16.2 Voice and Learning

Voice is the utterance of sounds in a manner that carries meaning to others. Jesus is the Words that are God, now spoken. Jesus is Voice. When Jesus said, “Learn of Me,” He meant “I am the teacher,” as well as, “Learn of Me, how I am your life.”

Although there are many tools of teaching, the primary tool is voice, the voice of the teacher. And there are many ways to learn, but the primary way is to hear what is spoken and to understand its meaning. Yet real learning comes when the student takes what is spoken, re-works it into their own presentation, and then gives it back to the teacher with themselves now part of what was spoken.

The Hunger to Learn. “To learn” comes before “to teach.” It could be argued that, other than the basic physical needs, the primary drive and purpose of every infant from the moment of birth is to learn. An infant waving its hands in the air is learning to see. Yet the thing most intriguing to the infant is first, to understand its mother’s face, and second to understand its mother’s voice.

Just as the human body hungers for food, eats and is satisfied, until it hungers again, so is the human soul. The hunger for learning is as great as that for food and sometimes greater. God designed us as humans to learn and never to stop learning. I am made to learn; God, then, is to teach.

A Life of Learning. As I look back across my life, almost 65 years now, I see that it would not be inaccurate to suggest that one third of my time was spent sleeping, one third of my time was spent learning, including 20 years in a formal classroom, and one third of my time was spent doing, either productive work (building, teaching, gardening, writing) or recreation. For me, however, recreation is reading books – which is, in fact, learning. Then, I see that all my doing of productive work proceeded out from my direct involvement with learning.

I’m at it again. As I approach my 65^th birthday, I have found two whole new fields of study, inside of gardening, and I’m as busy learning as I ever was before. I’m also back in the classroom, learning local gardening and making local connections.

Robotic Control. The primary purpose and result of modern education is to destroy in every child that innate love and drive to learn. You see, I was typically a problem for my teachers. On the one hand, I engaged personally and fiercely with almost everything being taught, and on the other hand, I never gave up control of myself or my learning. I insisted on making it my own. The saddest class I taught was the smartest students in a large high school in their last semester. They did the work perfectly, but there was no light in them; their original and innate desire to learn had been fully snuffed out. My experience with Christian schools is that they are as successful as the public schools in robotizing their children.

God Never Controls. Why? Why is modern education designed to destroy the love to learn? Very simply – control. The subjugation of the many under the direction of those few whose lust for control is greater than life itself.

Whenever anyone tries to control me, with every devious means, I simply walk away, with no need to explain myself. I could not count the times God has said, “NO!” to me. But never once has God tried to control me. And because God has never once tried to control me, my innate love of learning has led me into the greatest field of study in the universe, the very Heart of God – which is His Word, not dead letter, but Voice, the Lord Jesus, the very fabric of our lives.

Hearing Under. The Greek word typically translated “obey” or “obedience” in the New Testament is “hupakoé,” as in “Though being a Son, He learned obedience from the things that He suffered.” Literally, the Greek word means “to hear beneath.” Jesus LEARNED to “hear beneath.” Or, to “come under hearing.” Hearing, of course, is the receiving side of voice.

Human society is built on overwhelming violence, however, and so our word “obey” means “I am above you. Do what you are told immediately and without question.” This is neither the kingdom of God nor the gospel. How do we “come under” the Voice of a God who walks beneath of us?

The Definitions of Evil. “Hear and obey” is appropriate to the master-slave relationship inside a world built upon violence. The slave obeys because otherwise awful pain will be inflicted upon him. Consider a “benign,” even “good” master inside the definitions of this world. How is he a master? He is a master because he supports a system that will inflict torture and even death upon those who do not obey. And this is how many would define God – by the definitions of evil in this world.

I know what true learning is, and I know what true teaching is, and neither has anything to do with “hear and obey,” except as a small part, as Paul said, of the early rudiments of learning.

How Do We Learn of Jesus? How do we come under the Voice of the One who carries us? How do we learn of Jesus?

Let me lay out again the principal of reciprocity in teaching and learning, for this understanding is most wondrous to me. God is Word. God is an infinite number of sets or flows of Word, each containing an infinite number of ideas or meanings carried by Words. And every single small subset of Words inside of God is wondrous beyond all measure. We are created by God to attach ourselves with all enthusiasm to every set of Words coming our way, that is, to VOICE, and to learn the beauty and usefulness expressed in those words.

How I Learn. I do not know how other people learn, but I know how I learn. I learn only one way, by making the subject matter my own. And I make the subject matter my own by creating something brand new, something that had not been before, out from the content I am learning. I learn by creating. And that’s why I like to start creating first, before I sit down to learn. I am driven to create, and my drive to create causes a vacuum, a great need to learn.

My bottom line, the drive of my soul, the essence of what I am as a human, is the NEED to give back to God a new creation, something from Him that I have made my own. This is why I build, why I garden, and why I write.

The Likeness of God. I write in order to learn. I start with a thought about God, or a line from Scripture. And then I write, mixing God’s words up with my own personal self and life and vice versa, adding my flavor and touch, arranging and rearranging until I like the flow, a flow that says, “This is me.” Then I take that which God gives me, Word – Voice – Jesus – “Learn of Me,” now all mixed up with and part of myself, and I offer it back to God as a new creation. I speak Christ back to God now filled with myself.

This is the meaning of likeness. Being like God means that I learn of God through Jesus. It means that I take that which is God, mixing God into my life and my life into God, and then offer to God myself made just like Him. I learn, therefore I am.

The Image of God. But sometimes I write for a different purpose. Sometimes I write to teach. Writing to learn and writing to teach are two very different types of writing. These Symmorphy texts contain a mixture of both kinds of writing, but some of my smaller books, like Knowing Jesus as He Is, are written entirely to teach. I take what I have already learned and is now part of me and I part of it (partakers of Christ), and I present it to you to enable you to HEAR and to re-create yourself brand new inside of God.

This is the meaning of image. To be the image of God, I take what God gives me, mix it all up with myself, and then present it to you in a form that you are able to receive, yes, but also to engage with God yourself. In this way I am human, that is, God Revealed. I am; therefore I teach.

“Make Me Part of Yourself.” In describing myself in this way, I have also described to you the Lord Jesus Christ, for I am made just like Him.

Jesus fiercely takes what is of God and makes it His own (this is what He actually says), then He turns and shows it to us, now as part of Himself – “He that has seen Me has seen the Father.” Then He speaks (Voice) into us – “Do for one another as I have done for you.” “Become what I am; make Me part of yourself (put on the Lord Jesus Christ), share Me as yourself with others, and return yourself to the Father, now as an expression of Me.”

This is the meaning of “hearing under.” This is the definition and meaning of “human.” God allows no robots back into Himself; you and I must be fiercely engaged with sharing life with God, that is, FAITH.