A VOICE

A VOICE WITHIN A VOICE

(Genesis 3:8, 17) And they heard the voice of God walking in the garden in the cool of the day. And Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of Jehovah God in the middle of the trees of the garden........... And to Adam He said, Because you have listened to the voice of your wife and have eaten of the tree, of which I commanded you, saying, You shall not eat of it! The ground is cursed for your sake. In pain shall you eat of it all the days of your life.

• For a period of time Adam and Eve lived in and enjoyed the presence of God, they shared in fellowship with Him and were familiar with His voice. However, a day came when they listened to other voices rather than listening to and obeying the VOICE of God. Eve listened to the voice of the tempter and Adam listened to the voice of Eve. As a result of listening to other voices they hid from God’s presence, were estranged in their relationship with Him and their hearing became dulled.

(Isaiah 40:3-5)  The voice of him who cries in the wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, make straight a highway in the desert for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and every mountain and hill shall be made low; and the crooked places shall be made level, and the rough places smooth; and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed, and all flesh shall see it together; for the mouth of the Lord has spoken.

• Isaiah was one of God’s messengers chosen to communicate God’s VOICE to his generation. He prophesied that someone was coming (we now know that someone was John the Baptist) and from within that someone a VOICE would proclaim prepare the way of the Lord. Isaiah was in effect saying that there would be a VOICE within the voice of John the Baptist.
• God is a speaking God and like a ventriloquist, He projects His VOICE through the messengers He has chosen and prepared for that purpose. When God’s VOICE is proclaimed through His messengers earth (and heaven) shaking events occur and God’s glory is revealed and evidenced.

(John 3:29-30)  The one having the bride is the bridegroom. But the friend of the bridegroom, standing and hearing him, rejoices with joy because of the bridegroom's voice. Then this my joy has been fulfilled. That One must increase, but I must decrease.

• A VOICE is especially for people who desire Christ more than anything else. More of Christ is a desire to increase to the fullness of His stature. More of Christ means a decrease to the emptiness of self.
• Jesus Himself is the best example of what it means to decrease. He left the glories of heaven to take the form of an earthly servant (Philippians 2:5-7). While on earth Jesus didn’t lean on His own understanding or strengths, He found no merit in His natural gifts and talents and He didn’t pursue His own ambitions or personal vision. He relinquished everything to the Father because He knew that His identity and purpose were in Him. (Luke 2:49). He only spoke what He heard the Father speak (John 12:50) and only did what He saw the Father do (John 5:19). He knew that without the Father He could do nothing, yet in the Father He could do all things. Because of His faithfulness He is highly exalted and His kingdom continues to increase without end.

A Voice purposes to faithfully proclaim Christ and the Gospel of the Kingdom. Be forewarned that as you are exposed to and embrace Christ and the Gospel two things will inevitably happen. First, the Holy Spirit will lead and empower you to decrease so that Christ might increase. Second and most importantly, you will see Christ and the Kingdom of God as never before and in seeing Christ you will transformed from glory to glory….into His likeness and image.

 (Matthew 13:9-16)  He who has ears to hear, let him hear. And the disciples said to Him, Why do You speak to them in parables. He answered and said to them, Because it is given to you to know the mysteries of the kingdom of Heaven, but it is not given to them. For whoever has, to him shall be given, and he shall have more abundance. But whoever does not have, from him shall be taken away even that which he has. Therefore I speak to them in parables, because seeing they see not, and hearing they hear not; nor do they understand. And in them is fulfilled the prophecy of Isaiah which said, "By hearing you shall hear and shall not understand; and seeing you shall see and shall not perceive; for this people's heart has become gross, and their ears are dull of hearing, and they have closed their eyes, lest at any time they should see with their eyes and hear with their ears and should understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them." But blessed are your eyes, for they see; and your ears, for they hear.

(John 12:25-30)  He who loves his life shall lose it. And he who hates his life in this world shall keep it to life eternal. If anyone serves Me, let him follow Me; and where I am, there also My servant shall be. If anyone serves Me, the Father will honor him. And My soul is troubled, and what shall I say? Father, save Me from this hour? But for this cause I came to this hour. Father, glorify Your name! Then there came a voice from the heaven saying, I have both glorified it and will glorify it again. Then the crowd who stood by and heard said that it thundered. Others said, An angel spoke to Him. Jesus answered and said, This voice did not come because of Me, but for your sakes.

• In the natural realm there are sound waves all around us but only those sounds that fall within a certain range of frequencies can be perceived as sounds we receive, hear and discern. If and when anyone is exposed to loud and constant sounds over an extended period, they can experience a loss of or dullness in hearing. When one loses their hearing, they first lose the higher frequencies, those that most affect the distinction of sound.
• (Matthew 13) contains a number of parables about the Kingdom of heaven. When the disciples asked Jesus why He spoke in parables, He replied that the only ones who could understand His parables were those who have ears to hear. The majority of people in the crowd couldn’t understand the parables because they had become dull of hearing.

Another time when Jesus was addressing a group of people A VOICE from heaven sounded. It seems everyone heard the same sound but their perception of what they heard was very different. The (dull of hearing) crowd thought they heard thunder, an indiscernible background noise. There were others, probably just a few, who perceived the voice as being that of a heavenly messenger but they weren’t able to clearly discern who was speaking or what was said. Lastly, there was Jesus who had “ears to hear” and distinctly heard and proclaimed the VOICE to be the Father's.

In the opening chapters of (Revelation 2 & 3) the Lord addressed seven Ekklesias and ended His message to each Ekklesia by saying "He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the Ekklesias."  Those whose hearing hadn’t become dulled could hear what the Spirit was saying, which is the essential requirement for overcomers. Those whose hearing had become dull wouldn’t hear what the Spirit was saying and couldn’t overcome. The messages to the seven Ekklesias help us understand what creates dullness of hearing.

The Lord admonished the seven Ekklesias  about the very things that contributed to their hearing loss. To summarize, what He admonished them about was their religiosity, their carnality and their worldliness.  It is obvious that they listened to, were influenced and led astray by religious, carnal and worldly voices.

There are many voices; religious, carnal and worldly, competing for our attention. Listening to the constant drone of these voices is what dulls the hearing and causes one to become insensitive to the higher frequency of the VOICE of the Spirit. Those who are disciplined and mature in hearing are able to discern between the VOICE of the Spirit and other voices.

(John 6:63)  It is the Spirit that makes alive, the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit and are life.

(John 7:37-38, 43-46)  And in the last day of the great feast, Jesus stood and cried out, saying, If anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. He who believes on Me, as the Scripture has said, "Out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water."………… So there was a split in the crowd over him. Some went so far as wanting to arrest him, but no one laid a hand on him. That's when the Temple police reported back to the high priests and Pharisees, who demanded, "Why didn't you bring him with you?" The police answered, "Have you heard the way he talks? We've never heard anyone speak like this man."

(Revelation 1:10,15)  I came to be in the Spirit in the Lord's day and heard behind me a great voice, as of a trumpet…..And His voice was like the sound of many waters.

• It is clear that Jesus intends His people to be a source of life. Hearing His VOICE through His servants is one of the ways His life flows out to others. More and more we are hearing the VOICE of God speaking through a corporate (as one) Voice of servants (the many waters ) He has chosen and prepared for such a time as this. 

(John 7:43-46) is an account of a meeting between some officers, priests and Pharisees . When the Pharisees asked the officers why they didn’t arrest Jesus the officers replied “We've never heard anyone speak like this man.”  No one had ever heard a man speak like Jesus because there never was anyone like Him. He was the Word made flesh, a message embodied in a man. When you heard the Son you heard the Father, when you saw the Son you saw the Father. He was the prototype, the original script of “Like Father like Son.”

We have requested and received permission to include the writings of people God has chosen, prepared and is speaking through at this time. These servants have been disciplined in love and matured by grace. More and more they are manifesting the likeness and image of Jesus, their elder brother and Head of the Body. These Godly servants recognize that human understanding and strength, natural gifts and talents, personal ambitions and kingdom building have no part in Christ or the Kingdom of God. Their ministry is increasingly free of religious, carnal and/or worldly influence.  

Although each of these servants has a unique way of conveying what they sense God is saying we must remember that they and we are still in that realm Paul referred to where all we see and are able to communicate is incomplete and imperfect.  (1 Corinthians 13:9-10 )For our knowledge is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect), and our prophecy (our teaching) is fragmentary (incomplete and imperfect) But when the complete and perfect (total) comes, the incomplete and imperfect will vanish away (become antiquated, void, and superseded). As you read the various posts ask the Lord to open your ears to hear the VOICE of His Spirit and the eyes of your understanding to see only that which reveals Christ. We pray that as you read the posts from various servants they will trumpet a pure, clear and distinct sound. The many voices are flowing together as one, A VOICE of many waters. Prepare to hear a new sound and to say "Never have a people spoke like this people".

(Revelation 4:1) After these things I looked, and behold, a door was opened in Heaven. And the first voice which I heard was as it were of a trumpet talking with me, saying, Come up here, and I will show you what must occur after these things.

• Whenever you hear the VOICE of God you can be certain it is His call onward and upward toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 3:14) 

We understand that visitors to A Voice come with different levels of understanding and what they find here may communicate a sound unlike what they’ve heard before, nevertheless it resonates and witnesses deep within their spirits creating a fresh expectation and excitement for spiritual things.

Although it may be new we encourage you to keep reading and pray that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of glory, may give to you a spirit of wisdom and revelation in the full knowledge of Him, the eyes of your mind having been enlightened, for you to know what is the hope of His calling, and what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints. (Ephesians 1:17-18 If you’re stirred to pray for us, one of the things you can pray for is that we remain sensitive to what Holy Spirit is saying and that we share it with a Voice of conviction and without compromise.

A Voice is a platform for posts, not open season for roasts. A Voice invites corporate input and welcomes comments. As much as we appreciate comments we will only respond if we sense our response will build others up in Christ, and then will do so at an appropriate time. Comments we welcome, but we absolutely refuse to be drawn into or to get emroiled with arguments and/or debates ….and ask that you do likewise. We ask the Lord to help us leave our carnality, differences, divisiveness, legalism, religiosity and worldliness at the cross. Enter in filled with His Spirit and the sole motivation to be edified and to edify. Focus on Christ and ask God to speak to you……and He will.

focaLocal is a digital communications medium we hope will encourage and foster face-to-face fellowship with others who are hearing the same VOICE. If you are one of these please feel free to contact A Voice.