All tagged hearing
In Nashville we had a total eclipse of the sun in 2017, and although it took a while to reach its totality, or the period of time in which the moon totally covers the sun, the totality itself lasted for only two minutes or less. Quite often the period of time God shines His light of opportunity in our lives is short as well. If we miss the chance to see or to act upon the calling which God presents us, we may never experience that particular opportunity again.
Have you seen Jesus? I am not talking about the spiritual feeling that comes over us when we first believe, but in a physical one-on-one encounter with the risen Lord. When this occurs it will change our lives forever; much different than the moment we first believed in faith. Oswald Chambers wrote of seeing Jesus sometime after being saved. He understood what even a glimpse of Him in this way can do to one's spiritual and physical life.
This morning I ask you to join me in contemplating those times when God has spoken to you. It may have been in a feeling you couldn't shake, a dream, in a voice only you could hear, by signs, or maybe in a vision. Is there a time when you realized that you were engaged in a "God Moment?"
How is it that we hear God speaking to us, and do we obey him when He does? Sometimes it is in a gentle breeze that guides us when we are still enough to perceive it, and at other times a low whisper that requires us to be silent, but we occasionally hear him in a loud clear voice. However we hear Him, we first, and always, must be listening. Sometimes He might get our attention with a storm, by violently shaking the earth, or with a raging fire but even then His voice will usually be gentle and low. Like Jesus did to Saul we might be knocked down, or blinded, but His voice, even when it comes in a more normal volume, will be clear and calm as He speaks, and as He directs us into a new life, just as Saul was as he became Paul. However, the real question in all of this is this… what do we do with what God tells us? Do we obey, or just wonder if that was really Him?
When we hear the Lord speaking to us what does that sound like? What is it about His voice that convinces us that we are actually speaking with Him, and later, when He speaks again how is it that we recognize His voice as being the same? We read in scripture of God speaking, we imagine Him speaking before He talks to us the first time, and we know somehow that we will knowHim when he does, but how is that? Do I hear Him as you hear Him, as someone else hears Him? If He whispers, shouts, or speaks in a normal tone how do we recognize that it is the same person; is it just like how we know our earthly father’s voice? The voice of God… so mysterious… so indescribable, and yet so distinct and certain. How does our Father sound to us?