confidence

“Whoever has ears, let them hear.” – Matthew 11:15

The problem of hearing God is one of definition. What does it mean to hear Him?

Last week we saw how the Bible, from Genesis to Revelation, testifies that God speaks. This implies that we’re capable of listening to Him. Yet that’s the problem. Is hearing God no different than listening to somebody talking to you? If so, why is it so hard? What does it involve? We’re back to the issue of meaning.

To address this question, I’m going to use some important ideas developed by Bernard Lonergan, the Jesuit theologian and philosopher whose work I studied at Marquette University. He devoted most of his academic life to investigating the subject of knowing. I’m asking what it means to hear God; Lonergan explored what it meant to know something. The answer he arrived at will serve as the basis for the blog posts in this series.

For Lonergan, knowing isn’t a single activity. It’s a compound structure with four parts: experiencing, understanding, judging, and deciding. He claims that you can’t confine knowledge to one of these operations; it includes all four of them.

The cognitional operations Lonergan described correspond to the subject we’re dealing with. Like knowing, hearing God isn’t as simple as people assume. It’s a compound structure. In today’s blog post, we’ll explore the first stage.

Experience

For Lonergan, experience has to do with the reception of data. It’s physical, mental, and spiritual. We experience things through our senses: sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. These five give us access to the physical world.

But there’s more to existence than physical matter. Our minds aren’t physical but they’re real. And they can experience psychological phenomena. Thoughts frighten or thrill; logic informs or misleads; and dreams seem more real than the room we slept in. All these might not be physical experiences, but they’re genuine.

And we can experience the spiritual realm, too. People might have trouble describing spiritual and moral depth, but they have an instinctive and intuitive grasp of it. Spirit gives our lives meaning. We’ll never find satisfaction or fulfillment in physical and mental experiences alone; we need spiritual connection, too.

Sense

I’ve heard countless Christians use the word “sense” to describe their knowledge of the will of God. I’ve repeated it myself.

“I sense the Lord is leading me to join this church.”

“I’m sensing that Jesus wants me to pray for you now.”

Have you heard statements like these? Have you uttered similar sentiments? Don’t worry, it’s not mistaken. The Bible points out how people used their senses to experience the word of God.

The most obvious example would be the sense of hearing. As a child, Samuel the prophet heard the Lord call him.

“The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, ‘Samuel! Samuel!’ Then Samuel said, ‘Speak, for your servant is listening.’” – 1 Samuel 3:10

The Lord promises to guide each of us as we pay attention and listen.

“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” – Isaiah 30:21

But God’s Word also involves the sense of sight.

“Your word is a lamp for my feet, a light on my path.” – Psalm 119:105

Lanterns help your eyes, not your ears!

“The word of the LORD that came to Micah of Moresheth during the reigns of Jotham, Ahaz and Hezekiah, kings of Judah–the vision he saw concerning Samaria and Jerusalem.” – Micah 1:1

It might not be obvious, but did you notice what Micah says? He refers to “the word of the Lord” and “the vision he saw.” I would have assumed that he heard the word of the Lord but Micah said he saw it. Did God write it down for him? Did he show Micah a video?

The point here is that the word of God pertains to more than the sense of hearing; it incorporates sight, too. Let’s expand our perspective. We can sense His voice through physical, mental, and spiritual means. All are potential avenues of access.

In two passages in Psalm 29, David describes the power of God’s voice that can be sensed.

“The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. ⁴The voice of the LORD is powerful; the voice of the LORD is majestic. ⁵The voice of the LORD breaks the cedars; the LORD breaks in pieces the cedars of Lebanon.” – Psalm 29:3-5

“The voice of the LORD strikes with flashes of lightning. ⁸The voice of the LORD shakes the desert; the LORD shakes the Desert of Kadesh. ⁹The voice of the LORD twists the oaks and strips the forests bare. And in his temple all cry, ‘Glory!’” – Psalm 29:7-9

God’s voice impacts the world (the material and the immaterial) in such a way that our senses can experience the effects.

There’s a simple explanation for why we favor the language of sensing when we discuss the will of God. We talk about sensing His wishes because we’re not sure about them. If we knew what the Lord wanted, we’d say so. But since we lack confidence, we hedge. Rather than declaring, “this is what the Spirit told me,” we opt for the less specific, “I sense the Spirit wants me to share a word.” Still beneficial, but not as direct.

I don’t criticize this option. It has a built-in modesty which I commend. But besides using this terminology, people should stop and think about it, too. They should ask themselves why they use the word “sense” about God’s will but not in regular conversations.

Confidence

It’s because we don’t know. Sensing represents a start, but it’s not full cognition. We have a hunch, but we’re not certain. We’ve experienced something, but we’re not sure it’s from God.

How can we verify the voice of God? We remember His priority–His Son.

“A voice came from the cloud, saying, ‘This is my Son, whom I have chosen; listen to him.’” – Luke 9:35

Application

Do you want to experience the word of God? Do you want to hear His voice and sense His leading? Or do you desire more? You seek to know what God wants, even if you don’t pick up anything through your senses. There’s more to hearing God than taking in His words. Experience is valuable, but it’s not final. We’ll take the next step next week.