“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” John 10:27
Just Google “How to Hear Jesus Voice,” and you’ll be looking at 117,000,000+ results. Whew! If you could read all of those How To’s in just one minute each, it would take you 222.6 years. By then, you’d be hearing or would have heard Jesus voice up close and personal.
But, if Jesus sheep do hear his voice, then why are others in the church so preoccupied with teaching you how to do it? If you follow Jesus, it’s inevitable. Is it not?
Maybe it’s the difference between the words “hear” & “listen.” I’m sure, if you’re like me, you have told someone who has accused you of not listening, “I hear you.” You know, it’s when their voice and words enter your ears but for whatever reason, you choose to dismiss it. The NLT version of Luke 14:35 says. “Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!” Problem is that Listen and Hear are from the same root word in the original language. If you look for other passages to distinguish listening and hearing, you’re likely not to find any.
So, if hearing Jesus voice is something we learn to do through others, then fine. We’ll need someone to teach us. If, on the other hand, it’s something we just know when we’re given ears to hear (mark 4:23), then why is the church so concerned with making sure you know how to do it?
What are your thoughts?
Missionary in the Andes Mountains Cloud Forest Region of Ecuador. My last name, "Labrador," is the word that's used for "Vine Worker" in the Spanish Bible, and it's OK with me. 
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Immersing ourselves in Christ, fully. Into His life, death, and resurrection. But mostly into His Word, and His People, for how else can we know Him? Dying to self, and finding our identity in Jesus. And let us not lose heart in doing good, for in due time we shall reap if we do not grow weary. Following Jesus. Have a conflict? 1 Peter 2:21-25 is how we follow Jesus. Oh forgive me, I am teaching. This is my path. Everyone wears a different pair of shoes. LIVE!
Great probing question and one that should shake all people in the body of Christ from their lethargy and heavy ears (cf. Matthew 13). At the same time, this is one that can easily cause an opposite but equal imbalance. If we aren’t careful we may create a Christianity that is all about the individual’s apprehension of Spirit and completely cut off from an historic connection to the church, to a particular church body, and from any accountability for sound doctrine.
The same Spirit who speaks powerfully, clearly, to each individual believer, is the same Spirit who gives gifted teachers to the church. He must want them to teach. He is the same Spirit who gives gifts of teaching and prophecy to his sheep. He must want them to exercise their gifts. He is the same Spirit who tells us to reprove, rebuke and exhort with all patience and instruction. He must want these things to take place and they take place by teaching in some way.
Here’s a bit of background – http://jesus.scilla.org.uk/2011/07/response-are-you-listening.html
It’s not another method to add to all the rest, at least I hope not! Julian Treasure provides some striking insights, I think.
I’m very interested that you distinguish between hearing and listening. That echoes some of my thoughts in that post. It has a lot to do with paying attention, doesn’t it.
He speaks to us in the moment. We mus expect that, and wait for it, and not miss it. The voice of the Spirit is often quiet and gentle and easily drowned out.
EXCELLENT question!
I’ve grown to appreciate your style of “in your face” questioning.
Thanks for another “man in the mirror” moment.
When Jesus’ followers heard the words “My sheep hear (sh’ma in Hebrew) My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me,” Deuteronomy 6:4-9 was most likely what immediately came to their minds. This passage in Deuteronomy, called the “Sh’ma,” has been one of the more important passages throughout Jewish history, and Jesus’ followers would have recited this passage along with their daily prayers several times a day. Paraphrased –
Know that YHWH is the one and only God. Love Him with all your understanding, desire, and intensity. Remember the things you’re commanded to do, and store them in your inmost being. Teach them to your children, and speak of them all the time. Live them with your actions (bind them on your hand) and thoughts (bind them on your forehead). Permeate your homes and cities with them (or some prefer a more literal application, or a reminder, and affix scrolls to their doorposts).
This is the heart of discipleship. As we read the words in red letters in our Bibles, it would be of great benefit to us to be mindful of this context. I don’t know, but it seems to me it would clear up a lot of the confusion.
In the context of “sheepdom,” sheep have been nurtured, protected and virtually live in the presence of their shepherd and from birth only know the sound, smell and sight of their shepherd. People have learned from birth to listen to many voices and especially their own. When they come to Christ, they are told to listen to their pastor’s voice since he is their “undershepherd.” If they happen to be in a fellowship that actually believe that a person can hear and respond personally to the voice of the Lord themselves then they attempt to construct methods of hearing. No one acutally directs them to Luke 4:18 where Jesus said that he came to bring the good news of 1)healing for the broken hearted, 2) deliverance for the captive, 3) liberty to the deep bruises and 4) recovery of spiritual sight. Jesus came to restore to us the relationship that Adam and Eve lost in the garden when they talked and walked with their creator. And that is how we know his voice. Deliverance removes the static on the spiritual line from demonic sources. Healing the wounded heart quiets the need to listen to our own voice to meet our own needs. Liberty to the deep bruises stills the wounded soul crying out for healing. Experiencing Jesus as Deliverer, the Holy Spirit as Healer and the Father as the Source of Life retrains the ear to hear his true Voice.
I remember chatting with a group of leaders a few years ago, and the general consensus was that probably only around 10% of Christians hear God on a regular basis. Most people have been taught to mistrust their own “inner voice” of the Holy Spirit. If God speaks to them, they think, “That was only me.” They expect to hear him through speakers and books. They have never learned to have intimacy with God, a two-way conversation.
As such, I think that training in an expectancy that God will speak, that if any believer asks God a question, he desires to answer it, that they can trust their thoughts to be from the Lord in the right context can be valuable. In my experience, it can often give people a confidence that they are truly hearing God. But it’s no substitute for spending time listening, and learning to recognize his voice at a personal level.
In my experience they aren’t. In fact, I wish they would. Even if all they do is read the couple of Scriptures you quoted here. In my experience, they teach you to hear the voice of the one who hears the Voice of God, which is usually the preacher. Most churches I’ve seen won’t even approach the subject for fear that you will “think you hear” the Voice of God and “go flaky”.
They seem to automatically assume that people cannot discern His Voice for themselves because they all know of “that one” who says God told them it’s okay to smoke pot or divorce their wife of 15 years and marry someone half their age, or some other goofy thing. I’ve made the rounds, been to a lot of churches, (a lot of different kind of churches in fact) for a lot of years, and the only lessons I ever received (the very few) in hearing the Voice of God involved reading. Outside of that, it is seemingly impossible. Which is odd to me as I have yet to encounter a verse that says “…and the Word of the Lord came to me as I was reading the Scriptures and said….”