A voice may be speaking words of comfort to you in a time of trouble, or it may whisper in the dark of love with tenderness. To pick up the phone and hear a dear voice you had not expected, talking to that loved one over a little instrument that fits in the palm of your hand, brings instant joy!
Then there are voices that you dread to hear, the mocking tones of an enemy, the newscaster saying names over the airwaves of ones that you love and knowing it will bring ridicule from those who hear it, or as has happened too often, giving news of children shot dead in the school they entered that morning in anticipation of seeing friends.
An angry voice can send chills of fear up your spine and the voice of the doctor giving you bad news fills you with despair. All those voices can play over and over in your head after you have laid it on the pillow at night, trying to go to sleep.
There are home movies with your loved ones talking and laughing, waving at the camera and making silly faces, the voice of our favorite singer, long in the grave, that still sings love songs to me from my IPod. There is a thrill in hearing the one you love saying “I love you” back and sadness at one saying, “Maybe I should have never married you.”
I imagine that you will identify with at least one of these afore-mentioned voices, but there is one more I wonder if you are familiar with, the Voice of the Lord.
I know you have read the story in the Bible about Moses at the burning bush; Exodus 3:4 When the Lord saw Moses coming to take a closer look, God called to him from the middle of the bush, “Moses! Moses!” “Here I am!” Moses replied. Imagine hearing a voice coming from a burning bush, yet he answered it and began the journey of his life! He went up on Mt Sinai and there on the mountain God gave him the Ten Commandments!
In the book of Jeremiah we see that there were false prophets that would tell the people that “God has said” and God got really ticked about that. He told Jeremiah to tell the people who these prophets were lying He had NOT sent them. God spoke in an audible voice to my dad when he was a young man out body surfing in the Pacific Ocean. He was swimming alone in the water and a buddy of his was lying on the beach sunning. Dad heard “Harry, where will you spend eternity?” He looked to see who had said that and looked at his buddy, who was asleep and undisturbed by the loud voice. Again he heard it, same reaction, looking around, the third time did it for him, he got out of the ocean, left that place, and went with his family that night to a revival service. When the minister asked, “Is there anyone here that has a prayer request?” Daddy stood to say, “Pray for me” but never got the words out of his mouth! He ran to the altar asking God to forgive him of his sins. He “prayed through” and his life was forever changed, that night.
There is a voice you need to beware of; it is the voice of doubt! When ever you begin to doubt God, and hear the voice of Satan himself telling you that God has forgotten you, or that you are beyond redemption, you will be lost if you listen.
There is a story in Greek mythology about the Sirens that seduced sailors with their beautiful music and caused them to wreck their ships against the rocky coast of their island. To hear their music was to die. One sailor wanted to hear the song without consequence and had himself tied to the poles of the sails and then ordered all the sailors to put wax in their ears so they would not hear the music and continue sailing.
In reality, you cannot listen to the voice of the “siren” and live, tied to a pole, your bedpost or the church altar! When you hear the voice making you doubt God in any way, refuse to hear it. Satan spoke to Jesus, and Jesus answered him with, “It is written!” There is a promise for your every need. Say, “Speak Lord, I’m listening!”
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