The Lord's Voice

This article is inspired by an article by Desiring God titled "What Does God Sound Like? Hearing the voice of Majesty" Why am I writing this article? Because I have actually heard the voice of the Lord audibly (or something else supernatural). I don't always focus on the supernatural things I have experienced. The reason for this is that I think God has given us His revealed Word, which is the Bible. My experience is secondary no matter how "real" my experiences seem. Nonetheless some of the experiences I have had work to bolster my confidence that God exists and He loves and cares for us.

I think this article by David Mathis is great and pretty much perfectly depicts what I heard when I heard God speak to me audibly. Nonetheless, I would like to give my own perspective on this voice, as much as I can remember the events of it.

Often times I will forget entirely some experiences I have had that I cannot describe except to say they were supernatural. This is not one of those experiences. It was pretty impactful, though not to the degree that it was deeply emotional but more that it was deeply memorable if that makes sense. I'd like to give this experience I had without referencing the article by Desiring God. This is not to give any slight to Desiring God as I highly encourage you to check out the article I linked at the beginning. More so because I want to give my authentic experiences rather than fabricating anything. On to the experiences itself. So that's enough for an introduction. I don't expect this to be a very long article.

It was at night, though not too late and I was in bed. I remembered that at the time I was not really tired at all. In other words, I didn't feel like I was about to go to sleep but must have just gotten into bed. I was laying there, probably recounting my day, not really anything spectacular or anything. Just seemed like a normal night except I had slept the night before and that is not always the case for me. Sometimes I don't sleep at all at night and then I end up going about 36 hours or so before I sleep again. This was definitely not one of those times. I remember being calm, not excited, not agitated, not high-strung, just relaxed and ready to go to bed as I was laying there. Then, out of nowhere, I hear this voice. It said, "The Lord is here." I was so impacted, surprised really, that I said, "What is it, Lord?" Now, this is somewhat similar to what other people have said when they heard the voice of God but not exactly the same. Most of the time when someone hears God's voice from the Old Testament, for example, they say, "Here I am." That seems to be the go-to response. So it may not be the exact same, but it is a similar enough response that it's not ironic at all. Seems more or less in line with what you might expect. The idea is to inquire of the Lord what He wants of you. There are multiple examples of this, but here are two:

Genesis 22:1 CSB17

“After these things God tested Abraham and said to him, “Abraham!”

“Here I am,” he answered.”

Exodus 3:4 CSB17

“When the LORD saw that he had gone over to look, God called out to him from the bush, “Moses, Moses!”

“Here I am,” he answered.”

Very interesting. But I want to draw your attention to another time when God spoke to someone and they didn't even know it was God talking. That was when God spoke to Samuel. Seen here:

1 Samuel 3:4–10 CSB17

Then the LORD called Samuel, and he answered, “Here I am.” He ran to Eli and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“I didn’t call,” Eli replied. “Go back and lie down.” So he went and lay down.

Once again the LORD called, “Samuel!”

Samuel got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

“I didn’t call, my son,” he replied. “Go back and lie down.”

Now Samuel did not yet know the LORD, because the word of the LORD had not yet been revealed to him. Once again, for the third time, the LORD called Samuel. He got up, went to Eli, and said, “Here I am; you called me.”

Then Eli understood that the LORD was calling the boy. He told Samuel, “Go and lie down. If he calls you, say, ‘Speak, LORD, for your servant is listening.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place.

The LORD came, stood there, and called as before, “Samuel, Samuel!”

Samuel responded, “Speak, for your servant is listening.”

So it is possible for someone to hear the voice of the Lord and not even know it is the Lord speaking. Very interesting. I quote this verse here because of how "normal" it seemed to Samuel. Why that matters is that it is much the same way that my experiences were. There were no fireworks. There were no lights. It was just a voice I heard. My experience differs from Samuels though in that I knew whatever voice it was it was not any voice I had heard before.

I have no idea what the purpose is for the Lord speaking to me like this. I wish I knew. If I had to venture a guess, it would be to encourage me and tell me that God is with me. After all, that is precisely what the voice said is, "The Lord is here." Now, I do not know for sure if it was the voice of the Lord for sure. All I know is that it spoke to me and no one was around and the voice was clear as day. It could have been an angel for all I know. What I do know is that the voice was friendly. It meant no harm and seemed to be for my betterment. I just wish I knew why God picked me of all people. I'm no one special. I'm not particularly well learnt. I don't know that much about the Bible (compared to other people). I'm sure I am nowhere near as moral of a person as some in the faith. It doesn't make sense to me because I'm not anyone of any renown. But maybe that is the point.

I did have an experience that was pretty outstanding before. I met a man. The man's name was Larry Emmanuel Morris. He was about 54 years old at the time of meeting him (in August of 2018) and if I remember correctly he said he had five or six brothers. I tried looking him up in public records and could not find anyone with that description with that name and age. Anyways, I just mention this because that man was unlike anyone I have ever met in my life. His testimony to me changed my life forever and it is the event that confirmed my faith.

In terms of what the voice sounded like. It's really hard to say. It sounded masculine, but not like a booming voice. It was gentle. It sounded like a river. Hard to describe. It sounded both like a human voice and not like a human voice at the same time. It was such a simple message. "The Lord is here." I wondered what else the voice would say after I replied, "What is it, Lord." But there was no response. I do recall when I heard the voice I instantly sat up in my bed. No one was there at all. It was night so I wouldn't expect anyone to really be around anyways. One last thing about the voice is that there was no doubting in the voice at all. It simply asserted what it needed to say and then that was it. The inflection in the voice was not particularly special. It just stated it rather matter-of-fact. I remember there was this remarkable quiet just after the voice spoke. It was like the whole nighttime was quiet just for this occasion.

Well, that was the voice I experience I heard that was either the voice of the Lord or at least an angel. If you would like to know what other supernatural things I have experienced, I have written an article here titled, "The Supernatural in my Life." Check it out if you so choose.

That's it for this one.

God bless you! Until next time!