The Morning I Heard The Voice Of God
Few times in my life do I read articles that really speak to me concerning my walk with the Lord. This is one of them. John Piper hit this one out of the ball park. I hope it speaks to you as it did to me.
Pastor Mike Holtzinger
The Morning I Heard The Voice of God
By: John Piper March 21, 2007
Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock. God actually spoke to me. There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words were in English, but they had about them an absolutely self-authenticating ring of truth. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks today.
I couldn’t sleep for some reason. I was at Shalom House in northern Minnesota on a staff couples’ retreat. It was about five thirty in the morning. I lay there wondering if I should get up or wait till I got sleepy again. In his mercy, God moved me out of bed. It was mostly dark, but I managed to find my clothing, got dressed, grabbed my briefcase, and slipped out of the room without waking up Noël. In the main room below, it was totally quiet. No one else seemed to be up. So I sat down on a couch in the corner to pray.
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Early in His ministry our Lord set forth a model of Christian witness that reveals a lifestyle and His heart for souls. This lifestyle got Him into immediate trouble with the religiously respectable. For you see, He sought out a publican to be one of His disciples! His name was Levi or Matthew. Matthew, in his excitement, hosted a dinner inviting all his “friends” (
bondage of their sin while it confronted and condemned hypocrisy. It was an offer of eternal life and forgiveness for repentant sinners, but at the same time it was a rebuke to outwardly religious people whose lives were devoid of true righteousness. It put sinners on notice that they must turn from sin and embrace God’s righteousness. It was in every sense good news, yet it was anything but easy-believism.” ~ John MacArthur, “The Gospel According To Jesus” pg.21
throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. (2) Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. (3) And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (4) And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. (5) And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (6) Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. (7) And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (8) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
pare His own Son, but delivered Him up for us all, how shall He not with Him also freely give us all things? 
Rarely is a leadership disaster rooted in a person’s incapacity to lead. It is most often an issue of failed followship. In fact, all of our failures can ultimately be traced to ceasing to follow Christ. Yet our twisted sense of values, exalting leading over following, independence over dependence, is evident in our whole attitude toward those whom we regard as qualified to lead and the qualifications we consider essential for the task. We are too easily seduced by the external qualities of charisma, competence, and credentials. This is not to say that these elements arn’t important. It is to underscore that these are not primary qualifiers. But American society refuses to accept the idea that character and submission to oral authority are important, particularly in the selection of leaders. – Joseph M Stowell “Following Christ”, Harper Collins Publishing, pg.37
Scripture alone is the inerrant rule of the church’s life, but the evangelical church today has separated Scripture from its authoritative function. In practice, the church is guided, far too often, by the culture. Therapeutic technique, marketing strategies, and the beat of the entertainment world often have far more to say about what the church wants, how it functions, and what it offers, than does the Word of God. Pastors have neglected their rightful oversight of worship, including the doctrinal content of the music. As Biblical authority has been abandoned in practice, as its truths have faded from Christian consciousness, and as its doctrines have lost their saliency, the church has been increasingly emptied of its integrity, moral authority, and direction.
“If then you have been raised with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is, seated at the right hand of God. Set your minds on things that are above, not on things that are on earth. For you have died, and your life is hidden with Christ in God.” Colossians 3:1-3 (ESV)
possibly the finest orator America ever produced, delivered a stirring speech at the completion of the Bunker Hill Monument. Refering to the Pilgrim Fathers and the Bible, he said, “They brought with them a full portion of the riches of the past, in science, art, morals, religion and literature. The Bible came with them. The Bible is a book of faith and a book of doctrine; it teaches man his own responsibility, his own dignity, and his equality with his fellow man… I believe that the Bible is to be understood and received in the plain obvious meaning of its pages, since I cannot persuade myself that a book intended for the instruction and conversion of the whole world should cover its meaning in any such mystery and doubt that none but its critics and philosophers can discover it.”