Monday, June 20th
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
Have you known those who insist that God talks to them? My internal response has always been part jealousy (why doesn’t God talk to me?), part fear (what if God actually talked to me?), but mostly just skepticism (this person is a nut).
The reality however, is that God is constantly speaking. We were made by God to have a very real, personal relationship with him. Like Adam and Eve in the garden, we are to have (through Jesus) intimate communion and communication with him.
I realized how deaf I had become to his speaking voice when I went to treatment. Everything else (family, job, TV) was stripped away and in my destruction, I became intent on hearing God. I had turned a deaf ear to God and He used pain to get my attention. So, I started listening. As it turned out, He had been speaking. I learned a valuable lesson. If you draw near to God, He will draw near to you (James 4:8).
God longs for us to seek him and rewards us with beautiful intimacy with him when we do. So how do I hear God? Everyday I get up early and I read that which He breathed out. I read the bible. Then I pray and meditate on it. Thus, I sow the seeds of his spirit in my life and thus, He speaks to me.
I find that when God seems to be silent, it is usually my own ear that is defective. If I am pursuing self, sowing the seeds of my flesh, but asking God to speak, I have put in earplugs. I have to choose daily to take my eyes off of self and turn my gaze to God. Only then can I see and hear.
So God talks to me. Does that make me a nut? If it keeps me from the destruction of self, then I certainly don’t mind being a nut.
RSS - Posts
No Responses
Thanks Scott…God still speaks! Even to those of us who try to contain Him in our mind…we have a God who wants to reveal Himself!
Hope you are noticing His beauty out there…shouldn’t be too hard!
Mark
Great blog post Scott! I’m reminded of the scripture in John 10:27 “My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” John 10:27 NKJV
I don’t think it’s odd to hear God’s voice in our lives. Step 11 states, “Sought through prayer and meditation to improve our conscious contact with God as we understood God, praying only for knowledge of God’s will for us and the power to carry that out.”
Conscious contact with God is very much something that Christ taught us. People can point fingers and say we’re nuts, but at least I’m sober and nuts. Discerning the voice God shouldn’t be so controversial, especially when the church gives the Devil so much credit for influencing and seducing God’s people. God speaks to us and through us. Call it a mystery if you will, but I am fully persuaded that God can and does speak to me. I have a conscious connection to God! Many Blessings brother! Jeremy E.
Thanks for the kind words and support brother!