A Voice Behind You

Not in a creepy way. Here, let Isaiah explain:

For a people shall dwell in Zion, in Jerusalem; you shall weep no more. He will surely be gracious to you at the sound of your cry. As soon as he hears it, he answers you. And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher. And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left. Then you will defile your carved idols overlaid with silver and your gold-plated metal images. You will scatter them as unclean things. You will say to them, "Be gone!" (Isaiah 30:19-22)

I recently watched the film Holy Ghost. An evangelist who was interviewed for the film, Heidi Baker, said that learning to listen to the Holy Spirit is like learning a language: you have to become childlike, and you have to be unafraid to make mistakes.

I remember feeling silly and awkward as I struggled to practice conversational Italian in my college 201 class. It was unfamiliar to my tongue, and I just knew I was making tons of embarrassing mistakes. Many people never attempt to learn a language because they are too proud to mess up.

And most Christians treat the Holy Spirit that way as well. He's unfamiliar, and we are unsure whether we're hearing His voice. And worse still: He might tell us to do something crazy! (Remember Noah's ark...or Joshua marching around Jericho...and don't even mention Ezekiel and his crazy wheels.)

So we don't attempt to listen to Him. We just call on Him when it's convenient for us ("Holy Spirit, just give me direction for this big decision!") and ignore Him on a daily basis when He might tell us to do something embarrassing...like, say, pray for somebody. Out loud.

We're afraid we'll mis-hear, and then embarrass ourselves. But if we're afraid to make mistakes, we won't ever listen to Him at all.

The above passage from Isaiah has jumped out at me several times in my life. I like the part about Him answering our cries like a father: "As soon as he hears it, he answers you." And I like that "Teacher" is capitalized here, because our Teacher is a person with a name, the Holy Spirit (John 14:26).

But my favorite part is this: And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

When do you hear the voice? Rewind: when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.

It doesn't say, "You will hear a very clear, audible voice with explicit step-by-step instructions for achieving your dreams, fulfilling your purpose, and getting your dream girl (or boy) too." It says that you will get confirmation when you make a turn.

That means, act on what you think the Spirit is telling you, in accordance with the Bible, and then you will be able to see by the fruit of your actions whether it was His instruction. Most of us know the Bible already, so if the Spirit tells us to do something like, say, give someone an encouraging word (1 Thessalonians 5:11, Hebrews 3:13), it won't be crazy. It will just be daily life with the Spirit. In fact, it should be daily life anyway, since it's in the Bible.

The Holy Spirit isn't creepy. He's not tiptoeing around, leaving cryptic messages in alphabet cereal and expecting you to have heard something He hasn't said to you. He WANTS to talk to you. He doesn't want to leave you orphaned. He knows the way He has planned for you, and He wants to share it with you.

Just as you have to listen to another person and learn the way he or she communicates, you must train your ear to listen to the Holy Spirit. You have to seek Him daily, rather than just calling upon Him to rain down wisdom in a crisis, so you will be able to hear Him clearly when the crisis comes.

That takes work. It takes turning off the TV or unplugging the earbuds to sit quietly in His presence. But here's the good news: you have your whole life to learn it. And God would rather have children who accidentally pray for the wrong person (praying for someone--what a mistake!) than children who are so paralyzed by fear that they can't step out in faith, even in the smallest of ways.

And when you know how to be sensitive to His voice in the small, every day things (go there, call that person, don't eat that, stop and pray), hearing His voice in big decisions (job, moving, marriage, going on a mission trip, etc.) will become natural. And when you make a choice, you will hear a gentle word behind you, saying, "Yes. You found the way."