Speak, for Your servant hears

The past couple of months, I have been seeking more and more for a deeper understanding around hearing the voice of the Holy Spirit and obeying Him.  I am learning and considering things I never had before when it comes to hearing and being led by the Holy Spirit.  There are so many people saying they are led by the Spirit, but many of those same people do things that contradict each other or even the Word of God, and they do it confidently under the banner, “the Holy Spirit led me”.  I’m not sure about you, but that is confusing to me, and I don’t want to fall into the same possible delusion.  To be fair, there certainly are people that hear and obey the Holy Spirit, and far be it from me that I would ever say the Holy Spirit does not speak to His people today.  Certainly, there are differing gifts, administrations, and ministries of the Holy Spirit, but none of these things would be contradictory to the other, but rather work together to accomplish the will of God.  After all, a kingdom divided against itself cannot stand.

I want the genuine, real, and pure fellowship with the Holy Spirit in my life as many of you reading do, and that is why I am seeking a deeper understanding of hearing and obeying the Spirit.  It is not so I can say, “The Holy Spirit told me” and appear as someone special, but because I want fellowship with my Father in heaven and to be known to Him as a man after His heart.  After all, He is after mine (Proverbs 23:26)

During my regular time in the Word, I was in 1 Samuel and came across the account of when Samuel was just a young boy in Eli’s house, serving him, and the LORD came to Samuel.  This passage certainly does not cover every aspect of the knowledge and understanding of hearing God’s voice by the Holy Spirit, but I do think there are some precepts we can glean that will help us to more clearly hear and obey His voice.

If you read the verses leading up to the passage above, you will know that this is the fourth time that the LORD has come to Samuel to speak with him.  Why did it take four times before Samuel responded?  Because Samuel simply didn’t recognize the Lord’s voice, in fact, the scripture says he did not know the LORD yet, so Eli had to help Samuel recognize the voice of the LORD.

To my understanding, this would be the last time that Samuel would need help recognizing the voice of the LORD, but nevertheless, it was a real hindrance in the LORD speaking to Samuel the things He wanted to tell him.  

Many people think the Holy Spirit speaking to them is some kind of mystery or something they need to decode.  Not sure how else to say it, but many people fall into a type of mindset where they are trying to “read God’s mind”.  I believe He wants to speak with us clearly and for us to know it’s Him, not guess or hope it is.

If you need help recognizing His voice, let me bring something to mind that may help you.  Do you remember the first time you experienced God’s voice or even His presence?  Even in human relationships, I don’t only recognize a person’s voice but their whole presence.  God doesn’t change, and His voice and presence are unmistakably recognizable.  So why the confusion?  Maybe we have been taught or led to believe He speaks to us on our terms, not His, which brings us to the second point.

I won’t spend nearly as much time on this precept, but we mustn't fall into the belief that we can “summon” the voice of the Holy Spirit and that He speaks to us on His terms, not our demands.  This is also evident in these Scriptures from 1 Samuel 3.  The reality is we have to wait for Him rather than demand from Him.  I wonder how often in our impatience of wanting to hear God so badly, we just conclude the first few thoughts or impressions that seem good to us after we pray for guidance is God speaking to us when it's just our own thoughts.  I am not saying God always takes a long time, but we can be very impatient.

It is interesting that the only words that Samuel hears from the LORD is his own name, until he recognizes it is the LORD and says, “Speak LORD, for thy servants hears”.  It is at that point that the LORD begins to unfold His will and future events that will occur.  

As a father to five children, there are many times I call their names throughout the house because I want to tell them something.  But, I never tell them what I intend to tell them until they have come to me and in some way communicated, “Yes dad what do you need or what do you want to tell me?”.  I want to have their full attention, and I believe the LORD wants our full attention too.

I truly believe this is where many are missing it when it comes to being led by the Holy Spirit.  There seems to be a belief that the Holy Spirit will only tell us comfortable things and not to do things contrary to our desires, comforts, and even our will.  The LORD told him things that He said would make the people's ears tingle.  What tingle really means in Hebrew is to tremble with fear.  The LORD proceeded to tell Samuel that the priesthood would be stripped from Eli, his mentor and father figure in his life, because of the sins of his biological sons.  What kind of position did this leave Eli in?

It left Samuel in a position of having to do something he didn’t want to do.  I am not sure many people allow this aspect to be a part of their relationship with the LORD, but the reality is that if we recognize the voice of the Holy Spirit when He speaks and respond to Him, what comes next may be something really challenging for us to do.

But if we want to be led and, better yet, if we want to be proper sons and daughters of God by faith, we have to be willing to do His will, not ours, even when it is uncomfortable.