A Conversation With God
If you want to hear God speak in the night, you need to know his voice in the day. I can’t stress this enough. To live a life obedient to the will of God we need to know what he is saying.
I met a woman who has been a Christian for 20 years and she told me she’s only heard God speak one time. It was over a decade ago and she wondered if God would ever speak like that again. She didn’t know how to keep a conversation going with God.
The ways in which God chooses to speak may vary, but after Christ’s resurrection, he has never gone silent. I would rather die than live a life without the help of the Holy Spirit. I need to hear God in order to know him and follow him! Like David said, “Lord, don’t take your Holy Spirit from me.”
“Create in me a clean heart, O God. Renew a loyal spirit within me. Do not banish me from your presence, and don’t take your Holy Spirit from me. Restore to me the joy of your salvation, and make me willing to obey you.” Psalm 51:11-12
The Holy Spirit is the voice of God. John 14:26 states “But when the Father sends the Advocate as my representative—that is, the Holy Spirit—he will teach you everything and will remind you of everything I have told you.”
Teach means to guide, instruct, direct, explain. Remind means to prompt, point things out, suggest things, or warn you. I cannot go about my day without the confidence that the Holy Spirit is teaching and reminding me, keeping me in check, in order to live a life that is honorable and worthy of his calling.
When the Holy Spirit speaks, most often it’s a quickening in our spirits with a message or an answer to something we weren’t thinking about at the time. When God speaks to you Spirit to spirit, he breaks through with a message deep within us and there’s no denying it is him. As we grow in him, we learn to go to him in prayer, but unfortunately, it’s usually in times like this when we begin to question his voice and the answers we seek.
I know when I am struggling to hear his voice, it’s on me, not God. I can’t obey him if I don’t know what he is telling me.
For those of you who sincerely seek his voice and continue to struggle (and I’ve known many), don’t doubt that God will speak and that he is speaking to you. Once you hear his voice, you will never forget it.
This is a silly example but think of it like this. When I was a child, my mom and I would go shopping and we’d often split up. Back in those days there were no cellphones to text or call and ask where to meet up.
My mother had this continual cough and if I paused long enough I would eventually hear her. It didn’t matter if others were in the store coughing, I knew my mom’s peculiar sounds even when I couldn’t see her. I knew the direction to go.
It’s similar to God. We sense a familiar sound in the air and it sparks something deep within our spirits. When this happens, don’t doubt it’s God, instead, go with it and start a conversation with God. Say, “thank you, God,” or “what do you want me to do with what you said, Lord?” and wait for more.
Be responsive to what you sense is going on in the supernatural. It’s one way to begin learning how to distinguish what you do not see and what is taking place Spirit to spirit. If you’ve been a Christian for years, it’s a reminder to pause and not miss a special conversation with God during the routine parts of your day.
The more time you spend reading our Bible and living a life in God’s presence, you will gain a greater awareness of his voice. You will begin to distinguish those peculiar sounds that randomly occur throughout your day.
The Almighty God lives inside of YOU. Let that sink in for a moment. Think of the magnitude that the God who spoke the world into being and chooses to speak to you directly. Tune your entire being into what he is doing within you. Desire and pursue a conversation with him.
REFLECTION
Read Ezekiel 37:1-14 before proceeding.
The conversation between God and Ezekiel:
A Valley of Dry Bones
God guided him (verses 1-2): “He led me…”
God asked a question (verse 3): “Then he asked me, “Son of man, can these bones become living people again?”
Ezekiel replies: “O Sovereign Lord,” I replied, “you alone know the answer to that.”
God responded with an instruction (verse 4): “Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to these bones and say, ‘Dry bones, listen to the word of the Lord!”
God provides the promise (verses 5-6): “This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Look! I am going to put breath into you and make you live again! I will put flesh and muscles on you and cover you with skin. I will put breath into you, and you will come to life.”
The purpose of God’s being and relationship with you (verse 6): “Then you will know that I am the Lord.’”
Ezekiel followed through in obedience to God’s instructions(verses 7-8): “So I spoke this message, just as he told me. Suddenly as I spoke, there was a rattling noise all across the valley. The bones of each body came together and attached themselves as complete skeletons. Then as I watched, muscles and flesh formed over the bones. Then skin formed to cover their bodies, but they still had no breath in them.”
God provided further instructions (verse 9): “Then he said to me, “Speak a prophetic message to the winds, son of man. Speak a prophetic message and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come, O breath, from the four winds! Breathe into these dead bodies so they may live again.’”
Ezekiel heard God, spoke the words God gave him, and experienced a miracle (verse 10): “So I spoke the message as he commanded me, and breath came into their bodies. They all came to life and stood up on their feet—a great army.”
God told Ezekiel what the Valley of Dry Bones symbolized (verses 11): “Then he said to me, “Son of man, these bones represent the people of Israel. They are saying, ‘We have become old, dry bones—all hope is gone. Our nation is finished’.”
God tells Ezekiel the promise that awaits Israel’s future hold (verses 12-14): “Therefore, prophesy to them and say, ‘This is what the Sovereign Lord says: O my people, I will open your graves of exile and cause you to rise again. Then I will bring you back to the land of Israel. When this happens, O my people, you will know that I am the Lord. I will put my Spirit in you, and you will live again and return home to your own land. Then you will know that I, the Lord, have spoken, and I have done what I said. Yes, the Lord has spoken!’”
Photo by Taylor Simpson on Unsplash