If there is one thing God has delighted in since the beginning, is people hearing and responding to His voice; especially when we act with childlike faith and simplicity of heart. How He must have smiled when Noah heard His voice and built the ark; or when Abraham responded to His call to leave his family and journey to a foreign place. It doesn’t seem so complicated. It doesn’t have to be.
RELEVANCE
God called Moses to bring a people group out of Egypt to demonstrate how He could lead a nation to triumph and establish a way of relating with Him so He could bless them.
“Now therefore, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be a special treasure to Me above all people; for all the earth is Mine. And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation’ (Exodus 19:5-6).
“And it shall be that if you earnestly obey My commandments which I command you today, to love the LORD your God and serve Him with all your heart and with all your soul, then I will give you the rain for your land in its season, the early rain and the latter rain, that you may gather in your grain, your new wine, and your oil” (Deuteronomy 11:13-15).
Jesus carried forth God’s purposes and revealed how all could be blessed; receiving His words—which are truth and life—breathed by the Holy Spirit.
“My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me” (John 10:27).
“Everyone who is of the truth hears My voice” (John 18:37).
“Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me. To him who overcomes I will grant to sit with Me on My throne, as I also overcame and sat down with My Father on His throne. He who has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches” (Revelation 3:20-22).
God still knocks on the door to our heart. He speaks to His people by the “still small voice” or whisper of the Holy Spirit. It simply takes keeping a soft and pliable heart and being willing to hear what ever the Lord may speak.
Sometimes it’s a matter of blocking or resisting the noise of the world– the raging winds. They bring confusion, distraction and torment that prevent us from being still before God to hear His calm, peaceful whisper.
“He calms the storm,
So that its waves are still.
Then they are glad because they are quiet;
So He guides them to their desired haven.”
(Psalm 107:29-30)
In Matthew 14 we read how Peter stepped out of the boat in faith. When he saw the raging wind, however, he began to sink. Jesus encouraged him, however, and strengthened him to grow in faith. After Pentecost, he continued hearing the still small voice of the Holy Spirit guiding him in truth.
REFLECT AND RELATE
How does God speak to you? How can you know it? What winds cause you to fall short of walking in faith and receiving what God has for you?
REFERENCES
John 14:16-21; 16:12-15