Hearing the Voice of God

"When I said, "My foot is slipping, your love, O LORD, supported me. When anxiety was great within me, your consolation brought joy to my soul."
~Ps. 94:18

For the past couple of months I've been seeking His face, crying out to Him with outstretched arms and on my knees. But I always came away feeling dry and disappointed. I asked "Is the Lord among us or not?" I began testing God and quarreling with Him.

And finally, last night, God led me to this verse:

"Today, if you hear his voice,
⁸ do not harden your hearts as you did at Meribah, ^a]">[a]
as you did that day at Massah ^b]">[b] in the desert,
⁹ where your fathers tested and tried me,
though they had seen what I did.
¹⁰ For forty years I was angry with that generation;
I said, "They are a people whose hearts go astray,
and they have not known my ways."
¹¹ So I declared on oath in my anger,
"They shall never enter my rest."
~Psalm 95:7-13

Meribah means 'quarreling', and Massah means 'testing'. This verse refers to the incident in Exodus 17: 1-7.

Water From the Rock

^"1 The whole Israelite community set out from the Desert of Sin, traveling from place to place as the LORD commanded. They camped at Rephidim, but there was no water for the people to drink. ² So they quarreled with Moses and said, "Give us water to drink."
Moses replied, "Why do you quarrel with me? Why do you put the LORD to the test?"
³ But the people were thirsty for water there, and they grumbled against Moses. They said, "Why did you bring us up out of Egypt to make us and our children and livestock die of thirst?"
⁴ Then Moses cried out to the LORD, "What am I to do with these people? They are almost ready to stone me."
⁵ The LORD answered Moses, "Walk on ahead of the people. Take with you some of the elders of Israel and take in your hand the staff with which you struck the Nile, and go. ⁶ I will stand there before you by the rock at Horeb. Strike the rock, and water will come out of it for the people to drink." So Moses did this in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the place Massah ^a]">[a] and Meribah ^b]">[b] because the Israelites quarreled and because they tested the LORD saying, "Is the LORD among us or not?""
~Exodus 17:1-7
Just like in this passage, I knew what God was saying all along but I chose not to listen because I wanted to hear what I wanted to hear. It didn't matter what God had done for me in the past, I was thirsty now, and if I wasn't satisfied, it's like all the things God did for me in the past never happened. It's like God never parted the Dead Sea because I was thirsty now, and I wasn't hearing from God now.

But God never forgot me, even though I had forgotten Him.

¹⁰ "You have forgotten God your Savior;
you have not remembered the Rock, your fortress.
Therefore, though you set out the finest plants
and plant imported vines,
¹¹ though on the day you set them out, you make them grow,
and on the morning when you plant them, you bring them to bud,
yet the harvest will be as nothing
in the day of disease and incurable pain."
~Isaiah 17:10-11


I had forgotten God the Rock, and no matter how much effort I put into bearing fruit, my harvest was coming up empty. I realized that no matter how much effort you put into your ministry bearing fruit, if you don't remember God and what He's done for You, 10-20 years down the line your harvest will be nothing. You can make an effort into having your ministry bear fruit in one week and yet fall short 20 years from now.

¹⁸ "You deserted the Rock, who fathered you;
you forgot the God who gave you birth."
~Dt. 32:18

It is God who gave us birth, it is God who fathered us. Surely He will not forget us, while we most certainly forget about Him.

How interesting that I forgot about God who is mentioned as the Rock. What happened to the rock in Exodus? It was struck and water flowed. (for more on God being the Rock see Dt. 32:4,15,18,31)
Well, we have a Rock as well that was struck and from whom water flows, and that Rock is Christ.

¹"For I do not want you to be ignorant of the fact, brothers, that our forefathers were all under the cloud and that they all passed through the sea. ²They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. ³They all ate the same spiritual food ⁴and drank the same spiritual drink; for they drank from the spiritual rock that accompanied them, and that rock was Christ. ⁵Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert. ⁶Now these things occurred as examples^a]">[a] to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did."
~1 Corinthians 10:1-6

All of the Israelites drank from the Rock and yet some of them died. I have to ask myself if I'm drinking from the Rock and if I have that Living water in me or not.
In John 14 Jesus talks to a Samaritan women who is thirsty as well and longing for Living water, wondering where she can get this water.

¹³"Jesus answered, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, ¹⁴but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
¹⁵The woman said to him, "Sir, give me this water so that I won't get thirsty and have to keep coming here to draw water.""
~John 14:13-14
So, how can we tell then whether or not we're drinking from the Rock and not from an earthly well? The expression 'living water' also means 'running water'. Running water is water that is going somewhere, it is flowing. When there is a difference in elevation water moves, it flows, just as it did from the Rock. Water needs to move in order to give life and for it's nutrients to be stirred up and produce oxygen. Water that is standing still becomes a bough or a swamp, it traps and kills whatever ventures into it whilst emitting a foul stench.
Believe it or not, the Bible uses exactly this image concerning the River of Life, and God brought me there.

The River From the Temple

¹ "The man brought me back to the entrance of the temple, and I saw water coming out from under the threshold of the temple toward the east (for the temple faced east). The water was coming down from under the south side of the temple, south of the altar. ² He then brought me out through the north gate and led me around the outside to the outer gate facing east, and the water was flowing from the south side.
³ As the man went eastward with a measuring line in his hand, he measured off a thousand cubits ^a]">[a] and then led me through water that was ankle-deep. ⁴ He measured off another thousand cubits and led me through water that was knee-deep. He measured off another thousand and led me through water that was up to the waist. ⁵ He measured off another thousand, but now it was a river that I could not cross, because the water had risen and was deep enough to swim in—a river that no one could cross. ⁶ He asked me, "Son of man, do you see this?"
Then he led me back to the bank of the river. ⁷ When I arrived there, I saw a great number of trees on each side of the river. ⁸ He said to me, "This water flows toward the eastern region and goes down into the Arabah, ^b]">[b] where it enters the Sea. ^c]">[c] When it empties into the Sea, ^d]">[d] the water there becomes fresh. ⁹ Swarms of living creatures will live wherever the river flows. There will be large numbers of fish, because this water flows there and makes the salt water fresh; so where the river flows everything will live. ¹⁰ Fishermen will stand along the shore; from En Gedi to En Eglaim there will be places for spreading nets. The fish will be of many kinds—like the fish of the Great Sea. ^e]">[e] ¹¹ But the swamps and marshes will not become fresh; they will be left for salt. ¹² Fruit trees of all kinds will grow on both banks of the river. Their leaves will not wither, nor will their fruit fail. Every month they will bear, because the water from the sanctuary flows to them. Their fruit will serve for food and their leaves for healing.""
~Ezekiel 47: 1-12
(see also Zec. 13:1; 14:8)

This vision has, in part, been fulfilled by the arrival of the Kingdom of God which Christ inaugurated at His incarnation and ministry here on earth. It is yet to see it's full completion upon the return of Jesus Christ. (for more on Christ being the final, life-giving King see John 7:37)

But, when drinking from Christ, the Living Rock that was struck and from whom Living water flows, the water must continue to flow from us as well. If it stands still and we keep it to ourselves, we become a marsh or a swamp, a trap to all those around you and a foul stench.
But when the water is flowing, when we are sharing God's Kingdom, it becomes a River of Life that empties into a great Ocean where Life thrives.

To return to Psalm 95:1-7, the 'if' at the beginning is there not indicating that God might speak and you happen to hear, the 'if' refers to the condition of our heart. 'If' you circumcise your heart, you will hear Him.
I had to circumcise my heart before I heard God speak. I had to admit that I was taking pride in my humility and that I wasn't using my gifts because I was afraid I wouldn't be humble any more. Once I recognized that, I could hear His voice again because I chose to listen.

In summary, what we need to do is:

1. Listen to His voice and not harden our hearts. TODAY!
2. Realize that God hasn't forgotten us, but admit that we forget Him all the time, both in times of need (great thirst) as well as in time of blessing (when we're fat and sleek).
3. Drink from the Rock that is Christ.
4. Let His water flow from us resulting in a fruitful Ocean, not a stagnant pool.

And finally, I'd like to present the last piece of Scripture that was actually the very first Scripture God showed me.

⁷"But to each one of us grace has been given as Christ apportioned it. ⁸This is why it says:
"When he ascended on high,
he led captives in his train
and gave gifts to men."
~Ephesians 4:7

God gave us gifts to carry out His ministry, so don't let your hearts be hardened, listen to God, trust that He is speaking, trust that you have that wellspring of water within you and you will see it by the fruit that it bears resulting in a great harvest, not forgetting God and what He has done.