Listen to the Voice

I was in Alaska doing a lawsuit; we’re way out in the Aleutian islands getting ready to leave and go back to anchorage and then home and i had a ticket in my pocket to get on an airplane. A pastor came up and he said “listen i can save you money.”

I said “how’s that?”

He said “I flew a small airplane up here and I fly a small airplane and I can take you in my little airplane and you can save your ticket.” And this did not sound I said “gee, thank you so very, very, much, but I’ve got this ticket we’ll just make
our way on home me and this other lawyer with me.”

He said “no, no, no, you got to do it, you got to do it,” and against every better judgment I had I said okay. Well, we went out to the airport, took us by his little plane and i looked at it and i thought well one good thing it’s shiny.

Then he walked around it, we got in. He’s on the left front I’m on the right front, the other lawyer’s sitting right behind me. And he started it up and it started up just fine. Well, we taxied out I said “Should we pray?’ He said “yeah that’s a good idea, we normally don’t.” I said “well this time we’re gonna!” and I’m telling you I prayed five, eight minutes; I prayed a long time.

We went and got on the runway he starts down the runway, the plane lifted off ever so gently and we start climbing and it’s wonderful, not a problem in the world.

We started climbing and we flew probably three four minutes and something happened that will never leave my mind:

The pilot turned to me and he said “we’re going in the clouds and i can’t fly in clouds they make me pass out!”

I said “Clouds make you do what?!?” Now it’s been cloudy all day, and we go right up into the clouds and you can’t see anything, and he looks at me and his eyes roll back in his head and he starts mumbling and he passes out – passed out cold!

Now I grabbed him and I shook him and I said “Come on you got to wake up!” Now we’re in the clouds flying along with no pilot, and my friend in the back seat said “We’re dead, aren’t we?” I said “There’s a very good chance of that, yes! He said “What are we going to do?” I said “I don’t know” but there was a radio right there and i handed him the microphone and i
said “Start asking for help” so he’s in the back seat reaching up and he said “hello? Hello?” We didn’t know any proper radio etiquette all we were saying was hello and somebody answered back “hello, hello, don’t you guys know proper radio etiquette?” and I said give me the mic. I said “We don’t know nothing tell them we’re in an airplane with a passed out pilot and we don’t know how to fly this plane.” The guy said “I’m a freighter flying out of anchorage on the way to Tokyo” and he said “You’re telling me you have nobody who can fly that plane with you?” I said ‘Tell them that’s correct.” Now you’ve got o understand i am sweating bullets he said “The first thing I’m going to do is start circling so I don’t lose you because I’ll fly out of range of your radio and you won’t have me anymore.” And he said “I’m going to get Anchorage emergency for you and anchorage emergency will be the people that can maybe help you, try to save your life.” After about five minutes Anchorage came on, said “We understand you have a passed out pilot and those of you do not know how to fly that plane?” We said “that’s right.” They said “Well, the first thing we got to do is find you.

Now I will never forget what this man at Anchorage said. He said, “My job is to get you home safe.” He said “That’s my job” but he said “Here’s the deal: if you want me to get you home safe, you gotta promise me you’ll obey my voice.” He said “you can’t see me but i can see you” and he said “if you’re not gonna obey my voice you’re gonna die.”

When you can’t see anything you have no idea how disorientated you become. Finally he said “Okay I found you now; hear me clear:” he said. “You’re four minutes from a mountain he said you’re going to crash into that mountain and die; follow my voice.

I never said “I have to follow your voice? Is that reasonable?”

You see, I understood without his voice I had nothing; and do you understand without God’s voice you have nothing? Nothing!

Finally he got us turned and he said “I’m freezing all the traffic in the area” he said “it’s going to take me an hour and a half to get you to Anchorage and there’s a lot of weather between you and Anchorage; you’re in for a rough ride” and he said “I want you to hear me: I don’t want you to look at what’s going on outside, I don’t want you to pay attention to the storm; just my voice.” He said “If you start watching the storm you will die. But I’ll take you through it.”

Now because they cleared all the traffic several pilots those nighttime freighters 747s started talking to us they said “We’re praying for you men, you’re gonna make it, but listen to the voice, that’s the key,” they said, “trust the voice.”

You realize your head is full of voices and everybody in this world wants to talk to you and everybody wants to be the controlling voice and God says I want you to be a living sacrifice, I want you to put yourself on the altar and let My voice be your voice. Finally we went through the worst of the weather but there was still more, and then the voice came back and it said “Now I’m going to line you up” he said “I’m going to bring you in right down the runway and at the foot of the runway are some lights and they’re in the form of a cross.” He said “Don’t you forget this, the cross is the way home!”

Finally he’s bringing us down, we still can’t see anything, and all he kept saying is “Stay with me.”

“My sheep,” the Bible says, “hear My voice and they follow Me.” Finally just a couple hundred feet off the ground we saw the cross. I landed the plane, finally it all came to a stop and the minute we stopped the pilot woke up!

The voice said “Thanks for listening; I watch them crash and burn all the time because they won’t follow my voice. They don’t understand I’m the one who can see them even when they can’t see me, but they get the voices in their head and they kill themselves; they self-destruct.  Thanks for listening to the voice.”

Then they put us in a motel room; about four in the morning the knock at my door and I opened the door and a man was standing and he said “Hello, David.”

I said “you’re the voice — you’re the one who got me home.” He said “I am.”

Do you understand one day you’re going to stand before Him and say you were the voice, You’re the voice that brought me home! If you’re not on that altar as a living sacrifice your head’s full of voices! And then we wonder why kids crash and burn; we wonder why marriages are shattered. And the Lord’s saying I’m the One who has the Voice!

All I can remember is that voice saying “stay with me, stay with me, don’t listen to what’s going on in your head, and don’t watch the storm; stay with me, and I’ll take you through!”

Tonight you have a God who has promised to take you through. A living sacrifice, holy.