"And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and
his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden"
Genesis 3:8.
"They heard the voice of the Lord God walking." It does not say they heard the Lord God walking.
Rather, they heard a voice walking. At first I thought the grammar was wrong, but it is right. Then I
diagramed this verse. Voice is the subject, a noun. Walking is a verb. It is a participle. I thought, who
ever heard of a voice walking.
In the Hebrew text, this word is not "voice" as we use it. It is "sound." When the source of the "sound"
is human, it is called a "voice." They heard the sound of God moving." What was it that they heard? It
was not His footsteps. He had not yet drawn near to them. It was not His voice. He had not yet spoken
to them. This is a spiritual thing.
We are sensitive, responsive creatures and every object has, in a sense, its "atmosphere." Have you
ever been near someone and "felt" their spirit? This is because we are sensitive. The presence of the
Lord is like this. Whenever the Lord moves, He chooses a means through which to reveal Himself.
Sometimes it is the rushing of the wind. At other times it is thunder. The Hebrew text confirms this is
what it was, sound, the "sound" or the voice of God in thunder, in whirlwinds, in winds.
Consider the word, telephone. "Tele" means, the end of; "phone," the voice. The voice at the end of it,"
is the telephone. I followed this through in my Greek Lexicon. I found that it is the same. "Sound,"
which is translated "voice."
Whatever "form" the Lord may take in making Himself known is called "His voice." It may be thunder,
it may be wind. At Pentecost it was the sound of a rushing wind. In the book of Revelation, the word
"sound" or "voice" of God is repeated 44 times. "The sound of the trumpet" is sometimes called the
"voice" of the trumpet, these are interchangeable.
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John Follette (1883 - 1966)
Follette was a gifted Bible teacher and author, who had both perspective and spiritual depth in his interpretation of the Word. He was an illuminated spirit in the field of spiritual reality, and had an unusual ability to impart “spirit and life” into those who sat under his ministry.He received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit in 1913 while a student at a Bible School in Rochester, New York, and later became a teacher there until the school closed. He also taught for many years at Southern California Bible College. During the later years of his life, he was called into a wider field, ministering in conferences and retreats which took him around the world. He passed into his eternal reward in 1966 at the age of 82.