“You will seek Me and
find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.”
- Jeremiah 29:13
I’m a big
fan of nature documentaries. There have been some really good ones released in the
last several years: African Cats, Dolphin Reef, Born in China
When the
penguins arrive, they pair up into couples, and the female lays one egg. She
then passes her egg off to her hubby, who carefully places the egg on top of
his feet underneath his abdominal feathers. And Dad holds that egg on his feet
for two months while his Mrs. and the other ladies walk 70 miles back to the
ocean to find food. During those two months, the male emperor penguin waits through
temperatures as low as 70 degrees below zero, and he loses around one-third of
his total body weight.
Eventually
the egg hatches, and the females returns. And each male penguin calls for his
mate. As over a thousand penguins call for their wives at the same time, to us
it just sounds like a bunch of racket. But somehow, every female penguin is
able to distinguish the call of her hubby and go to him. Isn’t that cool?
As humans,
our ears aren’t nearly so fine-tuned. Every day we hear hundreds of voices
vying for our attention: the voices of our spouses, our kids and our parents …
our friends, neighbors, coworkers and bosses. We hear hundreds of voices on TV,
on the radio and at WalMart, and sometimes it just sounds like a whole lot of
noise. All these voices are fighting for our attention, and as followers of
Jesus Christ we want to know: “With hundreds of different voices rattling in my
ears, how can I single out the one voice I want to hear? How do I hear God’s voice?”
Let’s take
a look at Elijah. In 1 Kings 19:11, the Lord tells Elijah that He is about to
pass by. Right after He says that, a “great and powerful wind” rips through the
mountains. But somehow, Elijah knows that God is not in the wind. Then a great earthquake
rattles the mountain. But somehow, Elijah knows that God is not in the
earthquake. Then a raging fire torches the mountainside. But once again, Elijah
knows that God is not in the fire. Finally, at the end of verse 12, Elijah
hears a “gentle whisper.” And Elijah immediately recognizes that God is in the
gentle whisper. Amidst the earth-shaking noise of the wind and the earthquake
and the fire, Elijah recognizes the voice of God. Wouldn’t you love to be able
to do that? Let me share a few insights about how you can hear God’s voice.
Insight #1: The problem isn’t that
God’s not TALKING. The problem is that you’re not LISTENING. The truth is, God speaks to us in a
hundred different ways every day. He speaks to us through prayer. He speaks to
us through people. He speaks to us through our triumphs, and He even speaks to
us through our failures and pain. And the number one way that God speaks to us
is through His Word. If you want to hear God’s voice, just start reading.
You’ll hear it---for sure!! There’s a reason we call the Bible “God’s word.”
Remember that the God of heaven and earth is a very personal God, and He speaks
to us in a very personal way. It’s amazing how a Bible verse that you’ve read a
hundred times can come alive for the first time on a certain day and you just
know in your heart of hearts, “God is speaking to me right now.”
Insight #2: God speaks to us more
often than we realize, but we don’t hear Him because there’s too much noise
drowning Him out. We
live in a very noisy world. For many of us the radio is always on in our cars
and the TV is always on in our homes. In order to hear God’s whisper, you must
strive to eliminate at least some of the background noise. To do this, you need
to practice a little self-discipline. Turn off the TV and radio. Get out in
nature if you’re able to. Wake up early and get into God’s Word before everyone
else in the house wakes up and starts making noise. In order to hear God’s
voice, you have to be able to HEAR God’s voice. Make sense?
Insight #3: You’ve gotta want
it—really, really want it. It’s easy to say, “I want to hear God’s voice.” But do you really,
really, REALLY want to hear God’s voice? In Jeremiah 29:13, God says, “You will
seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart.” Do you seek God with
“all your heart”? Just as Mama Penguin’s heart’s desire is to hear Daddy’s
voice, our heart’s desire should be to hear our Daddy’s voice. We must have
hearts that love God and want to spend time with God and long to hear the voice
of God. There are no shortcuts. It takes time. It takes effort. It takes
practice. But you will seek God and find God and hear God, when you seek Him
and listen with all your heart.
Dane Davis is the Pastor of Impact
Christian Church. Please join us for our online worship service Sundays at
10 a.m. at Live.GreaterImpact.cc or on our YouTube channel (Impact
Christian Church) or on Facebook.
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