The True Voice of God
Written by Sam Sullivant
I have worked for many years in the entertainment and movie industry. Many films, tv shows and documentaries have a narrator. In film school, we called this narrator the voice of God. It was not a reference to Yahweh, but simply an unknown voice that the viewer accepts to be a voice of authority as they engage the media. If we are going to learn to discern the true voice of God, we will have to learn that He is the highest of authorities in the universe. This is a foundational truth to understanding God’s Voice. Our goal in life should not specifically be to hear God’s voice. We need to hear Him, but what is of great importance is that we become what God desires. Our pursuit needs to be directed exclusively unto the Lord Himself. So when He speaks, we simply trust and obey.
Hebrews 1:1-2 (NASB95) says, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world.”
This means that though God had exclusively spoken with authority through the prophets of the old covenants, He has now spoken through His Son, Jesus Christ. Christ can and will still arise in a prophetic mode, but Christ Himself is the living Word of God. He is also fully Divine and Creator God. God sent his Son to be incarnate in the world for a specific time to fulfill the law and the prophets.
In Matthew 5:17-18 (NET), Jesus says, “Do not think that I have come to abolish the law or the prophets. I have not come to abolish these things but to fulfill them. I tell you the truth, until heaven and earth pass away not the smallest letter or stroke of a letter will pass from the law until everything takes place.”
It can not be overstated, Christ did not abolish the need for righteousness and justice in the earth when he gave His life as an offering. He came to fulfill prophecy and become the lamb of God to take away the sins of the world. Up to that time, people brought their own lambs for sacrifice. In this case, God sent His lamb as a more excellent offering. This word “fulfill” has much depth and meaning, and means to complete, accomplish or consummate. Christ truly fulfilled old covenant prophecy. He also became the prophetic messenger in the New Covenant. This means God is still speaking. He did not abolish prophecy or the standards of righteousness, but His Voice and holy Life are bound together in this glorious person!
In Cecil B. Demille’s, 1956 film, The Ten Commandments, there is an interesting scene concerning the true voice of God. I had recently re-watched this film and detected something ironic when I saw it again as an adult. Charlton Heston, who plays Moses, approaches the burning bush to see this “marvelous sight” (Exodus 3:3). When God begins to speak, I realized the cadence and tone of the voice was very similar to Charlton Heston’s voice but in a different pitch. My wife and I looked it up and realized it was true, the voice of God in that scene of the movie was played by the same actor who played Moses. This is ironic, because truly Moses heard God Almighty not himself. It was God Almighty alone who spoke through Moses unto the liberation of the people of Israel and much more in the Exodus account. But this irony is a message to us for our time.
In the modern church, we have a real problem distinguishing between the true Voice of God, as Moses had heard, and our own psychological voice of god. In many cases, we are simply hearing our own selves, not God. This can even take on religious or biblical tone. Our minds can act like the narrator of our story and we can be swept away into various fantasies and lies about the character, will and desire of God. Satan is very keen on confusing our inner voice with the true Voice of God. I say this because New Age mysticism has grossly infiltrated the western church. I’m not saying this haphazardly, I have witnessed it, and have been tempted myself. I am calling out now under the True Voice of God, to Wake up! Repent! Come back to Jesus Christ! The true Voice of God is now in Christ, and unless we come wholly to Him, we will never hear the true Voice of God. The many are not hearing God, but actually there are few who do in true authority. God does however speak to His sheep not just leaders, and if they are going astray He will get louder. We need to quickly come to Him regardless if he selects us or not to represent Him in Voice in leadership matters. God is speaking to all in His family, but just not concerning the same matters. The prophetic Voice is merely a function of Christ, the true apostle and prophet of our Faith. God desires to speak to us and through us, but we must be broken or we are unsafe in the ministry of Christ.
I remember several years ago, I had a vivid dream. In this dream, I was standing before God the Father, and He was emanating such brilliant light and glory that I was fell prostrate before Him in the dream. I heard his Voice, and it sounded much different than my own. His thoughts were different and His authority was abundantly clear. He said, “Tell My people the seven things I hate the most. Tell them they are guilty of them all!” I woke up from this dream in fear and trembling. I did not understand what He meant by “seven things” so I had to begin searching for the meaning. The first thing that came to mind was the seven deadly sins, but that does not come from a specific scripture. That concept is simply a tradition passed down through some denominations in christendom. I then found Proverbs chapter 6 after some research:
There are six things that the LORD hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue, and hands that shed innocent blood, a heart that devises wicked plans, feet that make haste to run to evil, a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers. Proverbs 6:16-19 (ESV)
Now it is a good thing to discern the application of a word from God like this. Is it personal, for a congregation, or even broader than that? But at the end of the day, this is a word that needs to be shared, heard and received if it is indeed from God. The same week I received the dream, I was in a leadership meeting, and I shared the experience with the group. Right after I shared, a seasoned minister who leads his own congregation came up to me with a stack of papers from a sermon. He pointed to the exact same scripture, and told me in front of the group that the Holy Spirit gave him the same passage to share in his upcoming sermon that weekend. We couldn’t deny it was true because it was already printed out. It caused me to fear God.
This confirmation was helpful in discerning that, generally, God is speaking this beyond me personally, and in this case applied to more than one congregation. So why do I share this?! It is important to realize that God does want to speak to us. But the question that must penetrate my heart is, do I want to really hear what He has to say?!
In Matthew 4:4 (ESV), Satan tempts Jesus to exercise his power outside the will God, and Jesus responds, “It is written, “‘Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of God.’” Jesus is demonstrating restraint, patience and submission to God the Father in matters of supernatural power. This should be a foundational standard to any who speak the oracles of God within a congregation of Christ. From Matthew 4, we can discern God is still speaking in Christ, but we need to be fully submitted to God or else we are likely to speak error. Our spiritual appetites, agendas and opinions must be checked at the Cross of Christ.
If I am reigning in self-government, there is very little room for God to speak much less use me as a vessel for His Voice. May we embrace the Cross in all things and in matters of leadership and prophecy, may we be brought back to a very simple truth, God is who He is and we are not Him. This is exactly what He said to Moses at the burning bush, and then He continued to accomplish all He promised through his chosen vessel, Moses. And so it is in our time, the Lord has and will accomplish all He intends in and through the Person of Jesus Christ. Christ is the chosen vessel of the New Covenant. There is Divine order under Him, but all things and everyone will bow to Him. Only those reckoned to Christ, the New Creation Man, will inherit the promises of the New Covenant. To fail to come into fullness, will be a loss in the full inheritance for the saints.
At the end of The Ten Commandments film, there is another irony that plays out. Someone in the production must have decided to use a different voice for the voice of God at the end of the movie instead of Charlton Heston’s voice. So in a way there’s hope for those of us who may have a soul-generated, god-voice in our head. We must go on an exodus journey first before we get to the promised land. I’m playing a little, but truly if we come to Christ alone, we come to the True Voice. He is the promised land. He speaks to His sheep and His bondservants alike, in differing ways, but it is the true source we want to be pursuing. I’m not casting a shadow on His Voice at all, just perhaps suggesting some of us may need to blush a bit. For others, we may need a deep repentance. The question for us is based on something the Lord once said to me quite clearly: “Do you really want Me… unveiled in the Light of My Glory?! Do you really want to hear the truth of My Word unveiled in purity?! I’m waiting for you.” God is calling us upward. He already sent His Son as a messenger of the Covenant to call us upward beyond anything we can think or imagine.
So be it Lord. I repent. I renounce my own inner voice as a source and wait upon You instead. You are worth the wait! I choose to seek you with all of my heart regardless of how I am used in your kingdom. You are the author, the pioneer and the finisher of our faith. All glory be unto Your holy name. May your highest and greatest will be done in my life and in those around me.
God said to Moses, “I AM WHO I AM.” And he said, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘I AM has sent me to you.’” God also said to Moses, “Say this to the people of Israel: ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, has sent me to you.’ This is my name forever, and thus I am to be remembered throughout all generations. Go and gather the elders of Israel together and say to them, ‘The LORD, the God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob, has appeared to me, saying, “I have observed you and what has been done to you in Egypt, and I promise that I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt to the land of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, a land flowing with milk and honey.”’ Exodus 3:14-17 (ESV)