Not Quite Finished

How do you hear God’s voice? 

Whispering? Dreaming? Visions? His word? Through a friend?… 

In the Bible there are several incidents of these situations. And in life today there are untold and numerous variations of God speaking to us. God whispered to Elijah. God spoke out loud to Adam and Eve, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, and Paul. God sent dreams to Joseph, Jacob, Solomon, and several others. He sent visions to Isaiah, Daniel, Peter and John – and plentiful others. Paul and Jesus quoted the Old Testament numerous times. The disciples were friends who listened to Jesus and spread his words around the world.

When we hear God’s voice from one of these ways we know to obey him. There are a few incidents in the Bible where God changed His mind – Abraham appealed to God for less people with Sodom and Gommorah, (Genesis 18), The Golden Calf where Moses pleaded with God to have mercy on the Israelites, (Exodus 32), The prophet Amos beseeched God to not bring fire and locusts on the Israelites, (Amos 7), and Jonah in Nineveh when God was going to destroy Nineveh in 40 days, he relented. (Jonah 3). But that doesn’t happen all the time. These were special circumstances where God shed his mercy on people that did wrong.

Dreaming here in the States is not necessarily anything that people listen to. Overseas it is a voice from God. In our time in foreign lands we’ve heard hundreds of dreams and visions that have led people to Jesus. Sometimes it takes years for the people to respond to the dreams – sometimes just one day. They don’t have Bibles to read (or they are not allowed to read them) so God reshapes their minds through his visions. I would remember that in Arab countries that is the primary way God connects with them. Also in those countries friends are important. In the Quran, Mohammed is mentioned 4 times while Jesus is mentioned 25 times. That places friends that are believers in a positive position. 

God whispers to me a lot these days. Maybe its because I don’t have a voice nowadays and He knows that I will not answer him out loud. God and I have an unusual and remarkable communications relationship that is growing through my brain (and my writing). I don’t dream often, or have visions, but I do have friends – all around the world – and His reliable and trustworthy Word. That is my bedrock and foundation now…