John 12:28-29

I discovered something tonight and was fascinated by it. So I must share!

First, to make sure all readers are on the same page, the Godhead is comprised of three distinct personages: God the Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost. God the Father and Jesus Christ have glorified and immortal bodies of flesh and bone. The Holy Ghost is a spirit and does not have a body of flesh and bone.

Jesus Christ has divine investiture, which is the authority to speak for and in behalf of the Father. The best comparison would be a power of attorney when someone gives you the right to act on their behalf. In the scriptures, God the Father rarely speaks to His children. 99.999% of the time it is Jesus Christ speaking on behalf of God. Those few occasions when God the Father speaks are referenced in Matthew 3:16-17 when Jesus was baptized; Matthew 17:5 on the Mount of Transfiguration; 3 Nephi 11:6-7 when God introduced His Son to the Nephite nation who lived on the American continent. Christ appeared to this people shortly after his crucifixion. And Joseph Smith-History 1:17 when God the Father and His Son, Jesus Christ, appeared to the boy Joseph in 1820.

But here is an account I was not previously aware of and which is filled with incredible application. John 12:28-29 begins with the Savior speaking:

Father, glorify thy name. Then came there a voice from heaven, saying, I have both glorified it, and will glorify it again. The people therefore, that stood by, and heard it, said that it thundered: others said, An angel spake to him.

God spoke and I've never picked up on that before. And it wasn't to introduce or to bear record of His Son. He testified of Himself...and no one recognized Who it was. They didn't recognize their Father's voice. Here's the application as written by a modern day prophet, Harold B. Lee:

In the Gospel of John is related a parallel experience in the Master’s ministry showing how, out of a multitude, only a few—or none—may hear God when he speaks.

Only the Master, apparently, knew that God had spoken. So often today, men and women are living so far apart from things spiritual that when the Lord is speaking to their physical hearing, to their minds with no audible sound, or to them through his authorized servants who, when directed by the Spirit, are as his own voice, they hear only a noise as did they at Jerusalem. Likewise, they received no inspired wisdom, nor inward assurance, that the mind of the Lord has spoken through his prophet leaders.

Has God, our Heavenly Father, spoken to you lately? Did you hear it...or was it just noise?