To Silence a Voice

There are plenty of times that I simply need to shut up.  And everyone said “Amen”!  And likewise there are plenty of times that I simply need to speak up.  You know, speaking the truth in love.  So that settles the argument about speaking – wait no it doesn’t.  I digress.

Recently I was led to think once again about voices.  For years I’ve taught, preached or even wrote about our guest subject for the moment: the voice.  Be it mine, that of others, the enemy my soul, or even ultimately the still small and occasionally booming voice of God; they all seem to vie for my attention.

There comes a time when each of these voices must be heard and discerned.  Clearly we would agree that the best voice to hear and heed is that of God.  But can I tell you it is possible To Silence a Voice that is so critical, so needed, yet stoppable even before it reverberates from divine and holy lips in heaven.  Yes indeed, To Silence a Voice is possible, but what if the voice we silence is that of God?

Hear me out for a moment.  I cannot cause the mouth of others, the enemy, or even my own inner voice to cease.  A) Because I cannot control the will and impulse of others or even the devil; and B) that 8-track in my head can only be unplugged by God, no matter how hard I try it keeps playing.  Here’s where some may argue with me – that’s okay.  Call me and you can buy me coffee and we can hash it out.

But on the other hand, the Bible tells me that in a roundabout way, I can silence the eternal and awesome voice of God by one simple act.  Oh some would say, but God is always speaking, communicating, or simply through creation God speaks.  And I guess you would be right.  But, much like the philosophical argument of a tree falling in the woods and no one is there to hear it, does it make a sound?  The same applies to God’s voice.

If I have hardened my heart, by time and time again ignoring the reverb of His divine beck-and-call, be it for correction, guidance, or simply a love call, something inside me changes.

We’re admonished to NOT harden our hearts if and when we hear God’s voice.  But because we’re so bent upon selfish ambition and preservation, we struggle to trust that He knows best and guides best.  We tend to listen to or consult with all the other voices, before or even instead of His.  And by doing so, time and time again our hearts grow harder and harder.  Our spirit ear becomes more deaf to the only voice that can change ANYTHING.

Like cement that tends to cure harder and harder in the presence of water, so too does a heart that is washed in the Word or Voice of God, without obedient response, it grows harder and harder.  To the point where God, the God who spoke ex nihilo and all matter and life came into being, cannot by voice alone break through that hard heart shell.

Stop and think for a moment.  Consider why Jesus told the Seven Churches named in the early part of Revelation, to hear what the Spirit was saying (and still is) to the churches.  Consider that the most important thing any human can do, is hear and listen to the voice of God.  And then obey.

For it is not the random act of disobedience that silences God’s voice to our ears, but it is the chronic and self-inflating ignorance to a perpetual Spirit sound aimed at mankind in general and aimed at my very one and only heart.

Oh dear reader, please hear what the Spirit is saying to me; and maybe even to you.  Each time I ignore God’s voice, even in the little things, hardness sets in more and more.  It may not be noticeable at first, but that’s how deception works.  Understand that in these last days, the Great Falling Away mentioned in scripture will be rooted in self and collective deception – and we won’t even know it.  We will not be able to reverse the process of hardening without a cataclysmic and holy impact to our hard hearts.

I must stop waiting for a gentle wooing by the Spirit and be prepared for the hammer of His divine love that will shake and shatter everything that is hard within me.  Only then can His voice once again penetrate to the depths where needed most.

To Silence a Voice, the voice of God, seems impossible.  But it’s not.  His voice as we’ve ever known it since the creation of time and material has been and always will be echoing around the cosmos and the hearts of man.  But if no receptor exists, because of hardness, we have essentially silenced the voice of God; the only voice that can make a difference – to save and transform.

Sound waves, notably different than spirit must have something they hit or bounce off for them to be noted as anything whatsoever.  And so too with the Spirit voice, there must be a heart to connect with or nothing will be noted at all.  Like that tree falling in the forest, if my heart is hard beyond flexibility, I WILL NOT HEAR the voice of God.

To Silence a Voice, the voice of God seems implausible, veritably impossible.  But it’s not.

Today, right now at this reading and beyond, if you hear the faintest whisper of God’s voice – stop and listen.  Consider obedience, because To Silence a Voice, the voice of God, all one need do is disobey.

Listen.