Life #25 - Learning to Hear God's Voice through Sound and Meaning

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               Scripture says there are many voices in the world and they all carry meaning (1 Cor. 14:10 KJV). The Greek word for “voice” is phōnē, fo-nay’ which means a sound or a tone. Mothers learn to recognize their baby’s sound or tone, as well as the meaning behind it: “That cry sounds like he’s hungry; that one like she’s ready for a nap.”

Christians must learn to recognize God’s sound and the meaning behind it. Additionally, we also learn to differentiate God’s Voice from among other voices, who also have sounds and meanings of their own:

·         The devil’s sound is temptation, aimed at our ego, meant to use us to frustrate God’s power, purpose, and sovereignty (Matt. 4:3, 6, 9).

·         The world strikes a tone of pleasure, aimed at our lusts, meant to make Christians enemies of God (James 4:1-4; 1 John 2:15, 16).

·         The stranger’s voice is the letter of the law, aimed at the sheep, and is meant to steal, to kill, or to destroy the sheep (John 9:14-16; 28; 10:5, 10; Mark 2:24, 27).

Otherwise, God’s Voice is a sound of change, aimed at the incorruptible seed within us, meant to grow us up into Christ Jesus.

Yes. God’s voice sounds like our voice, our thoughts, and our feelings.

Let’s spend time with God and get acquainted with his sound and meaning, especially so we can hear the Voice of life.

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Scripture quotations from New King James Version (NKJV) unless otherwise noted; Greek definitions from Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible: Voice #5456, phōnē, fo-nay’; a tone:—noise, sound, voice. And from Vine’s Expository Dictionary of Old and New Testament Words (1981): “voice” - “a sound”.

In John (Chapters 9 & 10), Jesus alluded to the Pharisees as strangers, thieves, robbers, and hirelings.