Coming off a full week away from my normal ministry responsibilities, I struggled for a little bit last night with the idea of leaping back into the current of resuming my commitments. Few things are as refreshing as escaping for uninterrupted time with my family in the Tennessee mountains. This was our fifth year in a row to spend the week of Thanksgiving in the little oasis called Pigeon Forge. I was able to be undistracted with Amy’s beauty and easy soul – I have an amazing wife. Watching Alicia pour into a little boy, a total stranger who had no mother to care for him, deeply touched my heart, reminding me that she is not yet fully aware of the gift given to her by the Lord – she held his hand during part of the Thanksgiving show we attended and he didn’t want to let her go. God has made my daughter to be uber maternal. Landon kept us in stitches as usual. He is funny, with an exuberance for life that nobody else in the family is able to keep up with. My son is a tornado of energy, wit and vocabulary – he is borderline omnipresent. While we were away, we all slept late, enjoyed leisure and entertainment, ate foods we cannot get back home and enjoyed the beauty of the lingering fall colors in the mountains. It was fun, relational and spiritually refreshing. There were a few hours interspersed in the week wherein, while the family was asleep, I could read God’s Word and just listen for His voice. Truth be known, before we left, the pressures and ceaseless motions of ministry were making His voice faint to my hearing. I was busy, but not very blessed in the days following the presidential election. Life had gotten a little strained, so our time away came none to soon for me. When I get away from ministry activity, I find myself better able to relearn God’s accent. I love His voice. That voice has most often come to me through the written word, my bible.
“Open my eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of your law.” – Psalm 119:18
My prayer for more than two decades has been that God might always speak to me. As a talker, I love meaningful conversation. So does God. Yet, I have learned that some things God is saying go unheard by so many of us. I believe that many (most?) Christians do not regularly sense that God speaks to them personally. Most of us believe that the bible is God’s revelation to humanity so, in that sense, we can sign off on the concept of His having communicated to us. But is He speaking to you? Is He communicating with you today? Have you learned His accent? The Psalmist submitted a request to God that He would cause the Psalmist to behold things out of his bible. The Psalmist seemed to understand that He needed God to be proactively involved on both ends of the communicating process. God would need to say something, and then God would need to follow that up with helping the Psalmist hear what was being said. I encourage you to pray Psalm 119:18 regularly over your own life, maybe even praying it daily.
“Father, help me to hear You. Holy Spirit, teach me Kingdom truths. King Jesus, open up the eyes of my understanding so that I know that you are speaking to me.”
God has a lot to say to you. Life-noise can drown out His voice if we let it. Pressures, self-focus, fears, sicknesses, fractured relationship, anxieties…all these intrusive things can muffle what God is communicating to you. It may be difficult for you to take time away from what is expected of you in your weekly duties. Life cannot be a perpetual trip to the mountains of Tennessee for any of us. We need to be able to hear God in the midst of all our have-to’s in life. He understands how challenging that can be for us. God invites us to borrow the Psalmist’s prayer and ask Him to not only speak to us, but to elevate our ability to hear Him. If His voice has seemed faint lately, or even silent, please take that as your cue to slow down and invest in your own soul by praying for God to open your spiritual eyes to behold, your spiritual ears to hear and your spiritual understanding to discern what He is offering to you. Whatever we do, let’s not assume that it is normal for us to live with a muffled sense of God’s communication. He has something to say – and it is good. He has something to say to you – and it is very good. Allow hearing Him to become so important to you that you are willing to push back from everything for five minutes, bow your heart, and tell Him that you truly want to hear Him. He will speak to you, and you WILL hear Him, if you will make this type of prayer your priority.
Sometimes God’s voice sounds muffled, but that should never lead us to believe that He is muzzled. A silent Father He is not. He has something for those who decide that they will no longer go on living with a faded sense of His presence and communication. Ask Him to empower you to hear from Him yourself – not in a sporadic flickering, but in a sustained fullness.
Pastor Jeff, know that God is speaking thru you. Too many things get in our way these days and you’ve reminded me to push them aside (even for just a short time) to do what is important, listen to Him and glorify Him in everything i do and say. Thanks for reminding me to do just that.
Another great mind changer my brother. Well put. Just prior to Thanksgiving I had a heart attack, and all things, while in the Ambulance going down I-20 to Anniston I talked to Jesus more one on one than I have in a long time. After I arrived at the hospital I actually told nurses and doctors about Jesus more than I have in a long time. WHY? does it take such a horrible action to get us to pray for that closerness to our LORD and Saviour who gave all for us. One thing for sure I heard it said that if you are, heavy laden, need healing, are worried over any item, then it is time to get back in God’s Rest. Thanks again.
This is exactly what I personally have been struggling with within the past month which I truly believe has caused clamour and contrast in my everyday family and work. I know HE speaks to us through His word, people and dreams but I know I and I don’t give the enemy all the credit have not heard all God is saying to me.