I believe we must cease placing so much emphasis on current “words from God” and get back to basics. Back to Him. Our tendency is to spend our spiritual life consumed with the “things of God”, and to forget about God Himself. We pray about how to handle situations, what leading we should follow, what direction we should take, what spirits we should bind, etc. Before we realize it, everything is revolving around us. Relationship - real relationship with a real God - suffers.  

In our seeking of “God’s voice,” I fear that God Himself has been ignored or reduced. Rather than marveling at Who He is, we eagerly await an experience, a move, a leading, an anointing, or an answer to prayer. Of course, these are not bad things, but they are not primary. HE is primary, all by Himself, apart from anything He has yet to do for us. HE is what matters. When our relationship with Christ becomes primarily about us, two things happen. First, our relationship with Jesus suffers; we lose sight of Who He is, and therefore, we lose sight of who we are (We must understand about our Father before we understand what it means to be His child; our identity comes from Who He is). This leads to a multitude of problems! And much foolishness as well. The point is, we cease to marvel. We cease to trust. We lose that Father-child relationship. Second, we end up with a very tiny God. This kind of God is so small that His greatness rises or falls with our present experiences. He’s in a small box that we’ve labeled My World. And yet He is so much bigger! We cannot contain Him. The entire universe is not big enough to contain Him. Our limiting God does not make us evil, but it does prevent us from loving God for God’s sake. Also, it prevents us from being thankful for what He has already done for us.

We must get out of the hamster wheel of self, and focus again on the Father. We need to seek His heart again. Who is this great Father? Do we really know Him? Or have we forgotten? We must put ourselves aside for a while so that we may discover Him again.  If we do, perhaps the joy of our first love will return. Perhaps, we will understand again the all-sufficient significance of being the “Disciple whom Jesus loved”. 

I am asking you to challenge yourself with the same question I have been asking myself: Do I really have the Father’s heartbeat? Or am I consumed with myself? 

We’re talking about focusing on the Person of God. Let me start with a rough analogy. If someone tells me they had a direct word from my dad that I should get some Folders Coffee at the store, along with some fat-free Cremora, I would be suspicious that either: 1) they were lying, or 2) they had been misinformed. If they told me they had a direct word from him that I should just scribble his name on the front of his brand new day planner, I would know something was wrong. I’ve spent enough time with him to understand his character. I know his likes and his dislikes.

Understand the Person, and you will begin to recognize the voice. Ignore the Person, and you move into either religiosity or strangeness.

If we want to understand God’s voice, we must understand Him. For that, we must go to the life of Christ. He is the “way” - the one and only key to the Father. This is not limited to the salvation experience. All knowledge of the Father - His voice, His heart -  comes through Jesus only. This is why cold-hearted theologians can know everything there is to know about God, and never understand Him at all. They will be empty. For all life comes from God HIMSELF, not knowledge about Him, and that’s only granted through union with Christ (a subject for another day.) Back to the point, now. It is through the life of Jesus that we get the best picture into who God the Father is. He is our window into the Father’s very heart. What an incredible opportunity we have! To see a walking example of God... what kind of God He is...what He thinks about us. It is unfortunate that people sometimes assume that the Father is the mean, judging God, and Jesus is the nice God. Somehow, Jesus is seen as the shield from the wrathful Vengeful God the Father. Nothing could be further from the truth! Jesus was not the shield from the Father, He was a living, breathing, glimpse into the heart of the Father. Jesus was God Himself with us. He did nothing unless He saw the Father doing it first. He acted only on His Father’s will. Always remember that. What Jesus does represents God at the realest and deepest levels.

To summarize so far: Understanding God’s voice comes first through understanding the Father’s heart, as seen through the Life of Jesus. This is the key element in learning to “hear” the Lord. It’s all wrapped up in Him and Who He is. This should be our primary focus. The will of God (things of God, voice of God) comes more naturally when we understand about Him.

So let’s talk about the Father’s heart/the Life of Christ for a moment. When we watch the life of Christ, we learn something very interesting about God: God is a God who gives Himself away for the sake of others. God is other’s focused. I could spend pages and pages proving this, but I will leave it at this: God, by His very nature, is a self-giving, others-focused God; He is motivated by a self-giving love that we will probably never understand. It is abundantly evident all through both testaments. It’s because of this that God left His position in heaven to serve those who could do nothing for Him. Think about it - God came and served. His primary concern was the forgotten, the left out, the burned-out, and the used up. He came into a world of sorrow – filled with rebellious, ungrateful people – and partook of our suffering. He healed our eyes. He touched our hearts. The Almighty stooped to wash our feet (have you ever really stopped and thought about that?). He resigned Himself to being misunderstood His whole earthly life. He gave up earthly ministry to achieve something He would never see in His earthly lifetime. He poured His life out with no regard for His own safety. He disregarded reputation, and chose instead to live under suspicion, misunderstanding, and accusation. Jesus was “called” to be a carpenter most of His life, working with His hands, and simply doing good. He came to seek us, and to save us. He gave. In fact, He continued to give until we bled Him to death. Yet He was willing to let us do it. He loved us. And that my friends, is humbling beyond all other things. Our lives would swell with new joy and fullness if we understood two things. God came. (pause and think about it); God Gave. He gave the best gift He could ever give: Himself. He poured Himself out as an offering. He emptied Himself for us. This is the Character of God. This is what He is like.

Therefore, if you find yourself with a “word from God” that puts your own interests (even ministry interests) over someone else’s well-being, be very, very suspicious. Be suspicious because it’s not like Christ at all. The ministry of Jesus - The Word - was about laying down His own comfort, and His own will for us. Yes, even sacrifice His life for our good. If we find that we are acting primarily in our best interest instead of others’, we have strayed from the heart of God. It’s that simple. If we find ourselves doing the ministry without having the character of God, we invalidate our ministry. “Why do you call me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?” There are no rewards for good deeds without personal discipleship. Our first responsibility is always to follow Christ ourselves. Ministry comes second.

We need to meditate more on the life of Jesus, notice what pulls on His heartstrings. The key is to learn about it, meditate on it. We need to allow God to break our heart with the things that break His heart. Learn to rejoice about the things He rejoiced in.

I believe God’s voice is much, much deeper than an ambiguous voice in our head. It’s a force that will shake our whole being, compelling us to act. We will be filled with the fulness of God Himself, according to Ephesians 3:19. When we are filled with the desire of God, there will be no questions, no fleecings, only ferocity to accomplish His will. What would it be like to be infected with the heartbeat of God? If we saw people as He did? If we began to think His thoughts after Him? If that ever happens, you will see people living with complete abandon (for that’s how Jesus lived); people with total disregard for their comfort and position; you will be astounded and shaken by their love and sacrifices. They will consider their lives an offering – just to show a few people the greatness of God’s love. Watch out! They will come after you with the fierce heartbeat of God inside of them. And you will never be the same after knowing them. 

These are people like the woman with the costly jar of perfume. They are so captured by the Lord, that they will not stop until they have an opportunity to give their life back. They consider it something not to be held onto. But rather something to be spilled, and wasted out of love. Yes, wasted. That is the heart of God. It is what He did for us. The costly perfume of His Life was spilled, and wasted for us. If you live this way, you never have to ponder about hearing the voice of God. You have His very heart beating inside of you.

I believe that the more we focus on the real Jesus, the less important “words” and “leadings” become. Something much greater begins to happen. God begins to literally grow in us (Gal 4:19). His likeness increases, and we begin to decrease. We take on His character. We take on His heart. We see life through His eyes. Our sole desire becomes to watch the works of Jesus, and to simply do what He does. We become free and delightfully creative to seek, to save, to sacrifice, and to demonstrate love. 

How different this is from the agonizing struggle of: Is it God? Is it me? Is it someone else? An angel? A familiar Spirit? Is it really the devil? This line of thinking is an endless cycle of self-absorption and self-importance. It’s really just good old ego dressed up in religiosity. We need to feel important. We need to feel spiritual. I believe we place far too much value in our own spirituality, and in our “spiritual receptiveness” to hear “God’s voice.” When we fall into this trap, life begins to shrink. Our world, our relationships, and our God becomes smaller and smaller. The reason is simple: They’re being sucked into the black hole of the universe called ME. Of course, I’m speaking from personal experience. Despite all my outward claims of hearing from God, I know I’m secretly more insecure than anything. I’m desperately trying to be somebody. I’m on the endless quest for spiritual significance. But in this quest, I lose something so important. In fact, I lose the thing that is most essential. I’ve forgotten who I am. I can’t remember what it feels like to be a son. I’ve forgotten who I am, because I’ve forgotten my Father. And for a believer, in any stage of life, that’s a shame. 

We must decide if we are to be the center of our Christian universe, or if we’re going to “waste” our lives for the heart of God. The first mindset seeks to invite God into our world; the second draws itself into God’s world. Both are fine, but one is better. The latter requires an abandonment of our own desires. To illustrate: you can be a fisherman who believes in the Messiah, or you can drop your nets and follow. One acquires for much good, the other abandons for only One. One is safe, the other is not. One is primarily about self, the other is not.  One is real Christianity, the other is not. One seeks significance (even ministry significance); the other lays it in the dust. One desires to gain from God; the other looks to give to God and others (again, God’s character). I am not convinced that there is really any other way to follow Christ than complete discipleship. Jesus didn’t seem to draw distinctions between believers and disciples. Even if He did, I suspects that it is  only as a real disciple that the peace, joy, and fulfillment are abundant. We must lay down our life in order to find it.

In conclusion, let me say this. When Jesus came long ago, everything changed forever. But people today desperately need His touch, His eyes, His reassurance, and His words. When Christ’s heart begins to grow inside of us, He will begin to be recognizable in our touch, our eyes, our reassurances, and our words. They will see Him.  We will be doing just what He would do if He were here (He emptied Himself). 

When we understand with our heart (not just know in our head) the great, astounding love of God, we ourselves will change. Meditation upon the bigness of God causes our hearts to turn toward Him. We begin to take on His character, for we have been in His presence and touched – not by questionable words – but by The Word, Jesus - the enormity of His very Character. 

Understand the heart of God, and it will become clear what you are to do. Life will explode into an incredible adventure of how to image this magnificent Savior. Understand His Heart - become consumed with it - abandon yourself completely to God, with no thought for yourself. Then…just follow your heart strings. You may be surprised where you end up. 

It really is that simple, but it will change the world. It will change you.