And the Lord came and stood, calling as at other times, “Samuel! Samuel!” And Samuel said, “Speak, for your servant hears.”
– 1 Samuel 3:10
What a scene! Samuel is lying down to go to sleep. God speaks directly, audibly to him, calling his name, and Samuel is confused. At first, he thinks someone else is calling his name. Then with wise instruction, he realizes “This is God speaking to me”. And he responds. He says, “Speak for your servant hears”.
1 Samuel 3:10 teaches us the beauty of hearing from God.
As I read this verse, I think about the necessity and beauty and wonder of hearing from God. And I just want to encourage you, even though we live in a different day than Samuel did, in many ways. I’ll just mention two. One, we have the Bible. We have 66 books of Spirit-inspired, God-breathed words to hear from at any time anywhere.
Samuel didn’t have that. I want to encourage you to hear, to listen to the Word of God on a day-by-day basis… In a Psalm 1 kind of way. To meditate on his Word day and night. To listen to God speaking to you. What I’m about to say. I do not want to sound cliche or overdramatic. It’s just true. I cannot live without hearing the Word of God every morning. I can’t go on. My mind is so conformed to the pattern of this world if I do not listen to the truth of God’s Word.
I just go to so many unhelpful places if I’m not listening to the Word of God. And I just want to encourage you in the same way… If we’re not saying “Speak for your servant hears” while listening to his Word.
1 Samuel 3:10 teaches us to cultivate a heart that listens to God.
And then the second big difference between us and Samuel is that as followers of Jesus, we have the Holy Spirit of God dwelling inside of us. Like, in the Old Testament, the Holy Spirit of God would come and go on different people. In the New Testament, under the new covenant that Jesus has bought for us with his blood, we have the Holy Spirit living in us, guiding us, directing us on a moment-by-moment, day-by-day basis. Like we have the Holy Spirit with us speaking to us, forming our thoughts and our desires. So we might be tempted to think, I wish I could hear audibly from God. We have something so much better.
The Word of God and the Spirit of God, the Word of God before us, and the Spirit of God in us. And so we pray, God help us all. The more so than Samuel to cultivate spiritual listening, to have hearts and minds that day by day are saying to you, “Speak for your servant hears”. God, we praise you for calling our names, your Holy Spirit drawing us personally into a relationship with you, and we praise you for your Word and your Spirit and the way you speak to us every single day.
God help us. I pray this over my life. I pray this for every single person listening right now, that you would help us to meditate on your Word day and night, to listen to your Word and to live according to it, to find life in obedience to it. Oh God, as we pray this, we pray for people who don’t have your Word yet, who have not been reached with the good news of your love, who don’t have your Spirit in them.
Prayer for the Brunei Malay People
God, we pray specifically for the Brunei Malay of Brunei, 600,000 Brunei Malay in the world. Oh God, please draw the Brunei Malay to you that they might know you and hear you and respond to you, walk in relationship with you through faith in Jesus. God, we pray they would be reached for the gospel. We plead for the Brunei Malay. And as we pray that God, we know your Word is calling us to work, to get your Word to them. Help us to obey your Word. Oh God, we pray that the posture of Samuel in this verse would be the posture of our lives. Speak for your servant hears. Help us to steward your Word to us and your Spirit in us, and to walk and step with listening to and obey you all day long. I pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.
David Platt serves as a Lead Pastor for McLean Bible Church. He is also the Founder of Radical, an organization that makes Jesus known among the nations.
David received his B.A. from the University of Georgia and M.Div., Th.M., and Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary. Some of his published works include Radical, Radical Together, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Don’t Hold Back, and How to Read the Bible.
He lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area with his wife and children.
