by Kevin Kim
Before I begin… I’d just like to set the stage with the inspiration behind this blog post.
Lil Wayne was being interviewed by ESPN’s Josina Anderson when they got on the topic of some of the dark times he’s gone through during his music career.
While describing one moment, he said, “Nothing brings reality to you like a conversation with your mother. Because you are no longer what you are to the world, you are no longer what you are to your friends, you are no longer what you are to yourself. You are who you are and what you are to your mother when your mother is speaking to you, and you are her son…”
Mic drop.
(If you got what I got through that quote, I feel like you don’t have to read any further… If you have any reservations at all, please continue on.)
Hearing God’s voice is vital to strengthening yourself in the Lord. I think the quote above captures what hearing His voice can do near perfectly… Let me explain.
He’s not talking about God, but if you replace the parts he’s talking about his mother, with God, it’ll all make sense. Nothing brings reality to you like a conversation with God. In this life, what reality is can get pretty confusing. Lil Wayne is arguably one of the most talented artists of our time, and whether you like him or not, you can’t deny that at one point in the 2000s, it seemed like he was literally featured in every song on the radio. I’m not condoning or agreeing with the message of his songs, but just google “Lil’ Wayne accolades” and see how many nominations and awards he’s received throughout his career so far. This is all to further explain how much weight that quote has… When he had that conversation with his mother he was no longer an artist with multiple Grammy awards that has a net worth of $120 million, but he was just a son. He was no longer Lil’ Wayne but just Dwayne Michael Carter Jr., son to Jacida Carter. He had nothing to prove to anyone in that moment, but just had to have an honest conversation as a son. That was the truest reality to him, and in the same way, when we have conversations with God our Father, we are no longer identified by anything else but a son/daughter to Him. Our reality is not dependent on what the world says, what other people say, or even what we say to ourselves, but only what God says about us.
There was a time in college when I was at one of the lowest points of my life. To be honest, I have dealt with really negative self-talk for most of my life and during this season, I could not get myself out of this funk. While battling these thoughts I knew I had to worship because of something I remembered Bill Johnson saying; in the midst of hardship you can give a sacrifice of worship that has a fragrance that will never be there again when you get to Heaven. In Heaven there will no longer be any suffering, so while we are going through suffering here on earth, we have the opportunity to give God this fragrant worship that we will never get a chance to give on the other side of eternity. I started telling Him how beautiful, marvelous, awesome He was when I heard a gentle whisper from Him in my heart saying that’s how He saw me. Immediately I broke down because honestly I really did not have a good view of myself during that time… but through listening to His voice I was reminded of many truths that I had forgotten! That I was created in His image! That when He sees us, He sees Jesus! That NOTHING could separate us from the love of God, not even ourselves! His thoughts about me outnumber the grains of sand! I could have gone through that season looking inward and hating myself, but hearing God’s voice brought me back to my right identity in who I am because of Jesus!
I want to highlight a part of the Parable of the Prodigal Son to bring this home. There’s only one sentence I’m really going to talk about but it doesn’t do it justice without reading through the whole story again… so here it is in the Message version:
11-12 Then he said, “There was once a man who had two sons. The younger said to his father, ‘Father, I want right now what’s coming to me.’ 12-16 “So the father divided the property between them. It wasn’t long before the younger son packed his bags and left for a distant country. There, undisciplined and dissipated, he wasted everything he had. After he had gone through all his money, there was a bad famine all through that country and he began to hurt. He signed on with a citizen there who assigned him to his fields to slop the pigs. He was so hungry he would have eaten the corncobs in the pig slop, but no one would give him any. 17-20 “That brought him to his senses. He said, ‘All those farmhands working for my father sit down to three meals a day, and here I am starving to death. I’m going back to my father. I’ll say to him, Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son. Take me on as a hired hand.’ He got right up and went home to his father. 20-21 “When he was still a long way off, his father saw him. His heart pounding, he ran out, embraced him, and kissed him. The son started his speech: ‘Father, I’ve sinned against God, I’ve sinned before you; I don’t deserve to be called your son ever again.’ 22-24 “But the father wasn’t listening. He was calling to the servants, ‘Quick. Bring a clean set of clothes and dress him. Put the family ring on his finger and sandals on his feet. Then get a grain-fed heifer and roast it. We’re going to feast! We’re going to have a wonderful time! My son is here—given up for dead and now alive! Given up for lost and now found!’ And they began to have a wonderful time. 25-27 “All this time his older son was out in the field. When the day’s work was done he came in. As he approached the house, he heard the music and dancing. Calling over one of the houseboys, he asked what was going on. He told him, ‘Your brother came home. Your father has ordered a feast—barbecued beef!—because he has him home safe and sound.’ 28-30 “The older brother stalked off in an angry sulk and refused to join in. His father came out and tried to talk to him, but he wouldn’t listen. The son said, ‘Look how many years I’ve stayed here serving you, never giving you one moment of grief, but have you ever thrown a party for me and my friends? Then this son of yours who has thrown away your money on whores shows up and you go all out with a feast!’ 31-32 “His father said, ‘Son, you don’t understand. You’re with me all the time, and everything that is mine is yours—but this is a wonderful time, and we had to celebrate. This brother of yours was dead, and he’s alive! He was lost, and he’s found!’”
“But he wouldn’t listen…” Imagine how many parties the older brother missed out on just because he didn’t listen… How joyful he could have been when his brother returned… How close his relationship with his father could have been… And the list goes on. I know the parable was written this way to prove the bigger point of the younger son returning, but I feel like it shows the importance of hearing God’s voice through it as well. I wonder how many of us are living just like the older son because we aren’t listening to our Father’s voice.
God may not speak in the means that we expect in our natural way of hearing, but He is most definitely speaking. He’ll speak loudly enough for us to hear, but we’ll need to do our part and listen. For those of you wondering if you can even hear God’s voice, I want to encourage you with this: Bill Johnson, the pastor of Bethel Church, has a son who is partially deaf. While raising Eric, his son, Bill never blamed Eric for not being able to hear his voice. He felt that it was his own responsibility as a father to make sure that his son could hear him. If an earthly father can do that for his son, I am sure our heavenly Father can do that infinitely better!