Does God ever speak in an audible voice?
I love reading Dick Eastman’s books. Eastman inspires you with his stories of a powerful God. If you’ve ever wondered if God speaks audibly, read this story from The Jericho Hour. It is long, but worth the read.
John Aycock, a gifted trial attorney in Tennessee, was a coordinator of our ministry’s Change the World School of Prayer, a multi-hour prayer training course.One of John’s first assignments, he was to coordinate the seminar at a respected Southern Baptist church in a modest Arkansas community.
John was excited when he met the young pastor who explained that nearly their entire adult congregation had registered for the seminar and paid the tuition. Now, instead of the expected seventy-five people attending, hundreds would attend. To the pastor it was a miracle. But to John it was potential catastrophe.
He had actually come early that morning to prepare all the manuals, workbooks and other materials. Now his heart was filled with considerable anxiety.
His feeling of panic was triggered by the many hours of training he had experienced in order to serve as a coordinator. With a severe shortage of manuals for that night’s seminar the entire event seemed doomed to failure.
John shared his concern with the pastor, explaining that it was impossible to present the school of prayer effectively without the materials.
“Why don’t you call your office and have the materials flown in?” the pastor asked.
John told him that even if the materials were put on a plane immediately, they wouldn’t arrive until the following day.
“Well, Brother John,” the pastor asked, “if you can’t get the materials here on time, what are you going to do?”
John’s confident reply came without hesitation; “I’m going to ask God for a miracle!” Moments later John was on his face in the darkened sanctuary of the Baptist church. “How can I present a school of prayer that teaches people You answer prayer if this prayer goes unanswered?” He pleaded with God. “And You’ve got to answer quickly, God, because You have only until 7:00 P.M. tonight.”
John suddenly leaped to his feet. He didn’t understand why he felt such an urgency to end his prayer. He glanced at his watch. It was exactly 12:00 noon.
He got into his car and, as if directed by an invisible force, headed across town. Driving down the town’s main street, which ran just adjacent to the interstate freeway, he was overwhelmed with the simple recognition that God had His perfect solution for this very specific problem. He didn’t know how, but he knew God would respond. Almost instinctively, he cried out, “God, whatever shall I do?”
To his amazement God not only answered him, but He chose to do so in an audible voice. Interestingly, John came from a spiritual background where hearing God speak was considered highly suspect. Only deranged people heard “voices.” He couldn’t remember a single Christian friend who ever spoke of hearing God’s voice audibly. Some might accept His speaking to the hearts of His children in quiet whispers, but speaking audibly was reserved for an earlier generation.
Later, John shared his experience with me.
“He spoke just three words, Brother Dick – only three words.”
“What did He tell you, John?” I asked.
Hesitating a moment, he continued, “It’s just so hard to believe.” After considerable prodding, he finally said, “Well, Brother Dick, God said simply, “Turn into McDonald’s.'”
“Was there a McDonald’s?” I asked. After all, the town wasn’t that large, and perhaps it was one of the few places in America where the restaurant chain had yet to make its mark. Of course, if there was no McDonald’s, surely God hadn’t spoken.
John laughed and said yes, adding that McDonald’s was one of the few distinctive landmarks along the main street.
“What did you do?”
“I drove into McDonald’s as fast as I could and practically ran into the restaurant,” John added.
“What happened next?”
“I ordered fries and a coffee.”
“Did God say anything else?”
“No, not another word!”
“You mean that’s the end of the whole story?” I asked
“Oh, no. That’s when I heard another voice!”
“I thought God didn’t say anything else.”
“Oh, it wasn’t God’s voice I heard next,” John said, “but it was just as shocking!”
He certainly had my undivided attention.
“It came from directly behind me, and I recognized it immediately.”
“What did this voice say?” I asked almost cynically.
“The voice said, ‘Daddy, Daddy, Daddy!'” Standing behind him were his nineteen-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, and her college classmate, Mary Lee Ferguson, hundreds of miles from both the college they were attending and home. For a moment John felt as if he were dreaming.
“What on earth are you doing here?” He asked his daughter. She responded with her own question: “What are you doing here?”
“I asked you first,” John said, and they both started to laugh.
“Daddy, don’t you remember this is our week of spring break? We finished our exams earlier than expected, and Mary Lee wanted to get home early to see her fiancee and plan for her wedding.”
Before John could catch his breath, his daughter asked a question that in retrospect appeared clearly to be prompted by the Holy Spirit: “Well, Daddy, how’s everything going?”
Until that moment John had actually forgotten his difficult dilemma. He had even forgotten how he had ended up at the counter of that specific McDonald’s restaurant. His face now showed concern as he responded, “Not very well, honey.” Not very well at all.”
“Daddy, what’s wrong?” Elizabeth asked.
John explained how he was in that community to direct a Change the World School of Prayer for a local Baptist church and how almost the entire congregation had registered to attend. He then explained how he had just learned that without a miracle most of the participants would not have manuals for the evening because not enough had arrived.
“Honey, I just don’t know what I’m going to do,” he said.
Instantly, Elizabeth began to laugh – hardly the response he had anticipated. “Daddy, this may be just an amazing coincidence, but I think Mar Lee’s trunk is full of everything you need.”
John didn’t understand. How could she possibly have what he needed? Before he could ask, Elizabeth continued. “Daddy, what you probably don’t know is that several weeks ago my pastor asked me if I would help coordinate a Change the World School of Prayer in the Tulsa area, and I agreed. But somehow they ordered far more manuals than needed – hundreds, in fact.”
Elizabeth was excited as she gave the details of how the manuals ended up in Mary Lee’s trunk. “When the school of prayer instructor, Ray Beeson, learned that I was your daughter, he suggested that I take the manuals home to you, and perhaps you could store them in your garage. Ray felt this would save shipping costs for the ministry in the long run.
“Daddy,” she concluded, “Mary Lee agreed to let me fill he trunk with those manuals. We didn’t even bring home any suitcases. I think the trunk is filled with all the materials you need for tonight’s seminar.”
John couldn’t believe what he was hearing as the three of them rushed to the parking lot. He stood almost breathless as the trunk was opened. Counting the items confirmed the significance of the miracle. There were just enough manuals and workbooks for those who had registered for the seminar.
Tears were impossible to contain as John told his daughter, “Honey, this is one of the greatest miracles I have ever seen in my life.” He then explained how he had cried out to God only a short distance up the street and how God had spoken just three words audibly” “Turn into McDonald’s.”
“How amazing,” he said, “that you drove by at that same exact second.”
“It’s more amazing than you think, Daddy,” Elizabeth said. “You see, last night I had loaned all my cash to a friend who needed help to go home for spring break. I had fully intended to go to the bank early this morning and cash a check to help Mary Lee with gas money. But then I overslept terribly this morning – by three hours, in fact. Mary Lee was furious. She was in a hurry to get home to her fiancee, so I decided to forget about the bank.
“It wasn’t until we were well underway and very hungry that we realized all we had were a couple of dollars in change, no credit card and no cash. We both started to cry and pray at the same time. We knew we couldn’t go another ten or fifteen miles. And that’s when we saw a sign – ‘McDonald’s, 8 miles ahead.’ We decided that at least we had enough coins to buy some french fries.” Elizabeth concluded with excitement, “Daddy, if I hadn’t overslept, and if we hadn’t been so hungry and nearly out of gas, and if it hadn’t been for that sign, we couldn’t possibly have shown up here at this moment.”
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Does God ever speak in an audible voice? YES Next time you see me, ask me how I can be so certain and I’ll tell you about the time I heard His voice.
YES YES YES Seth. Thanks a million for this posting. It is very timely. I will give you details when I get to speak with you.
I answered in the affirmative that God still speaks audibly because I have personally experienced this severally. As i read this blog, I have tear stained face because of the remembrance of this unique experience I’m about sharing. My husband, Uche can testify to this.
It was December 31st,1994 and Uche’s birthday. Still a student in the higher Institution, a friend of mine and I prayed on some Gospel tracts asking the Lord to make it a point of contact for the salvation of the souls of all that will read them. Then we went into all the 480 rooms in the female hostel slipping the tracts underneath the doors into their rooms. Students were already on holidays and we believe their first contacts as they open the doors to their rooms on resumption will be those tracts. We were exhausted climbing the three Storey buildings of the Four (4) Blocks comprising the female hostel but excited we did something for the Lord.
The first miracle was provision of free ride to go see Uche and drop his birthday card and gift at a distance of about 75 km. Alas, he was in and never had my knocks on his door for about thirty minutes. So I left the card at his door and went for an end of the year Christian Tent meeting.
Second Miracle was another free ride to the Tent meeting, about 50 kms from Uche’s house.
On getting to the tent meeting, I had audibly the voice direct me to sit at a particular place in the 30,000 Seater auditorium. I obeyed.
The outstanding miracle was that the Lord led Uche audibly too, to locate me in that Auditorium that night. I will allow him to share his experiences.
The final Miracle on the 1st of January, 2005 was that the Lord connected me to the family that provided for my upkeep in School throughout 2005 right there at that Tent meeting. Uche and I sat on the Man’s car having stood for a long time catching up on the events of the previous day not knowing the Man was asleep in his Car. He gave us a free ride back to town and I discovered my Cousin had sheltered and fed him in his undergraduate days in the University when he was thrown out of his Muslim home for accepting Jesus Christ as his Lord and saviour. He was overjoyed connecting with me and sponsoring my academics in school that year, was just a token to say thank you. For me, it was answered prayers because my Parents couldn’t afford my schooling anymore at that time. I was almost dropping out of school because of finance.
God still speaks audibly. It is so TRUE.
Sola.
I love God. He is so tender and creative and clever and funny and awesome and a good teacher and specific. I bet you her dad brought them some more lunch , got them gas, gave em some cash. The miracle was a threefer. Gift for him, gift for the girls and a gift for the students. I need to read me some mr. Eastman abt my amazing dad!
Awesome. This gets me pumped up. Such a cool Dad we have.
Hi Seth…In my experience God is often a prankster. And that is OK. Because He is God and we are not. 🙂
Is this God endorsing McDonalds? 😉
Great story Seth & Sola! Love hearing God stories…
Glenn
Amen! Yes, Praise be to God as He still speaks in an audible voice according to His Will and Purpose as explained in my following testimony which has been posted on other discussion forums:
As a youngster, I had always believed in God, as my family had a Christian upbringing. (My father was a minister in an Assemblies of God Church).
When I was eight years old, my dad died as a result of leukemia. I remember as I cried in the hospital room that a comforting thought came to me with an assurance that although my dad had just died, “God would be my Father.” As I grew older, I still believed in God, yet I did not know Jesus. In fact, I thought that Jesus was just “second in command” and whenever I wanted to pray to God I didn’t need to involve Jesus. It was my belief at that time that I could bypass Jesus and just go straight to the “main man” (God).
Yes, I thought that just because I believed in God it made me a “Christian.” Yet, with a belief that God existed, I was still miserable and had a sense of emptiness within. What’s worse, there was a raging anger that would flare up at the slightest provocation. When I married, in 1973, the anger would be directed toward my wife and for the first three years our marriage was a living hell and I was the cause of it. I blamed my wife for the problems and it was evident that our marriage was falling apart.
As I came under conviction by the Holy Spirit, I realized that I needed God in my life and I would ask my wife to attend church so that we could learn more about God. My wife was an atheist but, on the other hand – in my claim to be a Christian, I can really see now that I was a very poor testimony to her. Finally, in my desperation and hopeless feeling, I prayed to God admitting that I needed to get close to Him and that I wanted to straighten out my life. I told God that my wife did not believe in Him but that I did and if it were necessary I would divorce my wife in order to get my life straightened out with Him.
During this search for God, I was listening to a Christian radio program and sent for a book offer entitled, “How do we know there is a God?,” by John Warwick Montgomery. Upon receiving the book, I became excited because it had answers to many questions that I had always wondered about. My excitement became overwhelming with each page of scriptural answers and I hastily went to a room where my wife was and began telling her about the book and asked if she would read it with me. I kept going on and on about what this book had to say about God up to the point that it annoyed my wife and she turned and yelled, “Quit harping at me!” I then turned and walked out of the room and said, “Well, God, I guess that’s your answer, I will divorce my wife.” I actually had made up my mind right then and it was settled in my heart that this was God’s answer. As I set the book down, I suddenly felt as if I was in a vacuum and there was a feeling of stillness and silence surrounding me. I then heard the most crystal clear voice speak these words, “Ask Diane if she believes Jesus was The Son of God.” Without hesitation, I returned to the room where my wife was and said, “Diane, do you believe Jesus was The Son of God?” She suddenly turned to me with a startled look on her face, raised her hand, and said to wait, that we could talk about it later.
As she recounted the incident, Diane told me that when she heard the words spoken to her, she suddenly realized that she had been denying God all along and she became aware that this was a point that she had to make a decision. She relates that it also seemed like a veil had been lifted from in front of her eyes and had the awareness that if she said, Yes, then everything would be alright; but if she said, No, then she would not have another chance to decide and God would not approach her again. Later that evening, Diane said she believed Jesus was The Son of God. We both received Jesus as Lord and Saviour as a result of God’s Divine Intervention during a time of crisis in our marriage. Without a doubt, I attest to the truth that one cannot bypass Jesus. It is clear in scripture where Jesus proclaims, “I Am The Way, The Truth and The Life. No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me.” (John 14:6)
May God, our Creator, receive the glory for His mercy in our lives through Jesus Christ of Nazareth, and thank you for reading this testimony.
Mike Ramirez
San Antonio, TX
Starman3000M@netscape.net
There’s no questioning if God speaks in an audible voice. I’ve come to know that whenever this unique event occurs, He makes sure that the hearer(s) never mistake His voice and words for something or someone else.
Sola’s testimony above was one that still shocks me till today. There’s no way I could have made that trip to go find her at that tent meeting if God didn’t tell me the way He did. If someone else was there and heard me say, “I’m going to get Sola at the camp”; they’d discourage me. It seemed a foolish thing to attempt, as there were no cellphones in those days. There’s no way to locate her among the thousands of people there.
But as soon as I saw her note at my door that evening, two things happened immediately. As screamed with pain and sorrow, for missing her and then I heard a voice right behind me say, “Go to the camp, you’ll see her.” I knew it was God because I was alone at home.
Long story short- Abba took me right to here this girl was seated as if I knew her location before then. It was a most amazing birthday gift. Try and imagine our joy that night.
This is my story.
First memory of anything to do with Church or Sunday school was counting how many children were attending Sunday school (many years ago) by touching each child’s head with a poppy. I felt very important being allocated this special task It took great concentration at 6 years old, I remember counting 15 children. But I have no conscious memory of any lessons.
I also remember years later, sitting in church with mum and dad and having to be very quiet, in fear of dad’s volatile temper, we usually were 🙂
Then there was communion. I obediently attended the lessons, memorizing parrot fashion all that was required, and getting through the course at 12 years old and the nerve racking ceremony. But I was confirmed and could take communion which I thought was pretty good. But once again, I still had not taken on much of what I was taught.
But even though Church in itself was pretty boring there was something untangeable there.
One morning when I was 14 years old I woke on a Sunday and I actually wanted to go to Church. A little magnet inside me was beckoning me to go.
it was cold and wet, it had been raining all night. I went in to see if mum and dad intended going to church, they said no, the weather was too miserable. In that moment I decided I would go anyway, I got ready and set out across the large grass oval towards church about 2 ks away. I remember my shoes and socks getting soaking wet right through to my my feet from the water soaked grass. As I came to end of the oval I heard a voice it was a deep voice -the voice said I am pleased with you. I remember thinking wow, God just spoke to me.
The years that followed were not easy, and in my late teens and early twenties I developed anorexia followed by severe anxiety and lack of confidence.
(effect of childhood beatings, severe discipline carried out in anger )
My God experience had been forgotten and after going through a very traumatic experience in my early twenties I questioned the existence of God. I had continued to attend church and lead a life of a Christian, but now I doubted.
I had a successful ballet school which I really enjoyed , but at 23 I was wondering how a God of love could allow a child to be beaten and then go on to endure more trauma. I struggled with this and one day when I was in front of a class of older ballet students I just called out to God from deep within my heart.
I remember this experience so clearly. I had been working for 4 hours, it was a very hot night, I had been drinking TAB and water. I was demonstrating the cha cha as part of a routine. My students were following me. That was the moment I said to God If you are there show me now, or I or I just cannot believe you are real, I will give up church and go my own way I was calling from deep within my heart.
in the next moments (have no recollection of time) an invisible presence – like a cloud of absolute LOVE CAME OVER ME, IN THAT LOVE ALL FEAR, ANXIETY AND DOUBT MELTED
It was like a huge magnet, I wanted this feeling forever. It was PURE LOVE WAY BEYOND OUR COMPREHENSION. Then a deep masculine AUDIBLE VOICE said I am God, and I am there I called from my heart PLEASE TAKE ME WITH YOU. I just wanted to be with God now and forever. The AUDIBLE VOICE replied It is not your time yet. no, no, I thought, I want to go, I do not want to stay here. At that point the PROFOUND PRESENCE OF LOVE started to lift very gently away in an upwards and away from me direction. As it went I realized I was standing there in AWE and ABSOLUTE PEACE. God had removed the anxiety, it was gone.
I turned around to my class of students, I must have looked ecstatic. they were waiting for me to continue, I do not know how long I stopped for, none of my students said anything to me and I did not say anything to them. There was no recollection of time.
I just knew I HAD HAD THE PRESENCE OF GOD, HE HAD ASSURED ME HE WAS THERE, HIS LOVE WAS REAL, HE WAS REAL.
How can I ever express to anyone how a profound experience like this impacts you.
I knew after that that whatever I faced GOD WAS REAL.
I still bungled my way along making wrong decisions, too often letting my human nature lead the way. But my faith was now strong, and I always came back REPENTANT AND FORGIVEN.
Just KNOW that God is real, and now I can tell you also that JESUS IS FOR REAL.
one night I was sitting by the fire, we had been given the duty of praying for overseas missions. We were given a list of about 20 countries to pray for. In my minds eye I did not know these people and really did not have much interest in overseas missions but thought I should give it a bit of effort so started praying for the allocated country for that day
Suddenly I started crying uncontrollably, the tears came from my heart, my heart was breaking all of a sudden. Then I had a sense of a Presence and it was Jesus. He said i am letting you feel my heart for my lost people, please pray from your heart for them. My tears are for the lost, my heart breaks for them. I continued to sob Jesus tears until I promised him I would pray from the heart from now on.
Thanks for this story, Joanne. It is beautiful to hear how God has shown you his deep love for you. May you impart that love to many.
As of last night when my pastor told me her story, I have now know of three people that have heard almost exactly the same thing and all three instances involved music playing, then stopping, and then miraculously starting again. God said “you are one of my chosen” to two of us and “you are one of my chosen, I give you new life” to the other. God truly is amazing!
I believe God communicate in various ways to people for example through the Bible or through a preacher or by remembering internal messages/thoughts from the Bible; but also audibly.
Yes, I have heard the voice of God. Internal, but audible, the Voice was not from myself or my own thought. You cannot mistake His voice, He is God.
I was screaming inside myself for help, I was in agonizing pain. Screaming: WHERE ARE YOU? WHERE ARE YOU? Then he called me on my name, in my own language: “ELIZNA, HERE I AM!” My first thought was that this is a Voice that everyone has to listen to. I thought I have never heard such authority in my life and it doesn’t exist on earth. AUTHORITY AUTHORITY AUTHORITY. A year later after the insistent in 2012 I had read in Isaiah 58:9: “Then shalt thou call, and the Lord shall answer: thou shalt cry, and he shall say, Here I am.”
Pardon the long story, but it goes like this –
On 18th April 2011 I was waiting to see someone for an appointment. I am a person who has mild epilepsy.
I heard a voice say “Don’t look now someone’s having a fit”
A few moments later, when driving home, my wife said the same thing just before she got out of the car to assist as a first aider.
I am ‘new’ to Christianity but have always had a firm belief. This has only happened once.