Scripture
“Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the Lord before Eli. And word from the Lord was rare in those days, visions were infrequent. It happened at that time as Eli was lying down in his place (now his eyesight had begun to grow dim and he could not see well), and the lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord where the ark of God was, that the Lord called Samuel; and he said, “Here I am.” Then he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, lie down again.” So he went and lay down. The Lord called yet again, “Samuel!” So Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he answered, “I did not call, my son, lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him. So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli discerned that the Lord was called the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. Then the Lord came and stood and called as at other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ And Samuel said, ‘Speak, for Your servant is listening.’”
1 SAMUEL 3:1-10
Quotes/Color
“The more you’re in touch with God, the easier it can be to trust him and to discern the door he wants you to walk through.”
Scott Drew, Baylor Basketball Coach
Context
Growing up, I had a neighbor named Coach Bruce. He was a wonderful guy, had a wife and a couple young daughters. Coach Bruce was a middle school football coach at the school down the road and apparently a die-hard Aggie (as most Texas A&M fans are…). Well I assume he was anyways.
I know this because his daily come-home-from-work regimen included a “honk-honk-honk-honk, honk-honk, honk-honk” (in the rhythm of “hull-a-ba-loo, ka-nick, ka-nick”)… You know, that thing that Aggies do before they all shout in, cult-like unison, “Whoop!”
He did this special code honk as he pulled onto the street so that his little daughters knew that daddy was coming home and that they’d see him soon. It was his little code to them. “I’m coming!”
As I played outside as a kid in the house next door, I always noticed his sweet little daughters run to the window and look outside when they heard the sound of their fathers call. They recognized the special call, could tell it apart from other honks and bells and distractions… and knew it could only come from him.
Application
Suppose you come to a time in your life of great confusion. You look at your situation, like many of us do at one time or another, and think to yourself, “I wish I could just clearly tell what God is trying to tell me in this moment.” Fair enough. I have been there. And that is great that you want to hear from God… But important than wanting to hear from God in the first place…
If God in fact spoke to you in your life in that moment of uncertainty… Would you be able to recognize it was him with certainty in the first place? Put another way, are you familiar enough with the sound of His voice that you can distinguish it from others? Are you familiar enough with the sound of your shepherd’s voice that you can tell it’s Him and follow it immediately?
In order to hear God’s voice in your life, you’ve got to be able to recognize it in the first place. In order to recognize God’s voice in your life, you’ve got to know God’s voice. In order to know God’s voice, you’ve got to be around it, steeped in it – constantly.
Samuel clearly heard God’s audible voice in his life 3 times… But he didn’t know it at first.
He didn’t know it because he did not yet know the sound of God’s voice.
All of us want to hear from God. But Samuel shows us… In order to be able to hear from him… you’ve got to learn what he sounds like in the first place.
Something to Chew On:
- Are you able to recognize God’s voice in your life? Is he enough of a part of your life for you to be able to know it without hesitation?
- Are you around God’s word/God’s people/God’s instruction often enough to be able to actually distinguish God’s voice from the other voices in your life?
- I’m sure you want to hear God’s voice and know his presence in your life… But do you know it? Would you recognize it if it were speaking to you in the first place? Have you with certainly learned what the voice of God, through Scripture and good instruction, actually sounds like? If not, what can you do to prioritize this?
GreatValue Proverb:
If you want to be able to hear from God in your life, you’re going to need to learn what His voice sounds like.