I want to hear God’s voice. I want to know God’s plan for my life. (I think that’s pretty important for a pastor, huh?)
Years ago I read a passage, which seems to give us a model of one of the ways God speaks to us. Some of the most definite ways I have heard from God have been in this model.
(I’m not trying to pick and choose verses, please read the entire passage, but I am pulling the verses, which more clearly address this issue.)
Isaiah 30:15
This is what the Sovereign Lord, the Holy One of Israel, says: “In repentance and rest is your salvation, in quietness and trust is your strength”
We have to be still to hear God’s voice.
Isaiah 30:18
Yet the Lord longs to be gracious to you; he rises to show you compassion. For the Lord is a God of justice. Blessed are all who wait for him!
God wants to bless us with His presence. He wants to speak into our life.
Isaiah 30:20
Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, your teachers will be hidden no more; with your own eyes you will see them.
Sometimes we hear God best when circumstances of our life require us to place our complete attention on God. When we are stripped of what we depend on, our dependence on God becomes more necessary and we more clearly hear His voice.
(Notice it says, bread of adversity and water of affliction. Bread and water are necessary staples to sustain life. Sometimes adversity and affliction are necessary also, to get our attention and move us spiritually to where God can speak to us.)
Isaiah 30:21
Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, “This is the way; walk in it.”
When we are still, we are fully dependent on God, and we are expectantly waiting for Him, we will hear God’s instructions for life.
How do you hear from God? What changes would you need to make to hear from Him more often or more specifically?
More importantly, what is God saying to you today?
In what areas of your life do you need a word from God right now?
Hi Ron,
I’ve read several of your posts and have found the mall quite helpful.
It is interesting that you mention God wanting us to be still. Just in January, that was one of the things The Lord spoke to me. Well, one of the first things He mentioned was that He controls the time and I shouldn’t worry about the time. However, the third time He spoke to me, He said to, ‘be still’.
I awoke one Saturday morning at 2 am to a voice I heard clearly and audibly say, “be still and know that I am God”. You see, at the time I was wrought with worry and fear that I wouldn’t get to see a friend of mine before they left for school. I was busying myself with worrying about the worst case scenario and bouncing back and forth between suicidal thoughts/actions and wanting to have faith in God but not really feeling it.
After hearing ‘be still…’ I was led to write a long poem about being still. After a while I drifted back to sleep. When I reawoke, I saw I had an email from a dear cousin of mine. Her and I are very close but she rarely emails me. The email contained a devotional which she said made her think of me, so she figured she’d share it and hoped it blessed me. When I read the devotional, it was about being still before The Lord.
I guess God really wanted me to get that message.
Unfortunately, that message of being still didn’t stick with me for much longer than a few hours. I jumped right back into being afraid, entertaining confusion, and worrying, that I couldn’t even attempt to be still. Instead, I threw myself into a cycle of tears for the next few days.
Just a few weeks after that, the winter break ended and it was time for classes to resume. I didn’t show up to my classes. I was way too depressed to show up to class. When I saw that the time I feared would come and go without me seeing my friend, had indeed come and gone, I flipped in frustration. How could God speak to me about controlling the time and encourage me NOT to worry about the time if He was just going to let the time my friend said he’d be here, just slip away. It felt like God didn’t care. You said you’d control the time, my friend went back to school and I didn’t see him… Didn’t seem like you were controlling much of anything! You let it slip away! Did You forget You told me not to worry? Did You forget that you said, “why are you worried about the time? Last time they were only here for 9 days yet you spent 2 amazing nights with them. How much more will bless you?” Did You forget You said that??? I. LOST. MY. MIND.
Diving even deeper into my depression and the trappings of my personality disorder, I completely shut down. Early one morning on my way to my internship, I sobbed down the street, called one of my professors, and threatened to kill myself. She demanded that I not give up on life. She lovingly guided me over the phone to the medical center at my school and from there, I was then admitted into the hospital.
I stayed in the hospital for 6 days. The whole medical staff encouraged me to jump right back into school and forget about the friend I wanted to see. They didn’t want to hear about how important this was to me. I begged and pleaded that they discharge me into a day program where I wouldn’t have to go back to school. For some reason, even as classes started for the spring semester, I couldn’t imagine myself being able to make it through the rest of the semester. However the hospital staff didn’t see any reason why I shouldn’t go back to school. They discharged me with a “hope to never see you again”, gave me my papers, and sent me back out into the world. I was scared. Yet God, being faithful to His Word of ‘be still’, had a different plan for me.
The staff at my school collectively decided that it was best I take a medical leave and not resume classes for the Spring semester. I was to find a day program to enter into so that I could get healthy and get back on my feet. While I still have yet to find a day program, I have a tremendous amount of time on my hands. EVERYTHING in my life, school, employment, treatment, a potential relationship, is on hold. I have absolutely nothing else to do but to literally BE STILL before The Lord. Being still remains a struggle for me, but it’s quite clear that it’s exactly what I’m supposed to be doing right now. God is controlling the time so that I can be still.
It hasn’t been the easiest thing for me to do. Even til this very minute, I’m struggling with being still and trusting God. But, as difficult as I find it to admit that God spoke to me, He did. For whatever reasons, He’s having me be still.
Wow. Thanks for sharing your story. Praying for you now.
Being waiting for a long time to really get what God want me to do,i think I have been too busy to figure it out thanks for mentioning that there is a plan God want me to follow this has really help
Wow! Thanks for sharing this! God spoke to me through your words today! What a blessing!
Excellent word… “Sometimes we hear God best when circumstances of our life require us to place our complete attention on God” …pretty much says it all for me.
Wow. God spoke to me BIG TIME this morning thru a devotional. It’s been one of those “where are you God?” times for a while and today he said “Here I am”. Psalm 139:8-10
God gets my attention/let’s me know it’s Him thru tears. I am not a crier, won’t do it… unless God is after me. This morning scanning my emails as soon as my eyes went across that that particular one (hadn’t even opened it yet!) I started bawling. First thought… “oh boy… WHAT is in that message?”
It was what I have been praying about…
Wow.