It was a strange concrete and steel ruin that caught my attention. When I climbed up to look closer, I found it to be the remains of a WW2 gun emplacement, guarding the entrance to the Forth estuary. It encircled a modern communications tower. What really grabbed my attention, however, was the graffiti. Some bright spark had graffitied the word “Babel” on the crumbling concrete. I had been asking God to speak to me from my surroundings, as I walked, and this simple thought formed in my mind:
God is always communicating (like the comms tower) but hearing is difficult in the ever present cacophony of “Babel” (the emplacement surrounding the tower).
“Babel” comes to us from the story of the tower of Babel in Genesis 11. I don’t know if Fife’s answer to Banksy was a biblical scholar but I got the point: We listen to God that we might walk in His ways, but hearing His voice requires us to hear the signal of heaven in the thick of earth’s noise.
That’s our theme this Sunday: listening to God by the Spirit that we might know his will and share his encouragement.
1 Corinthians 14:1 says.
“Eagerly pursue spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy.”
With minds packed with images of heavily bearded, ferocious Old Testament prophets thundering on about iniquity, or slick TV charlatans manipulating money into their pockets from vulnerable pensioners, it is no surprise that many of us have a touch of antipathy about prophecy.
I suspect a healthy caution was also embedded in the early churches given Paul’s entreaty in 1 Thessalonians 5:20 “not to treat prophecies with contempt” but receive them with testing and discernment.
Yet prophecy is God’s gift to the church. Indeed Acts 2: “democratises” prophecy removing it from the hands (and mouths) of the specialists and spreading it to ordinary Christians just as Jesus had promised: “my sheep hear my voice.”
Hearing from God for ourselves and others is vital to working out how to live on earth day by day. Hearing from God is vital to our mission of sharing the kingdom. A quick survey of Acts shows that mission was led by the Spirit step by step, and people to people not by a massive strategic plan.
Psalm 16:11 promises that God will lead and guide us “You make known to me the path of life”
Hearing from God, that we might not lean on our own understanding but acknowledge him in all our ways is critical if we are to follow Jesus faithfully.
And the great prophet Isaiah gives some practical advice:
Isaiah 50:4,5
“The Sovereign Lord has given me a well-instructed tongue,
to know the word that sustains the weary.
He wakens me morning by morning,
wakens my ear to listen like one being instructed.”
So, as we approach Sunday here is some counsel for hearing from God, from Isaiah:
1. Immerse yourself in regular moments of prayer and praise, where you take time to listen to God. The great daily Jewish prayer the “Shema Israel ” literally means “hear O Israel”: “he wakens me morning by morning”
2. Look for God’s word of encouragement for you and others. Exhortation and assurance form the foundation of prophecy. Seek “a word that sustains the weary”!
3. Note what you notice… Just as Moses turned aside to check out why a bush burned, be curious and explore what catches your mind. “He wakens my ear to listen”.
And writing it down can be so helpful. Isaiah does not tell us to do that, but he certainly gives us that example.
And in case that image of the hirsute prophet of old still remains to dissuade us, then listen to Rabbi Johann, who brings prophesy into reach:
“if one rises early and a scriptural verse comes to mind this is a small prophecy.” Rabbi Johann
A prayer:
“So may God make us listeners to himself, so that we may be neither idle, nor self-sufficient; nor rash in our deeds, but ever pausing to listen, and then to follow him, moving in consonance with his will”.
K Bockmuehl
Amen