It was a time of great famine when Samuel came to the tabernacle. A time of famine. Oh, not for food and water. There was plenty of that. This was a much more severe famine - the sort of famine Amos spoke of years later:
        "a famine of hearing the words of the Lord. Men will stagger from sea to sea and wander from north to east, searching for the word of the LORD, but they will not find it. (Amos 8.11-12)
        "In those days the word of the LORD was rare; there were not many visions." (1 Sam 3.1)
        And so, when the Lord spoke to the young boy, it was an amazing event in the life of Israel. The wall was coming down. God was once again speaking in very concrete, direct ways.
        It wasn't much. And just to one person. But at least it was something. Heaven & earth were connected again. What a relief!
        That connection remained.
        Through the centuries other prophets followed in Samuel's shoes, hearing God's voice and giving His message to the people.

        Then one day one of these prophets, Joel, made a startling prediction: (Joel 2.28)
        "And afterwards, I will pour out my Spirit on ALL people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams. Your young men will see visions."
The floodgates would open, and the Spirit that now only rested on one or two individuals would come on ALL God's people. He would speak to them all as he once spoke to Samuel.

        The New Testament, of course, describes the fulfillment of that prophecy. We read one example of that in the life of a simple man named Ananias, an average joe among God's people; one of the sons and daughters on whom the Spirit had been poured out.
        The book of Acts is full of similar occurances:
-Acts 5: Peter is given inner revelation about Ananias & Sapphira and their attempt to hoodwink the church.
-Acts 10: an angel comes to Cornelius, commanding him to send for Peter.
-Acts 11.28: Agabus predicted through the Spirit that there would be a severe famine.
-Acts 16.9: Paul received a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, "Come over and help us."
        These are just some of the examples.
Examples that come to us, fellow Christians with Ananias, to us on whom the Spirit has also been poured. And yet -- we hesitate. We're not really always so sure that the sorts of events depicted in Acts might possibly happen to us. We can't quite grasp the idea that the Lord might possibly have something personal to say to us.

Which is what I want to consider today.
        Should we listen for God?
        And should we expect to hear Him speak?
                Very briefly - the answer is yes..... and yes.
                Let's think about that together.

There are a couple of reasons why we wouldn't expect to have a Samuel experience or direct guidance of an Ananias sort.
        First is that we are in the tradition of the Enlightenment. It has taught us that what really matters in life is what we can see and touch. They are real. The things of the other realm, the spiritual realm.... well.... not so sure. Trust what you can handle with the mind, with reason.
        God giving direct revelation certainly doesn't fit that mould.
        As Christians today we are beginning to see past that humanistic argument. We recognize that it holds no water. Just because we can't comprehend something or sense it doesn't mean it isn't real. Our God is sovereign, cosmically great. Who are we to suggest that His divine work must fit our tiny crumb of knowledge and experience?

        Secondly, we have trouble with this idea, strangely enough, because of the Bible. We honour it as the complete, sufficient, authoritative Word of God. All that we need for faith & life is contained therein. That's what we confess. And rightly so.
        So then when the possibility is raised that there may be other words of God, we get justifiably nervous. Does that mean the Canon will be reopened? That we will trust scripture less? Or distort it?
                Very real questions..... but answerable.

        Begin by considering the purpose of the Word of God. 2Ti3.16:
        "All scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work."

        In other words, when it comes to teaching us God's plan for history, for salvation and His sovereign will for human life -- what pleases Him and what is sinful; all that is found between the covers of His Word.
        To find out what He is like; to learn about salvation; to come to know Jesus; to understand the work of the Spirit:
                -- this [THE BIBLE] is our infallible guide.

The bible is THE word that tells us about God's plan of salvation for the Human race, how He guided history to bring His Son, The Ultimate Word Became Flesh - our Saviour. It tells of what will be one day the ultimate goal & ending of human history. It tells us how to guard and organize our lives towards that day.
        Never may we contradict it.

However - the Bible doesn't tell us to take this job or that. It doesn't tell us who to marry, or if we should go to see someone for a special visit, or if there is danger lurking around the next corner.
        For that we have two things.
        One is what Presbyterian author Catherine Marshall calls "sanctified common sense." We have been given responsibility to exercise, choices to make. And we must.

        But is that ALL we can expect?
When Proverbs 3.6 says "In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your paths" is that ALL it means? When Jesus said "My sheep hear my voice" in John 10 did He only intend that to be the general voice of scripture? When Ps23 says "He leads me beside quiet waters" does that never include specifics?

        Quite simply, brothers and sisters, nowhere in the scriptures do we ever get a statement that God will at some point cease to speak directly to His Church in the way that He spoke and guided, for example, in the book of Acts. Ever!
        Never are we told that the great Comforter, the Holy Spirit, the guide of the Church, will never give direct guidance; that the link between Heaven & earth will be a tenuous one.

        In fact, as you look down through the history of the Church there have always been times when people have experienced direct and intervening guidance from the Lord - that directed them in their immediate activities, that called them to repentance and back to Jesus, that warned them of danger, and called them to certain actions.

        Most famous is the example of St.Augustine, who while walking in his garden heard a child's voice call "take up and read." He thought it was part of a game till he realized that no game included such a phrase. He went to a bible and read the first part his eyes fell on. Romans 13.13-14: "Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in sexual immorality and debauchery..." He was so moved that he immediately converted to Christianity.

        Martin Luther wrestled for many years with scripture, seeking an answer to the doubts & uncertainties that plagued him. One day the words of Hab 2.4 burned in his mind in a way he couldn't erase, "The just shall live by his faith...." And so began the Reformation.

        It continues all through history. Hannnah Whitehall Smith, a no nonsense New Englander records many examples of divine intervention in peoples' lives in the 1800's. Catherine Marshall in her books tells of many examples of how God planted thoughts and words within her and her acquaintances in definitive ways.

        We acknowledge that, at least implicitly. Else we would not seek a new pastor by way of a "call." We would scoff when he says he will pray and seek God's guidance in the matter. We wouldn't believe it when he says "I believe God wants me here." Yet that's what we say. That's what we accept.

        I've seen such immediate, divine guidance given to people who struggled with career choices; to a church community when they were wondering where to purchase property for a new building. I've experienced it personally in subtle ways, when a certain phrase came to mind that I felt compelled to tell another person, or to use in prayer with someone; only to have them tell me afterwards that it confirmed what someone else had said, or was precisely what they needed at the moment.

Bottom line -- as God has spoken all through salvation history via His Spirit, as He spoke to Samuel and Annanias, so today, with His Spirit poured out on all believers, does He continue to speak.
        - by visions and dreams
        - by compelling & driving our conscience with a burning sense and conviction
        - by inner direction or compulsion we simply can't shake
        - through a deep, unmoveable sense of rightness or wrongness about something
        - by the working together of circumstances
        - by a mental or even audible voice.
In these ways, and others, our Heavenly Father guides His children.

Let us, however, understand a few things very, very clearly about such words and guidance from the Lord, lest we go off in sinful directions with it all.

        First, we always need to remember 1 Cor 13.8-10 which speaks about prophecy, one form of word from God, as being partial, imperfect. Only when Jesus comes back and makes all things new and complete, living among us bodily once more -
        -- banquet time!! --
only then will we be able to hear him perfectly without any hint of error. We live in a world of wheat and tares (Mt 13.30).

And so, if we believe we have been given a word or direction from the Lord we would do well to use phrases like:
        - "I believe God may be saying..."
        - "I offer this thought which might be of God..."
        - "Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I can't help but think that God may be nudging me to ask...."

Secondly, we need to examine carefully what such a supposed word from the Lord says. We need not be afraid to test it, in the spirit of 1 thesalonians 5.21: "Test everything. Hold on to the good", sniffing out Satan's deceptions and when we find them declaring "Get behind me, Satan!" (Mt 16.23).
        Beginning with the scriptures - God's authoritative Word. Anything that doesn't square fully with them is not from above. It is from the Father of Lies, the devil or just a conjuring of our own imagination.

        Another way to do that is by checking with mature christians we know, and with the Church. That’s what Samuel did.
        The Bible gives another example of that in the case of Peter.
        In Acts 10 he is given immediate direction to preach to the Gentiles. In Acts 11 he is asked to account for his actions. And in Acts 15 he must give a further accounting to the Church.
        So if he, one of the apostles, submitted to the authority of others, how much more so us today!

        A third thing we can do is to weigh it against circumstances. Does it seem to fit with other ways in which God is guiding His people?

        That said, we can and I believe we should desire to hear our Heavenly Father speak to us; learning to recognize His voice.
        For that is what we need to do in our sin-clouded humanity -
                - learn to hear Him.
Samuel needed to. So do we. Following the call of Jesus: "Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find'; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened." (Mt 7.7)
        Luke’s account of these words tells us that this most particularly applies to the inner working of the Holy Spirit. That's what our Catechism teaches as well in Q/A116. This applies to that part of God's grace gift, that part of the inner working of the Spirit which is His overt guidance and direction of His children in immediate ways.

        So let us ask. And let us learn.

        And then, as we seek His answers, let's remember that it may be, in fact often is, different for different people. God has created us with beautiful diversity, and speaks to us in that diversity, as well. The Spirit works in us God's good pleasure in unique and diverse ways.

        It will also be the case that some will hear more directly and clearly and often from the Lord than others. God distributes gifts through the Church in His sovereign good will. Romans 12.6 calls us to use those gifts in proportion to our faith; implying that even people with the same gift may have varying degrees of that gift.

        Paul tells Timothy in 2Tim 1.6 to "fan into flame" the gift given to him. That implies he needed to learn how to use it and develop it.
        So it is with learning to hear God.
        It begins in simple ways:
        - trying to be sensitive to guidance, inner words, urgings
        - trying to make time during devotional moments and paying attention to guiding thoughts that come during prayerful focus on the Lord.
        - for some people dreams are instructive, or pictures that come to mind during the day or night
        - sometimes particular scripture passages leap out with such force that they almost clobber you over the head. Pay particular attention!!
        - sometimes circumstances will move in ways that seem particularly providentially guided and instructive.

        There are a few good books that are instructive in learning to hear God, one of the best being "Hearing God" by Peter Lord. Another is Don Postema's Space For God from CRC Publications. Or Jack Deere’s "Surprised By The Voice Of God". Or James Ryle, "Hippo In The Garden".

So learn. Listen.

Then pay attention to such things. Follow them in careful, discerning, but humble obedience: just like the children of Israel followed the cloud in the desert -- not always sure where it was going, but sure of who was leading it, and so following.
        For one thing is sure.
        When we ask for guidance we must also be willing to act on it, to respond to it. Else we cannot expect that the Lord will continue to guide beyond the pages of scripture.
        Let us pray for His Word.
        Let us learn to recognize His voice.
        And then let us respond to what He says.