A woman once asked me: “What does the voice of the Lord sound like?” We’d been discussing prayer and how prayer has two aspects: I speak, He listens; He speaks, I listen…. Ahem…. It’s maybe not, always in that precise order.
Listening for God seems, often, a forgotten element of personal prayer. Some of us talk an awful lot when we pray. This woman, however, was asking me to describe God’s voice so that when she heard it, she’d know it was Him.
How do we recognize His voice? Would I even recognize a voice as His if I heard it?
Each human voice is unique. When my father called out to me from upstairs, I had no doubt it was he who was calling me. My response to his voice was immediate: “O.K., Dad!” I can still hear the uniqueness of his voice and I could tell by the tone of his voice if I was in trouble, or not. But, how do I know when God speaks?
Sacred scripture in Psalm 29 says that His voice is powerful, thunderous, “splitting the oak trees” and resounding over the great waters. He shakes the ground and the living things leap up and take notice.
Is that the voice that I should be expecting to hear? Would I be stunned into deafness by the loudness and power of his glorious voice?
Scripture describes another kind of experience of God’s voice which is much more subtle but startling just the same. Elijah has been praying within the solid walls of a cave in Carmel in the hills of Israel. He asks God to permit him to experience His Presence. God responds not with thunder but with a “small, murmuring sound.” (I Kings 19:11-13).
God’s voice, then, may be indescribable but urgent when it comes. His voice may be loud and awesome or conversational or just a revealing silence. We won’t hear Him unless we are listening for Him no matter the tone or intensity of that voice.
The sound of my father’s voice is indescribable and unique. I could never misidentify it. An individual’s voice is part of the character of a person.
I think we have to learn how to recognize the voice of the Lord by listening for it. Just like loving, I may not know how to define it but I’ll know it when I feel it. With God, if I can just learn to listen I will know it when I hear it.