Dare to Hear the Voice of God

The message for today may be hard to hear, but don't hit the mute button! Oswald holds nothing back as he makes the truth very clear in today's devotional: we do not truly want to hear from God. Now before you argue the point, sit with it a bit. You may come to a conclusion that is different than you like. You see, we want to hear great and glorious things from God. Words of promise and blessing and revelation. But who of us is eager to hear God's voice, when it carries a message of trial, pain or possible death?

God works good in all things, therefore all things must come. When we read our Bibles we find scripture after scripture that speaks to the trials, temptations and deaths of God's faithful servants. These men and women were extraordinary, not because they had super powers...but because they had super ears. They were dialed into the voice of God. After they sought the Lord's ear, they gave Him their own. THEN...they acted accordingly. In so doing, some were recipients of God's spirit before it was a gift to all believers. These also witnessed the miraculous work of God.

I dare say--if we honestly assess our conversations with the Lord, we would find our time in communion is most like a lecture. We stand before the throne of grace and rather than humble ourselves with thanksgiving, we ramble off our requests, concerns and desires. Then we dust off our knees--if we knealt--and bolt. After all, our time is short. We participate in a one way conversation and we fool ourselves believing we are "communicating" with God. To this Oswald says: "God has given His commands to us, but we pay no attention to them--not because of willfull disobedience, but because we do not truly love and respect Him." Uh...ouch!

Tragically, the message we send forth to the Almighty is we care that He cares for us, but we don't care about Him. We show our shallow feelings by not LISTENING to His heart, or to His plan for our day. Substitute your spouse, child or friend in the position of God and think about how that plays out. Better yet, let's place ourselves on the receiving end of a non-stop talker who never listens and grants you an opportunity to speak. We groan over such insensitivity in others. The all-about-me spirit is unattractive and transparent...to all but the self absorbed. How unattractive we must be to our Lord, when we come to the throne with such an attitude.

Jesus tells us, "If you love Me, keep My commandments," (John 14:15NIV).

Unless we spend time in God's word, we will not know what His commands are: there is much more instruction to behold beyond the Ten Commandments of the Old Testament.
Furthermore, unless we sit with the Lord after we share our heart, we will miss His input and instruction. This is dangerous for the believer. Sometimes, God needs to warn us of harm headed our way. Such was the case with holy family:

"...an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream. "Get up," he said, "take the child and his mother and escape to Egypt. Stay there until I tell you, for Herod is going to search for the child to kill him," (Matthew 2:13NIV).

Had Joseph's ears been closed to God's voice, the story of our Lord's life would have been a different narration. God would have certainly fulfilled His plan, however, Joseph and Mary would have the mark in their testimony that they did not heed the command of God.

God may choose to raise his voice over the noise in our life to be heard. However, that would be an exception. God isn't into rodeo work. He is not interested in wrangling us with a rope and forcing us into submission. If you are a recipient of such attention from the Lord, consider yourself blessed! On the contrary, God wants us to choose to come into His presence, choose to hear His voice and then choose to express our love for Him by doing what He says. Some of us will have to work on our attitudes, some of us will need to serve in some capacity, some of us will be called to give charitably, and some of us will be called to pour out our lives for the work of the Lord. We don't get to pick what our work will be, our choice is whether or not to do it. When we obey, with joy, we will be rewarded. When we rebel we will lose blessings and possible coverage, like Jonah.

Like anything in our lives which requires surrender, sitting still with God--to truly listen to Him--takes practice. Fortunately, God knows our heart. When we confess to him our desire to hear His voice...no matter what He has to say...we can be assured the Lord will help us in our efforts. However, our work continues beyond hearing God's voice, we must then do as He says.

In closing, I pray that we are encouraged with this message and not overly burdened. Oswald notes: "Once I finally do hear Him, the humiliation I have heaped on Him returns to me. My response then becomes, "Lord, why was I so insensitive and obstinate?" God is not eager to point a finger of condemnation at us. He loves us! He longs for us to be in right relationship with Him. Therefore, while we feel sorrow over our "ignoring" Him, let us be inspired to waste no more time. Repent, recieve His forgiveness for the offense and listen from now on. For there is much to hear in regards to today!

Let us not be like those who wandered in the wilderness and chose not to hear the voice of God.

"They said to Moses, "You speak with us, and we will hear; but let not God speak with us, lest we die," (Exodus 20:19NIV).

The Israelites, wanted the salvation of the LORD, the protection of the LORD and the guidance of the LORD. However, they made it evident through their words and their actions...they did not want the commandments of the LORD.

The Creator of heaven and earth, the Almighty God, the Wonderful Counselor...has something to say to YOU. Is not what He has to say important? It could be a matter of life or death.