Do You Hear What I Hear? Making Room for God to Speak
Week One: A Still, Small Voice
“He said, “Go out and stand on the mountain before the Lord, for the Lord is about to pass by.” Now there was a great wind, so strong that it was splitting mountains and breaking rocks in pieces before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind; and after the wind an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake; and after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire; and after the fire a sound of sheer silence. When Elijah heard it, he wrapped his face in his mantle and went out and stood at the entrance of the cave. Then there came a voice to him that said, “What are you doing here, Elijah?” ”
ICE BREAKER:
In a bowl, your Crew Directors have placed random get-to-know-you questions. Go around the circle and allow everyone to draw a question. Then, let each person answer. This is a simple way to get to know the people in your Crew!
RECAP, QUESTIONS, & MAIN TAKE-AWAY:
In this scripture we meet the prophet Elijah. He has been spending his time overthrowing Queen Jezebel’s religious community by personally executing her four hundred prophets of Baal, their god. When we encounter Elijah in chapter 19, he is at his lowest point. He’s on the run from Jezebel who is trying to kill him. He’s fleeing, wrestling with his mental health, and sleeping wherever he can find. God is providing him food and comfort along the way. By the time we get to 1 Kings 19, the once-great prophet Elijah is a troubling and tragic picture of himself, fearful and faithless.
Where we pick up, he is living in a cave atop Mt. Sinai. This is the same mountain where Moses encounters and experiences God in the burning bush. Unlike Moses, however, Elijah’s experience of God’s voice is different.
When Moses heard from God, there was an audible voice and a visible flaming bush. When the children of Israel, whom Moses was sent to free from Egypt, heard from God, they saw a pillar of cloud by day and fire by night. It’s possible that Elijah expected God to speak and show up in a similar way. He might have been looking for God to appear in a way God already had: wind, earthquake, fire.
Elijah found himself standing where Moses had heard from God, I’m sure frustrated that he wasn’t having the same experience. Have you ever felt like everyone else was hearing from God but you? What did that feel like? How did you address it?
Have you ever heard the voice of God?
What does God’s voice sound like to you?
And yet, when God speaks to Elijah it is not through some grand display of might. It didn’t look like it had for Moses or the Israelites. When God spoke to Elijah, it was through what other translations describe as a “still, small voice (KJV),” or a thin, quiet sound (CEB).
God is still speaking today. For some of us, God appears through grand displays and coincidental moments. For others, it’s the still, small voice within us, those gentle nudges that urge us forward.
It was when Elijah stopped looking for God to speak Moses’ language with God that he was able to discover his own. How have you attempted to hear from God in the past?
Why did you try to hear from God in that way? Did it work for you, why or why not?
Take a moment to reflect. Can you think of a time that God might have spoken to you, but you wrote it off as something else? Explain.
To learn what God’s voice sounds like takes exposure. We must slow down, pay attention and listen for God to speak in our lives. This can look like: meditation and prayer, fasting (from diet, media, technology, etc.), reading scripture, spending time in nature, taking the time to think through your CLIMB. The list goes on and on.
MAIN TAKE-AWAY: God is speaking to you. God’s voice might not appear or sound to you as it does to someone else. The more intimately you know God, the clearer God’s voice becomes in the midst of your daily life.
APPLICATION: What is one thing you can do this week to create space for God to speak?
IDEA: The City fast is a GREAT way to create soul space with community!
Week Two: Listening and Responding
ICE BREAKER QUESTION:
Think back to your childhood. What was one thing you wanted SO BADLY. Did you get it? If no, how did you feel? If yes, how did receiving that thing feel after one week, one month, one year?
“Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says,
“Today, if you hear [her] voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
as on the day of testing in the wilderness,
where your ancestors put me to the test,
though they had seen my works for forty years.
Therefore I was angry with that generation,
and I said, ‘They always go astray in their hearts,
and they have not known my ways.’
As in my anger I swore,
‘They will not enter my rest.’”
Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partners of Christ, if only we hold our first confidence firm to the end. As it is said,
“Today, if you hear [her] voice,
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion.””
RECAP, QUESTIONS, AND MAIN TAKE-AWAY:
Last week, we started our Crew Series by considering what God’s voice sounds like to us. We noted that God doesn’t sound the same to every person. The more intimately we know God, the clearer and more obvious God’s voice becomes to us.
Applications Check-In: How did everyone do?
Today, we’re exploring what scripture has to say, not just about listening, but responding when we’re called. There are some inherent practices in African and African-American cultures that shape how individuals hear and respond to God. It’s the call and response, the give and take, a shared participation between us and God. After a call or invitation, it becomes our turn to act. When God speaks, we listen and do something in response.
In our Hebrews scripture, the writer is reminding the audience of their history. When the Israelites were wandering around in the desert (Exodus 15-17), they constantly complained and murmured, discounting God’s provision and voice. This story in Exodus is known as The Provocation or The Rebellion.
During The Rebellion, God is guiding the Israelites by a cloud during the day and pillar of fire by night. Those pillars and clouds were miraculous signs, one way God was speaking to the people. But the Israelites grew restless in the journey. It wasn’t as easy as they wanted it to be, and they began to complain to Moses. They started suggesting they turn back. When the journey got difficult they wanted to give up, regardless of what the Promised Land had to offer. They stopped paying attention to the voice of God, or to the signs and wonders God performed in their midst to lead them into a better life.
When the luster of the promise had worn off and when the journey became real, they lost sight of God’s vision. The Israelite’s complaining increased, rather than their trust and expectancy. Their response to God’s provision and presence was more complaining.
Can you think of a time where something in life was difficult, and you considered giving up - but didn’t? (ex. sport, school) What was the outcome? What did you learn from the experience?
Thinking back, what did God’s voice sound like at the time? How might naming that prepare you for recognizing and responding to God now?
How did that past journey prepare you for your current season?
It’s easier to complain about God than to trust God, even if you’ve experienced being delivered from whatever your Egypt might have been. In Hebrews we’re gifted a warning: When we hear from God, we should listen rather than harden our hearts.
When God speaks and calls you to do something difficult or scary, what is your response? Do you answer with complaint and resistance, or with trust and hope?
Note: To answer with trust and hope doesn't mean you don’t ask questions of God. It does, however, mean those questions don’t prevent you from still responding and moving.
One of the best ways to grow in your ability to listen and respond to God is by continuing to learn God’s voice in your life. Here are some ways you can confirm if what you’re hearing is from God, requiring a response.
Begin journaling what you heard. Don’t lose the thought. This can be done nightly, weekly, and/or in the moment.
Look for a scripture, or situation in scripture, that speaks to what you heard. The more exposure you have to scripture, the more God can use it to speak to you. Don’t get hung up on context and semantics right now - trust that the Holy Spirit can and IS speaking to you, with or without extensive training.
Share and talk with trusted friends and advisors. Remember, there may be many people who are capable of speaking into our lives, but that doesn’t always mean they should. If they don’t know what God’s voice sounds like in their life, they might not be much help in this area. Use discernment in what voices are allowed to speak into your inner circle. It matters!
APPLICATION: This week, pick one of the three points above and expand on it. Begin journaling at the end of the day, make a point to read at least one small section of scripture a day (start in Proverbs or Gospel of John), or begin thinking through and engaging your inner circle.
Week Three: Hearing, Listening, Responding
ICE BREAKER QUESTION:
With one of your Crew Directors leading, play a few rounds of Simon Says!
SERIES RECAP, QUESTIONS AND MAIN TAKE-AWAY:
APPLICATIONS CHECK-IN: How did everyone do?
This is the final week on our Crew series, Do You Hear What I Hear? Over the last three weeks, we’ve been exploring what the voice of God sounds like to us, what it means to listen and how that influences our response.
In week one, we talked about what God’s voice sounds like. In 1 Kings 19:11-13, we read about the prophet Elijah and his mountaintop experience with God. Elijah experiences a great wind, an earthquake and fire - but none were God. Instead, God appears in a still, small voice.
What can we take away from Elijah’s experience?
In what ways are you listening for God?
How have you heard from God in the last three weeks?
Intimacy with God enhances our ability to hear God’s voice. How well do you know God now, and how might you grow in knowledge moving forward?
In week two, we noted that hearing from God is the beginning, not the end, of the call. Once we’ve heard from God, we must listen to what is said and take action. We called this the ‘Call-and-Response.’ We know that it’s easy to forget what God has spoken in the midst of difficulty. The Israelites wanted to turn back to Egypt when the journey got rough, even though Egypt was comparatively worse. Rather than increasing their trust and expectancy of the promise God made them, they complained and considered giving up. Sometimes God speaks something into existence that doesn’t happen right away. When we are waiting and pursuing what God has spoken, we should try to trust and expect God to follow through.
What does listening to God mean to you?
What does it look like to respond when God speaks? What if there is a delay between when you hear God’s voice and when the outcome is achieved?
What does it look like to move toward the vision God has casted? How do you do this? Or, how can you start doing this?
In all things, remember that it’s okay to ask questions. Listening and responding to God doesn’t mean we never doubt or wrestle with the call. However, even in the midst of questions and wrestling, we can move toward what God has called us to do. In doing so, we create space for God to continue to show up. We can know God deeper in the process.
What questions do you still have? Any thoughts, concerns, wrestlings?
APPLICATION:
Reflecting on your applications from the last two weeks, what is one way you can continue to tune your ear to hear God’s voice? What would you like to change or modify? How can this Crew support you in this piece of your CLIMB?