only thieves and robbers climb over the fence instead of going in through the gate to the sheep pen. But the gatekeeper opens the gate for the shepherd, and he goes in through it. The sheep know their shepherd’s voice. He calls each of them by name and leads them out. When he has led out all of his sheep, he walks in front of them, and they follow, because they know his voice. The sheep will not follow strangers. They don’t recognize a stranger’s voice, and they run away.

John 10:1-5 (CEV)

This is his main answer to our fear: you know my voice.

Slide 18. If We Know Jesus, We Hear and Know His Voice

I am the good shepherd. I know my own, and I’m known by my own; even as the Father knows me, and I know the Father. I lay down my life for the sheep. I have other sheep, which are not of this fold.  I must bring them also, and they will hear my voice. They will become one flock with one shepherd.

John 10:14-16 (WEB)

Slide 19. We Are Jesus’ Friends, and He Makes Known to Us What He is Doing, as We are Willing to Do It With Him

You are My friends if you do what I command you. No longer do I call you slaves, for the slave does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, because all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you.

John 10:14-15 (NASB)

Slide 20. The World Does Not Know God, and Will Violently Disagree With Us About God’s Will

But unbelievers don’t have this assurance. Listen,

They will put you out of the synagogues. Yes, the time comes that whoever kills you will think that he offers service to God. They will do these things because they have not known the Father, nor me. But I have told you these things, so that when the time comes, you may remember that I told you about them.

John 16:2-4a (WEB)

Slide 21. Heading: Fear God Will Drop Us or Harm Us

We fear that hear God and do what he says, God will drop us or harm us. Again, God doesn’t endorse this fear, but he has some answers for it.

Slide 22. At Sinai, the People of Israel Had This Fear God Would Harm Them if He Spoke to Them

Yahweh spoke these words to all your assembly on the mountain out of the middle of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick darkness, with a great voice. He added no more. He wrote them on two stone tablets, and gave them to me. When you heard the voice out of the middle of the darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, you came near to me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders; and you said, “Behold, Yahweh our God has shown us his glory and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the middle of the fire. We have seen today that God does speak with man, and he lives.  Now therefore, why should we die? For this great fire will consume us. If we hear Yahweh our God’s voice any more, then we shall die. For who is there of all flesh who has heard the voice of the living God speaking out of the middle of the fire, as we have, and lived? Go near, and hear all that Yahweh our God shall say, and tell us all that Yahweh our God tells you; and we will hear it, and do it.”

Deuteronomy 5:22-27 (WEB)

Slide 23. God Responded to Their Fear by Giving Them the Law, and a Promise of a Future Prophet Who Will Speak All of God’s Words

Of course, as they had just said, they were still alive. God hadn’t killed them. Still, because of their fear, God agreed to what they asked, for that time. It wasn’t what he wanted permanently. Listen,

 “The Lord your God will raise up for you a prophet like me from among you, from your countrymen; to him you shall listen. This is in accordance with everything that you asked of the Lord your God at Horeb on the day of the assembly, saying, ‘Do not let me hear the voice of the Lord my God again, and do not let me see this great fire anymore, or I will die!’ And the Lord said to me, ‘They have spoken well.  I will raise up for them a prophet from among their countrymen like you, and I will put My words in his mouth, and he shall speak to them everything that I command him. And it shall come about that whoever does not listen to My words which he speaks in My name, I Myself will require it of him.”

Deuteronomy 18:15-19 (NASB)

And that Prophet has come–Jesus!

Slide 24. God Has Promised that Everything Will Work Together to Ultimately Conform Us to the Image of Jesus–Which is the Greatest Good

As for God dropping or harming us, his children,

We know that all things work together for good for those who love God, for those who are called according to his purpose. For whom he foreknew, he also predestined to be conformed to the image of his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many brothers. Whom he predestined, those he also called. Whom he called, those he also justified. Whom he justified, those he also glorified. What then shall we say about these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who didn’t spare his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how would he not also with him freely give us all things?

Romans 8:28-32 (WEB)

Slide 25. Perfect Love Casts Out All Fear–Including the Fear God will Harm Us

We know and have believed the love which God has for us. God is love, and he who remains in love remains in God, and God remains in him. In this, love has been made perfect among us, that we may have boldness in the day of judgment, because as he is, even so we are in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear has punishment. He who fears is not made perfect in love.

1 John 4:16-18 (WEB)

Slide 26. Heading: Safety in Numbers

We may not want to hear God because we fear getting away from the crowd. Our social instinct tells us there’s safety in numbers. That’s not what God says.

Slide 27. The Narrow Road

Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life, and only a few find it.

Matthew 7:13-14 (NIV)

Slide 28. Putting Jesus Ahead of Everyone

Now great multitudes were going with him. He turned and said to them, “If anyone comes to me, and doesn’t disregard his own father, mother, wife, children, brothers, and sisters, yes, and his own life also, he can’t be my disciple. Whoever doesn’t bear his own cross, and come after me, can’t be my disciple.”

Luke 14:25-27 (WEB)

Slide 29. Heading: We Don’t Want to be Thought to be INSANE

We perceive that hearing from God and doing what we hear in faith is the exact definition of a “delusion.” And we fear because we don’t want to be thought to be insane.

Slide 30. Proof of things not seen? If it can’t be seen, it doesn’t exist!

Now faith is assurance of things hoped for, proof of things not seen. For by this, the elders obtained testimony. By faith, we understand that the universe has been framed by the word of God, so that what is seen has not been made out of things which are visible.

Hebrews 11:1-3 (WEB)

Slide 31. We MUST Believe what our Doctors Say about Reality!

And here, once again, I quote the Wikipedia article on “Delusion:”

Delusions do not necessarily have to be false or ‘incorrect inferences about external reality‘. Some religious or spiritual beliefs by their nature may not be falsifiable, and hence cannot be described as false or incorrect, no matter whether the person holding these beliefs was diagnosed as delusional or not. In other situations the delusion may turn out to be true belief… In other cases, the belief may be mistakenly assumed to be false by a doctor or psychiatrist assessing it, just because it seems to be unlikely, bizarre or held with excessive conviction…

Wikipedia. Delusion. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delusion.  Accessed  5 Sep. 2023.

Well, if believing what God tells us is delusional, we’re in good company…

Slide 32. Noah, who built a boat when it had never rained

By faith, Noah, being warned about things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared a ship for the saving of his house, through which he condemned the world, and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.

Hebrews 11:7 (WEB)

No one had ever seen rain!

Slide 33. Abraham, who went where he was sent without knowing where he was going

  By faith, Abraham, when he was called, obeyed to go out to the place which he was to receive for an inheritance. He went out, not knowing where he went. By faith, he lived as an alien in the land of promise, as in a land not his own, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise. For he looked for the city which has the foundations, whose builder and maker is God.

Hebrews 11:8-10 (WEB)

Slide 34. Jesus was called “insane” by “many” people

Therefore a division arose again among the Jews because of these words. Many of them said, “He has a demon, and is insane! Why do you listen to him?” 21 Others said, “These are not the sayings of one possessed by a demon. It isn’t possible for a demon to open the eyes of the blind, is it?”

John 10:19-21 (WEB)

Slide 35. Even some of Jesus’ “friends” said he was “insane” and came to take him away

The multitude came together again, so that they could not so much as eat bread. When his friends heard it, they went out to seize him; for they said, “He is insane.” 22 The scribes who came down from Jerusalem said, “He has Beelzebul,” and, “By the prince of the demons he casts out the demons.”

John 10:19-21 (WEB)

Slide 36. A Roman Governor called the Apostle Paul “insane”–in Open Court!

As he thus made his defense, Festus said with a loud voice, “Paul, you are crazy! Your great learning is driving you insane!”

Acts 26:24 (WEB)

Slide 37. People will become so hostile that anyone who speaks God’s words will be called ‘insane”

The days of visitation have come.

    The days of reckoning have come.

Israel will consider the prophet to be a fool,

    and the man who is inspired to be insane,

    because of the abundance of your sins,

    and because your hostility is great.

Hosea 9:7 (WEB)

Slide 38. More of the Same: The Hostility is Rooted in Guilt and Hate

So, being considered “insane” may be a good thing, if the world is upside down and you are right side up!

Here is the same verse in another translation:

Israel, the time has come.

You will get what you deserve, and you will know it.

“Prophets are fools,” you say.

“And God’s messengers are crazy.”

Your terrible guilt has filled you with hatred.

Israel, the Lord sent me to look after you.

But you trap his prophets and flood his temple with your hatred.

You are brutal and corrupt, as were the men of Gibeah.

But God remembers your sin, and you will be punished.

Hosea 9:7-9 (CEV)

Slide 39. Heading: Came to God for Advice

On the other hand, I may not hear God because I came to God for advice.

And God doesn’t give “take it or leave it” advice, usually.

Slide 40. God gives wisdom on request, but only to those who trust his wisdom

But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all liberally and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith, without any doubting, for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, driven by the wind and tossed. For that man shouldn’t think that he will receive anything from the Lord. He is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.

James 1:5-8 (WEB)

Slide 41. Those who come to the Lord to be Entertained will Not Be Helped

One by one, they say to each other, “Let’s go hear what sort of message has come from the Lord.” So they come to you as people do, and they sit before you as my people. They listen to your words, but they refuse to do them. Though they speak of their longing for me, they act out of their own interests and opinions. To them you are like a singer of love songs with a lovely voice and skilled technique. They listen to your words, but no one does them. When this comes—and it is certainly coming—they will know that a prophet has been among them.

Ezekiel 33:30b-33 (CEB)

Slide 42. Heading: Would Rather Have Our Own Way–Individually OR Collectively

Here we come from fear to full rebellion. We don’t hear God more because we would rather have our own way–individually OR collectively.

Sometimes it is the whole group, even the whole nation, that has decided for me what I’m going to do–and that’s ignore God!

Slide 43. It isn’t God’s messenger who decides whether the people will listen or not

And you, son of man, do not be afraid of them or their words. Do not be afraid, though briers and thorns are all around you and you live among scorpions. Do not be afraid of what they say or be terrified by them, though they are a rebellious people. You must speak my words to them, whether they listen or fail to listen, for they are rebellious. But you, son of man, listen to what I say to you. Do not rebel like that rebellious people; open your mouth and eat what I give you.”

Ezekiel 2:6-8 (NIV)

Slide 44. Jesus Spoke in Parables (Stories) so that Only Those who Believe the Message Can Understand It!

Jesus’ disciples came to him and asked, “Why do you use stories to speak to the people?” Jesus answered: I have explained the secrets about the kingdom of heaven to you, but not to others.  Everyone who has something will be given more. But people who don’t have anything will lose even what little they have. I use stories when I speak to them because when they look, they cannot see, and when they listen, they cannot hear or understand.  So God’s promise came true, just as the prophet Isaiah had said,

“These people will listen and listen,

    but never understand.

They will look and look, but never see.

All of them have stubborn minds!

They refuse to listen;

    they cover their eyes.

They cannot see or hear or understand.

If they could, they would turn to me, and I would heal them.”

 But God has blessed you, because your eyes can see and your ears can hear! Many prophets and good people were eager to see what you see and to hear what you hear. But I tell you they did not see or hear.

Matthew 13:10-17 (CEV)

Slide 45. Those who Reject the Message Wil Also Reject the Messengers–Violently!

Therefore I am sending you prophets and sages and teachers. Some of them you will kill and crucify; others you will flog in your synagogues and pursue from town to town. And so upon you will come all the righteous blood that has been shed on earth, from the blood of righteous Abel to the blood of Zechariah son of Berekiah, whom you murdered between the temple and the altar. Truly I tell you, all this will come on this generation.  “Jerusalem, Jerusalem, you who kill the prophets and stone those sent to you, how often I have longed to gather your children together, as a hen gathers her chicks under her wings, and you were not willing.

Matthew 23:34-37 (NIV)

Next Part 7G: Didn’t the Apostles Say God was About to Quit Speaking?

God Uses No Cookie Cutters--the first presentation in this series.

The Kingdom of the Heavens Outline

The Voice of God (God Speaking to Us) Outline

What I Believe–stated simply

Introduction to the Word and Voice of God –all of the alternatives