Voices.........

I was with a group of people the other night in the city where I live.  We gather together and worship, encourage, and declare the love of God over our city.  We are out in public in a fairly centralized place of the City, and there have been some very interesting adventures over the years.  We are not there to evangelize or “convert”.  Our one primary call is to worship.  

But in that worship, things happen.  There is a voice that comes out from worship that can change hearts and minds.  It can bring freedom, direction, encouragement and peace.  It can challenge those places in love that need to be challenged.  Anything can happen (and often has), when the voice that flows out of a heart to worship is released.

So... 

On this specific night I was talking with some young women I know about our desire to be closer to the Lord.  To see and hear Him in a greater way than we have.  

There were young people leading out the worship that night and the atmosphere was light, making it easy to talk and pray at the same time.  

At one point, a car rolled up and stopping for a light.  From the car, a young man began to yell at those leading worship.  It was clear that he had no idea what the music was about or why we were there.  His taunts were clearly coming from a place of a struggle in his own life with insecurity and the need to be “seen”.  I am sure that he was taken by surprise by our response.  We did not engage his words as he would have expected.  We did not argue or debate with him.  We did not engage the intent of his words.  We stayed engaged with the intent of worship.  

We stayed connected to the voice of worship.  

When he realized that he was not getting the desired effect (and the light changed), he rolled up his window and moved on.  I wonder what the conversation in that car was like as they went through the rest of their night.

My conversation, and the worship around us was made even more concrete by this event.  We now had a direct application for hearing and speaking from the voice of worship. I was able tell my own story of freedom to the women around me.

There was a time in my life when my head was filled with so much noise and so many voices that I couldn’t hear my own thoughts.  There were dreams of dark places of shouting.  With me standing in the center of it all, not knowing how to make it stop.  I would feel scattered and tired and my thoughts couldn’t find a place to simply rest.  

But in that noise there was one voice that was relentless.  One voice that would act as a giant sweeper and clear out the noise.  One voice that would not leave me in the dark places of shouting.  It was a voice that called out to me with kindness, with patience and with such great love for me.  It was a voice that at times was so soft I had to lean in to listen.  I had to learn to wait unmoving in anticipation for what it would say.  

Most of all, I needed to let go of the noise around my mind and my heart that taunted me with my inability to hear and understand.  I had to be willing to be still and listen.  I had to be willing to let the voice of love be louder than the noise.  

I had to believe that my value was based on love instead of noise.  I had to recognize the voice as the love of God for me and receive Him fully into my heart.

There are so many voices in the world today.  Voices that can draw our attention away from the truth of who we are.  Voices that stir us up into rebellion and strife.  Voices that do not call us to be still and listen to what love would have us to do and say.  Voices that try to define our value instead for the sake of their our needs and agendas.  

What voice do you listen to?  What voice calls you and anchors your heart, your mind and your spirit?  Does that voice bring the truth in love or does in bring rebellion, condemnation and doubt?

Are you a voice to those around you and is your voice speaking life?  Are your words bringing life?  If not, you may want to sit for a bit and let Love do it’s work in clearing out your own noisy places.  

When Jesus went into the temple (John 10: 22-30), they asked who He was.  He told them clearly.  He also told them this:

“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.  And I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish neither shall anyone snatch them out of My hand.  My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all: and no one is able to snatch them out of My Father’s hand.” 

“I and My Father are one.”

That is the voice I will cling to.  That is the voice that I will choose to follow.  Whose voice will you choose to listen to and follow?