Judges 20:27 NIV
And the Israelites
inquired of the Lord.
Do You Hear From God?
We all communicate or try to communicate when we
have relationships. We use a wide range
of methods; some are effective and others aren’t so successful. We use touch to communicate our love or our
anger, perfumes and colognes to attract attention so that we are noticed. Clothing communicates as does the way we look
at someone with our eyes. We smile,
frown, fold our arms, tap our fingers and grimace to get a point across. Our expressions say something. Sometimes we don’t even realize what our
faces are saying to others. A compliment,
word of encouragement and criticism all are parts of communication. Sometimes we communicate a point by being
late or early, by pausing before answering or by blurting out a reply. We are constantly communicating, sometimes
even by keeping our door closed or staying in the car. Communication is a universal part of our
lives.
We are not all masters at communication; sometimes
we misread the message being given us and other times we don’t realize that we
are saying something unintended. There
is in the Christian community and even outside of it a level of frustration when
it comes to communicating with God. Many
would like to communicate with Him but it doesn’t seem possible. Perhaps you have been disappointed with how
communication has gone for you in your relationship with God. You have tried but either you don’t feel like
God gets through to you or you don’t get through to God. Today, we are going to look at that vital
part of life, communicating with God.
When we read the second and third chapters of the
book of Genesis, we get a clear picture of the psychology of sin with regard to
the relationship between God and His people.
Before Adam rebelled against God, communication between them was
comfortable and relaxed. God met with
Adam, gave him the responsibility of naming all the livestock, beasts of the
field and birds and waited to hear what names he gave them as the Lord herded the
creatures past them. He made Eve and
together they all lived as friends. When
Adam rejected God’s command to not eat the fruit from the tree of the knowledge
of good and evil, communication between them was shattered. Adam and Eve hid from God and even though
they heard the Lord moving about in the Garden of Eden, they tried to keep from
being seen. It was God who broke the
silence between them. He called out to
Adam and Eve, “Where are you?”
Sin clearly wrecked the lives of Adam and Eve. Death became their end rather than life. It also demolished the desire of the two to
meet with God and hear from Him. We
cannot overstate this. Sin shot clear
through the desire of people to be in communication with God, warped their view
of God and put them at odds with Him.
God came to Adam and Eve with the very same level of affection and love
but Adam and Eve due to the damage to their personalities were not able to
accept it. Adam’s reaction to God tells
us all we need to know about what Sin did to him. “I heard you in the garden,
and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid.” (Genesis 3: 10 NIV)
God stayed the same.
He continued to be available to Adam and Eve. It was Adam and Eve who closed the door on
God. Bombard every human with ten
thousand times ten thousand the amount of sin Adam and Eve had within them while
they were still in the Garden and you can easily see how huge our problem is
when it comes to communicating with God.
Our door is shut pretty tight. We
almost never make our minds available to God and it takes a miracle for us to
hear from Him. The problem is not with
God. It is with us.
There are only a few people in the Old Testament who
seem to be really determined to hear from God.
One would be David in his early years.
The expression, “hunger is the best sauce” seems to apply to our
discussion. When David was desperate he
immediately turned to God for guidance.
The Lord gave the people of Israel the Ephod to help them hear from
Him. It was the High Priest’s
responsibility to use it on behalf of the people. In the Ephod were the Urim and Thummim which
were used to answer “yes-no” questions.
They looked like dice and were tossed to get answers from God. In 1 Samuel 23: 9, David called the priest to
him and asked to use the Ephod to find out if the people of the town where he
and his men were camping would protect him if King Saul and his army came to
get him. He wanted God to speak to him
about the danger he faced. When the Lord
through the Ephod told David that the people of Keilah would not protect him,
David fled.
This happened again and again with David. He faced a crisis and got the priest to use
the Ephod to discover what God said he should do. He asked God whether he should pursue an army
of Amalekites who had taken his wives and the wives and children of the
soldiers of his little brigade captive while they were away. (1 Samuel 30: 7) When he wanted to know if the people of Judah
would embrace him as their new king after Saul died, he consulted God with the
Ephod. (2 Samuel 2: 1) Facing a vast army of Philistines and being greatly
outnumbered, David wanted to know from God if he should attack the invading
army and so he had the Ephod brought to him to see what God said. David believed God would tell him what to do
if he asked. When there were life and
death sorts of decisions to make, David took time to find out what God said he
ought to do. It is fascinating that as
David solidified his hold on the country as king and foreign powers stopped
being a threat to him, we no longer see David seeking out the Lord for
guidance. He certainly didn’t look to
God for direction when he thought about sleeping with the married Bathsheba and
later when in his pride, he considered numbering all the fighting men of
Israel, David did not consult with God then either. Both times, the consequence of not letting
God direct his path was deadly and impacted the nation for generations to come.
Although we see several times, kings of Judah
wanting God to speak to them, they nearly always went through prophets rather
than meeting individually with the Lord themselves. Moses of course talked with God all the time
but he is the exception rather than the rule before Christ came and completely
changed our relationship with God. There
is in the New Testament a titanic shift in how God makes Himself available to
us. Before Christ went to the Cross to
die for our sins, the Lord promised that all who put their faith in Him for
their salvation would have the Holy Spirit as a part of them. God would live in us and become part of who
we are. The Bible makes an assumption
that we must either accept as true or reject outright. It is that the Holy Spirit is a part of every
believer not just as some external force but as God joined to the personality
and thus available at all times to guide, empower and help. The Apostle Paul states, “those who are
led by the Spirit of God are sons of God.” (Romans 8:14 NIV) Sons of God are led by the Spirit of
God. That is the assumption Paul
makes. If you are born again, the Holy
Spirit leads you. His “voice” is a
natural part of your life.
John 10 presents a generally overlooked
proposition. It is so clear and decided
that we must face squarely God’s statement.
Using the metaphor of sheep and their shepherd Jesus said, “The man
who enters by the gate is the shepherd of his sheep. The watchman opens the gate for him, and the
sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes
on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice.” (John
10:2-4 NIV) Jesus later adds, “I have
other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too
will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd.”
(John 10:16 NIV) He then declares, “My
sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” (John 10:27 NIV)
God states unequivocally that if you belong to God
and are one of His, you will hear his voice because He will be speaking with
you and you will know it is Him. Why are
so many Christians not experiencing this?
Why do they feel like they do not hear His voice? We will take up that topic next week. For now we must by faith accept this
assertion by Jesus that we have God’s voice in our ear. He speaks to us and we can and should
recognize when it is Him speaking to us.
We have the most exciting and noble of all abilities; the capability of
hearing God speak to us at any moment.
Those not born again are deaf to God.
They cannot understand Him speaking because it is just gibberish to
them, like an American trying to make sense of Cantonese. But the one who is one of God’s own, who is
born-again is given the ability by God to hear Him speak and understand what He
says.
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