This post is part of the Bible and Business series on Christian ethics for Christian Business Owners.
Ethical decision-making is not merely an intellectual exercise for the Christian business owner. It is also a dynamic spiritual activity. Coupled with filtering the situation’s details through the two great commands (love God with all your heart, soul, mind, and strength and love your neighbor as yourself) as the starting point for ethics, learning to hear God’s voice when faced with ethical decisions is necessary to make correct ethical decisions. God will speak through the two great commands and the Ten Commandments to apply them to the owner’s specific situation.
Does the Bible Teach That We Can Hear the Voice of God?
In my opinion, the short answer to this question is “yes.” This section will provide support for this conclusion.
God’s Audible Voice
God’s audible voice is illustrated in the Bible. For example, God called to Moses from the cloud (Exodus 24:16); Moses heard a voice from between the cherubim (Numbers 7:89); in Psalm 68:33, God spoke with a mighty voice; the voice of the Lord sounded like many waters in Ezekiel 43.2 and Revelation 1:15 and a voice came from Heaven (Daniel 4:31; Matthew 3:17; Mark 1:11; Luke 3:22; John 12:28–30) (Day, 2009: 577 Voice).
God’s Inaudible Voice
But the Bible does not always describe God’s voice as audible. The Bible teaches that there is an inaudible voice that followers of God can “hear.” This voice is real, from God, and Christ-followers can listen to this voice if the followers choose to do so.
The biblical support for hearing an inaudible voice comes from the Scriptures.
“The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge. There is no speech, nor are there words, whose voice is not heard. Their voice goes out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world.” (The Holy Bible, 2016: Psalm 19:1-4).
The first thing to note here from this Psalm 19 passage is that while the “voice” of God is not audible, the message is intelligible equally to all people and discernable for those who are listening (Ross, 1985:807). This same notion—that creation contains inaudible speech discernable by all who care to listen—comports with what Paul wrote in Romans 1:19-20 (The Holy Bible, 2011):
“since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.”
The second element to note is that God is communicating. God’s “voice” is speaking every moment of every day through God’s creation. And the message can be understood even though there is no audible voice. Creation itself testifies to God’s power and divine nature. Implied is the notion that a person with no special capacities other than a willingness to listen can discern there is a God and He is not silent. Schaeffer (1982: Vol. 1, 291), when discussing the basic problem of the existence of what is, reminds us that
“the infinite-personal God, the God who is Trinity, has spoken. He is there, and He is not silent. There is no use having a silent God. We would not know anything about Him. He has spoken and told us what He is and that He existed before all else, and so we have the answer to the existence of what is. He is not silent. The reason we have the answer is because the infinite-personal God, the full Trinitarian God, has not been silent. He has told us who He is. Couch your concept of inspiration and revelation in these terms, and you will see how it cuts down into the warp and woof of modern thinking. He is not silent. That is the reason we know. It is because He has spoken. What has He told us? Has He told us only about other things? No, He has told us truth about Himself—and because He has told us truth about Himself—that He is the infinite-personal, triune God—we have the answer to existence.”
The Scriptures also tell us that God is communicating with us. For example, Isaiah tells us we will hear a voice instructing us about our decisions:
“People of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more. How gracious he will be when you cry for help! As soon as he hears, he will answer you. Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them. Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” (The Holy Bible, 2011: Isaiah 30:19-21).
In this Isaiah passage, followers of God learn that a voice instructs God’s followers on which decisions to make, which paths to walk, or which courses of action to follow. But notice that the follower first must discern who the follower’s teachers are so that the follower knows to whom the follower should listen. There is difficulty in knowing if a disciple of Christ should follow a given voice if the follower does not know who is speaking.
The comforting part is that when God sends ethical difficulties to his followers, God does not leave his children flapping in the wind. God sends God’s disciples teachers whose voices God’s disciples can discern and who will give God’s disciples Godly advice. At times, the Holy Spirit will be a follower’s teacher:
“I have much more to say to you, more than you can now bear. But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all the truth. He will not speak on his own; he will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. He will glorify me because it is from me that he will receive what he will make known to you. All that belongs to the Father is mine. That is why I said the Spirit will receive from me what he will make known to you.” (The Holy Bible, 2011: John 16:12-15).
Holy Spirit Speaks to Disciples of Jesus Christ
When the Spirit speaks to disciples of God, the Spirit is speaking only what the Spirit hears from Christ. The Spirit does not speak audibly, but the Spirit does “make it known to us” through our spirits—spirits that have been made alive (1 Corinthians 15.22, Ephesians 2.5, Colossians 2.13, 1 Peter 3.18). The Spirit speaks specifically about sin, righteousness and judgement:
“He will prove the world to be in the wrong about sin and righteousness and judgment: about sin, because people do not believe in me; about righteousness, because I am going to the Father, where you can see me no longer; and about judgment, because the prince of this world now stands condemned.” (The Holy Bible, 2011: John 16:8-11).
The Spirit cannot do any of these actions without communicating—without speaking. The communication may not be audible, but it is discernable, and disciples of Christ need to learn how to listen. The writer of the book of Hebrews says: “So, as the Holy Spirit says, ‘Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion, during the time of testing in the wilderness.” (The Holy Bible: 2011: Hebrews 3:7-8). Notice the conditional clause “if” —“if you hear His voice.” Implied in this condition is our ability to hear.
That ability to hear could be negated by an unwillingness to listen. Happily, followers of God can listen directly to Christ because God’s disciples know God’s voice:
“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” (The Holy Bible: 2011:John 10:1-5).
In the John 10 passage, followers of God learn that there are voices that can be heard that are not from God. God’s disciples will learn to recognise God’s voice and run from the voices of strangers. This passage teaches that discernment between voices can be developed. As Christians follow God, Christians will learn the “sound” of God’s voice.
Many inside and outside the Christian church shy away from these teachings. Christians want their ethics to be neatly packaged in a matrix or a system so that the correct ethical decision can be made apart from anything supernatural, like hearing the voice of God. It is feared that to start listening would open some to following deceptive voices. However, over time and with practice, a Christian can become sensitive to the Spirit’s voice, recognising when it is the Spirit speaking and when it is a different voice. The Spirit will remind the Christian business owner of the two great commands and the Ten Commandments and help the owner apply those commands (plus other commands of Scripture) to the owner’s specific situation. The owner may also find the Spirit prompting the owner about a pattern or practice which is unethical but of which the owner is unaware. Hearing the voice of God means being open to the notion that an owner can be led into better ethical decisions directly by the Spirit of God.
Hearing the Voice of God is Not Foolishness
Hearing the voice of God is not a mental health issue. It is not bonkersness—at least not to those whom the Holy Spirit has regenerated:
“We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature, but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing. No, we declare God’s wisdom, a mystery that has been hidden and that God destined for our glory before time began. None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. However, as it is written. “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived”—the things God has prepared for those who love him—these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit. The Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. For who knows a person’s thoughts except their own spirit within them? In the same way no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words. The person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God but considers them foolishness and cannot understand them because they are discerned only through the Spirit.The person with the Spirit makes judgments about all things, but such a person is not subject to merely human judgments, for, “Who has known the mind of the Lord so as to instruct him?” But we have the mind of Christ.” (The Holy Bible, 2011:1 Corinthians 2:6-16).
Paul teaches that there is a wisdom from God that is taught to those who have the Spirit indwelling within them. God’s Spirit reveals spiritual things to God’s disciples. Discernment and guidance from God are “spiritual things” because these things come from God. These things do not arrive in one’s spirit as vague, inner impressions that a follower must try to figure out. Instead, these things come to God’s disciples as a voice talking with God’s disciples. And since followers of God have the mind of Christ, God talks with God’s followers in the minds of God’s disciples.
Summary
Where the commands of Scripture are plainly given, the Christian business owner can be confident that these commands are authoritative, clear, necessary, sufficient, inerrant and inspired. These commands are worthy of the owner’s allegiance, attention, and devotion.
But in those situations where there is not a clear biblical command, the owner can rely on the Spirit of God to actively instruct through the two commands to love God with all one’s heart, soul, mind, and strength and to love others as oneself.
As an owner matures in hearing the voice of God and becomes more and more sensitive to the Spirit’s leading through the commands of Scripture, the owner will naturally become more dependent on God for life and sustenance. Such dependence is a good and proper outcome of a life lived in communion with God. This dependence helps prepare the owner to reign with God throughout eternity. In addition, the owner becomes more and more effective as a steward of that which God has entrusted to the owner, advancing God’s kingdom on this earth.
Bill English, Publisher
Bible and Business
Sources:
Ross, A. P. 1985. Psalms. In: J. F. Walvoord & R. B. Zuck (Eds.), The Bible Knowledge Commentary: An Exposition of the Scriptures (Vol. 1). Wheaton, IL: Victor Books
Schaeffer, F.A. (1982) The complete works of Francis A. Schaeffer: a Christian worldview. Westchester, IL: Crossway Books.
