Remember that scene in the gospels where Peter is literally walking next to Jesus, but he is listening to the wrong voice?
Peter took Jesus to one side and began to scold him. “Never, Lord!” he said. “This will never happen to you!”
Jesus turned and said to Peter, “Get behind me, Satan! You are standing in my way. You do not have in mind the things God cares about. Instead, you only have in mind the things humans care about.” (Matthew 16:22-23)
Kinda bold that Jesus rebukes satan at the same time he's correcting Peter. This brief interaction tells us two things: 1. that we can be in a relationship with Jesus and still follow the wrong voice. 2. the voice we follow can belong to the enemy. How does that happen? Well, God's voice is usually tender and quiet, but the world is loud, and the prince of the power of the air has a stronghold in it's airwaves. In the scene above, Jesus is helping Peter to recognize the spiritual world around him. That's why he rebuked satan so swiftly for getting in Peter's ear.
If it can happen to Peter, who walked so closely with Jesus, it can happen to anyone. It sure seems to be happening in much of the evangelical church today, to those who have become convinced that God wants them to have political power at the hands of a bully-ruler.
So how can we tell if we have been listening to the wrong voice? Listening to the wrong voice can make us agitated, negative, fearful of the "other," and ultimately, unfruitful. It can make us perturbed about the wrong things, like whether or not the world is complying with our personal behavior modification program. It can also make us forget what God did tell us to care about about, like sacrificing our "rights" to love and honor and serve others.
According to Jesus, there are two main influences that are most likely to contaminate the ear of his church. These influences are not rooted in him, but instead are rooted in religious superiority, and political lust-for-power. (Mark 8:15) The wrong voice can come from podcasters, political commentators, preachers and pastors. You'll know it was wrong by how you feel afterward.
Listening to an uber-religious spirit can make us feel boastful, arrogant, and superior about our right-standing with God. A political spirit can make us lust after power and want to dominate the culture around us so badly that we will follow the violent rhetoric of a "herod" to get it.
Persistence in both of these wrong attitudes can also lead to spiritual blindness. Part of my personal journey with God has involved recognizing these influences in myself, and asking the Holy Spirit to get me back on track with his voice. Psalm 19:14, "May the words of my mouth and the meditations of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O Rock and my Redeemer," is not an infrequent prayer for me.
One thing I love about Jesus is that he never misses an opportunity to turn my missteps into an opportunity for spiritual growth. He did this for Peter and the disciples right after he corrected Peter by rebuking the enemy. He got them all back on track with what God really cares about. Namely, laying down their lives in order to serve others.
Then Jesus spoke to his disciples. He said, “Whoever wants to be my disciple must say no to themselves. They must pick up their cross and follow me. Whoever wants to save their life will lose it. But whoever loses their life for me will find it. What good is it if someone gains the whole world but loses their soul? Or what can anyone trade for their soul?" (Matthew 16:24-26)
At various times throughout the gospels, we see the disciples wrongly thinking that God wanted them to wield political power, to "win," to dominate the culture, and to exercise religious authority over other people (Luke 9:54-55, Matthew 20:20-28). The same voice that told them all those things is practically screaming at the evangelical church today, in an effort to get us off track. It sounds like this, "Win, dominate, control! Own the ____! God wants you to rule over them!"
Meanwhile, God is softly whispering, "Serve, love, repent. Pick up your cross and follow me." A heart that is growing in response to God's voice, will forsake the wrong voices, in favor of God's voice, and simply ask itself two things:
Who can I love today?
Who can I serve today?
So, which voice will we follow?
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