God Calls – Six Weeks on How God Speaks to People

Scripture: 1 Samuel 3.1-20; John 1.43-51


Have you ever wondered whether you heard something right or not? You know, maybe you thought you heard something that didn’t sound quite right, like a word was out of place?

The Washington Post sponsors a Mensa Invitational word contest. In this contest respondents are asked to take any word out of the dictionary, alter it by adding, subtracting, or changing one letter, and supply a new definition. Here are some the past year’s winners:

Intaxication: Euphoria at getting a tax refund, which lasts until you realize it was your money to start with.

Reintarnation: Coming back to life as a hillbilly.

Bozone (n): The substance surrounding stupid people that stops bright ideas from penetrating. The bozone layer, unfortunately, shows little sign of breaking down in the near future.

Giraffiti: Vandalism spray-painted very, very high.

Sarchasm: The gulf between the author of sarcastic wit and the person who doesn’t get it.

Inoculatte: To take coffee intravenously when you are running late.

Hipatitis: Terminal coolness.

Osteopornosis: A degenerate disease.

Karmageddon: It’s like, when everybody is sending off all these really bad vibes, right? And then, like, the Earth explodes and it’s like, a serious bummer.

Decafalon (n): The grueling event of getting through the day consuming only things that are good for you.

Glibido: All talk and no action.

Dopeler effect: The tendency of stupid ideas to seem smarter when they come at you rapidly.

Arachnoleptic fit (n): The frantic dance performed just after you’ve accidentally walked through a spider’s web.

Beelzebug (n): Satan in the form of a mosquito that gets into your bedroom at three in the morning and cannot be cast out.

Caterpallor (n): The color you turn after finding half a worm in the fruit you’re eating.


Hearing the word accurately makes all the difference. This was Samuel’s situation. It’s the end of a long day of routine duty in the temple. It’s very late. Everyone is asleep. And Samuel hears a voice.

“Samuel.”

Samuel runs to Eli the priest. “Here I am.”

“There you are,” says Eli the priest.”

“You called me,” Samuel says.

“No, I didn’t. Go back to sleep.”

Again, Samuel hears a voice call his name. He gets up and goes over to where Eli is sleeping.

“Did you say something?”

“I didn’t say anything.”

“Oh, cause I thought I heard something.”’

Samuel doesn’t know it’s the Lord’s voice, cause the boy doesn’t know what the Lord sounds like. He doesn’t yet know the Lord.


God calls lots of people (everyone, when you get right down to it) but lots of people don’t recognize that it’s the Lord calling because they don’t know the sound of his voice. They don’t know what to listen for, what to look for. We don’t recognize. We don’t know what to listen for. We see Jesus everyday, but we say to ourselves that’s just Bill or that’s the old lady that’s always lived there.

There is a branch of social science called Semiotics. Semiotics, simply defined, is the art of paying attention. Noticing signs that you never noticed before, particularly as you find them in the culture. You can get your Ph. D. in Semiotics. I mention it because Semiotics is a vital part of hearing the call of God in your life. For example, prayer is paying attention. Semiotic awareness of people, events, and spirit around you and giving that to God.

“The Soul you get is the result of what you’ve paid attention to,” Len Sweets says.

I’ve talked a lot about Boredom in recent weeks. Boredom is simply “Semiotic Breakdown” - not paying attention. See, ‘cause this world and our lives are infinitely interesting if we know what to look for, and know what to listen for. You can walk out on your back porch at night and hear nothing and see only darkness. Or, you can walk out on your porch that same night and see thousands of stars in the night sky, moonshadows in the lawn and the wood, and hear the soft call of an owl on the ridge. If you are paying attention.

I am not overstating the case that that kind of attention can make the difference between a strong faith that hears and follows the voice of God, and a weak faith that slips into apathy and boredom because there seems to be no One out there to listen to or speak to.

It seems to me this is what was going on in Samuel and Eli’s day. “The word of the Lord was rare in those days; there were not many visions.” Maybe because people walked around like they were there own kings and authorities. They walked around with their eyes closed and their ears stopped up. No wonder they didn’t hear any words!

As I said last week, tapping into the Spirit’s power starts with a desire for relationship with God through Jesus Christ. If we want to recognize Jesus, we will. If we want to hear His voice, we will. God speaks to those who will listen.

Jesus said, “My sheep hear my voice. I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10.27)

Eli finally realizes that it is the Lord speaking to the young boy Samuel. Eli encourages the boy to listen to the Lord and obey, even though it means bad news for Eli’s family.

Samuel is a perfect example of this irony – when we learn to listen then we also learn to speak so that we will be heard. Our words and actions, our very lives, take on a power and significance far greater than we are capable of on our own.

“The Lord was with Samuel as he grew up, and the Lord let none of his words fall to the ground.”

May Lord call us and use us to such effect!