Discerning the Voice of God: Does it Call You to Trust God? • Hebrews 11
By Becky Brown
Let us continue our study of how to discern the voice of God in our lives. In our first lesson, we stood with Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. We saw how the voice of the enemy will tempt us to doubt the very Word of God.
In the time of Adam and Eve, the Word of God (as we know it) was yet to be written. His Word to them was face to face during their evening walks. How much more clearly could God speak! Yet they doubted, questioned, and terribly distorted His commands all the way to disobedience.
They consumed the forbidden fruit, to their own spiritual demise and ours. To be the voice of God, the voice you are hearing must agree with the Word of God.
In our second lesson, we stood with Peter on the day of Pentecost. He preached his first sermon after the ascension of Jesus ten days earlier. As Jesus had promised, the Holy Spirit was sent to them from God, now dwelling IN the hearts of believers.
Coupled with the Resurrection power, God the Holy Spirit was now present and available to call them to repentance, to help them remember the words of Jesus, to teach them new things, and to counsel them in times of difficulty. To be the voice of God, the voice you are hearing must bring conviction and draw your heart to the will and plan of God.
This week, we move to the 11th chapter of the Book of Hebrews. The human author of Hebrews is unknown to us, but not unknown to the True Author of Hebrews. God Himself, through the power and presence of the Holy Spirit, authored and inspired every word of the Scriptures.
A Bible message is a direct word from God. To be the voice of God, the voice you are hearing must also be calling you to display a deep trust IN God. This trust is spelled F-A-I-T-H.
One thing we DO know about the author of Hebrews is that the Old Testament scrolls were very well known to this writer. Many of the Old Testament heroes/heroines are listed by name in Hebrews 11 in chronological order.
Not every character in the Old Testament is listed, but the ones mentioned shine as precious jewels of faithful obedience: Abel, Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Sarah, Joseph, Moses, Rahab, judges who led like Gideon, prophets like Samuel, kings who like David. Each of these had a part to play in the story of redemption leading to the birth of Jesus.
Every person listed in what I have named “The Hall of Faith-ers” lived before the time of the Crucifixion. Hebrews 11:39-40 explains that each one of these people through the generations of the nation of Israel died in faith. Each of them received approval from God for their forward look toward the assurance of the complete fulfillment of the promises of God.
Those of us who presently live on the other side of Calvary must look backward to that holy Crucifixion moment, recognizing its significance. Joined with the pre-Calvary “faith-ers,” we post-Calvary “faith-ers” must also conclude that the Old Testament and New Testament find completion in Jesus.
Faith looks both forward as well as backward to see the story made perfect. This chain of faith is what holds ALL of God’s children together in an unbroken line. Together, we stand and turn our collective gaze toward the final fulfillment of the Christ Who shall one day, as promised, return for His own.
You and I have the privilege of looking all the way back through the Cross to those walks in the Garden of Eden. We can see with childlike faith even farther back to the Holy Spirit Who was moving over the waters and hear the spoken words, “Let there be light!”
Hebrews 11:1-2, 6 give us the definition of faith: the evidence of things hoped for, the conviction of things yet to be seen, that by faith the men and women of old gained approval from God.
Without faith, it is impossible to please God. Those who come to God must believe that He is perfect, eternally in existence outside of the limits of time. He is the Rewarder of those who diligently seek Him in this way.
Brown is minister of missions at First Church, Richland.
