Today, I am going to speak about Samuel and about hearing God’s voice.
Samuel was a man of great faith. He was a prophet who heard and understood the voice of God.
Samuel was not hard of hearing like this guy named Chansome. Chansome was getting old, and went to the doctor to get a physical. A few days later, his doctor saw him strolling down the street with this gorgeous lady. During a follow-up visit, Chansome’s doctor said to him, "I saw you with a beautiful lady – you must be doing great!" Chansome replied, "Eh doctor, I just doing what you said. You said to get one hot mama and be cheerful." The doctor replied, "I didn’t say that. I said, ‘You got a heart murmur – be careful.’ Clean your ears brah – you so Portuguee!"
I don’t think that Samuel was hard-of-hearing. I don’t think that any of us wants to be spiritually hard of hearing. Therefore, I want to present three spiritual truths that will hopefully help us to hear the voice of God.
The Bible says, "Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, ‘Go and lie down’, and if he calls you say, ‘Speak LORD, for your servant is listening.’ So Samuel lay down in his place. The Lord came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel, Samuel’. Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’ And the Lord said to Samuel: ‘See, I am about to do something in Israel that will make the ears of everyone who hears about it tingle.’" (1 Samuel 3: 8-11 NIV)
Samuel was a young boy who was raised by an old priest named Eli, who was hard of hearing.
In the middle of the night, Samuel got up, and ran to Eli, whom he thought was calling him. However, it dawned on Eli that the voice that Samuel was hearing may have been the voice of God. Therefore, Eli told Samuel to say, "’Speak, your servant is listening.’ when you hear your name called."
The Bible says that hearing God’s voice was rare. So this was a rare occurrence that God directly spoke to Samuel.
The backdrop to this was that Samuel’s mom, named Hannah, was barren; however, God opened her womb and blessed her with Samuel after she prayed and told God that she would dedicate her child to be His servant. Hanna kept her word, and at the age of three or four, she handed Samuel over to Eli who continued to raise him.
God judged Eli because he was not a good father. His two sons did evil in the sight of the Lord. They mishandled the offerings and slept with women that they had met at the entrance of the temple. I think Hannah knew about this; however she obeyed God, and kept her promise to Him by giving Samuel to Eli to raise.
My question to you is this: Do we want to be like Samuel, or like Eli and his sons?
Prior to having Christ in my life, I could have acted like Eli or his sons. I had attitudes - such as lusts of the flesh, lusts of the eyes, and a boastful and prideful attitude.
God wants us to identify with Samuel. Let’s be people of God, who hear the Word of God.
1. HEARING GOD’S VOICE INVOLVES HEARING GOD’S WORD.
The Bible says, "So faith comes from hearing and hearing through the word of Christ." (Rom. 10:17)
Paul is talking about "salvation faith" that is needed to hear the voice of God.
Faith comes from hearing the word of Christ. Because you have heard the Gospel, you have this kind of faith. Hearing God’s voice involves hearing His word.
I have these noise cancelling Bose ear phones. They are so good, that I can’t even hear my own voice. I use them to connect to my Ipod and listen to music. I connect this wire from my ear -phone to my computer to do my work. How many of you have earphones that plug into your Iphone, or your Ipad? We plug into the television and other worldly and carnal modes of entertainment and information. We can listen to voices of the world, such as "you can be rich, brah!" There are so many distracting voices out there. Instead, we should stay plugged into the Bible. We need to stay plugged into the Word of God.
2. LISTENING TO THE RIGHT VOICE, WILL LEAD TO FOLLOWING WELL.
"The man who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him and the sheeplisten to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice."
(John 10:2-5 NIV)
Have you ever listened to the wrong voice?
Maybe we have made the wrong decisions from listening to the wrong counsel.
Maybe we have moved in the wrong direction due to certain influences - due to different voices that have distracted us. The stranger’s voice has become the world’s voice. Some of us are all too familiar with the world’s voices. Some of us have become so accustomed to strange voices instead of God’s. This has happened because our hearts have been plugged into other voices.
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When strange voices such as being jealous and greedy become "strange" voices, this is good because we are being led by the shepherd’s voice. If we listen to the right voice, we will follow well.
One day when I was dropping off my daughter at KCC, a young lady emerged out of her car wearing earphones that were connected to her cell phone or some electronic device. She was oblivious to me sitting in my idling car, waiting for her to move so that I could drive on. Upon turning, she was startled by my car being so close to her. So I smiled at her, but inside I was thinking junk thoughts because my ear phones were plugged into my flesh.
Sometimes we do not pay attention to the right voice. How many times have we not listened to the right voice? What does this mean to you – right now in your current situation?
You may be having concerns with your relationships because there is squabbling or tension. Maybe you are hearing a stranger’s voice within you. We need to put the Bible in our heads and plug it into our hearts.
3. PARTNER HEARING WITH UNDERSTANDING.
The Bible says, "Go to this people and say, "You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving." For this people’s hearts have become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears and they closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn and I would deal with them." (Acts 28: 26-27 NIV)
Paul was speaking to some obstinate Jewish people who were steeped in their own tradition and ways. This was contrary to hearing and understanding the word of God. We may listen, but are we really understanding and growing in God’s word? I heard this quote, "Many times people don’t understand. Most people listen to reply."
My wife wears two hearing aids because she has lost half of her hearing. Sometimes when I say to her, "Honey I love you." I don’t hear anything back from her because she has taken off her hearing aids. So often, all of us have hearing issues. We must put on our spiritual hearing aids so that we can hear the love-language and voice of God speaking into our hearts. The Bible says, "Let the wise hear and increase in learning." And the one who understands, obtain guidance." (Prov. 1: 5-7)
Hearing needs to come from a softened heart and needs to partner with understanding. However, a calloused heart will affect our hearing and affect our ability to understand and grow in Christ.
I would now like to close with a couple of thoughts. Some of us have received the salvation of faith by receiving Jesus Christ. We are kept close to God by hearing His Word. The Bible says, "
However when the spirit of truth has come, He will guide you into all truth. For He will not speak on His own authority, but whatever He hears, he will speak and He will tell you things to come. He will glorify Me. He will take what is mine, and declare/speak to you. All things that the Father has are mine. Therefore I said, that He will take of mine and declare it to you." (John 16:13-15)
 
The spirit of God lives within us. We need to cultivate a relationship with the Spirit of God by meditating on the Word of God. Amen! The Holy Spirit will constantly guide us into the truth. We need to hear His Word by plugging into the Bible. We are all plugging into different voices; however, if we listen to the right voice, we will obtain understanding. This will enable us to become more like Him. Amen!
Questions:
Sometimes we do not pay attention to the right voice. How many times have we not listened to the right voice? What does this mean to you – right now in your current situation?
How can we listen to the right voice?
How can we hear God’s word clearer each day?