9 Ways the Bible Gives Us the Sounds of God

1. The sound of faith.

Consequently, faith comes from hearing the message, and the message is heard through the word about Christ. (Romans 10:17 NIV)

Faith reverberated from a mountain in Moriah when Abraham held a knife above his son’s body in obedience to God’s command. An angel stopped the man’s hand, and Isaac was spared. Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6 NIV)

The woman with the issue of blood heard about Jesus, and her faith grew. Daughter, your faith has healed you. Go in peace and be freed from your suffering. (Mark 5:34)

A Roman Centurion asked Jesus to heal his servant and said that Jesus didn’t even need to come to his house, but only speak the word. Jesus told him, “I tell you, I have not found such great faith even in Israel.” (Luke 7:9)

The Syro-Phoenician woman heard the Son of David commend her faith, and her daughter was released from the demons that plagued her (Mark 7:24-30).

Without faith, we can’t please God (Hebrews 11:6). Hearing His Word brings this faith alive.

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2. The sound of worship and fellowship.

Ascribe to the Lord the glory due his name. (1 Chronicles 16:29a)

Adam and Eve heard the Lord God walking in the garden. They enjoyed perfect fellowship with Him until they disobeyed His instructions. Wouldn’t you love to know what they talked about? They didn’t have sickness or pain, irritating people, or financial problems to deal with. They simply enjoyed their Creator, and He enjoyed them. 

This is what God intended for all of us—uninhibited companionship. Now, even after we are born again and have a new inner nature, we still have a mind and emotions to deal with. These can sometimes get in the way of releasing our souls to the Father. 

Worship can be introspective stillness (Psalm 46:10) or an exuberant display of gratitude. The adoration of worship echoes to the Lord when whatever we do glorifies Him (Colossians 3:17).

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3. The sound of truth.

Jesus answered, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. (John 14:6)

Only through knowing the truth can we have a clear understanding of who God is and how to come to Him (John 14:6). 

Truth cries with each drop of a martyr’s blood. Saints have died in the past and continue to die today because they know truth is absolute. Their willingness to perish rather than bow to a lie costs them their earthly lives, but they will receive an eternal reward (Revelation 12:11). 

Misguided people think they can have their own version of the truth. But what comes from a person’s mind is only an opinion. Only God’s word is truth and the standard by which people need to live (John 17:17). Truth has withstood centuries of persecution and will never fail because only the Lord God is unchangeable. Bibles have been banned and burned, but truth continues to be published across the world. 

Only as we renew our minds and abide in Christ can we keep deception out of our emotions and attitudes. We can’t live a victorious life without listening to the trumpet of truth.

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4. The sound of joy.

The Lord your God is with you, the Mighty Warrior who saves. He will take great delight in you; in his love he will no longer rebuke you, but will rejoice over you with singing. (Zephaniah 3:17)

Joy is not merely an emotion but is the fountain of living water that wells up inside us. We can hear joy even when we don’t feel happiness. We hear joy when the Lord’s strength helps us resist temptation, when we feel like giving up, and when we are lonely. His presence fills us with companionship (Psalm 16:11).

Jesus looked past His present circumstances at the cross and looked forward to the joy that was set before Him (Hebrews 12:2). Joy broadcast on resurrection morning. The tomb is empty, death is defeated. We are resurrected from our old dead lives into the living Lord.

The music of joy is unspeakable and full of glory (1 Peter 1:8).

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5. The sound of grace.

For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works, so that no one can boast. (Ephesians 2:8-9)

Grace is a gift we don’t deserve, offered to us because of Christ’s sacrifice. We can’t earn God’s grace by anything we do. 

Grace reached Noah’s ears when he was told to build a boat to save him and his family from destruction. 

Grace rang across Calvary with each strike of the hammer on the iron nails that fastened Jesus to the cross. 

Grace is “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46b). Jesus was forsaken as He bore our sin so that we could be accepted. 

All who stood near the cross heard “It is finished,” not realizing the exclamation of grace just paid their debt (John 19:30). And it also paid for ours.

Grace roars louder than sin. Because where sin abounds, grace abounds more (Romans 5:20). 

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6. The sound of mercy.

Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, because His compassions fail not. (Lamentations 3:22 NKJV)

Mercy shouts when we don’t receive what we deserve because of our sin. 

Mercy was extended to Adam and Eve as God killed an animal in their place.

Mercy marked Cain so no one would kill him (Genesis 4:15).

Mercy told Lot to leave Sodom and Gomorrah before its destruction.

Mercy’s voice filled the ears of those who accused the woman caught in adultery as Jesus proclaimed, “Neither do I condemn you, go and sin no more” (John 8:11). 

That same acceptance is offered to us as well. He doesn’t condemn us for our transgressions; He saves us from them. 

We deserve hell, but Christ stripped Satan of his authority over us. For this power to be effective, we must accept what the Lord did. And having disarmed the powers and authorities, he made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross. (Colossians 2:15 NIV)

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7. The sound of healing.

“I am willing,” he said. “Be clean!” Immediately he was cleansed of his leprosy. (Matthew 8:3)

God’s will about healing is clearly shown through Jesus’s words to the leper. 

Debates abound about whether it is sometimes God’s will to make or keep a person sick to teach them a lesson. Only under the Old Covenant did God sometimes judge a person’s sin with a disease. But that is because Jesus had not instituted the New Covenant that He paid for with his blood and body. 

Jesus never turned anyone away who came to Him for healing. He set a woman free from a condition that kept her bent over for years. His answer to the critics showed them the woman had been bound by Satan and not God (Luke 13:16).

Healing reached out to humanity with every lash of the flagellum that tore into Jesus’s body. By his wounds you have been healed. (1 Peter 2:24b)

If you have faith and do not doubt. (Matthew 21:21a, emphasis mine) We can have faith and still doubt sometimes. This is where renewing our minds comes in (Romans 12:1-2). Our minds must align with the Lord’s words so we can receive His gift. We may not always understand everything about healing, but sickness is not God’s fault.

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8. The sound of love and forgiveness.

But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us. (Romans 5:8)

Love knelt before twelve men after their last celebration of Passover. One would soon deny the Savior, one would betray Him, and all would run away in fear. Water splashed on their feet in an unselfish display of servanthood as He washed their dirty toes.

After Jesus’s resurrection, Peter’s guilt-ridden heart weighed him down as he faced Jesus. He may have bowed his head in shame and couldn’t look the risen Christ in the eye. Peter heard, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these? Feed my lambs.” Jesus’s tender words showed the disciple his denial was forgiven (John 21:15-17).

Whether we have denied Him, betrayed Him, or mocked Him, the utterance of love reaches out to us, too.

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9. The sound of redemption.

And I will put enmity between you and the woman, and between your seed and her Seed; He shall bruise your head, and you shall bruise His heel. (Genesis 3:15)

As far back as the Garden of Eden, God’s plan for redeeming sinful man was proclaimed over the tempter. The Seed of woman would crush the serpent’s head. 

Redemption defeated the idols of Egypt, and a powerful empire fell. Millions of Hebrews left slavery and walked free into the new life God had planned for them. 

Redemption walked between the bloody pieces of animals in the form of a burning oven and a torch to enact a covenant, while the Lord God made Abraham sleep. 

Redemption saved the Jews from annihilation after Esther approached the king and unmasked Haman’s plot.

Redemption entered the earth and was announced with a baby’s cry when Jesus was born. Thirty-three years later, Jesus willingly went to the cross without hesitation to complete the promise issued in the Garden of Eden.

Redemption sings in our souls when we confess with our mouths and make Jesus our Lord (Romans 10:9).

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Is God Ever Silent?

To you, Lord, I call; you are my Rock, do not turn a deaf ear to me. For if you remain silent, I will be like those who go down to the pit. (Psalm 28:1)

At times, we may not see how to apply these concepts from the Bible to our situation. We pray, or even beg, and no answers come. Our emotions may block enlightenment because we are too caught up in our problems. What we perceive as silence could be the Lord waiting for us to settle down and listen. 

Jesus said if we seek, we will find, and if we ask, it will be given to us (Matthew 7:7). 

All these attributes of God’s sounds, and many more that are not listed, are given to us through His Word. We hear Him through revelation from the Holy Spirit. 

Love, joy, mercy, grace, faith, and more are ours when we let the Holy Bible vocalize the presence of God to us.

For the word of God is alive and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joint and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. (Hebrews 4:12)

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