Hearing God’s Voice and Understanding His Timing

by David Joel Hamilton

We seek to be leaders who follow Jesus, hear his voice and do his will. Knowing and obeying God’s guidance is essential if we are going to be God’s kind of leaders. As we seek to understand His will, we know that he is a constant, faithful, steadfast God who does not lead us one way at one moment and then another way at another moment. We also understand that our God is engaged with us in the real space and time. In a world of changing circumstances he leads us in a way that is uniquely appropriate for every season.

How do we as leaders adjust to changing circumstances and discern the timing of when and how we implement the word of the Lord? How do we model this in our lives? This requires that we develop a lifestyle in which we listen daily to the Lord’s leading. We don’t go to him to get a calendar blueprint and then wave goodbye to him for the next three months while we implement our marching orders. Listening to God for guidance is not only about getting directions, its about growing in daily intimacy with God. The relationship with God is the top priority; having clear direction for our life is a wonderful by-product of our relationship with God.

In the process of dialoguing with God, we have several questions we regularly ask of him. We ask, “What do you want us to do?” and “Where do you want us to go?” with frequency. We should press in with other detailed questions, such as “With whom?” or “What is your expectation?” But perhaps one of the most key questions is “When?” or “In what sequence?” This issue of timing is one of the most important – and one of the most difficult – issues in the process of hearing from God.

Peter was aware of this. When reflecting on the role of the prophets throughout history, he noted that they readily got the “what” of God (predicting Christ’s suffering and glory), but struggled to get the “when”of God. For this reason they “searched intently and with the greatest care, trying to find out the time and circumstances to which the Spirit of Christ in them was pointing” (1Pe 1:10-11). If they found this challenging, we will probably find it challenging too.

Challenging, but not impossible. We are encouraged in the Scriptures that there existed “men of Issachar, who understood the times and knew what Israel should do” (1Ch 12:32). This confirms to us that it is achievable to understand God’s timing. Also, we read of “the wise men who understood the times” (Est 1:13) in Esther’s day. Getting the timing right in the area of guidance is an important element of wisdom. God, who does all things wisely, sent Jesus “when the time had fully come” (Gal 4:4). Jesus did not come early or late, but at just the right time. This is the model we should seek to follow.

Now, we should not let fear of error in the timing paralyze us and lead us to inaction. Sometimes even when we are off on the timing, God in his graciousness works on our behalf in amazing ways. We see this when Mary brought to Jesus the dilemma of the shortage of wine at the wedding of Canaan. “Dear woman, why do you involve me?” Jesus replied. “My time has not yet come.” (Joh 2:4). Though her timing was off, Jesus still performed a wonderful miracle because her heart was in the right place.

Sometimes changing circumstances impact the timing of God’s purposes on earth. Oftentimes circumstances change because of choices made by human beings. We see this played out in the story of Moses’ life.

God had prophesied to Abraham years earlier that his descendants would “be enslaved and mistreated four hundred years” (Gen 15:13). In the 390th year after this prophesy was given, when “Moses was forty years old, he decided to visit his fellow Israelites. He saw one of them being mistreated by an Egyptian, so he went to his defense and avenged him by killing the Egyptian. Moses thought that his own people would realize that God was using him to rescue them, but they did not” (Act 7:23-25). So, at this point in his life Moses had already come to understand what God had called him to do. But it is clear that he misunderstood when and how God wanted him to do it. With the advantage of hindsight we can see that he needed perhaps another decade of discipleship, learning the ways of God, but in his impatience he tried to do God’s will man’s way. His hastiness hindered the fulfillment of God’s will and actually postponed the intended day of God’s redemption of Israel. The Scriptures tell us that due to fear of the consequences of the murder Moses fled to Midian and for forty years lived as a shepherd before encountering God at the burning bush and re-embarking on the will of God to deliver the Israelites from Egypt. Because God had to take Moses through this extended Desert DTS to restore him after his murderous failure, “the length of time the Israelite people lived in Egypt was 430 years” (Exo 12:40) – not 400 years as had been originally projected through the prophetic utterance. God’s unfailing purpose and constant principles stood unchanged, but the timing of God’s redemption was affected by circumstances conditioned by changing human choices.

This specific story illustrates for us the ways of God in discerning the timing of his guidance. Paul preached in Athens, “From one man he made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us” (Act 17:26-27). The principle is clear. Questions regarding timing are purposed to draw us into seeking him. Our need to understand God’s timing leads us to the greatest need of all – our need to better understanding God and his ways so that our intimacy with him may grow. At the end of the day, our quest to understand God’s timing should stimulate the intensity of the higher quest: knowing God himself.

As leaders, may we be drawn to him and grow in our understanding of not only the what of God’s will, but also the when and the how. Let us be quick to seek him, diligently pursuing growth in the ways of God, and thus hasten the establishment of his will on earth and “speed its coming” (2Pe 3:11-12). It is then that we will walk in God’s timing and discover that “he has made everything beautiful in its time” (Ecc 3:11).