From John 1:1 we conclude that John meant to teach that it is the nature of God to speak, to communicate His thoughts to others. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” A word is a medium by which thoughts are expressed, and the application of the term to the eternal Son leads us to believe that the Godhead—Father, Son and Holy Spirit is forever seeking to speak to His creation. Genesis through Revelation reveals this truth. The Voice of God is speaking. Not God spoke, but God is speaking. He is, by His nature, continuously communicating to His entire creation. He fills the world with His speaking voice! Psalms 68: 33 declares: “Sing to God; O kingdoms of the earth. Sing praises to the LORD, Selah. To Him who rides upon the highest heavens, which are from ancient times. Behold, He speaks forth with His voice, a mighty voice.” A.W. Tozer clarifies it: “The word of God which brought all worlds into being cannot be understood to mean the Bible, for it was not a written or printed word at all, but the expression of the will of God spoken into the structure of all things. This word of God is the breath of God filling the world with living potentiality”. One of the realities with which we have to deal is the voice of God in His world. God delivered a message to the wayward nation of Judah by the prophet Jeremiah as they had turned like Israel from genuine, wholehearted devotion to God to empty rituals and idolatry. Jeremiah warned the people to change their ways (7: 3) and reminds them of the Lord’s command: “Obey my voice, and I will be your God, and you shall be my people. And walk in all the way that I command you, that it may be well with you” (verse 23, ESV). The ultimate blessing of obeying God’s voice is His promise to “walk among you” and “be your God, and you shall be my people.” The people of Judah ignored the voice of the Lord. Instead of trusting in God, they had put their faith in outward religious observances. They needed to remember that protection for God’s people comes from one thing alone—God’s presence. Has the Church like Judah ignored the voice of the Lord and become preoccupied with religion rather than obeying God’s voice and seeking His presence? God will not bless what does not honor Him!
God is here and He is speaking—these truths are back of all other Bible truths; without them there could be no revelation at all. God did not write a book and send it by messenger to be read at a distance by unaided minds. He spoke a Book and lives in His spoken words, constantly speaking His words and causing the power of them to persist across the years. The Word of God is quick and powerful. In the beginning He spoke to nothing, and it became something. Chaos heard it and became order; darkness heard it and became light. “And God said…and it was so.” (Gen. 1:9) God communicated with Adam and Eve in the Garden in the cool of the day. After their disobedience, we read that they heard God’s voice in the garden and were afraid. Disobedience separates us from God. “Return, ye children of men” (Ps. 90:3) was the word spoken at the Fall by which God decreed the death of every man, and no added word has He needed to be spoken. The entire Bible is the story of God’s redemptive plan to bring mankind back to Himself. We see the first act of redemption when God killed animals and made coverings for Adam and Eve—establishing the requirement of the shedding of innocent blood for forgiveness foreshadowing the sacrifice of the Lamb of God slain before the foundation of the world. (Rev. 3:18)
As we see the panorama of God’s plan through the Bible we hear God’s voice. Each revelation of God’s voice proceeds a major shift that introduces a Divine movement of God. God spoke to Noah before the judgment and flood. God spoke to Abraham and announced His choice as progenitor of a nation for His purposes and called him to leave his home and go to a land that He would show him. This same unconditional promise of blessing was spoken to Isaac and then Jacob. God spoke to Moses calling him as deliverer of His nation from bondage in Egypt and revealed Himself as “I AM the Almighty God”. God spoke to Joshua to lead His nation into the conquer of the Promised Land. God’s voice spoke through the prophets in the period of the Judges and the Kings. God’s voice having spoken to the fathers in the prophets, at the end of those days—400 silent years—spoke to us in a Son—the promised King of the Davidic Covenant, the Seed of the Adamic and Abraham Covenants—Jesus Christ. Hebrews 1: 1-3 says: “In many separate revelations (each of which set forth a portion of the Truth) and in different ways God spoke of old to our forefathers in and by the prophets. But in the last of these days He has spoken to us in the person of a Son, Whom He appointed Heir and lawful Owner of all things, also by and through Whom He created the worlds and the reaches of space and the ages of time (He made, produced, built, operated, and arranged them in order.) He is the sole expression of the glory of God (the Light-being, the radiance of the Divine), and He is the perfect imprint and very image of God’s nature, upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty word of power. When He had by offering Himself accomplished our cleansing of sins and riddance of guilt, He sat down at the right hand of the Divine Majesty on high.”
God spoke through His Son before ascending into heaven introducing the birth of a new revelation—the birth of the Church: “…wait for the promise of the Father, which, saith he, ye have heard of Me. For John truly baptized with water; but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Ghost not many days hence…ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you; and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.”(Acts 1: 4, 7-8.) The Church made up of both Jewish and Gentile believers joined together with equal standing in the one body of Christ which began at Pentecost and concludes with the Rapture. Let us consider the statement of time “these last days” spoken in the passage in Hebrews 1 which taken literally indicated the last days began then. Peter stood up and said, “You want to know what this is. This is what is spoken by the prophet Joel, “in the last days,” saith God, “I will pour out of My Spirit” referring to the former and latter rain. (Acts 2: 17-21, 28-32) So, when Jesus appeared, approximately 2000 years ago, it was then God was bringing everything together to the climax. We need to bear in mind what is said in 2 Peter 3:8, that one day with the Lord is as a thousand years—and a thousand years as one day. He is speaking about the return of the Lord! Could it be that the miracles we are beginning to see, the manifesting of Jesus to people in other nations—especially to the Muslims, and the breaking out of revivals on college campuses relates to the latter rain? “And this Gospel of the Kingdom shall be preached in all the world for a witness unto all nations, and then shall the end come.” (Mt. 24:14) God is gracious to allow His voice to speak through end-time prophets to cheer us on and encourage us to fix our eyes on Jesus, the Author and Finisher of our faith and affirm that God is in control and will complete His good plan written in His Word. “Indeed, the Sovereign LORD never does anything until He reveals His plans to His servants the prophets.” (Amos 3:7)
The Bible is a living and powerful book God spoke for His people to guide and empower us in this earthly walk. Paul in I Thessalonians 4-5 speaks of the believers walk and hope in the latter days of the Church before the return of the Lord for His Church. Believers are identified as sons of light and commanded to keep wide awake—alert, watchful, cautious and on guard—to be calm and put on the breastplate of faith and love and a helmet of hope of salvation. We are to warn and seriously advise those who are out of line in the body; encourage the faint-hearted; help and give support to the weak souls; be patient with everybody; to be unceasing in prayer; to thank God in all circumstances; not to quench the Holy Spirit; not to spurn the gifts and utterances of the prophets (do not depreciate prophetic revelations nor despise inspired instruction or exhortation or warning); test and prove all things; abstain from evil.
It is apparent that we are near the finish line. The world and even religion wants to squeeze us into its mold and keep us from pushing back the boundaries and limits with our relationship and time with God—our Father. The ways of the world have warped our conscience to prevent us from seeking His Face and hearing His voice. We must listen to God’s voice above the clamor of voices trying to distract us. We must ask God’s Spirit to control our mind to attune it to His Voice. God is still speaking but are we listening? Jesus is seated at the Father’s right hand ruling over His Kingdom—upholding it through justice and righteousness from now until forevermore according to Isaiah 9:6 and repeated by the angel Gabriel to Mary in Luke 1: 32-34. We are to fix our eyes on Jesus the Author and Finisher of our faith and affirm that God is in control and will complete His good plan written in His Word. Jesus is the Word. He is the Alpha—the beginning of the spoken word—the voice of God and He will have the final word---the Omega!
The Bible will never be a living Book to us until we are convinced that God is speaking in His universe. Again, let us meditate on the words of A.W. Tozer: “I believe that much of our religious unbelief is due to a wrong conception of and a wrong feeling for the Scriptures of Truth that a silent God suddenly began to speak in a book and when the book was finished lapsed back into silence again forever. The facts are that God is not silent, has never been silent. It is the nature of God to speak. I think a new world will arise out of the religious mists when we approach our Bible with the idea that it is not only a book which was once spoken, but a book which is now speaking. The prophets habitually said, “Thus saith the Lord.” They meant their hearers to understand that God’s speaking is in the continuous present.”
Jesus said in Revelation 3: 32 “He who is able to hear, let him listen to and heed what the Holy Spirit says to the churches.” I believe that God has allowed us to come through these tests as a nation and as a Church to get our attention and to start listening to Him! 1. Hearing God’s voice requires that we first know Him through accepting Jesus as our Savior. We cannot hear Him as our Father until we are born again as His child. 2. God promises to hear our prayers according to His will so we must fix our attention on His Word—Christ the Living Word and Christ the Written Word. 3. We must learn to follow the leading of the Holy Spirit as He guides and teaches us. 4. We must trust and obey God one step at a time—moment by moment. Psalm 46:10 instructs us to “Be still and know that I am God.” It is not just a gentle reminder to relax and trust in God, but a wake-up call to acknowledge God’s presence and power. The psalmist is urging us to stop striving and fighting and instead to be still and know God is in control even when things seem chaotic and uncertain. It is a call to trust, to awe, and to acknowledge God’s majesty! By applying these principles to our lives we can deepen our relationship with God and experience His peace and comfort! The times are noisy and our ears are weary with continuous sounds assaulting them. Let us learn to listen to God’s voice, that its tones may be familiar when the sounds of earth die away and the only sound will be the music of God’s speaking voice! We are about to witness a new move of God and He wants us to be ready—to hear, to listen, to obey!