Finding Your Voice
By now, enough time has passed since we turned our tassels that the sweet taste of success and the post-graduation high have diminished.
The honeymoon season is over, and ready-or-not, a new season is in full swing. For some of you, this means another level of education. For others, it’s “Go Time” for launching into ministry. Either way, it means the same for all of us. It’s time to get to W-O-R-K. This dose of reality might be a tough pill to swallow, especially for those of us who have most recently left the safety and comfort of the KCBC nest. Yes, I mean you, my peeps in Class of ‘23. During our time at KCBC, we each discovered purpose, caught a vision for the future, and learned we’ve been marked by God as an available voice to declare His Word to the world. In an environment so saturated with The Word and Faith, it was easy to recognize what that voice sounds like. Now, having left the “bubble,” as Pastor Greg Stephens calls it, we encounter what seems like an endless number of other voices out in the world. With so many of them crowding the airwaves, it can be a battle to stay clearly tuned in to your own God-given voice. But let me encourage you, you are an overcomer! Perhaps, like me, you just need to be reminded of the Truth you already know.
What’s in a voice?
First, let’s establish what a voice is. Webster’s 1828 dictionary defines a voice as “Any sound made by the breath” as well as “language, words, or expression.” Thanks to Pastor Terri, I now know that the answer to every question is always and only, “What does The Word say?” So, let’s go to The Word. We know from Genesis 1:26 that God made us in His likeness and image - identical to Him in form and function. Like God, when we use the power inside us to create sound, and breathe it out through our mouth, we release our voice, transforming internal thought into external expression. We’ve just described voice in the natural context, but this is a spiritual reality as well.
Remember, everything in the natural has its origin in the spirit.
God is creator of all and God is Spirit (see John 4:24 & Hebrews 11:3). We read in Genesis 2:7 that God breathed into man “the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” In the Targum (the Aramaic translation of the Old Testament), the Jewish sages translated “living being” as “speaking spirit,” just like God. This affirms what we read in Chapter 1, Verse 26. But wait, there’s more! In 2nd Timothy 3:16 we’re told “All Scripture is inspired by God,” literally translated “God-breathed.” The root word used here, meaning “to breathe”, is the same root of the Greek word for spirit. Essentially, the word inspired means “in-spirited.” This is why Hebrews 4:12 says, “The Word of God is living and powerful.” Every word in The Bible is filled with His Spirit, His life! Are you getting this? Words are spirit-filled. Voice is how God made everything with His Word in the beginning, and how The Word became flesh and lived as one of us (John 1:1-4 & 14). This is why Jesus said in John 6:63, “It is the Spirit who gives life; the flesh profits nothing. The words that I speak to you are spirit, and they are life.”
Since we’ve established that God’s voice and the voice of Jesus are filled with His Spirit, Life and Power, what does that mean for us?
In short, it means everything! Before we were born again, our words were still spirit-filled, but they were filled with death because we were spiritually dead. Now, as new creation beings born of The Spirit of God in Christ, we are and we have everything that Jesus is and has – Praise God! As a born-again child of God, your voice is the expression of thought being created by the act of your spirit, united with His Spirit, breathing life into your words.
This is the core of Paul’s revelation that he drives home throughout his letters. Ephesians 2:4-7 summarizes this well… “But God, who is rich in mercy, because of His great love with which He loved us, even when we were dead in trespasses, made us alive together with Christ (by grace you have been saved), and raised us up together, and made us sit together in the heavenly places in Christ Jesus, that in the ages to come He might show the exceeding riches of His grace in His kindness toward us in Christ Jesus. … (and verse 10) For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.”
Jesus spoke of this in John 5:25… “Most assuredly, I say to you, the hour is coming, and now is, when the dead will hear the voice of the Son of God; and those who hear will live.”
And in John 14:12… “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.”
How do I find my voice?
This is the best part! Like every question, the answer is in The Word. Better yet, the answer is The Word. Your voice is in your spirit, which is in Him, and His Word is filled with His Spirit. As you read, speak and meditate The Word, your spirit will be stirred up, and you’ll begin to hear the voice of your spirit inside. Once you are freshly filled with The Word, pray The Word and pray in the spirit. The Holy Spirit will confirm to you when you are hearing correctly (Romans 8:16). You’ll know it’s Him because His language is The Word and He only ever exalts Jesus (The Word), never Himself (John 15:26).
There are a couple of resources from Kenneth E. Hagin that have been a huge help to me in developing this reality on the inside: the mini-book entitled “In Him” and the audio teaching entitled “How To Train The Human Spirit”.
It seems only right to leave you with this final reminder from our beloved school founder, Kenneth Copeland:
“Every Believer has a Voice, and it’s the Voice of Victory!”
Author: Daniel Smith