‘’Then the Lord called Samuel. Samuel answered, “Here I am.” And he ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.” But Eli said, “I did not call; go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down. ‘’ 1 Samuel 3:4-5 NIV
Samuel to Eli “Here I am; you called me.’’ Even from here, at the get go, we can safely conclude the voice of God that Samuel heard sounded exactly like Eli’s. Hence, he ran to him three times, until Eli figured out that the boy Samuel was being called by God and instructed him on how to respond. I am sure, like me you may have wondered why didn’t God introduce himself right away and stopped the young boy from running back and forth from Eli?
Then again, why did God choose to use the voice of Eli, even more so that as at that point Eli was no longer in right standing with God? Of course, he is God and he does whatever he chooses.
However, we notice through the scriptures that while God can and does often speak through the extraordinary; voice from the clouds, angels, burning bush etc he also uses entities that are very familiar to the person he is speaking to, as we see in this text. Little wonder he used a prophet’s donkey to speak to him.
Moses was a shepherd, he often with his flocks traversed the Sinai mountains region; maybe that was why he heard God from the mountains more than any other Bible personality, not even his mentee Joshua came close.
“Now Moses used to take a tent and pitch it outside the camp some distance away, calling it the “tent of meeting.” Anyone inquiring of the Lord would go to the tent of meeting outside the camp” (Exodus 33:7 NIV), in the wilderness the Israelites lived in tents, God also met and spoke with them in a tent – God indeed uses the familiar.
The first, foundational and most reliable place to hear God’s voice is in the Bible and that is very familiar to all believers – or at least should be. Most Christians that say God does not speak to them might just be missing the voice of God because it came in the very familiar. It could be a Bible verse or a passage that uniquely speaks to one. It could be that burst of thoughts or a thought that just kept on coming. It might just be a sensing. A perception. It could be in your dreams. It could be your spouse’s voice.
It could be a still small voice like he spoke to Elijah on Mount Horeb, when God was neither in the wind, nor the earthquake, nor the fire. However, we have over- extrapolated this incident and often, with a degree of finality, say that God only speaks through the still small voice. While God didn’t speak through the wind to Elijah, but he did speak through not even the wind but the whirlwind to Job, “then the LORD answered Job out of the whirlwind, and said,” (Job 38:1 KJV). God cannot be restricted.
Don’t stop or ignore it even if it sounds too familiar, it might just be God on the line. He leaves no voicemails, he keeps calling until he hears ‘speak lord’.
”My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me: ” (John 10:27 KJV)
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