"Hearing the Voice of God: Part 3"
Sermon by the Rev. Matt Kennedy
Epiphany 4 year B
The Church of the Good Shepherd

1st Corinthians 2:10-15

Anne and I have only been married four years. That's not a long time. We didn't know each other before seminary. We met, dated, got engaged, and lived our first year of married life there. In all I've only known Anne less than 6 years. And yet, 9 out of 10 times I know exactly what she's thinking and vice-versa. We can read something or watch something on TV or hear a bit of news together and before we've even had a chance to speak, I'll know what Anne is thinking about it. I don't even have to look at her. I just know. Other times I can just look her in the eyes and without a word we can have a whole conversation. I'll know whether I'm in trouble, whether its time to go, whether I should say something or whether I‘ve said too much.

This kind of non-verbal heart to heart communication is not magic and it's not exclusive to husbands and wives. Close friends, siblings, twins; any two people in a deep personal relationship normally, over time, develop an ability to know one another's heart and to communicate without words.

The same thing is true in your relationship to God.

Over the last two Sundays we've talked about hearing the voice of God in your heart. We've discussed Samuel's experience of God's voice. We've named the four lines of communication: the bible, prayer, the church, and your circumstances. And we've identified six steps to hearing God's voice. All of these are listed in your bulletin on the sermon notes page for easy reference. But before we go any further in this series we need to understand what it means for God to speak to your heart.

To do this we need to turn from Samuel to Paul. God literally appeared to Samuel. Theirs was not heart to heart or spirit to Spirit communication, it was face to face. Most likely you and I won't see God face to face until the resurrection. Instead we have the bible. In Samuel's day there was still more that God wanted to share about himself, his nature and his law, but now, with the completion of the NT, his revelation is complete until he returns. There's no more need for face to face encounters. We have his Word; the objectively, absolutely, completely true picture of God. If you want to see God look to the book. The bible is our vision of God.

But while God probably won't show up visibly in your living room giving you some new revelation, he will speak personally “to your heart”; not revealing new truths, but guiding you and helping you understand him personally and the truths he's already revealed.

How?

God speaks to believers nonverbally, heart to heart, in the very same way (but deeper and clearer) that spouses, siblings, and best friends do.

Turn with me to 1 st Corinthians 2:10-16.

“The Spirit [meaning the Holy Spirit] searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who among men knows the thoughts of a man except the man's spirit within him? In the same way, no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world but the Spirit who is from God, that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

Stop there a moment. When I communicate nonverbally, and even verbally, with Anne there's always a level of incomprehension because as deep as our relationship may be, I don't live in her mind. I don't see her thoughts. I only have limited knowledge of them. Even when she speaks her thoughts have to go from her head to her mouth to my ears and into my head. That's three points of possible miscommunication. Her words may not be able to express her thoughts. My ears may not be able to hear her words. And my mind may not understand what she is saying.

But if you're a believer then the Holy Spirit, God himself, lives in your heart. There are no midpoints, no points of mediation. God's Spirit lives and breaths and speaks directly into and with your spirit.

That means, speaking now of communication from your spirit or heart to God, even if you can't quite articulate a thought or a worry or a fear or a grief to God, he knows it fully and completely. He understands your heart and mind better than any wife or husband or friend ever could because he lives in you. As Paul says, you've received the “Spirit of God”.

Keeping your finger in 1 st Corinthians turn briefly to Romans 8:15-16,

“..You received the Spirit of sonship. And by him, we cry Abba, Father. The Spirit testifies to our spirit that we are God's children.” The word, “abba”, is a term of deep intimacy. It could, as you have no doubt heard many times, be translated “daddy”.

Because his Spirit lives in your heart God's knowledge of you is so deep and so intimate that when your heart is troubled, even if you can't express it perfectly, God hears you because your position, your heart's communication with him, is like that of a little child sitting on his daddy's lap.God knows and listens to the cry of your heart.

Skip down to verse 26, “In the same way the Spirit helps us in our weakness. We don't know what we ought to pray for, but the Spirit himself intercedes for us with groans that words cannot express. And he who searches our hearts knows the mind of the Spirit because the Spirit intercedes for the saints in accordance with God's will.”

Don't get thrown off by the word “saints.” You are the saints. The New Testament calls all believers saints. You're righteous, a “saint”, in God's eyes through Christ's righteousness credited to your account. As a saint, as a son, a child, the Spirit of God intercedes for you. He speaks on your behalf;, communicating, connecting, translating your heart to your father, your daddy, who loves you and wants to hear.

But, this is not one way communication. Turning back to 1 st Corinthians 2, Paul says that the same type of spiritual communication, spirit to Spirit, also occurs in the other direction.

Look again at verses 11 and 12, “No one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. We have not received the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God…”

Why? And this is key, “that we may understand what God has freely given us.”

What has God freely given us?; himself; an intimate, personal, relationship with God himself through faith in Jesus Christ. The Spirit of God in your heart is there, it is his purpose and role, to help you know God personally; to help you hear him speak and know his mind, not only what he‘s revealed through the bible, but what he‘s revealed to you through he bible. Look back to the passage.

“This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, expressing spiritual truths in spiritual words..” (1 Cor 2:13 )

We're taught by the Spirit of God to hear the voice of God personally. God's understanding of your heart, your spirit, is perfect because his knowledge of you is perfect.

But we have to be taught.

Our understanding of God's voice is imperfect because our understanding of God is imperfect. When Anne and I met for the first time we didn't immediately and automatically know each others thoughts and feelings. We had to express ourselves verbally first and then over time on our ability to communicate nonverbally increased.

The same is true with God. When you first give yourself to God he comes to live in your heart. But you still have to get to know him. It's not automatic. It takes time and commitment. Anne had to tell me about herself before I could know her thoughts and feelings nonverbally. What about God? God tells us about himself primarily in the bible. '

Last week I said that knowing the bible, the last of the six steps I gave you, is the crucial step to hearing God's voice.

Believers have to spend time in God's word written before they can hear his word in their hearts.

The bible we said is like the tuning fork. It tunes your spirit to God's Spirit. Knowing the tuning fork, the bible, is essential to heart to heart, spirit to spirit, communication with God in the same way that verbal communication is essential to spouses and friends.

Over time as you get to know his Word you just, and I wish I could be more descriptive here, you just start to hear his voice.

I wish I could give you a better definition, but it's something that just happens just like it just kind of happens in human relationships. This sermon has been one of the most frustrating to write. I like things cut and dry. I would love to give you a clear cut explanation of what God's voice in your heart sounds like. I can't. It is one of those things you just have to experience for yourself.

What I can do is describe my own experience with this voice and tell you that having spoken with other believers who describe very similar experiences, what I'm about to tell you is not unique or special to me. It is the common and normative experience of people who have become tuned to God's voice.

When I applied for admittance to the ordination process, I had to have a sit down meeting with my bishop in his office. This guy didn't like me one bit. The meeting was a disaster. He told me I wouldn't be accepted into the process for at least another year. I was devastated. I was sad. I was angry. I though to myself, “God called me, who's this bishop to stand in God's way?” I thought about trying another denomination, maybe starting my own church. That night I sat up reading my bible. I happened to be in Exodus 2. Moses was called by God to lead his people out of slavery in Egypt to the Promised Land. God didn't give Moses a time line. He just said, “you're going to lead my people to freedom“. Being a young man, Moses wanted to do it now not later. So instead of waiting on God he took matters in his own hands and murdered an Egyptian slave-driver. One thing led to another, he was forced to escape Egypt or risk execution. He remained in exile for forty years before God at the burning bush called Moses back to Egypt to lead his people. Moses wasn't ready to lead when he thought he was. God wanted him to wait. I'd just finished reading that story when I heard “You aren't ready yet either. One more year.” I didn't hear with my ears, it was an inner voice, but it was clear and definite. As soon as I heard it I said “that's God”

How did I know? I knew my bible. I'd read it through twice by then so I had a good idea of who God is and what he does. I knew it was the kind of thing that God would say, “wait, trust me” and it didn't in any way contradict anything he‘d already said. I knew it was God's voice because I'd taken the time to know God's word and was therefore tuned to God's spirit in my heart.

There were other things about the voice too. It spoke with an authority and knowledge I don't have and it corrected rather than corresponded to my desires. And, even though it wasn't what I wanted to hear, I felt a great sense of peace and strength come over me. But, we'll talk more about those another time.

Speaking of time, we're about out of it.

I've tried this morning to give you a sense for what it means to say that God speaks to your heart. I've done that through the scriptures and by sharing my own experiences and I hope you've come away with a clearer sense of what it means to hear God internally in your heart.

Next week I'll pass on some methods to prime you for hearing God's voice through each of the four lines of communication. Until then may God bless you all.

Amen.

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