July 27, 2010
His Voice
Recently there was a feel good story in the Los Angeles Daily News, written by Dennis McCarthy. When an Asian woman could no longer keep her dog she left him, along with a sizable donation, at a private ‘no-kill’ shelter. The shelter never could find a good home for Tuffy, a Korean Jindo dog. “That dog just turned the world off. He wanted no part of it…he just shut down.” Four and a half years later the Asian woman wanted to adopt a dog of the same breed and through the Internet she re-discovered Tuffy. A meeting was arranged, but Tuffy was sadly unresponsive to his former owner…that is until an employee suggested that the woman speak to the dog in Korean. I know exactly how Tuffy feels. Jesus speaks to me in a language that I understand. “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27-28 NIV)
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Gail;
-----I have had friends and acquaintances tell me of the voices they’ve heard. Many are not pretty stories. Most of us know about the tragic drowning of two children in a bathtub because a mother heard the supposed voice of Jesus telling her they must be spared from the impending doom to come. Voices are dangerous.
-----But voices are real, and His voice is true. Tuffy did not respond to just any voice which made him feel better or gave him a sense of direction. He responded to a voice with which he had prior experience and coming from one who had previously treated him well, whom he also treated well. It is not just the voice that is important. To think so is dangerous. Experience is also important.
-----For experience forms the base of knowledge. The Bible calls us to acquire the knowledge of God as much as it calls us to hear the voice of God. Knowledge of who God is and what He does is the substance we must use to test the messages we hear in the voices. It was the Korean language which fit the Asian woman’s tones, inflections, and vocal qualities into Tuffy’s memories of what he loved. Her voice squaring with that experience evoked his response.
-----Although hearing the familiar sounds of the Korean language awoke Tuffy’s emotions, I am sure he did not intellectually compare the words he was hearing to a list of known words he was maintaining. I am sure it was the familiar patterns in those sounds that triggered the feelings of his sleeping personality shaped by the good times he had shared with the one making those sounds. Having experience with the bipolar condition, I know firsthand the depths of a sleeping personality. Many times in my depressed state I saw a face or heard a voice similar to one attached to my cherished experiences, and while my joys were stirred, they were not awakened. Yet meeting the actual face or voice would reawaken what had gone to sleep. Similarity was not enough. Actuality was.
-----Jesus said, “...if any man’s will is to do His will he shall know whether the teaching is from God or whether I am speaking on My own authority.” (John 7:17) Knowing His voice comes from places in the soul deeper than mere intellect. It involves the very ambition and drive to be square with His ambitions and drives. Then He also said, “If you continue in My word, you are truly My disciples, and you will know the truth...” (John 8:31-32) Continuing in His word involves intellectually knowing it, but only as a starting point. It is to go on and live it, generating personality by fulfilling ambitions and drives with actual doing and experiencing. And that makes the familiarity like what Tuffy had with the Asian woman. So Jesus could finally say, “...and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice.” (John 10:4) The sheep indeed hear many voices. But they do not respond to just any voice which makes them feel good or which appears to have some direction. They only respond to the familiar one.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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