Hearing from God: What Voice (In)Forms You? - 1 Corinthians 2
Updated: Sep 8
Hearing from God: What Voice (In)Forms You?
Scripture: 1 Corinthians 2:6-16
Series: Hearing from God
Preacher: Russell Smith
Date: June 7, 2026
Church: Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church, Cincinnati, Ohio
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The Voices That Seek Our Attention
We are beginning a month-long series on hearing from God because we live in a noisy, cacophonous world: a world full of voices competing for our attention. In July we will take a Sabbath month together, gathering as one congregation and listening for God's wisdom in Proverbs. The aim will not be merely to gain intellectual knowledge about a biblical book. We will bring questions, challenges, decisions, and hopes before God and seek his wisdom. Before we do that, it is worth asking whether we really believe that God speaks—and how we practice attentiveness to him in a world so full of noise.
What are the voices that are loudest in your head? I am not talking about imagining that you’re hearing Napoleon or some imaginary friend. I mean the quieter voices in the background that point you toward resentment, toward wanting more, or toward some other way of living. Perhaps it is the critic: ‘Why did you do that? What were you thinking? You could do better.’ Perhaps it is the voice that says you are not enough, that you do not measure up. Perhaps it is the taskmaster: ‘Get busy. Keep pushing. You are wasting time.’ Perhaps it is the seductive voice of achievement, a celebrity, a pundit, an advertiser, or an inherited voice from someone who once had great influence over you. We all have some voice—or collection of voices—running in the background of our minds.
One of the loudest voices in my own head is a voice I have named Prove It. It says, ‘Prove yourself, Smith. People say you are smart; prove it. People say you are a spiritual leader; prove it.’ I do not share that so you will reassure me that I do not have to feel that way. Part of the spiritual work of my life has been whittling that voice down to size, putting it in its proper place, and saying, ‘You do not own me. I belong to Christ.’ Naming these voices does not make them disappear, but it helps us see that they do not get to write the script of our lives.
The practical question is this: Do these voices sound like Jesus? If they do not, we need to challenge them, contest what they are telling us, and put them in their place. Attention is a precious commodity—indeed, one of the most valuable commodities in the world. That is why so many people are competing for it. The voice that commands your attention gets your allegiance.
Wisdom of a City Full of Voices
Ancient Corinth was a busy urban metropolis, not unlike our own world. It stood on the Isthmus of Corinth, the narrow land bridge between mainland Greece and the Peloponnese. With two harbors, it was a wealthy hub of commerce and trade, intellectual ferment, tourism, and travel from across the Mediterranean world. It hosted the Isthmian Games, one of the great athletic festivals of the ancient world. It was a religious crossroads with many temples, including the temple of Aphrodite, and a center of the imperial cult after Julius Caesar refounded the city. The great acropolis made it a strategic military place as well. It was a cosmopolitan, prosperous, complicated city with many competing ideas about success, meaning, the good life, and how to live wisely.
Paul, now in Ephesus, writes to the church he helped plant in Corinth. He has heard about divisions among them. He does not take every on competing voice one by one. He gathers them up as ‘the wisdom of this age’ and ‘the rulers of this age, who are coming to nothing.’ ‘We do, however, speak a message of wisdom among the mature,’ he says, ‘but not the wisdom of this age or of the rulers of this age.’ Then he adds that none of those rulers understood God's wisdom, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory. Later he says that the person without the Spirit does not accept the things that come from the Spirit of God; they are foolishness because they are spiritually discerned.
The competing voices think they are wisdom. They want your attention so they can have the final say and define who you are. Most promise a solution: work harder, get your act together, buy my program, follow my plan, and then your life will be better. Their message is always, in one form or another, ‘Do, do, do. Earn it.’ Christ gives us something altogether different. In grace Christ says, ‘It is done. You are already loved with an infinite love. Receive.’ The voice of Christ can look foolish to Prove It because Christ does not first demand that I prove anything. He offers grace.
That is why the question of attention matters. Marketers, pundits, social-media influencers, and advertisers want to be between your ears because they want your allegiance. They understand that the voice that commands your attention gets your allegiance. Paul is giving us someone better to give our allegiance to: not a taskmaster, but Christ, who gives grace and a gift greater than we could imagine.
The Mystery Revealed in Christ
Paul turns to Scripture: ‘What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived’—the things God has prepared for those who love him—‘these are the things God has revealed to us by his Spirit.’ A primary way God speaks is through Scripture. Paul is drawing on Isaiah 64, a passage in which Israel feels abandoned and under judgment, yet comes again to pray for God's power and to remember: ‘Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand.’ The voice Paul invites us to hear is not Prove It, get your head in the game, or clean up your act. It is the voice that says, ‘We are the clay; you are the potter. We are your people, O Lord.’
Paul calls this wisdom a mystery. A mystery is not a puzzle to solve, like a mystery novel or movie. It is the revelation of something formerly hidden, clouded, or only hinted at. What was present in seed form in Israel's Scriptures has been revealed in Christ as gift. The rulers of the age did not understand it; that is why they crucified the Lord of glory. Those hungry for power seek the wisdom of technique that promises mastery. Technique is not necessarily bad, but it is not an end in itself. In Christ, wisdom is not merely something we get. Christ is wisdom incarnate—the living Word, someone with whom we converse in prayer.
Isaiah's prayer does not deny sin, judgment, grief, or Israel's need. It remembers that God is Father and potter. Paul sees the promise brought into the open in Christ. Hidden wisdom has become revealed gift. The gospel does not leave us to discover a secret technique for managing life. God has come to us, revealed himself to us, and drawn us into relationship with him.
The Spirit and the Mind of Christ
Paul continues: the Spirit searches all things, even the deep things of God. No one knows a person's thoughts except that person's own spirit, and no one knows the thoughts of God except the Spirit of God. ‘What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us.’ Notice that word: received. We have received the gift of the Holy Spirit. We have not earned it. Grace is not only forgiveness, though forgiveness is its beginning. Grace is also the ongoing daily fellowship of God with us when we walk out the door, go to the office, go to school, sit in traffic, or face the ordinary moments of a day.
The Spirit confirms that God really loves us, that God abides with us wherever we go, that we are not alone, and that we are God's beloved. The Spirit teaches through Scripture and brings Scripture to mind. We sometimes think revelation must be a dramatic spectacle—great dreams and visions. God may work that way, but revelation is also relationship: a conversational relationship with the living God who walks with us and gently speaks along the way. By the power of the Spirit, Paul says, we have the mind of Christ. That is astonishing, and that is glorious.
That does not mean every thought that crosses our minds carries divine authority. It means that the Spirit gives Christians access to the deep things of God, forms discernment, and teaches us to recognize what God has freely given. We can query God at any time, not as though God were a machine dispensing technique, but as children in relationship with the living God. Artificial intelligence, advertising, and hustle culture cannot supply wisdom about what is truly fulfilling and meaningful. They cannot look upon you with love and suggest the faithful next step. The Spirit can.
Practicing the Power of the Pause
So how do we attend to the voice of Christ when the competing voices are loud? Practice the power of the pause. In an accelerated, noisy world, sometimes we simply have to practice hitting the pause button. Do not automatically pull out the phone and begin to scroll. Lay down the relentless need to be productive. Seize the moments of pause, and use a short prayer—the Lord's Prayer, a brief verse of Scripture, the Jesus Prayer, or another faithful prayer—to interrupt an unhelpful inner script and return your attention to Christ.
For many years I have prayed the Jesus Prayer: ‘Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner.’ A few weeks ago, while I was praying it in my morning devotions, I had an experience like a compass needle clicking north. I felt there was more for me to explore. I had long been bothered that the Jesus Prayer, though ancient and powerful, was not explicitly Trinitarian. Words came to me. I did not sit down to compose them, and I am not saying they are an authoritative revelation. I receive them as a gift: ‘Father God, maker of heaven and earth, be glorified in me. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of the living God, have mercy on me, a sinner. Holy Spirit, sent by Christ, fill me to overflowing. Triune God, three in one, one in three, walk with me today.’
I have been walking with that prayer while walking the dog, waiting in line, or sitting in traffic. It has helped me turn from unhelpful trains of thought and attend again to the mind of Christ. It is not a new requirement or a prayer everyone must use. It is a small tool for returning attention to the God who is already present. It begins with the Father as maker of heaven and earth, names Jesus Christ and the mercy we need, welcomes the Holy Spirit's filling, and asks the Triune God to walk with us.
This week and throughout the month, try the pause in ordinary places: standing in line at Starbucks or somewhere else, stuck in traffic and irritated, walking the dog, or in any moment when the old voices begin to run through your mind. Pause. Pray. Return your mind to the mind of Christ. Hearing from God in a noisy world is often less about receiving secret information and more about learning, over time, to recognize the character, wisdom, invitations, convictions, and promptings of the Holy Spirit. The clearest voice of God is the voice that conforms us to Jesus.
A Moment to Reflect
Take a quiet moment to name the voices that have been shaping your attention. Bring them before Christ. Where might a pause, a brief prayer, or a return to Scripture help you attend again to the mind of Christ this week?
Reflection Questions
What voice most often competes for your attention, and does it sound like Jesus?
Where do you need to receive, rather than earn, the grace and fellowship God gives through the Spirit?
What ordinary moment this week can become a practice of the power of the pause?
This sermon is part of the Digital Discipleship Resources of Madeira-Silverwood Presbyterian Church in Cincinnati, Ohio. We create resources to help people take their next step of faith with Jesus.
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