Hearing Voices

A while back Isabella went to a birthday party for one of her babysitter's friends. After class I went to pick her up. When I walked in the door, I greeted everyone and Isabella said, "Daddy!" and immediately ran to me.


Now, that wouldn't normally strike me as blog-worthy except for the fact that she had not seen me come in. It could have been anyone arriving at their apartment and greeting everyone, let alone me. One of the girls there said something, however, that has resonated with me ever since:


"Aw! She recognizes her daddy's voice."


It's true. She does. Out of a crowd, she would know my voice over anyone else's. Were she blindfolded and forced to choose between multiple dads all calling for her to "Come here, darlin'! Come to Daddy!", she would choose correctly every time. Why is that?


Because she knows my voice.


Taken a step further, we also know the voice of our Father, don't we? We know His call like my daughter knows mine. Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me." The question is, and this is the hard part, do we listen? Do we answer? Do we come when He calls?


Here is the rest of that verse in its context:

Jesus answered them, "I told you, and you do not believe. The works that I do in my Father's name bear witness about me, but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand. I and the Father are one."

Obviously Jesus is speaking about His followers - they know Him, they hear His voice, they answer Him and they follow Him. The implication of these verses though, that is what convicts me more than anything. Verse 26 says it all, and it just grabs at me: "but you do not believe because you are not among my sheep."


What do sheep do? They listen to their shepherd. They follow his voice.


So, if I am not listening to and following the voice of my Good Shepherd, then doesn't that mean that I am not behaving as one of His sheep? If I am not listening to His voice, then whose voice am I listening to? What shepherd am I putting in place of Him?


In short, what I'm trying to say is this: The voice that you listen to is what you have made god over your life, whether you realize it or not. The voice that you follow is the one you have allowed to reign on the throne of your life.


What is it? Is it your image or your reputation or your peers or yourself? Does the identity you find in your skills and abilities hold more sway than the identity you have in Christ? Honestly, most of the time what sits on the throne of my life is me. I sit there, all high and mighty, looking down on the people around me. I condescendingly peer down and judge people for all the sins I can see (or even think I can see) in their life, completely ignoring the trash in my own life...or even worse - justifying it.


The very heart of my sin, of anyone's sin, is pride. It's the control that I try to assert in place of submitting to God. It's the self-justification I try to apply instead of being justified by God. And those are just the things that I battle with. I'm sure you have your own.


Ultimately, I have to ask: what do I do with this kind of thought? Do I walk away from a passage like this questioning my salvation, worried that I won't be allowed into heaven because I listen to myself more than God? No, the end of the passage makes it clear - His sheep can never be snatched from His hand. Once we are a part of God's flock, we are permanently a part of God's flock. This is not a passage that should produce doubt.


No, the take away is this - do I have the eternal life that Jesus offers? Once I have it, how do I know, listen to, and follow the Good Shepherd's voice?


Getting the eternal life that Jesus offers - that's the easy part.


The hard part is answering the other question. That's the part that takes a lifetime. How do I learn to hear my Shepherd's voice? And once I know what it sounds like, how do I train my ear to listen to it and my feet to follow? In a word, the Bible. God has spoken, extensively. He inspired godly men to write the words that we now have today and which we call the Bible. Is it a how-to manual? No. Is it a self-help book? Not at all. Will it answer every question you ever have about life and faith? Not explicitly.


But it is trustworthy. It is without error. It is authoritative.


So, open up the Word. Get in the habit of reading it consistently. Write down your thoughts and questions as you read. Find someone that you trust who is a step ahead of you in life and ask them to help you in the process, ask them questions about what you read, ask them to help you figure out how it applies to your life. It's difficult and it's work, but in the end you'll find yourself recognizing more easily, listening more closely, and following more quickly the voice of your Father in heaven.


And even better, you'll find that you run into His arms every chance that you get.