the Voice part 11a

“I didn’t understand a word of what that man was talking about. What was it?”

A tale is told of William Wilberforce, the great parliamentarian who committed himself to abolishing the slave trade. Wilberforce was a passionate disciple of the Lord Jesus and when he heard the Scriptures expounded in a manner that made much of His Saviour, his heart would leap. It was none other than the witness of the Holy Spirit within him glorifying Jesus, his Messiah. He longed for his friends to know Him too.

William Wilberforce was a great friend of William Pitt the Younger – the youngest Prime Minister we ever had and an extremely brilliant man. He was what we might call a “Churchman”. God was important to him, but Pitt was not truly born again and so did not know the Lord for Himself.

Wilberforce longed for his friend to know Christ and to be set on fire with love for Him. He invited Pitt to attend a service at which a noted evangelical preacher was to expound the Scriptures. The preacher’s name was Richard Cecil. The preacher did not disappoint. Wilberforce was transported with delight as he basked in the revelation of his Saviour. Who could not be in raptures as Jesus stepped from the page? Wilberforce could not wait to hear what Pitt had made of it all.

The service finished, and the two friends were stepping out through the Church porch when William Pitt turned to Wilberforce and said in a flat tone, “I didn’t understand a word of what that man was talking about, what was it?”

Here is a clear example of what it means for sheep to hear the Shepherd’s voice calling His name: “Jesus! Jesus! Jesus!” It is in such moments that the Holy Spirit witnesses with our spirit that we are truly the Lord’s own. We sheep hear His voice and we run to Him, lost in wonder, love and praise. Those not His continue munching the grass.

There are these two levels of hearing. One in which we hear words and the other in which we hear the great Heart of God beating behind the words and through the words, conveying love, comfort and encouragement. Oh, how wonderful such moments are! They transport us to heights of fellowship with our Shepherd. They bring us into moments of intimacy with Him that transform us and fan our faith into living flame.

By contrast, the other level of hearing leaves us groping in the darkness and the silence for something that is quite simply beyond us. We have to content ourselves with less: what amounts to knowledge about our Shepherd-Saviour rather than knowledge of Him.

This contrast between those hearing the Shepherd’s voice and those not is drawn by our Lord in Jn 10:3-5 where He says, “… the sheep hear 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 recognise a stranger’s voice.”

And let us remember that the name a shepherd calls is not the sheep’s name but his own name. In the case of a truly devoted disciple it is the Holy Spirit announcing “Hear His voice calling to you: here is Jesus: here is your precious Saviour: don’t you see Him: don’t you hear Him? Here is love vast as the ocean! Come to Him now: He is waiting for you!”

This is an astonishing element in our Christian faith the Bible calls the witness of the Holy Spirit. When we are born of the Spirit, something leaps in our own spirit to respond to revelation of Jesus. We may note it as early as Luke 1:41 when the child in the womb, John the Baptist, leapt in response to Mary’s greeting. Of clearer demonstration is Rom 8:16, where Paul writes in this way: “For you did not receive a spirit of slavery again to fear, but you received the Spirit of sonship. And by Him we cry, ‘Abba, Father’. The Spirit Himself testifies with our spirit that we are God’s children.”

There it is: the witness of the Spirit testifting with our spirits. There is the means of recognition. How do we know the Shepherd’s voice? It is the sovereign work of the Holy Spirit within us. William Wilberforce experienced that and his heart erupted with astonished delight as Jesus stood before him.

“Lord, my gracious Shepherd, grant me the incomparable joy of hearing Your Voice as Your Spirit reveals it to me. I am desperate to hear Your Name calling out to me and calling me to follow: for it is only You who have the words of eternal life. No other voice can satisfy me now: I am past caring about other siren voices that sound so appealing. It is only You, dearest Shepherd: only You.”

Amen.