Lesson 6
Hearing God’s Voice
Wind, Fire, & Smoke
Unit Game
Play the Books of the Bible Game you have chosen for today’s lesson as students arrive and settle in. Start with 10 books and continue to add more each week as the children learn their order. This should only take up about five minutes of your time. The point is to repeat a handful of games throughout the year so that the kids memorize the books of the Bible over time. If the students are new to it, feel free to help them find the answer so the game keeps moving.
Prayer
We are always going to begin our lessons with prayer, because we want the Holy Spirit to be the One who is leading our lessons.
Pray, thanking and praising God for everything He does for us, and that He loves us and wants to teach us more about Him. Thank God for His Word. Invite the Holy Spirit to lead the lesson and open up hearts and minds to be able to understand the truth of His Word.
Lesson
Review
Hearing God’s Voice
We have been learning a lot about how and how not to pray. But we also learned that prayer is more than just talking to God, it’s also listening to God. Have you been wondering how God speaks to us? God speaks to us in many different ways. I think everyone has wondered at some point if God can speak to us in an audible voice—in a voice we can hear out loud. What does it sounds like? God can speak to us audibly, but it’s not something that happens very often. That doesn’t mean that it can’t happen though. Maybe you even know someone who has heard the audible voice of God. (Share if you have a story, and, at your discretion, allow the students to share if they know of a story. The point is that they should know it is possible for God to speak this way—we don’t want them to be unbelieving—but in reality it doesn’t happen all the time.)
Let’s look at some stories in the Bible where God spoke to people with a voice that everyone could hear!
The first story is in Exodus 19:16-19, when the Lord met with His people, Israel, on Mount Sinai. Read, or assign a reader.
This sounds like a pretty scary experience doesn’t it? But it also sounds exciting! God showed Himself in a way that could be seen, heard, and felt. [Note for older students: What is God’s literal presence which can be seen, heard, or felt? His manifest presence.]
What happened first, in verse 16? What were all the things they saw and heard? There was thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, and a very loud trumpet sound.
But none of those things were the Lord’s voice! What did the Lord’s voice sound like when He answered Moses, in verse 19? Thunder. (NASB and ESV. NIV has “voice of God.”)
The next story is in 1 Kings 19:11-13 when the Lord met with the prophet Elijah on Mount Sinai, many years later. Read, or assign a reader.
What three things happened before Elijah heard the voice of God? A strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire.
What did Elijah hear after those three things? A gentle blowing, and then the voice of God. (NIV “a gentle whisper.” ESV “the sound of a low whisper.”)
It seems like Elijah knew the sound of God’s voice. He watched and waited while the wind broke the rocks on the mountain, but he knew that was not God’s voice. Then there was an earthquake, but still he waited. After that, there was a fire, but still Elijah knew it wasn’t the Lord yet. When He heard the gentle blowing (or a gentle whisper), Elijah came out of the cave. I don’t know about you but I would be kind of scared to come out of the cave after all of those things happened! But Elijah knew God was there and He trusted Him. When he came out of the cave the Lord spoke to him.
If you have younger students you can skip to the next section.
[Older Students: Let’s read another story about when the Lord’s voice sounded like thunder.
John 12:28-29. Read, or assign a reader.
In this story it seems like God did speak in a voice that could be heard and understood, but not everyone heard His voice the same way and understood it. Some of them thought it was an angel, and others said it was only thunder! It seems that it depended on what the people’s attitude was. Some of them may have been skeptical and unbelieving, and others had more faith to believe that they had really heard a voice from heaven. And still others heard the voice, knew that it was God and not an angel, and wrote down what God said.
Let’s look at a few more stories of when God’s voice could be plainly heard by all of the people.
Luke 3:21-22. Read, or assign a reader.
In this story, Jesus is being baptized. What happens first after He is baptized? Heaven is opened.
What comes down out of heaven? The Holy Spirit, in the form of a dove.
Then what? A voice spoke from heaven.
Matthew 17:1-6. Read, or assign a reader.
In this story Jesus is on a mountain with His disciples, Peter, James, and John, and He is transformed before them and suddenly they can see Him as He really is—His face shines like the sun! Then what happens? Allow answers.
A voice speaks out of the cloud. Have you noticed anything that seems to come along with God’s voice in a lot of these stories? There is a cloud.
While Peter is speaking, a cloud forms around them and a voice from heaven speaks. What do the disciples do when they hear the voice? They fall down on the ground. ]
If you have younger students, continue from here:
The Bible is full of many amazing stories like these ones, where the Lord speaks to men in awesome ways. It sounds like God’s voice can sometimes be very loud like thunder, and even scary, just like when He spoke to the Israelis on Mount Sinai. But He also speaks to people in gentle breezes, like He did with Elijah. He can even speak to children like you!
Let’s read about a little boy who heard God speak to him in an audible voice!
1 Samuel 3:1-10. Read or assign a reader.
This story is one of my favorites! It is so exciting and amazing to think of the Lord actually coming and “standing” near Samuel and speaking to him! Wow! Try to imagine this happening to you. What would you do? How would it feel to know you are hearing God’s actual voice?
In the beginning of this story it says that hearing from the Lord was “rare” in those days and didn’t happen very often. But the Lord chose to speak in an audible voice to a little boy. The priest was Eli, but God spoke to the little boy rather than to him. So don’t think that God only speaks to leaders or people who seem more “holy” to you! He can speak to you just like He spoke to Samuel. You may not hear His voice out loud, with smoke and thunder and fire, but you will definitely hear His voice inside your heart if you ask Him to speak to you.
God has spoken to His people throughout the Bible, and revealed Himself through clouds, smoke, fire, earthquakes, and His thundering voice. But the most important part of this lesson is that God wants to speak to us, His creation, and He wants to spend time with us.
From the time of Adam’s creation the Lord has wanted a relationship with mankind. That’s the reason He created us! In the beginning, He walked with Adam and talked with him. When sin entered into God’s creation and separated us from Him, His first thought was how to come back into relationship with us. He disciplined and punished Adam and Eve, but He also gave them the hope that one day the Seed of the woman Eve would be victorious over satan (Gen 3:15) and we would be able to come freely into His presence one again. Jesus is that Seed (descendant) of the woman, and when He died on the cross as a sacrifice for our sins He accomplished that promise from God. Now we can confidently enter into God’s manifest presence once more!
The main way that we can have a relationship with God is through prayer. We can enter into God’s presence whenever we want to! God is a person and wants to talk with us just like a friend. And He wants to speak to us all the time–even more than we want to spend time with Him. He is ready and waiting for you to speak to Him. He wants to hear everything that is happening in your life. He already knows everything that is happening in your life (because He is omniscient), but He still wants to hear about it from you. What an awesome thought to know that our Creator is waiting for us to speak to Him! Don’t you think that maybe we should also be waiting to hear from Him and expect that He will speak to us, just as He spoke to all of these people we have been reading about? I do! As we already learned, you don’t have to be someone special, holy, or even an adult for God to speak to you!
I hope you are excited to start spending time talking to God and listening for His voice! Great job listening today.
Review Questions
- What is prayer? Talking to God. Having a conversation.
- There are two parts to a conversation, and there are two parts of prayer. What are they? Talking and listening.
- Can God speak to us in an audible voice which can be heard out loud? Yes.
- Does is happen very often? No.
- Did it happen in the Bible? Yes.
- What did the people of Israel hear and see when God came down onto Mount Sinai to speak with them? There was thunder, lightning, a thick cloud, and a very loud trumpet sound.
- What did the Lord’s voice sound like when He spoke to Moses? Thunder.
- What did Elijah see and hear before the Lord’s voice spoke to him? A strong wind, an earthquake, and a fire.
- What did Elijah hear after those three things, right before he heard the voice of God? A gentle blowing.
- What little boy heard the audible voice of God? Samuel.
- Do you have to be someone special for God to speak to you? No.
- Does God want to speak to us? Yes.
- Does God speak only to holy people, or special people? No. He can speak to anyone.
- Why did God create us? To have a relationship with us.
- Who is the promised Seed of the woman Eve? Jesus.
- What did sin separate Adam and Eve (and us) from? God’s holy presence.
- Since Jesus died for us on the cross, what are we able to enter into now? God’s (manifest) holy presence.
- How does God know what’s happening in our life before we talk to Him about it? He is omniscient.
- What is the main way that we can have a relationship with God? Prayer.
- Will God speak to you if you ask Him to? Yes!
Older Students:
- What came down from heaven when Jesus was baptized? The Holy Spirit came down like a dove.
- What did everyone hear after heaven was opened and the Holy Spirit came down like a dove? A voice from heaven. God’s voice.
- How did Jesus look different when He was revealed to His disciples on the mountain? His face shone like the sun. His clothes glowed.
- What surrounded His disciples when Jesus was transformed on the mountain? A cloud.
- What did they hear when this happened? God’s voice from heaven.
- What did they do when they heard God’s voice? They fell down.
Memory Verses
Choose a memory verse that fits your class’ abilities. Or choose more than one and award prizes accordingly.
Non-Readers/Beginner Readers:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you.” Matthew 7:7 NIV
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar.” Psalm 139:1-2 NIV
Older Readers:
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened.” Matthew 7:7-8 NIV
“The eyes of the Lord are on the righteous, and his ears are attentive to their cry; but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil, to blot out their name from the earth.” Psalm 34:15-16 NIV
“You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely.” Psalm 139:1-4 NIV
Play the Memory Verse Game you have chosen for today’s lesson or play the memory verse song to review the memory verse.