"My soul is waiting for the Lord, I count on his word."
Yes it's true. God does actually speak to us.
In fact, God confides in his people.
We know this because in psalm 25 vs. 14 it is written that " The LORD confides in those who fear him; he makes his covenant known to them."
This is not fear as in running away and cowering from some kind of evil genius. It means to be in awe, to grasp the concept of His majesty, to profoundly respect and comprehend that God is omnipotent and capable of infinite love.
The question is: Who are we that one so great should stoop down to counsel such lowly creatures, to guide us and to make himself known to us?
We are his children. He is our father. He waits with baited breath for each one of us to awake every morning so he can delight in us.
One of the first things which becomes apparent when listening to God is that he is not a punishing God. He is all love and comes to us exactly where we are.
His love is unconditional. It can't be earned. It's free.
He calls us by our name. He is our Father, our brother and our best friend and He wants to give us His best.
There is a gift called locution. It's being able to hear the voice of God. Although many people have it and at times enjoy such clarity of divine speech, the fact is, God speaks to absolutely everyone in one way or another. In the case of locution, scripture advises of what to do should be be unsure as to whether a spirit is holy or not. The bible says that should the listener be in any doubt as to whether they are indeed hearing a holy voice that they are to test the spirits (1 John 4). "By this you know the Spirit of God: every spirit who confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, and every spirit that does not confess Jesus is not from God."
What John is saying here is that an evil spirit will not acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord. Quite the contrary. This is why you'll never hear a spirit at a gathering of spiritualists confessing that Jesus is Lord.
Although there may be some believers who doubt that God speaks, all they have to do is look through holy scripture. Here they find the God of the Old Testament speaking to his people. He spoke to Moses through an angel from the centre of a burning bush, to Abraham, to David, Solomon, Zachariah, Adam, Isiah, Elijah, Jeremiah etc etc etc. Then we see him in the New Testament talking and reclining with his people. In fact, John's relationship with Jesus was so trusting and intimate that he even reclined on Jesus. He spoke to the Pharisees, the tax collectors, the demon possessed: everyone.
Jesus spoke on the mountain and Peter, John and James heard him. He speaks through visions, dreams and prophets and sends messages via angels. Nobody can ever accuse God of being uncommunicative. And yet, many do not perceive it (Job 3:14). By these words Matthew 13:14 is fullfilled "They will hear but not understand, see and not perceive".
But what does this mean? It's simply this: that many have not yet had their minds opened. How are we to understand this in relation to the world? We can only know that God is in control.
It was he who spoke to the people at the Jordan during Jesus's baptism. It was Jesus the Word made flesh, who talked to Moses and Elijah on the mountain. God has a voice and that cannot be denied.
These are the words of the Most High God to which we need to pay most attention:
“You shall have no other gods before me. You shall not make for yourself a carved image, or any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. You shall not bow down to them or serve them, for I the Lord your God am a jealous God."
This is the depths of the love which our Father God has for us. This jealous love for us means he will stop at nothing to save us.
"I will go before you and will level the mountains; I will break down gates of bronze and cut through bars of iron".
This is our heroic saviour; our knight in shining armour, the all powerful one who makes promies and keeps them. We know this because we see him making promises to Moses early in the book of Exodus and he fulfills his word (Isaiah 55:11).
He can do this because he is all powerful and nothing is beyond him. Therefore we must take great care in our dealings with him. Yes he is humble and he will indeed level mountains for us. His patience is unfathomable but he is also powerful beyond our comprehension. He is the God who shook the meeting place after the believers in Acts had prayed. He is God who makes the land quake and splits it open (Psalm 60). Therefore, it is wise to listen and not remonstrate with him.
"Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker, to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the ground."
In Isaiah, God actually invites us to listen to him when he says "Incline your ear".
Gabriel tells us to "Listen"
In Job we read that God speaks in whispers: "Now a word came to me secretly; my ears caught a whisper of it."
God has revealed so much to us about himself. We know that he can speak in a "still, small voice" and we know he also has "a mighty voice" and that he can thunder. But we also hear the cries of the vulnerable infant Christ-child in the manger in Bethlehem. God can talk about what it's like to be fully human.
But are we listening.
Like us, Jesus had to learn to speak. He had to learn to listen. And he had to learn to read and write. Jesus was numerate and literate, a consummate professional and the perfect gentleman. Mary and Joseph were both of royal descent and this meant that Jesus was also of the line of David.
This meant he was gracious to those of low status and to those who had sinned. Jesus was compassionate and loved, he knew how to speak to people and he knew when not to. If we wish to become Christlike then we must also learn to mirror Christ without losing ourselves to whom we think we should be.
"As good stewards of the manifold grace of God, each of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve one another. If anyone speaks, he should speak as one conveying the words of God."
Now we're back to our responsibility: We must learn to listen to God so that when we speak to people they are aware that there's something different about us. What they should see is that we are adhering to the new commandment which Jesus gave us. We must also speak by our actions.
Many people think St Francis said that we were to go out and preach the gospel and that we should use words if we have to but what he actually said was "It is no use walking anywhere to preach unless our walking is our preaching.”
What he's actually saying is you need to to be able to walk the walk if you're going talk the talk. Your word must indeed be your deed.
So, consider the full scriptural verse mentioned earlier: "For no word from God will ever fail.” "For just as rain and snow fall from heaven and do not return without watering the earth, making it bud and sprout, and providing seed to sow and food to eat, so My word that proceeds from My mouth will not return to Me empty, but it will accomplish what I please, and it will prosper where I send it."
What this means is that when God speaks, it's going to happen.
God asks that we incline our ear and come to Him. He says,
"listen, so that your soul may live." (Isaiah 55 vs 3)
Often though, we tell God how it should be done. We all do it. Many times. And we have to learn the hard way. It's not us who're in control; it's the Father. We know that it is true that his thoughts are not our thoughts, neither are our ways his ways. But we're learning. Like little children we're learning to sit back and just let God be God.
The fact is, we are spirit and we are flesh. It's the same God who speaks to us who also speaks to all of the angels.
Jesus sums it up perfectly when he quotes Deuteronomy 8:3 "Man does not live on bread alone but on every word which comes from the mouth of God".
Thank you Jesus.
Jesus is the bread of life, the eternal Word. Therefore, it's necessary for us to feed from the table of his word. We must do what the angels do and "hearken unto the voice of his command"
If we want faith, as St Paul says, we must hear the word of Christ (Romans 10:17)
We must become the sheep who listen to his voice.
On hearing his voice we must not harden our hearts (Heb 3:15)
When we hear his voice we must return to him with all our heart shouting and making a joyful noise; serving him with gladness and delight (Psalm 100: 2).
Praise you Jesus. Alleluia.
