Wouldn’t you love to know what you’re meant to do with your life? Or wouldn’t you at least like some confirmation that what you’re currently doing or considering is the thing you’re actually supposed to do? Me too. We think, “If someone would just tell me what to do, I would do it.”

We are in this series called Letting Arrows Fly: How to Aim and Release Your Life. And I think many of us are ready to give ourselves to whatever we’re meant to do. But we aren’t sure what that is. If someone would just tell us. And more specifically, we would love for God to tell us what to do with our lives.

Do you believe that God still speaks to humans?

Are you expecting God to speak to you?

Whether God is able to speak to us is one thing, but is He interested in speaking to us? Before we explore what God’s interests are, let’s begin with our own interests. Are we really interested in God speaking to us? Or do we really only want God to speak to us a couple times a year when we’re facing a big decision related to work, relationships, or where we should live? Let’s start with honesty.

I care deeply about what you do with your life.

God cares even more deeply about what you do with your life.

But God has so much more than just a desire to tell you what vocation to give your life to.

And the good news is this: when we get the extra God has in store for us, surely that will include what we’re meant to do with the life we’ve been made for.

John 10:1-6 “Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” Jesus used this figure of speech, but the Pharisees did not understand what he was telling them.

If you know anything about John 10, this is where we get the primary concept of Jesus being The Good Shepherd. What causes this teaching from Jesus? If you were to go back to John 9, you’ll discover the story of Jesus healing a man who had been born blind. You would think a miracle like this would cause everyone to rejoice. But not the Pharisees. Rather than celebrate the goodness God has brought to this man’s life, they claim that Jesus “must not be from God, because he healed on the Sabbath.” The man tells them about what Jesus did for him and how he must be from God. Listen to their reply:

John 9:34 To this they replied, “You were steeped in sin at birth; how dare you lecture us!” And they threw him out.

The day he should be celebrating his healing, he’s thrown out of the synagogue. This prompts Jesus to compare and contrast the other voices in our lives with His voice. Jesus says “anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber.” The shepherd is there to protect the sheep and to keep intruders out of the sheep pen. Think about what Jesus is trying to communicate to us as he takes this metaphor and starts applying it to different voices. He says that his sheep will never follow a stranger. “In fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.”

The aim of your life will be determined by the voice you listen to most.

The voice of greed will cause you to point your life in a particular direction.

The voice of self-absorption will direct you to live a certain way.

The voice of fear has a plan for your life.

The voice of Satan will be okay with you aiming your life in any direction except for the one your Maker designed you for.

There are some voices that are most familiar to you, while other voices are quite foreign. And whatever voice is most familiar in your life will be the one you follow most of the time.

What voice are you most familiar with?

If we only seek to hear from God when our lives are in trouble or when we’re trying to make a major life decision, we might miss what God is saying to us because we haven’t cultivated the ability to listen to Him.

Jesus does care about the major decisions in your life, but He cares even more about you.

Here’s what Jesus says about who He intends to be with us and for us as He uses the Shepherd/sheep metaphor:

-He wants us to listen to his voice.

-He calls us by name. We’ve let so many other voices define us and He intends to tell us who we truly are.

-He leads us out.

If Jesus intends for us to get familiar with His voice, then we can be confident that He wants to communicate with us.

How does Jesus speak to us and how might we get more familiar with his voice?

Scripture is such a rich treasure because it tells us so much of what God has spoken.

2 Timothy 3:16-17 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

Scripture is God-breathed, useful for so many things, and it equips us for the good work God created us to do on this earth. Getting familiar with God’s voice through Scripture is one of the best ways to know how God speaks and to get prepared for the vocation He has called you to. Avoiding or neglecting Scripture makes no sense for the person who wants to learn how to hear God’s voice. AND Scripture is not the only way God wants to speak to us.

Jesus will also speak to us through His people. We talk often around here about building a Wisdom Table for your life – a group of people who can help you navigate the life and calling God has for your life. Spend time with people who have a history of hearing God’s voice. Jesus will speak through prophecy, visions, dreams, nature and anything else He chooses. He certainly speaks through our circumstances at times. He might speak through pictures or images. But however He wants to speak to us, we will miss it if we haven’t become familiar with Him speaking to us.

“The doleful reality is that very few human beings really do concretely desire to hear what God has to say to them. This is shown by how rarely we listen for his voice when we are not in trouble or when we are not being faced with a decision that we do not know how to handle. People who understand and warmly desire to hear God’s voice will, by contrast, want to hear it when life is uneventful just as much as when they are facing trouble or big decisions. This is a test that we should all apply to ourselves as we go in search of God’s word: do we seek it only under uncomfortable circumstances? Our answer may reveal that our failure to hear his voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.” -Dallas Willard, Hearing God

Do we want to hear God’s voice? On the ordinary days? When we aren’t trying to figure out what to do with our lives? When He might want to correct something in our character as opposed to only telling us who we’re supposed to marry or what job we should take or whether we should stay in San Francisco?

How to Get Familiar with God’s Voice to You:

Daily Time Reading, Meditating, and Praying Scripture

Silence

Carry a Question With You

Spend Time with People who Hear God and ask them how they grew in this

“Nothing has the potential to change your life like the whisper of God. Nothing will determine your destiny more than your ability to hear His still small voice.” -Mark Batterson, Whisper

Wherever you are on your journey of hearing God speak to you, let me encourage you to start there and take your next step. Like most things in life, this journey starts with a genuine desire for it. Remember, anytime we attempt something for the first time, we’re a rookie in it. But with attention, time, and practice, we become experienced and familiar with God’s voice. Even people who ended up speaking on behalf of God – they too had to start at the beginning.

1 Samuel 3:1-10 The boy Samuel ministered before the LORD under Eli. In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions. One night Eli, whose eyes were becoming so weak that he could barely see, was lying down in his usual place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the house of the LORD, where the ark of God was. Then the LORD called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. Again the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” “My son,” Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD: The word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. A third time the LORD called, “Samuel!” And Samuel got up and went to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” Then Eli realized that the LORD was calling the boy. So Eli told Samuel, “Go and lie down, and if he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. The LORD came and stood there, calling as at the other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” Then Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

He had no idea, but he started learning on this day how to position himself to hear God’s voice. And when a huge moment in Israel’s history came, guess who heard from God and anointed David as Israel’s next king. Cultivate it on the daily and you won’t miss it when the stakes get higher for your discernment and decisions.

Closing:

-Know Jesus. He calls by name. He intends to tell you who you are and give you your true identity.

-Daily familiarity

-Discerning major thing

-Let’s position ourselves now to hear and may we respond when He speaks.