In this day and age, we live with technology similar to that seen before its time in the classic cartoon, “The Jetsons.” We have technology that we can actually talk to and instantly receive a response. Parents around the world may be suiting up their kiddos for a school day when they pause to say, “Alexa, what’s the weather like today?” And we are not surprised when the electronic device responds with something like, “The weather in Meridian today will be slightly warm with a high of 67 degrees and a 90% chance of rain showers.” iPhone users will speak with Siri, and it’s no surprise when “she” responds. The iPhone users command, “Hey, Siri, call Mom.” Siri responds with, “Calling Mom.” When we speak to these handy devices, we expect them to respond.
- Why is it that when we call out to God, we do not always wait for Him to respond?
- Is it because we are expecting Him to respond immediately like Alexa and Siri?
- Is something else in our life louder than His voice?
- Or, could it be that we are expecting His audible voice to respond?
- AND… Why is it that we are often surprised when He does speak to us?
I sometimes find myself talking to Alexa more than talking to God, the Lord of all. I always wait for Siri to respond, but I can really struggle listening for God’s response to my prayer.
I hardly ever begin talking to God without thanking Him for Jesus who makes it possible to have a conversation with the Lord. Until Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross where He gave His life for ours, only appointed high priests could go into the Lord’s presence on behalf of others. At the cross, Jesus’ blood poured out to cover our sins in the final sacrificial service that would ever be needed – that’s when and where He made a way to be with those of us who believe for all of eternity. With that final sacrifice, believers were given the gift of salvation from our sins and the gift of being in the Lord’s presence ourselves. God is so righteous and holy that He could not be in the presence of sin until it had been covered. Our sin separated us from Him. Prior to Jesus’ death and and the blood He shed, believers in God would make animal sacrifices to cover their sin. But God! Whew! He made a way. Through Jesus’ sacrifice, His blood covers the sins of all those who will believe. We don’t need a high priest or animal sacrifice to approach the Lord anymore. Our sins no longer separate us. When God looks at us now, He does not see our sins. He sees His one and only Son, Jesus – the final sacrifice and our Great High Priest. Because of Jesus, I can talk to God! Even though I thank God for Jesus making a way to know Him, I can forget how amazing a gift it is to talk to God or what a privilege it is to approach Him. I know I have lost the wonder of it when I pray out of habit or pray without expecting Him to respond.
I was reminded recently of the calming effect, the encouragement, and the power of the Lord’s voice in my life. Sometimes, when life is most overwhelming, I will find myself in a fog. During the past year, it became difficult to hear from the Lord. Through a surprising conversation I shared with a fellow believer, I was reminded by the Lord that He had not gone anywhere. He had been there with me the whole time, but I had lost my focus. I was distracted and focusing on all of the demands of this world, the crippling emotions of my hurt, and the challenges I was facing – instead of focusing on Him. In Exodus chapter 3, verses 1-4 of God’s Word, the Bible, we can read the recollection of Moses hearing from the Lord through a burning bush.
“Now Moses was keeping the flock of his father-in-law, Jethro, the priest of Midian, and he led his flock to the west side of the wilderness and came to Horeb, the mountain of God. And the angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush. He looked, and behold, the bush was burning, yet it was not consumed. And Moses said, “I will turn aside to see this great sight, why the bush is not burned.” When the Lord saw that he turned aside to see, God called to him out of the bush, “Moses, Moses!” And he said, “Here I am.”” (Exodus 3:1-4, ESV)
In those verses, we read that Moses LOOKED. He even turned aside from his world of keeping watch over the flock to focus on what had gotten his attention – the burning bush. Once He had Moses’ attention, God spoke to him. When I listen to someone speak, I give them my attention. If they are in my presence, I focus on them. During that recent “foggy”season, I hadn’t been able to hear from God, because I was not giving Him my attention – I was not turning aside from the world, from my grief, or from my trials to look to Him.
When God speaks, He may use an audible voice like He did with Moses through the burning bush or when He called to young Samuel sleeping in the Temple (1 Samuel 3) or as He did when He spoke from Heaven following Jesus’ baptism (Matthew 3, Mark 1, and Luke 3). He may even speak through a gentle whisper as He did to Elijah at Mt. Horeb (1 Kings 19:9-18). As I was seeking the voice of the Lord in my recent struggles, when I began to give Him my attention, it was as if I could almost hear Him whisper. For over a year, I had brought the same prayer request to the Lord and my words were, “Do whatever it takes, Lord!” God uses it all – EVERYTHING – the good, the bad, the ugly, the hard, the not-so-hard, the unexpected, the expected – ALL OF IT! He doesn’t waste a thing. And none of it is ever a surprise to Him. He uses it for our good and for His glory. I was grieving the loss of what I thought was going to be instead of focusing on what God was already doing. When I turned aside from my own hurt and looked to Him, He softly and gently reminded me, “Sarah Beth, don’t you remember? You’ve been asking me to do whatever it takes.” And, whew! A peace rushed over me.
That peace I experienced with His whisper reminded me of other times when God had spoken to me. He did not use an audible voice each time, but there is no doubt it was Him speaking to my heart in those moments:
- He has spoken to me through billboards and signs along the highway. My husband was in an accident several years ago. He did not realize how badly he was injured until after he had called me to pick him up, and we were driving back into town to the emergency room. When the gift of his adrenaline began to wear off, he realized he was in a great deal of pain. On that ride to the hospital, I began to pray for God’s presence and His help. As soon as I voiced that prayer, I passed a church sign that read, “I got this! Love, God.” “God’s got this” was voiced to me throughout the many months that followed that night when Jon was injured. “God’s got this!” carried us through surgeries, hospital stays, doctor visits, the loss of Jon’s mom during that time, the financial struggle associated with the accident, the physical therapy, and the painful recovery.
- He has also used a timely breeze in the mountains of Haiti to speak. With the help of a translator, I shared the good news of Jesus’s gift of salvation with a 15-year-old boy who had never heard the name of Jesus before. He decided to follow Jesus that day, and we prayed together. My heart was so heavy for him, though. I knew he had just learned about Jesus, and I also knew that he could not read. I questioned how he would continue getting to know the Lord since no one in his remote village was likely to talk about Jesus with him and since he could not read about his Savior. While I prayed aloud over Jean Johnny, I pleaded with God to continue to make Himself known to my new brother in Christ. I prayed, “Lord, you promise in your Word to send your Holy Spirit to live within us the very moment we believe. Please, Lord, enter Jean Johnny with an undeniable force – make your presence known to Him today in a powerful, mighty way and continue to do so.” And He did! In that moment, as I prayed for the Lord to make His presence known, in the midst of a very dry season and time of drought in Haiti, a wind that was strong enough to bend the tree limbs beside us blew over the three of us (Jean Johnny, our translator, and myself). As Jean Johnny began his long trek back to his remote village, I asked my translator friend if he thought Jean Johnny knew what just happened. He responded, “Yes! How could he not? The Lord answered your prayer with a mighty breeze!”
- He regularly uses the words of other believers to speak to me. It still amazes me how whenever I’m studying a Scripture or facing a challenge in life, it seems like every article I read, book I open, song that I hear, or conversation that I share is centered around that Scripture I’m studying or that struggle I’m facing. It has happened more times than I can count. A fellow believer will say something to me or pray over me, and I’ll think, “WOW! They’re reading my mail!”
When I was 8 years old, God used an evangelist during a fall revival at Lumber City Baptist Church to speak to me. After presenting the good news of the Gospel that night, he used an illustration in his teaching about a young lady who was an only child. She sounded so much like me – that illustration was no coincidence. It was a God-incident. God was speaking to my heart that night. He was calling me to Him. And He used a story much like my own to get my attention.
- He has used experiences to speak to me as well. Several Sundays ago, during morning worship, I was beside myself in awe of the Lord’s presence. After hearing from the Lord earlier in that week through a testimony on the radio, I had begun praying, “Continue to ‘speak, Lord, speak.’ ” throughout that week leading up to that Sunday. When our worship pastor’s wife led in a chorus of “Speak, Lord, Speak” with her beautiful voice, it was as if the Lord was speaking straight to my heart saying, “I hear you.” That song choice for worship that day was no coincidence either. It was another God-incident. Later in the morning service, during the time of invitation, a sweet sister was praying at the altar alone. I am often hesitant to join someone praying alone at the altar, because I know sometimes people like to pray alone with God. It can be a personal, private experience. He usually has to nudge me a few times before I move. He continued to nudge me and point me to her – I kept looking at her praying alone at the altar that morning. So I told God (ha!), “Ok, I’ll go kneel with her. However, I’ll pray silently with her so that I don’t disturb her while she talks with you.” When I knelt by her at the altar, she was praying silently, too. We prayed silently together for a few moments, and before I knew it, I had prayed aloud over her, “Speak, Lord, Speak!” We finished that time of prayer, wiped some tears, hugged, and returned to our seats. Later that evening, she shared with me that she had been praying silently, “speak, Lord, speak” when I surprised her by voicing the same prayer aloud. Only GOD! Only God would use someone who had been praying those words to Him all week long, encourage her through song, then bring her to the altar to pray aloud when she told Him she was going to pray silently with someone else who also was praying, “Speak, Lord, Speak!”
- He continues to use the Bible, His “God-breathed” word to speak to me, too.
“All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.” (2 Timothy 3:16-17)
My husband likes to say, “When we read the Bible and memorize Scripture, we are giving God a vocabulary to use when speaking to us.” I have the joy and privilege of teaching some precious young ladies in a life group on Sunday mornings. It shouldn’t by now, but it still surprises me when the Scripture we are studying that week will feel like God speaking to areas of my life or concerns that I’ve voiced to Him earlier in the week.
There are so many other ways and times the Lord has chosen to speak to me throughout my life. When I find myself in that heavy fog and unable to hear from Him, it’s so encouraging to think back to those times He has spoken to me before.
If you, like me, find yourself yearning to hear from Him again (or for the first time),
- turn aside (from whatever has been distracting you) and look to Him
- give Him your attention
- give Him a vocabulary to use by reading His Word, the Bible
- and pray to Him (silently or aloud), “Speak, Lord, Speak”