Hearing God’s Voice

I recently watched the movie Hacksaw Ridge because I enjoy the occasional war movie—especially when it has some meaningful storytelling attached to it. This story is about a man named Desmond Doss, who was a conscientious objector to killing, but who still enlisted in the army as a medic during WWII. Two scenes in particular struck me concerning the idea of listening to God.

First, the army does its best to get Doss to quit after he enlists. They don’t want an unarmed, unwilling-to-kill man going into battle alongside them. At one point, he’s made to go through a psychiatric evaluation to see if he’s crazy. “Do you think God speaks to you?” the psychiatrist asks (or something like that). Doss answers that he doesn’t “have conversations” with God, but that he does pray. Though the movie is based on the true story of Doss, the dialogue of the movie is undoubtedly the writer’s creation. To suggest that God speaks to you is the equivalent of being crazy.[1]

However, when Doss is in battle on the literal “hacksaw ridge”, he has a moment of prayer when he asks God, as he’s witnessing death and retreat all around him, “What am I supposed to do? He then hears a voice crying for help in the direction of his enemies and loads of explosions. That’s his answer. He spends the remainder of the battle rescuing injured men, even though the rest of his company has retreated. Doss saved 75 men during that battle, including his own captain who’d given him such a hard time during training. The movie clearly portrays that initial cry for help as God’s answer to Doss’s prayer.

How Does God Speak?

What does it mean for God to speak to us? What does it mean for us to hear from God? I think it does us good to be open-minded to the many ways God can and will speak to us. In the Gospel of John, chapter 10, Jesus calls himself the good shepherd and his followers he calls sheep. The shepherd “walks on ahead of [his sheep], and they follow him because they know his voice… They will hear My voice, and the flock will be united.”[2]

To hear Jesus’ voice, or the voice of his Spirit, does not mean that one (normally) hears audible words that no one else does. But the shepherd speaks all the same for those that are listening. His voice is heard through the guidance of our thoughts, our conscience, our convictions. His voice is heard in inner promptings, in ideas that pop into our heads, in pictures or visions or ideas that come fresh to us. His voice is heard through our study or memory of Scripture (or songs we know by heart). His voice is heard, like in the example of Doss, through the words or cries of others.

The Role of Faith

I once heard of a man who was praying to God as he walked into a store and was asking for some affirmation as to how God saw him.[3] He walked past a mother and child. As he passed them, the mother spoke soothingly to the child saying, “I love you, dear.” The praying man smiled, and inwardly thanked God for speaking to him as well through the words of that mother.

“Even when God’s voice may be thundering around us, it is possible that we miss it.”

What does that story teach us? It requires a degree of faith to hear God’s voice. We can always explain away the voice of God in our lives, because very rarely does God act in a way that does not require our faith. In another story from John’s Gospel, Jesus is praying to the Father and says, “’Father, bring glory to you name.’ Then a voice spoke from heaven, saying, ‘I have already brought glory to my name, and I will do so again.’ When the crowd heard the voice, some thought it was thunder, while others declared an angel had spoken to him.”[4]

Even when God’s voice may be “thundering” around us, it is possible that we miss it.

The questions for us then become: are we listening? And, if so, do we trust God that he does wish to speak to us? As we come to believe, and as we open our hearts and minds to the many ways God might speak, I believe we may find His voice all around us.

[1]Another recent movie with the same sort of dialogue about hearing God is Evan Almighty, starring Steve Carrell. I think the real Doss would have given a more nuanced answer to the question, “Does God speak to you?”

[2]John 10:4, 16; The Voice.

[3]I believe this is from one of Nikki Gumbel’s talks on the original Alpha Course videos.

[4]John 12:28-29, NLT.