“Finding Your Voice-2″
John 1:22
Then they said to him, Who are you, so that we may give an answer to those who sent us? What do you say about yourself?
John 1:23 He said, I am A VOICE OF ONE CRYING IN THE WILDERNESS, MAKE STRAIGHT THE WAY OF THE LORD, as Isaiah the prophet said.
Welcome To The Light-Washed Path,
In all the experiences through which people search for meaning; of all the skills we develop to achieve fulfillment; none will free us from inner frustration, until we find our Voice in God. Your Creator has made you as a living message, and your life should say something. In fact your life is saying something right now.But it may not be speaking the powerful message of redemption. Yet that is the very message the Lord entered the world with which to free us. Lives lived in the affect of His redeeming love speak sweetly and powerfully to the world. You’re to be His oracle, His living epistle.
1 Pet. 4:11 If any man speak, let him speak as the oracles of God
that God in all things may be glorified through Jesus Christ
When people have found their voice they have found more than a message, they have found themselves. In order to have your voice you must have a sense of your own value and a view of purpose. Value and Purpose come together in you to create a spiritual epiphany and focus your voice. In the simplest terms, your voice is what your life is saying to the world when everything within you comes together in a common purpose. Most people never consider that their life should even say anything. It’s nearly impossible to achieve a true state of spiritual wellbeing and contentment by acquiring things, knowledge or experiences.Not until we begin to view the worth of our lives in terms of giving out to the world finding our voice can we start to live in a state of godly comfort. Jesus taught the receiving, gaining, was achieved by giving. In His kingdom the greatest lives are lived by servants. Everything in them points toward a message, and they are ever aware of it. It’s a whole different way of negotiating the terms of their existence.
To find your voice you need 2 things: a Word and Unction. Both of these come from within you but they arent created by you. They’re God inspired and you have to do business with Him to get them.
A Word
What’s YOUR word? God is always forming His Word in us. The Holy Spirit is ever at work, making real to us the Words of Life. Our conformity to His word in us produces a living message. That becomes your say-so the authority of your voice. Jesus had this distinction. Paul had it. Every Christian who has ever gone forth in life with a message in their heart from the Lord has had it. It comes from knowing what Jesus has said.
Heb. 13:5
for He Himself has said, I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,
Heb. 13:6 so that we confidently say, The Lord is my helper, I will not be afraid. What shall man do to me?
His saying becomes the basis for our confident say-so. What the Holy Spirit speaks to you becomes YOUR word.
Paul used the phrase my Gospel in Ro. 2:16 in referring to the Gospel he preached. The fact is that the Holy Spirit had revealed the wondrous insights of the Gospel to Paul so that it became his Word.
An Unction
You need more than a Word; you need the power of utterance the anointing to speak it. Some call it passion but it transcends emotion and springs from the indwelling power of God. Unction isn’t great speaking skills its the presence of Heaven in your words. It can’t be learned; it’s caught, not taught. Paul, with all his expert oratory ability and training prayed for unction:
Eph. 6:19 and pray on my behalf, that utterance may be given to me in the opening of my mouth, to make known with boldness the mystery of the gospel,
Eph. 6:20 for which I am an ambassador in chains; that in proclaiming it I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak.
When Unction has been united with a Word in your life, to produce a message in you, it’s very hard to do anything else but be the Voice.
A young man asked an old preacher how he might know if God really wanted him to preach or not. The old oracle simply answered, If you can do anything else, then do it.
Stay On The Path!
What is meant by the statement that the ‘unction’ part can’t be taught but is caught? Is it caught by personal Bible study, life’s experiences, ??
Helen,
Good question. The “unction” or anointing of the Holy Spirit is that divine prompting to speak, that Paul asked prayer for and Peter (1Pe 4.10-11) exhorted us to possess. While we can learn about what it is through Bible study, the fact is that it is not a learned skill, either by study or experience. It is God (the Holy Spirit) touching us to speak the things that He is inspiring us to say. It is that divine Presence upon our words that causes the hearers to discern that God is speaking through what we are saying.
The Unction to speak God’s Word can range from simple sharing to prophetic proclamation. The thing that makes it “unction” is both what we say and the Presence of God within, leading us as we speak.
Speaking with divine unction doesn’t insure that people will “hear” what we say. People rejected Jesus’ words. But the people who’s heart is open will.