On Hearing the Voice of God

As a teen, I grew up listening to Christian speakers and their heroic tales. God tells them to do a cartwheel in Burger King, and when they do, someone runs up and says, “I just prayed this morning, ‘God, if You’re real, show me a cartwheel in Burger King!’”

In this there is an underlying view of God’s will and the Christian life, which many Christians seem to hold. It has four parts.

First, God has a really, really specific design for your future. He has planned out for you a college, a career, a spouse, a household size, all of it, even the day-to-day stuff. The cartwheels in Burger King.

Second, the plan isn’t happening automatically: You need to figure out what His plan is so you can make sure to follow it.

Third, you figure out His plan by hearing His voice. This is a skill to be acquired, like using the Force. You must cultivate—through guidance and practice and perhaps the Spirit’s aid—a capacity to sift the subtle shades of feeling within you, to reach into the mess inside and pluck out the voice of God.

Fourth, this is not just something a few of us are called to. No, it is a big part of what it means to be obedient, to walk closely with Him, and to receive the blessings He has for you. It is central to the Christian life.

Is the Jedi theory of the Christian life—as we may call it—correct? By now you can tell I do not think so. It is, to quote Han Solo, a lot of tricks and nonsense. Let me explain.

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You might be thinking: Wait a minute! I hear from God all the time. He tells me to do really specific things—"take this bus, eat this french fry"—and I seek to obey Him, a part of my spiritual life I hold exquisitely dear.

And that's fine. I'm not denying that perhaps some people do hear the still small voice of God, directing them to take a left or climb a tree. I'm denying that this is the default model of the Christian life, that this is something all Christians should actively seek and worry over when they lack it. God may be trying to tell you whom to marry and whom to shun. How should I know? But we shouldn't assume He is.

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The main trouble is that the Jedi theory lacks a scriptural basis. If it were the default model of the Christian life, you’d think it would show up in the Bible here and there. But while many people hear from God in the Bible, there is not a single case in which they do so by discerning subtle feelings.

When God speaks to Adam and Eve, there is no comment on how He speaks, except when He is depicted as actually walking through the Garden. When God speaks to Abraham, there is no comment on how He speaks, except for the occasional vision or messenger angel or appearance as three guys by an oak tree. When God speaks to Samuel, there is no comment on how He speaks, except that Samuel mistakes God’s voice for Eli’s, which suggests an audible voice experienced as external.

This pattern is all over the Old Testament. When God speaks, either it is not explained just how, or it is through plagues and prophets and burning bushes rather than subtle shades of feeling that might also be indigestion.

What about Elijah in the cave? God is not in the wind or the earthquake or the fire, but comes as a gentle whisper. Yet a whisper is still a literal voice—not a shade of feeling within—and that is just how the passage reads:

"And after the fire came a gentle whisper. When Elijah heard it, he pulled his cloak over his face and went out and stood at the mouth of the cave. Then a voice said to him, ‘What are you doing here, Elijah?’" (1 Kings 19:12-13)

To equate the gentle whisper with Jedi feelings is a major interpretive step, and I see nothing to license it.

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And the New Testament? When Jesus speaks to Paul on the road to Damascus, Paul sees a burst of light and hears an audible voice that says, “I am Jesus,” which his fellow travelers also hear. When God tells Ananias to restore Paul’s sight, He does so in a vision. When God speaks in the transfiguration, he does so as a voice from the heavens.

The closest we come to the Jedi theory is Acts. For instance, in Acts 16:6, the Holy Spirit “prevents” the apostles from preaching in Asia. But that is all we are told. Do you imagine the apostles were meditating, looking inward, and felt something they took as God’s leading? Well, nothing in the text suggests this.

Finally, the New Testament tells us a lot about how to live as Christians—give to the needy, forgive each other, beware of false teachers, pray without ceasing. But not a single exhortation urges us to look for God’s voice as a feeling within. If this were essential to the Christian life, we should expect the New Testament to come out and say so.

Does it? Consider Romans 8:14: “For all who are being led by the Spirit of God, these are sons of God.” But now consider the verse just before it: “If you are living according to the flesh, you must die; but if by the Spirit you are putting to death the deeds of the body, you will live.” What this passage is really about, then, is the Spirit living in you so that you will no longer obey the flesh.

Jesus tells us, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27). I’ve heard this used in defense of the Jedi theory. But notice what Jesus does not say. He does not say his voice is a sensation to be detected through practice. And more importantly, whenever you are interpreting a verse, you must ask, What are all the interpretations worth considering? And then you must rule them out one by one, like rival hypotheses. Well, here is an alternative interpretation: this verse is about the salvation that comes through recognizing Jesus as the Messiah. That is the sense in which his sheep hear his voice. They see him as God incarnate. Now, this interpretation is at least as good a fit for this verse as the Jedi theory, and it fits even better the next verse: “And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.” On the Jedi theory, this suggests that eternal life comes through learning to discern God’s voice. But that would be a heresy, because it grounds salvation in a skill achieved through effort.

Jesus also says, “He who is of God hears the words of God” (John 8:47). But here again, the context is a debate with His opponents who fail to see him as the Messiah.

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By no means do I advocate a general wariness of feelings. Close experiential union with God is utterly worth seeking—in prayer, in worship, in confession, or any number of ways. Indeed, for all I’ve said, some people really do hear from God through subtle feelings. Far be it from me to limit the ways He works. My claim is rather that this is not, and should not be preached as, the default model of the Christian life. If you don’t hear God telling you to do stuff, there is probably nothing wrong with you.