Listening to God

Jeremiah 31:32 describes God’s guidance in terms of taking His people by the hand and leading them. God’s guidance is very personal and individual. He does speak to us individually. But there are great dangers associated with this.

Avoiding errors on both sides
Christians have tended to fall into one of two errors on either side of the truth with it comes to following God’s guidance. Some of our Charismatic friends focus so much on the immediate, direct, personal aspect that they tend to fall into the error of superstitious mysticism. They are always looking for voices from God or messages hidden in circumstances or coincidences, or they turn the Bible into a book of magic. They figure out God’s will by playing Bible roulette – randomly opening to a verse and then ripping a phrase of that verse out of context to apply to their situation.
The problem with that approach is it is superstitious. There is no rational basis for believing that some feeling or some coincidence carries a particular message. Even in the case of supernatural knowledge – like knowing some information about a person that you had no way of knowing; demons can convey information like that just as well as God.
It is possible to become so enamored with the miraculous that you are not really all that interested in hearing God’s voice unless it comes in miraculous form. People like that get real excited if they hear a voice that tells them the name of some person they have never met – or some fact about that person’s life. “Last Tuesday you thought about calling your mother, and you dialed but then quickly hung up.” And if it turns out to be true they get all excited – “I heard the voice of God!”
If I got up here and preached a whole sermon on the woman who started to dial her mother and then hung up, and the next week I preached on the item someone had in her purse that was revealed to some modern day prophet - a whole sermon on a yellow handkerchief, it would not be long before every seat in the place would be empty. In fact, I doubt even the supposed prophets who got those revelations would be interested; which goes to show that it is not really God’s Word they love, but rather they are just in love with miracles.
Others see that error and overreact to the other side and end up erring by making God’s guidance nothing but impersonal, indirect, general information recorded in the Bible that is the same for everyone; God does not speak directly to anyone, He just gave us the Bible – so God’s speaking is exactly the same for every human being on the planet.  The problem with that is that Scripture speaks of God speaking to us and guiding us as individuals. 

Isa.30:21 Whether you turn to the right or to the left you will hear a voice behind you saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”

And right here in Psalm 25 David says,

14 The LORD confides in those who fear him

The word “confide” in this context most likely refers to the secret communications within an inner circle. “God opens his mouth to speak to them without any reserve.”[1]  
And if God’s only communication to us is in the print on the page of the Bible, then what are we to make of all the promises that God will guide us on the condition that we repent of our sin. The Bible can be read by anyone – even unbelievers. When David cries out to God in this psalm for guidance, he is not asking God to drop a copy of Scripture out of heaven into his hands. David had the Scriptures, yet he still prayed for guidance.
So what is the truth that lies between the errors of superstitious mysticism on the one hand and no direct, individual speaking on the other hand? The one side points to miraculous speaking – like the way God spoke to the prophets. But not all people are prophets. In fact, after the completion of the Bible, I do not believe God is giving any more direct, prophetic revelation in addition to Scripture. The other side points to the Bible as the only way that God ever communicates now. But is there anything else? Is there any way Scripture speaks of God communicating to us besides the miraculous way He spoke to the prophets and the general way He speaks in the Bible? Is there ever a sense in which God communicates something to you, as an individual, that is specific and personalized to you, and yet is not a miraculous prophecy? Yes. There is another way God speaks to us. It is called enlightenment.

Enlightenment
It is when God opens your eyes to see some specific truth.

Eph.1:18 I pray also that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, 

These people are already saved, but Paul is praying that God will open their eyes in a greater way to some specific truths. There is a huge amount of truth that is just sitting there in front of our faces that we are blind to. And God speaks to us by turning on the light in a specific area and showing you something that is there that you could not see or accept before.

Isa.42:16 I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them

Ps.43:3 Send forth your light and your truth, let them guide me; let them bring me to your holy mountain, to the place where you dwell.

The people who get into the superstitious error have the problem of never knowing for sure if what they are hearing is God’s voice. People sometimes ask me – “When God speaks to you, how do you know it is His voice?” But if you understand that God speaks to us not through promptings or impressions or coincidences, but through enlightenment, then you do not have to ask the question, “How do you know if it is God?” If there is light, of course it is God. That is like asking, “How do you know when someone has turned the lights on in a room?” You know by whether or not you can see clearly. God does not give you special, superstitious insight into where the chair is – He just turns on the lights so you can see plainly where it is.
Now, I want you to understand what I mean by this, so I will show you how it works in three areas: Wisdom, Interpretation of Scripture, and Application of Scripture. 

WISDOM
Imagine you are trying to make a basic wisdom decision that there is no direct statement about in Scripture. For example, should I buy a house right now or just rent? My first step is to go to God in prayer and as Him to guide me. First and foremost, that is a matter of me loving the right things and having the right priorities. But once that is in place there is still the question of how to best achieve the spiritual goals that I now have. My motivation is I want to be a good steward of the money God has entrusted to me. So now I need wisdom to know what is the best way to avoid squandering that money? So how is God going to answer my prayer for guidance and wisdom? Should I watch for some strange coincidence that has to do with buying or renting and try to interpret it? No. God does not use darkness and obscurity to communicate. He uses light. The most common way is for Him to answer a prayer for guidance in a case like this would be to simply open my eyes to wisdom by means of providence.
So you go to a wise a realtor and say, “I have heard it is bad stewardship to rent, because your money goes down the drain every month, so I think I should probably buy.” And God provides a realtor who is willing to explain to you that in the market you are in it will probably be a net loss if you buy and resell within five years. The appreciation on the house probably will not be enough to cover the realtor fees. And you are a junior in college and are planning on moving away within a year or two. So now the lights are on. You can see clearly what the wise course is. That is the voice of God. God is in charge of which realtor you talked to, and whether that realtor knew what he was doing, whether he would be a clear communicator, whether you would understand or misunderstand, etc. And God providentially moved all those factors to bring you to a point of being able to see the wise course.
How do you know it was God’s voice? Because the light is on. It is just as plain as day to any unbiased person who considers the facts, that it is the wise course.  If you go to your friends and say, “God told me to rent and not buy” and they ask how you know it was God, and you say, “I can just feel it in my bones” – all they can do is say, “Well, if you say so.” But when God really does speak, He turns on the lights, and everyone around can plainly see what is there. Now, if you explain your reasoning to all your godly, unbiased friends and none of them can see what you see, it may be that you are imagining something.
INTERPRETING SCRIPTURE
It works the same way with interpreting Scripture. Paul wrote to Timothy and explained some principles in the beginning of 2 Timothy two, but he did not expect Timothy to fully understand them until God gave Timothy enlightenment.

2 Tim.2:7 Reflect on what I am saying, for the Lord will give you insight into all this.

We need God to open our eyes so we can understand the meaning and significance of what He said in His Word. And another thing we need is for Him to give our hearts the ability to accept and delight in what He said in His Word. If you are not willing to accept a truth, you probably will not be able to understand it.

1 Cor.2:14-15 The man without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God, for they are foolishness to him, and he cannot understand them, because they are spiritually discerned. 15 The spiritual man makes judgments about all things

So the Holy Spirit enlightens us by making our hearts willing to accept a truth so we can then understand it when the lights go on. If you are unwilling to accept something is true you will not see it even when the lights are on. So the Spirit works in our hearts and transforms our affections and desires and biases so we are willing to accept the truth.
If you are looking for insight, do not expect God to give it by means of misuses of His Word. For example, Bible roulette. That is when you just flop your Bible open and randomly point to a statement and then apply it in a way other than it was originally intended. Or another example – allegorizing. Any time you draw any interpretation from the Bible that differs from what was originally intended by the author, you are misusing God’s Word. And God does not want us to seek His guidance through the misuse of His Word.
The way God speaks to you through Scripture is by opening your eyes to what is there. And once He has done that it is obvious it was His voice because the correct interpretation is plain to see. You can point it out to anyone who knows the proper way to interpret the Bible and they will say, “Of course – I can see now that that is what that passage means.”
For example, suppose you are studying Psalm 25 and you are trying to figure out what the very first line means – unto you I lift up my soul. God does not speak to you by just having you sit around and daydream about different possibilities until you think of one that you really like and that will get lots of “oooh’s and aaaah’s at a Bible study discussion group. Instead He will lead you to the right commentary or teacher or He will move in your heart to make you think to search on that phrase in your Bible software, and once you do that it becomes very obvious what it means to lift up your soul to something. It means to make that the object of your desire. God turns on the lights and lets you see what is clearly there. And when he does that you can show what you discovered to pretty much any unbiased person and they can see it plain as day.
APPLYING SCRIPTURE
So it works with wisdom, it works with interpreting the meaning of Scripture, and it also works with the application of Scripture. When you are discerning what a Bible writer meant by what he said in a specific text that is interpretation. When you use that principle to make decisions in life that is application. For example, Paul urged Timothy to use a little wine for his stomach’s sake in 1 Timothy 5:23. That passage has one meaning and one meaning only. There is only one correct interpretation of that passage. The correct interpretation is that Timothy was to use wine for his stomach in a medicinal way. There are no other meanings and there never will be, because a passage can never mean what it never meant. So that is the meaning. 
From there, you discern the principles that are implied. One principle is that Christians should use medicine when they are sick.[2] That is a necessary implication of what Paul said. Another necessary implication is that it is okay to seek relief from suffering. Another necessary implication is that we ought to be concerned about one another’s suffering. Another is that the solution to sickness is not always repentance from some specific sin in the sick person’s life. 
So if you are facing a decision in life – like whether you should take your sick grandmother to the hospital or just trust God to heal her, God will speak to you and guide you to the right decision. But He does not speak to you by sending a cloud formation in the shape of a hospital that makes you think, “Aha! A message from God!”  Nor does He try to guide you through ambiguous feelings in your stomach that you interpret as “a sense of peace” about this or that decision. I do not know how feeling a sense of peace ever came into use as a means of supposedly hearing God’s voice. Jonah felt so much peace in his disobedience that he was sleeping like a baby in the middle of a raging storm. And Jesus felt so little peace over His decision to obey the Father and go to the cross that He was up all night sweating blood. No, God does not have to resort to ambiguous, unclear means of communication like that. He guides you in the right way by turning on the lights and letting your mind notice 1 Timothy 5:23, and then enabling your heart to understand and apply its intending meaning.

Enjoy being guided
God is an ideal Guide
It is important, in your quest to love God, to learn how to enjoy being guided through life by Him. He is such a perfect Guide. He knows you. He knows your needs, your limitations, where you are now, where you need to go; He will not be manipulated, but He will show great compassion. He knows your blind spots, He knows the dangers and the places where you are likely to be lured off the path. He has all the power you need, all the wisdom it takes, all the kindness there is, He is able to guide you; He is willing to guide you, and He has promised over and over and over that He will guide you.
All that is left is for us to become glad followers; to be like David in Psalm 63:8, where he said his soul clung to God and followed hard after Him; to listen to His Spirit through His Word. It is such a thrilling reality to know that God has taken you by the hand to guide you. He speaks to you through His Word.

Jer.15:16 When your words came, I ate them; they were my joy and my heart's delight

Any time the lights are on, and you can see a situation or a decision or a text of Scripture clearly - realize that that is not just your own intellect. It is a direct, personal experience of God Himself! You are experiencing what it is like to be guided by Him! When a truth clicks while you are studying your Bible or listening to a sermon, and a principle becomes clear - don’t miss the fact that you are experiencing the very presence of God and are receiving grace directly from Him. If you have a sense that something is wrong and you should not do it – that is not just your memory banks. It is the actual voice of God - a direct experience of Him! Without that direct action of God the wrongness of the act would not come to mind. Or it would not seem wrong. Learn to take the direct, immediate voice of God’s Spirit seriously. When the lights go on that means He is in the room! Talking to you! 

Listen! 
Be very discerning whenever someone tells you to listen for the voice of God. Usually when people urge you to do that what they have in mind is superstitious mysticism. They want you to stop praying, and empty your mind and wait for some thought to come floating in along with a warm fuzzy feeling, and then assume that is God talking to you. Please do not ever do that. Satan will masquerade as an angel of light and tell you all kinds of wonderful sounding things that are 99% true with 1% of the arsenic of some deadly error mixed in. So do not do that.
However, having said that, I do want to urge you to listen for God’s voice. Seek His guidance. Listen to hear God’s voice with an expectant heart. When you open your Bible each day, do you expect God to speak to you? Or are you just getting your Bible reading done?
What about when you come to church? Do you come here expecting to hear from God – to have the Spirit of God communicate something directly from the mind of God into your heart? Something that is just what you need right now in your life? If you are like me you critique most every sermon you hear. It was a good sermon, bad sermon, too long, not enough illustrations, too loud, too soft, whatever. Maybe a better way to critique a sermon would this based only on how much of God’s voice was in the sermon. If there is a lot of God’s voice heard clearly and accurately in a sermon, it could hardly be too long. And if there is very little of God’s voice in a sermon it could hardly be too short. 
And if we thought that way – so that our main question was, “How much of God’s voice was in that sermon” before long I think we would probably start critiquing the sermon less and critiquing our listening more. So you walk out of church thinking, “How well did I listen to You, God? And how much delight did I take in what You said to me?” Next week we will look at the threefold response and then learn four very specific things this psalm teaches us to do when seeking guidance from God.