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The BIG Picture
"Collected
wisdom from the journey."
from Doug
Perry - www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
- May, 2007
Chapter Nine
– Voices
(Printable
PDF file)
Refuse To Hear
God's Voice? Bad Idea.(excerpted from
“Do It Yourself City Church Restoration”)
In essence, what
going your own way will do is get you under a Red Dragon curse from
God and He will send strong delusion on you that is meant for your
destruction and you won't even know it. You have made up
your own religion and you're going your own way. And He'll turn you
over to it and you might not even notice! Read www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com/red_dragon.htm
Probably the worst
deception of all, the most dangerous to your soul and the most
beneficial to the enemy, is the lie that God doesn't talk to us
anymore. It denies relationship, it neuters the Holy Spirit,
and it keeps us from really being able to have Him write His law on
our hearts so He can explain everything to us on the fly and show its
personal application to our daily walk with Him. (And it's
really impolite to talk AT Him all the time and never expect Him to
say anything back – or ignore Him if He tries. That's no
way to treat your Dad. What kind of relationship do you expect to
have like that?)
There is no
factual or observational reason I can discern that we needed to stop
hearing from Him just because the Bible was completed. The fact that
there are abuses and fakers and liars, doesn't mean the real thing
isn't out there. God offered Man a whole bunch of chances to hear His
voice, but we keep refusing to hear from Him and instead preferring
to listen to Man – or satan. And every time we do listen
to somebody else instead of Him, there are bad consequences. Here are
some examples:
Genesis 3:13, 16 (KJV)
13 And the LORD
God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the
woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. ...
16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy
conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire
shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.
Eve listened to
the snake instead of the voice of God. And she got cursed.
Genesis 3:17-19 (KJV)
17 And unto Adam
he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and
hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt
not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt
thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles
shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the
field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou
return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou
art, and unto dust shalt thou return.
Adam listened to
Eve instead of the voice of God. And he got cursed.
Genesis 16:2 (KJV)
- And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me
from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may
obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.
God told Abram to
wait and Sarai would have a child. But Abram listened to Sarai
instead and got Hagar pregnant and had Ishmael. And Ishmael is the
father of all the Arabs and has been no end of trouble for Israel
ever since.
Hebrews 3:12-19 (KJV)
Take heed,
brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in
departing from the living God. 13 But exhort one another daily,
while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the
deceitfulness of sin. 14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if
we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden
not your hearts, as in the provocation. 16 For some, when they
had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by
Moses. 17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not
with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his
rest, but to them that believed not? 19 So we see that they
could not enter in because of unbelief.
Here they hardened
their hearts, refused to listen to His voice and they all died in the desert.
Deuteronomy
21:18-21 (KJV)
18 If a man
have a stubborn and rebellious son, which will not obey the voice of
his father, or the voice of his mother, and that, when they have
chastened him, will not hearken unto them: 19 Then shall his
father and his mother lay hold on him, and bring him out unto the
elders of his city, and unto the gate of his place; 20 And they
shall say unto the elders of his city, This our son is stubborn and
rebellious, he will not obey our voice; he is a glutton, and a
drunkard. 21 And all the men of his city shall stone him with
stones, that he die: so shalt thou put evil away from among you; and
all Israel shall hear, and fear.
God obeys His own
rules. And His rule here says that if a son refuses to obey the voice
of his father, then he's to be taken out and stoned. Better to
have no son at all then a rebellious, drunkard, disgraceful,
disobedient son. Jesus was the opposite of that. What are you?
You may not get stoned in the “natural” - but if you refuse
to listen to God, you'll get pelted with rocks spiritually until you
repent or die. He'll do it Himself. Evidently fear is not such
a bad thing. God talks about the need for us to fear Him a
lot! It is supposed to make us VERY attentive and
obedient! Unfortunately we have a really serious “Fear of
the Lord” shortage in America. What are you doing to turn
that around?
Jeremiah 7:21-28 (KJV)
21 Thus saith
the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel; Put your burnt offerings unto
your sacrifices, and eat flesh. 22 For I spake not unto your
fathers, nor commanded them in the day that I brought them out of the
land of Egypt, concerning burnt offerings or sacrifices: 23 But
this thing commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and I will be
your God, and ye shall be my people: and walk ye in all the ways that
I have commanded you, that it may be well unto you. 24 But they
hearkened not, nor inclined their ear, but walked in the counsels and
in the imagination of their evil heart, and went backward, and not
forward. 25 Since the day that your fathers came forth out of
the land of Egypt unto this day I have even sent unto you all my
servants the prophets, daily rising up early and sending them:
26 Yet they hearkened not unto me, nor inclined their ear, but
hardened their neck: they did worse than their fathers.
27 Therefore thou shalt speak all these words unto them; but
they will not hearken to thee: thou shalt also call unto them; but
they will not answer thee. 28 But thou shalt say unto them, This
is a nation that obeyeth not the voice of the LORD their God, nor
receiveth correction: truth is perished, and is cut off from their mouth.
That's a pretty
depressing commissioning service for Jeremiah isn't it? “Go
and speak this, but I can tell you ahead of time that they're going
to completely ignore you.” (And throw you in prison.) Fun.
God's cool. Not only are they not going to listen to God,
they're not going to listen to anybody He sends to try to get through
to them either. They're not listening to the Commandments or the
written Law – or to the prophets sent to speak Truth to them and
call them back the Lord.
And why exactly do
we not need prophets to do that anymore? Are we not a thousand times
more rebellious and selfish and murderous than Israel? Oh yeah!
I forgot – “that which is perfect has come” and Bible
is complete now so we don't need prophets. That's what Israel
said, too. “We have the Torah, go away and leave us
alone.” God would not send prophets to speak if the people
were actually obeying the written Word! It's the same
today. If we were obeying the Bible, we wouldn't need God to
send prophets to tell us to repent. But since we're totally
blaspheming the Holy Spirit and full of dissension, factions, selfish
ambition, envy, lust, pride, greed and so many other things, how can
it be said we're even obeying the written Word? (Gal.
5:19-21) Are we not quarreling? Are we not taking the names of
men and dividing up into factions? Are we not divorcing? Are we not
sold out to the world? Why would He give us meat when we are puking
up the milk we already have?! We're not loving each other.
We're not sacrificing. We're not being One Body. Of course, we
still need prophets and apostles! We're not on the right foundation
at all! We're worshiping another Jesus and have been for
generations! Somebody has to speak Truth no matter the
consequences because we're so stubborn and stiff-necked that we can
explain away and justify even the written Words in front of our own face!
We need prophets
who will hear the voice of God and speak hard truth because we refuse
to hear His voice ourselves or He might actually write His law on our
hearts and keep us from sinning – and we desperately don't want
that to happen because we like our sin too much. (And the enemy
REALLY doesn't want us to change!)
Here it is, right
here. The people have been getting chances to hear His voice all the
way back to the Garden, but we keep insisting we'd rather listen to
ANYTHING other than His voice. Eve listened to the snake, Adam
listened to Eve. Here the children of Israel want to listen to Moses
instead of God.
Exodus 20:18-21 (KJV)
18 And all
the people saw the thunderings, and the lightnings, and the noise of
the trumpet, and the mountain smoking: and when the people saw it,
they removed, and stood afar off. 19 And they said unto Moses,
Speak thou with us, and we will hear: but let not God speak with us,
lest we die. 20 And Moses said unto the people, Fear not: for
God is come to prove you, and that his fear may be before your faces,
that ye sin not. 21 And the people stood afar off, and Moses
drew near unto the thick darkness where God was.
Deuteronomy 5:22
(ASV) - 22 These words Jehovah spake unto all your assembly in
the mount out of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the
thick darkness, with a great voice: and he added no more. And he
wrote them upon two tables of stone, and gave them unto me.
You see? He spoke
to ALL of them. It wasn't just Moses alone up on the mountain like in
the movies. They ALL heard His voice and heard the Ten Commandments.
And it freaked them out!
Deuteronomy
5:23-25 (ASV)
23 And it
came to pass, when ye heard the voice out of the midst of the
darkness, while the mountain was burning with fire, that ye came near
unto me, even all the heads of your tribes, and your elders;
24 and ye said, Behold, Jehovah our God hath showed us his glory
and his greatness, and we have heard his voice out of the midst of
the fire: we have seen this day that God doth speak with man, and he
liveth. 25 Now therefore why should we die? for this great fire
will consume us: if we hear the voice of Jehovah our God any more,
then we shall die.
And they begged
and pleaded not to have to hear Him anymore. This is satan logic
here. They're definitely hearing other voices because this makes
absolutely no sense at all. God wanted to talk to them all the
time. He only gave them those Ten Commandments – and then His
voice with them all individually all the time would keep them from
sinning. The fear of the Lord would be in the people because His
constant presence would write the laws on their heart and show them
the application of all the Big Ten to the whole rest of their
circumstances. But they acknowledge they just heard God and
aren't dead. But they don't want to hear Him anymore or they will
die. (Something in them will die, that's for sure – their
rulers and the “self” that likes the sin!) They don't
believe any man can hear God and live, but they admit they just did.
See the logic problems here? It gets worse.
Deuteronomy 5:26
(ASV) - 26 For who is there of all flesh, that hath heard the
voice of the living God speaking out of the midst of the fire, as we
have, and lived?
Well, that's a
stupid question. THEY just heard Him and are still standing, but
they're just sure that if you hear Him you'll die. Huh?
Deuteronomy 5:27
(ASV) - 27 Go thou near, and hear all that Jehovah our God shall
say: and speak thou unto us all that Jehovah our God shall speak unto
thee; and we will hear it, and do it.
So what do they do
because they're so sure no flesh can hear God and live? They send
Moses up to see what He wants! Isn't that a suicide
mission? Is he not flesh? What kind of self-sacrifice and
brotherly kindness and love is this?! They just shoved him up into
the fire because they're too scared to get that close to God!
They want Moses to go get instructions from God and they promise
they'll obey Moses. They just exchanged the voice of God AGAIN
for the voice of a man. And they never do really obey
Moses! He can't individually and personally write it on their
hearts and explain all the personal applications of those Ten
Commandments to them on the fly as their day is going on. It's
a whole lot easier to blow off the words of a man than when God is
speaking to you directly and personally! (Believe me.)
Satan knows that, and that's why he always wants us to NOT hear the
voice of God for ourselves. And see what happens next?
Deuteronomy
5:28-33 (ASV)
28 And
Jehovah heard the voice of your words, when ye spake unto me; and
Jehovah said unto me, I have heard the voice of the words of this
people, which they have spoken unto thee: they have well said all
that they have spoken. 29 Oh that there were such a heart in
them, that they would fear me, and keep all my commandments always,
that it might be well with them, and with their children for ever!
30 Go say to them, Return ye to your tents. 31 But as for
thee, stand thou here by me, and I will speak unto thee all the
commandment, and the statutes, and the ordinances, which thou shalt
teach them, that they may do them in the land which I give them to
possess it. 32 Ye shall observe to do therefore as Jehovah your
God hath commanded you: ye shall not turn aside to the right hand or
to the left. 33 Ye shall walk in all the way which Jehovah your
God hath commanded you, that ye may live, and that it may be well
with you, and that ye may prolong your days in the land which ye
shall possess.
The Lord gives the
people ten little rules and lets them know He will write them on
their hearts and keep them from sinning. All other rules, statutes
and ordinances fit inside those ten. He would have walked
beside them personally and individually and kept them in line with
those ten commandments, but they refused to personally hear His
voice. They preferred – as we still do today – to send
someone else up the mountain so we don't have to hear Him for
ourselves. But the man who tells us what God wants for us can
never really keep us from sinning. Because they refused to hear
His voice, instead of just the ten, Moses had to go up the mountain
and get like 609 more rules and statutes and procedural instructions
and dietary laws. How to handle property, what happens if your bull
gets loose, what to do if someone has leprosy, how to properly wash
things. It goes on and on and on! If they're not going to
listen to God, then God is going to have to give it all in one dump
to Moses and leave it to him to communicate it to the people and make
sure they obey – which they never really do.
And worse still,
God cursed Moses by telling him that now it was MOSES' job to teach
it to them. God was willing to teach them and walk with them and
explain it all individually and KEEP them from sinning through that
relationship with each one of them. But they refused, so now ALL the
pressure is on Moses. They picked a man to lead them and then
overloaded and stressed him out by their constant refusal to listen
to him. The result is that even Moses gets exasperated and ends up
disobeying God and can't go into the Promised Land. It's not
just what we've done to the people by saying God doesn't speak, it's
what we've done to the poor shepherds by putting all the pressure on THEM!
Are you getting
this? It could have been so much more simple!! We could have
just had the Big Ten and God explaining it to us on the fly, but we
would have rather listened to a Man than the Living God because it
was too scary and we might have to give up some stuff we like.
So God suggests another solution to get this done.
Deuteronomy
18:15-19 (KJV)
15 The LORD
thy God will raise up unto thee a Prophet from the midst of thee, of
thy brethren, like unto me; unto him ye shall hearken;
16 According to all that thou desiredst of the LORD thy God in
Horeb in the day of the assembly, saying, Let me not hear again the
voice of the LORD my God, neither let me see this great fire any
more, that I die not. 17 And the LORD said unto me, They have
well spoken that which they have spoken. 18 I will raise them up
a Prophet from among their brethren, like unto thee, and will put my
words in his mouth; and he shall speak unto them all that I shall
command him. 19 And it shall come to pass, that whosoever will
not hearken unto my words which he shall speak in my name, I will
require it of him.
God gets that
maybe He's too big and scary for them to handle directly – but
they're still not listening to Moses, so He agrees to raise up a
prophet that maybe they will listen to. He agrees to send His
Son to come in the flesh as one of their own brethren and talk to us
personally. And when He did, we crucified Him as fast as we
could. But God is still serious about you having to listen to
Him, so even though Jesus isn't among us in the flesh anymore, He
sent His Spirit back to talk to us and explain everything.
John 16:7-15 (KJV)
7 Nevertheless I
tell you the truth; It is expedient for you that I go away: for if I
go not away, the Comforter will not come unto you; but if I depart, I
will send him unto you. 8 And when he is come, he will reprove the
world of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment: 9 Of sin,
because they believe not on me; 10 Of righteousness, because I go to
my Father, and ye see me no more; 11 Of judgment, because the prince
of this world is judged. 12 I have yet many things to say unto you,
but ye cannot bear them now. 13 Howbeit when he, the Spirit of truth,
is come, he will guide you into all truth: for he shall not speak of
himself; but whatsoever he shall hear, that shall he speak: and he
will shew you things to come. 14 He shall glorify me: for he shall
receive of mine, and shall shew it unto you. 15 All things that the
Father hath are mine: therefore said I, that he shall take of mine,
and shall shew it unto you.
Hebrews 8:8-13 (KJV)
8 For finding
fault with them, he saith, Behold, the days come, saith the Lord,
when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the
house of Judah: 9 Not according to the covenant that I made with
their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them
out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant,
and I regarded them not, saith the Lord. 10 For this is the
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days,
saith the Lord; I will put my laws into their mind, and write them in
their hearts: and I will be to them a God, and they shall be to me a
people: 11 And they shall not teach every man his neighbour, and
every man his brother, saying, Know the Lord: for all shall know me,
from the least to the greatest. 12 For I will be merciful to
their unrighteousness, and their sins and their iniquities will I
remember no more. 13 In that he saith, A new covenant, he hath
made the first old. Now that which decayeth and waxeth old is ready
to vanish away. (Also Hebrews 10:15-18)
See? That's
what He wanted to do all the way back in Exodus 20 at Sinai, but they
refused. So He sent Jesus and we killed Him. Then He sent the
Holy Spirit and we're still trying to deny that even He can talk to
us – despite it being right there in writing in the Word of
God! Meanwhile we have great huge chunks of the Church who do
NOT have His law written on their hearts and so He has not washed
away their sin and iniquities. We're still denying Christ (and
His Spirit) before men, so He's denying us before the Father. All
because we refuse to listen to His voice. No matter what form it
comes in. We're such stupid, stubborn sheep. We deserve
whatever we get for this mess.
I don't want to
argue about whether God talks to people today or not, it should just
be obvious that if you do not have His laws written on your heart and
mind enough to keep you from sinning, then you are probably refusing
to listen to Him and/or have decided He can't talk to people and/or
don't think He can actually keep you from sinning. We have pews full
of sinners who are members of “churches” and think they are
just fine. Somebody is lying to them – and it ain't God.
We have leaders
who ferociously and fervently assert that God doesn't talk to people
anymore. Why are they saying that? Well, partly because if
nobody is going to have to teach their neighbor anymore because they
“will all know God from the least to the greatest,” then we
don't really need those guys up on stage anymore, do we? That's
a real job security problem. What were all those years in seminary
for if anybody can hear God and He will tell them what to do?
What exactly do we need expository sermons for? Can the
pastor really write God's law on your heart? Is that working across
the spectrum of Christianity? If so, then why are we so full of
wickedness and look so much like the world? I think, despite
God showing up and talking, Jesus showing up and talking, and the
Holy Spirit showing up and talking – we're still absolutely
committed to only listening to MEN tell us what to do. (Or
satan – either way – anything but God.)
Deuteronomy
8:19-20 (KJV)
19 And it
shall be, if thou do at all forget the LORD thy God, and walk after
other gods, and serve them, and worship them, I testify against you
this day that ye shall surely perish. 20 As the nations which
the LORD destroyeth before your face, so shall ye perish; because ye
would not be obedient unto the voice of the LORD your God.
Deuteronomy 28:62
(KJV) - And ye shall be left few in number, whereas ye were as the
stars of heaven for multitude; because thou wouldest not obey the
voice of the LORD thy God.
Psalms 81:8-16 (KJV)
8 Hear, O my
people, and I will testify unto thee: O Israel, if thou wilt hearken
unto me; 9 There shall no strange god be in thee; neither shalt
thou worship any strange god. 10 I am the LORD thy God, which
brought thee out of the land of Egypt: open thy mouth wide, and I
will fill it. 11 But my people would not hearken to my voice;
and Israel would none of me. 12 So I gave them up unto their own
hearts' lust: and they walked in their own counsels. 13 Oh that
my people had hearkened unto me, and Israel had walked in my ways!
14 I should soon have subdued their enemies, and turned my hand
against their adversaries. 15 The haters of the LORD should have
submitted themselves unto him: but their time should have endured for
ever. 16 He should have fed them also with the finest of the
wheat: and with honey out of the rock should I have satisfied thee.
Psalms 106:21-27 (KJV)
They forgat God
their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; 22 Wondrous
works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea.
23 Therefore he said that he would destroy them, had not Moses
his chosen stood before him in the breach, to turn away his wrath,
lest he should destroy them. 24 Yea, they despised the pleasant
land, they believed not his word: 25 But murmured in their
tents, and hearkened not unto the voice of the LORD. 26 Therefore
he lifted up his hand against them, to overthrow them in the
wilderness: 27 To overthrow their seed also among the nations,
and to scatter them in the lands.
Want some more.
How about this? Kind of hard line here, isn't it? I'm not
suggesting we do this literally, but I do believe God follows His own
rules and He's already done it in the spirit to us. He has
executed a bunch of people. We already have ruined and
abandoned cities all over America. There wasn't a single true city
church – a single Lampstand – in America two years ago.
Total darkness. Don't take my word for it, double check with God (if
you can hear His voice).
Deuteronomy
13:1-18 (God's Word translation)
1 One of
your people, claiming to be a prophet or to have prophetic dreams,
may predict a miraculous sign or an amazing thing. 2 What he
predicts may even take place. But don't listen to that prophet or
dreamer if he says, “Let's worship and serve other gods.”
(Those gods may be gods you've never heard of.) 3 The Lord your
God is testing you to find out if you really love him with all your
heart and with all your soul. 4 Worship the Lord your God, fear
him, obey his commands, listen to what he says, serve him, and be
loyal to him. 5 That prophet or dreamer must be put to death
because he preached rebellion against the Lord your God, who brought
you out of Egypt and freed you from slavery. He was trying to lead
you away from following the directions the Lord your God gave you.
You must get rid of this evil.
6 Your own
brother, son, or daughter, the wife you love, or your best friend may
secretly tempt you, saying, “Let's go worship other gods.”
(Those gods may be gods that you and your ancestors never knew.
7 They may be the gods of the people around you, who live near
or far, from one end of the land to the other.) 8 Don't be
influenced by any of these people or listen to them. Have no pity on
them. Don't feel sorry for them or protect them. 9 You must put
them to death. You must start the execution. Then all the other
people will join you in putting them to death. 10 Stone them to
death because they were trying to lead you away from the Lord your
God, who brought you out of slavery in Egypt. 11 All Israel will
hear about it and be afraid. Then no one among you will ever do such
a wicked thing again.
12 You may
hear that the residents in one of the cities which the Lord your God
is giving you to live in 13 have been led away from the Lord
your God by worthless people. You may hear that these people have
been saying, “Let's worship other gods.” (Those gods may be
gods you've never heard of.) 14 Then make a thorough
investigation. If it is true, and you can prove that this disgusting
thing has been done among you, 15 you must kill the residents of
that city with swords and destroy that city and everyone in it,
including the animals, because they are claimed by God. 16 Gather
their goods into the middle of the city square. Then burn their city
and all their goods as a burnt offering to the Lord your God. It must
remain a mound of ruins and never be rebuilt. 17 Don't ever take
any of the things claimed for destruction. Then the Lord will stop
being angry and will show you mercy. In his mercy he will make your
population increase, as he swore to your ancestors. 18 The Lord
your God will do this if you listen to him, obey all the commands
that I'm giving you today, and do what he considers right.
Are we doing
anything even closely resembling that? Are we even holding
ANYBODY accountable for whatever stupid thing they feel like saying
about God? What about this command?
1 Timothy 5:19-21 (KJV)
19 Against an
elder receive not an accusation, but before two or three witnesses.
20 Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.
21 I charge thee before God, and the Lord Jesus Christ, and the
elect angels, that thou observe these things without preferring one
before another, doing nothing by partiality.
When was the last
time you saw an elder rebuked publicly? More likely somebody
said something stupid like, “Touch not God's anointed,” to
keep you from even thinking about doing it! The Word of God
clearly commands us to publicly rebuke elders who are sinning.
And preaching another Jesus definitely qualifies! What kind of
other Jesus? Well, there's Emergency-Only-Jesus, Not-Quite-As-Good-As-The-Virgin-Mary-Jesus,
Once-Saved-Always-Saved-Lifeguard-Jesus,
All-Nice-People-Go-To-Heaven-Jesus, Manifestation-Jesus,
Can't-Talk-Or-Heal-People-Jesus, Prosperity-Jesus,
Purpose-Driven-Jesus, Seeker-Friendly-Jesus and thousands of
others. Some folks just skip Jesus and worship the Holy Spirit!
Jeremiah 2:28-29 (NIV)
“Where then
are the gods you made for yourselves? Let them come if they can save
you when you are in trouble! For you have as many gods as you
have towns, O Judah. Why do you bring charges against me? You have
all rebelled against me,” declares the Lord.
The number of our
gods has exceeded the number of our towns – and none of these
gods are getting the job done because mostly we made them all up. We
have about 33,000 municipal governments in America and we have
37,000+ denominations that call themselves
“Christian”. Most of them won't talk to the other
ones. We're in big trouble. I hope you can see that. And how
did it get this bad? Because we said stuff like this and totally
didn't mean it at all.
Joshua 24:19-24
(God's Word)
19 But Joshua
answered the people, “Since the Lord is a holy God, you can't
possibly serve him. He is a God who does not tolerate rivals. He will
not forgive your rebellious acts and sins. 20 If you abandon the
Lord and serve foreign gods, he will turn and bring disaster on you.
He will destroy you, although he has been so good to you.”
21 The people answered Joshua, “No! We will {only} serve
the Lord!” 22 Joshua said to the people, “You have
testified that you have chosen to serve the Lord.” They
answered, “Yes, we have!” 23 “Get rid of the
foreign gods that are among you. Turn yourselves entirely over to the
Lord God of Israel.” 24 The people replied to Joshua,
“We will serve the Lord our God and obey him.”
They lived at
peace with God only until Joshua died and nobody was watching, then
they all turned back to their idols. They said all the right things,
but they didn't really mean it. They turned their children over to
the world around them.
I'm tired. You're
probably tired, too. I don't want to keep pounding this note. If you
haven't gotten it by now, there's probably nothing else I can say to
you. Here's the upside – there are those coming who WILL listen
and obey and they will be fierce and mighty because they will not
look like the world and they will be under His command ALL the
time. And when they come, they'll be bringing a consuming fire
to test all that has been built by Man.
Joel 2:11 (KJV) -
And the LORD shall utter his voice before his army: for his camp is
very great: for he is strong that executeth his word: for the day of
the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can abide it?
You're supposed to
be hearing Him. You're supposed to obey. Please ask Him what's
clogging you up so that you can hear His voice better.
Please? You're no good for this war if you can't hear commands
from Headquarters.
Mark 9:7 (KJV)
- And there was a cloud that overshadowed them: and a voice
came out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved Son: hear him.
Luke 9:35 (KJV) -
And there came a voice out of the cloud, saying, This is my beloved
Son: hear him.
John 10:27 (KJV) -
My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:
Isaiah 6:8 (KJV) -
Also I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, Whom shall I send, and
who will go for us? Then said I, Here am I; send me.
Communications
– Hotline to Headquarters(excerpted
from “Rain Down NOW, Lord!”)
Why do we need to
do this? Because you need to hear REALLY clearly from Headquarters
before we start passing out new weapons you don't know what to do
with! The last thing we need is more friendly fire accidents
when you go firing off stuff like Prophecy or Tongues without having
been trained. You could do some serious damage – trust me. It's
really important that we get your pipeline all cleaned out so that
you know what to give, what to ask for, and what to do with it. If
there is stuff in the way, we need to get it out so your motives will
be right and He can call the shots.
OK, so we got the
Sin out, we're getting more Self out, we learned how to get more
Jesus in our cup, now what? Well, now it's time to get your filters
unclogged so you can hear God really well and HE can direct ALL your
paths. This works better as a question and answer thing. Ready?
First, what
exactly are we talking about? Does God really speak to people today?
Yes. In a whole
bunch of ways from a gentle nudge, to instruction through the Word,
to using other people and circumstances to speak to you, to sending
dreams and visions (or angels) – and/or even conversing directly
with you.
You can hear
God and converse with Him?! You’re kidding, right?
Not kidding. You
can absolutely talk to God and He’ll talk back. There are
millions of people all over the world that rely on God for constant
daily instruction on all sorts of things. But, there’s a
difference between hearing God audibly (with your natural ears,
outside of your own head) and hearing the inner “still, small
voice”. It’s pretty rare for God to speak to people
audibly (like thunder), but there are plenty of folks out there that
say they’ve heard Him – and the evidence is that once they
did, it changed them forever!
Many of the house
churches in China are under such persecution that they can’t set
a regular time for meeting or even tell each other when the meeting
will be – they all just pray independently and God Himself sets
the time and place and tells each to be there. I've experienced that
kind of coordination myself and hear Him speak to me all the
time. This is totally for real and the birthright of every
believer! He's your Dad and He wants to talk to you.
Wait ... people
hear the God of the Universe tell them stuff? Like what tie to wear
and whether to turn left or right? What job to take? What to have for
dinner? Not just big stuff?
Sure. The Bible
says, “In all your ways acknowledge Him and He will direct your
paths.” (Prov. 3:5-6) What do you think “ALL your ways”
means? And how is He going to direct you if you can’t hear Him?
But my pastor
said God doesn’t talk to people like that!
Hmmm. Well, God
used to talk to people all the time in the Bible. Wonder when He
stopped? Did He say He was going to stop? Isn’t He the same
yesterday, today and forever? If anything, once the Holy Spirit came
in Acts 2, there were LOTS MORE people talking to God directly!
Never mind the MILLIONS of people all over the world who you have to
conclude are thoroughly and certifiably nuts – including many of
the most effective leaders of the church. In order to sustain that
argument you have all kinds of logic problems. (Oh, and ask your
pastor who “called” him into the ministry if God doesn't
talk to people anymore.)
Consider this;
IF God used to
talk to people but doesn’t now, THEN we must not need to hear
from Him anymore. Can that be? By all measures we’re worse
off than ever. If there is a war between Good and Evil, we’re
losing pretty badly right now and really desperately need to be
getting commands directly from Headquarters, not from flawed man-made
sources and tradition-soaked interpretations of Scripture!
IF there is a
battle between Good and Evil, THEN who would benefit most if the
people on the “Good” side were told they couldn’t
ACTUALLY talk to their Commander in Chief? Now, you know the
“Evil” side is absolutely clear to EVERYONE that if you try
to talk to THEIR leadership you WILL get an answer REAL fast! Even
Christians are afraid to mess with Ouija boards and call on the names
of demons because somewhere inside they believe something VERY real
will show up almost instantly. But at the same time, the forces
of darkness want us to buy that OUR God is mute! Doesn’t that
sound like something the snake would say in the Garden? Despite
hundreds of examples in the Bible that He is available and accessible
all the time, we have bought the lie that God is unwilling or unable
to actually talk to His children. It’s a lie from the pit and
we’ve bought into it for too long.
IF we receive the
Holy Spirit when we are saved, THEN 1/3 of the Godhead is living
INSIDE of us all the time! (I John 4:13-17) But He doesn’t have
anything to say?! He’s not interested in our daily activities?
God’s not big enough to know what we should have for lunch? He
knows the hairs on our head and monitors our every coming and going,
but has no opinion about it or desire to give us advice? What kind of
Father is that?! IF we’re dead and it’s Christ in us that
lives, THEN shouldn’t HE be running the show? (Romans 7:4-6)
The most common
argument I hear is that when the Bible was done being written then
“that which was perfect has come and that which was in part was
done away” (I Corin. 13:10) so we don't need to talk to God
anymore. The argument is that I Corinthians 12 talks about tongues
and prophecy and then chapter 13 tells about the way it SHOULD be
when the perfect is come so you should do away with all that. But
they don't seem to notice that then chapter 14 starts with Paul
urging them to seek the gift of prophecy! Said another way, I
think “when that which is perfect is come” refers to Jesus
returning, NOT the Bible being completed.
IF the Bible is
what's being referred to there, THEN why hasn't knowledge ceased? IF
it's the “perfect” thing mentioned there, THEN nothing
could stand against it. IF the Bible is perfect, THEN could somebody
tell me which version is flawless? And IF none of them are because we
don't have the original manuscripts anymore, THEN something DID stand
against it! IF the perfect is come, THEN why do we have 37,000+
denominations and we seem to be losing the battle with the darkness?
There are just big giant logic problems with that argument – not
to mention the personal experience of millions of reasonable,
Jesus-lovers all over the world.
But my pastor
says even HE doesn’t hear God conversationally like that!
Ok, well, you see,
Matthew 18:18 says that, “what you bind on earth will be bound
in heaven and what you loose on earth will be loosed in heaven.”
It goes on to say that if two of you on earth agree about anything
you ask for, it will be done for you by the Father in heaven. (v.
19) So, could it be that we have whole groups of Christians
that have agreed that God doesn’t talk to people? And if they
were convinced of that, don’t those verses say that God will
honor it? So maybe the problem is that if you’re convinced God
WON’T talk to you that way, He probably won’t. And who
would you blame? The pastor? Probably not – in fairness, we
gotta lay it at the feet of the snake and the generations of
tradition that have been built up to keep us from being truly “Spirit-led”.
There could also
be other problems that would keep a person from hearing God. One
possibility is that you’re on the wrong team - even if you think
you're not. You know it's possible to make up your own
"Jesus" and you'll get a response from that one about as
good as if you were praying to a stick of wood. Another is that
you have unrepented sin that stands between you and God – and
God has convicted you of it so many times that He's just given up
trying to talk to you about it.
Oh, and by the
way, you’re going to have to get over that thing about the
pastor being more “holy” than you. This is a one-on-one
relationship with Jesus you’re supposed to have. You can’t
do it by proxy through the guy that gets paid to hear God (especially
if he admits he’s NOT hearing God!). We are ALL the Church. We
are EACH temples that hold God’s Spirit. Any one of us that are
adopted sons of God have the ability to petition the Throne directly
and seek His face. God loves each – in fact, He’s
especially fond of those that come to Him with faith like little
children. Sometimes pastors have a hard time with that. (I don't
think there are “Faith like a Child” classes in seminary.)
This is just
crazy! How could this be true and I never knew it before?
Wouldn’t somebody have told me?
Well, I think you
underestimate the damage the enemy has done and how long he’s
been plotting this. The vast majority of the church in the West
doesn’t live the “normal” Christian life. That is,
Biblically speaking, we’re to be full of power and might,
we’re to be free of the bondage of sin, we’re to NOT
conform to the world, we’re to be dead to ourselves, we’re
to be ONE Body and loving and serving each other with all our heart.
That’s just a few. Can you see how far away from that we
actually are as a “church”? We’re not even CLOSE!
There MUST be something missing. Somebody left something out! It has
to be this – God Himself is supposed to be directing you and
you’re supposed to be listening and OBEYING. Now ... who
would benefit most from us leaving that little piece out? Yep, the
guy in the black hat.
Now, what do you
think a close encounter conversationally with the God of the Universe
might do to a person? Trust me, it would change everything. It would
show them the power of the relationship they have as adopted sons,
they would lose all fear, they would sacrifice anything to keep
hearing Him, they would obey and walk in HIS ways, they would know
(really KNOW) that God Himself lives IN them and they would want more
of Him, they would do the things on HIS heart – like feeding the
hungry, clothing the naked, saving the lost. They would be in
awe of His holiness and seek to please Him out of reverence and
honor, not out of legalism or church requirements.
So, IF this is a
war between Good and Evil, THEN wouldn’t our most immediate and
urgent need be to get people to where they can hear clear, timely,
reliable commands from Headquarters? If you have a guy in Basic
Training that refuses to listen to the Drill Sergeant and does his
own thing, wouldn’t you want to leave him at home? He’s
just going to get himself killed when the enemy starts shooting and
leadership says ‘DUCK!’ and he can’t or won’t
hear them! He’s no good to anybody. Maybe he could be a supply
clerk – but he really shouldn’t be on the front lines. He
should stay home and send his money to the folks on the front lines
that hear God really well and obey ALL the time, no matter what the cost.
But we have the
Bible. God’s Word is what we are to use to direct our paths!
Ok, sure. Not got
anything bad to say about the Word! Everything God tells us to do
will line up with His own Word. But no matter how well you know the
Bible, it can’t accommodate for every possible situation and
what you should do. There’s lots of stuff not covered in there
– like which of these two jobs God wants me to take. And
there’s stuff in there that men have been arguing about for
centuries without ever getting agreement. Lots of wasted time trying
to figure out how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. (By the
way, which side benefits most when God’s people fight over
stupid stuff? You getting the hang of this yet?)
Think of it like
this. You’re in the Army and they give you a Manual. All kinds
of stuff is covered in there – what to wear, how to salute, how
the weapons work, how to survive in a battle, what to eat in the
forest, how the chain of command works, even what the enemy is like
and how to resist them – there’s even stuff in there about
what the enemy WILL DO one day, whether they like it or not! It’s
a REALLY good Manual – in fact, it’s inspired by God! It
covers an amazing array of stuff and could probably handle most any
situation. So would the Drill Sergeant ask you to read it, maybe even
memorize it – and then send you into battle with nothing BUT
that? Are you going to be able to know what to do when the
bullets start flying? What about group strategy and deployment of
forces and anticipating enemy movements? Is the Manual going to
accommodate for every possible scenario on a rapidly changing
battlefield? Are you sure you’re interpreting it right? Is there
time in the foxhole to be arguing with other soldiers that are
reading it differently? What if some idiot published like TWENTY
different translations and paraphrases of the Manual?! Then what?!
Are you REALLY sure you have the right version? Isn’t there a
chain of command? Isn’t there somebody in charge calling the
shots that’s supposed to tell you what to do next? Aren’t
you supposed to be listening and OBEYING? Want to go into
battle without the Manual? No. Want to rely on it alone when you have
other resources available? No. Want to take an order from somebody
that goes against the Manual? No. When the bullets start
flying, do you want to hear personally and directly from Headquarters
so that you can know that help is coming and know what to do? You betcha!
We need a radio to
headquarters that works really good, with no static on the line and
no enemy transmissions sneaking in. If you insist that you
don't want to hear God, I still love you, but I'm not going to the
front lines with you.
I don’t
know. This is kind of scary. What if I hear wrong? What if it’s
the enemy messing with me? Maybe this is all in your mind.
Wow! That’s a
whole mess of stuff. Let’s try this one at a time.
Maybe it’s
all in your mind.
Well, it’s
not just me. There’s hundreds of millions like me that hear God.
In fact, most of the growth in the Church worldwide is because of
those people. The “mainline” denominations are shrinking.
It’s the Spirit-led revolutionaries that are exploding into new
territories and pushing back the darkness. The growth in this arm of
the Church went from about ZERO in 1900 to about 500 MILLION people
in 2000. God is pouring out His Spirit and people are listening.
Ok, let’s try
it from the opposite direction. It all sunk in for me one day when it
struck me that satan never creates anything – he just makes weak
copies of whatever God is doing. He’s a liar and a deceiver and
a fake. So ... while it may seem far-fetched, most folks (even
Christians) will admit that evil is a real force in the world and the
supernatural is real. (The Bible verifies repeatedly that witches and
mediums and sorcery are real, by the way ... and that you’re
headed for hell if mess with them. – Deut 18:10-12, Col. 5:20)
The enemy has psychics and mediums and astral-projection and Ouija
boards and demons and zombies and spells and curses.
So where’s
OUR stuff?! If this is a war, why does only one side get cool
weapons? Was my church leaving out important stuff that I needed for
warfare? Because in the first century they had amazing weapons and
defenses available to them. They had the Holy Spirit telling them
stuff they wouldn’t have known (Acts 5:1-11), they had people
hearing from God (Acts 13:2), they had people writing stuff as God
dictated (Rev.), they were caught up in the Spirit to heaven (2
Corin. 12:2-4), they had dreams and visions (Acts 10:9-23), they saw
angels (Acts 12), they saw Jesus Himself (Acts 9:1-22), they cast out
demons (Acts 16:16-18), they were bitten by deadly snakes and
didn’t die (Acts 28:1-10), they spoke in other languages of men
and of angels (Acts 2, I Corin. 12 & more), they healed people
(Acts 5:15), they prayed and miracles happened (Acts 5:12, Acts 12)
– even teleportation (or as I prefer “theoportation” -
Acts 8:39) and they raised the dead (Acts 9:32-42)! They even had
people who were against them drop dead (Acts 5:1-11) or go blind
(Acts 13:6-12) – on command! And that’s just ONE reference
for each! There are lots more!
Now, the argument
is that all that ended when the Bible was done being written –
but it didn’t end for the other team, so how come just all OUR
cool stuff got taken away? Wouldn’t it have really benefited the
enemy a LOT to spread that story that we were powerless around for a
couple thousand years? Do you see? This is no kind of way to fight a
war! There MUST be stuff we’ve been leaving out! The enemy has
us twisted up into a thousand pieces (37,000+ denominations to be
specific) and we can’t STAND because we’re not ONE Body.
Because of all the arguing over stupid stuff – which we would
NEVER have done if we had all been hearing the voice of God
personally and reliably and walking in the Gifts!
This is kind of scary.
No kidding!
It’s the biggest thing ever in your life! That the God of the
Universe wants to be intimately involved in everything you do and say
and eat and wear and think. That’s massively scary! And yet, we
can never have peace and joy and victory until we have relationship
with Jesus and are led by His Holy Spirit. You see, under our own
power, we just screw everything up. There has never been any strategy
of Man that has led to anything good in the long run. Oh, it might
work for a little while, but you get enough sinful people involved in
it, add money, mix in a little satan – and it’s toast.
Or worse, you get Communism or Fascism or something and millions of
people die. There are just two options – if it’s of Man it
will fail and if it’s of God nothing can stand against it. (Acts
5:38-39) Since the “church” in America is failing, somebody
other than God must be in charge. See a logic problem there?
Anyway, yes,
it’s scary. But what a payoff!! To walk in holiness because God
Himself is fighting off the temptations and snares of the enemy, to
hear Him all the time and get direction on anything and everything,
to know that He is completely and totally in charge at all times in
every situation. How are you going to find peace WITHOUT hearing from
God? How is what you have NOW working for you?
And hearing His
voice is not even a GIFT of the Spirit! It’s just an automatic
for every believer! We haven’t even talked about prophecy and
discernment of spirits and knowledge and wisdom and tongues and
healing and all the other gifts God gives His children! Trust me, the
payoff is amazing, but it’s going to cost you everything –
but everything you THINK you have isn't yours anyway, so who cares!?
What if I hear
wrong? What if the enemy is messing with me?
Well sure, that
can happen. He’s certainly going to try to confuse and frustrate
you. We are specifically instructed, “do not believe every
spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God (1 John
4:1). That MUST mean that other spirits are potentially messing with
us, and since there is no indication that THIS ended when the Bible
was completed, then there must still be demons putting thoughts into
our heads. And if there are still demons putting thoughts into
our heads, then we must still have a need to test and see if they are
from God. And if they’re NOT from God, then we resist them and
they flee. But it must also mean that one of the possibilities is
that the spirit we’re hearing IS from God! (Again, proving
the point that God still speaks to us despite I Corin. 13:10.)
You see 1 John 4
goes on in verses 2 and 3 to lay out how you can know what it is that
is talking to you and from where it comes, “This is how you can
recognize the Spirit of God: Every spirit that acknowledges that
Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God, but every spirit that
does not acknowledge Jesus is not from God. This is the spirit of the
antichrist, which you have heard is coming and even now is already in
the world.”
When we get a
thought in our head we have to figure out who it is. There are only
three choices: You, God or the enemy. Sometimes other people
tell us stuff, but they’re still playing to one of the three.
We’re to bring every thought into obedience with Christ (and the
Word). That means our own thoughts that are out of line AND the ones
inserted by the enemy. I find that, sadly, the enemy and I sound a
lot alike. The red stuff and the yellow stuff aren't really that
different after all. I apply this filter to everything, “If I
follow through with this thought that just came into my head, who is
glorified most – God, satan or me?” If it's anything other
than God, even if it's me, I rebuke in the Name of Jesus. And
if it WAS me, I ask the Lord to hunt down whatever in me wanted to
suggest something that wouldn't glorify Him – and kill it.
Could you screw it
up? Sure. Particularly if the voices are VERY sneaky. Which they will
be because demons are smarter than us and know the human condition
very well after all these years of torturing and twisting us. Without
God fighting for you, you haven’t got a chance. You have to be
constantly on guard, constantly armored-up and expecting anything
from any direction. But His arm is long and His shields are mighty.
He will always get you through if you are sincerely seeking Him and
trying to walk in holiness.
OK. I'm getting
that it's possible, but I'm going to have to hear Him for myself. I'm
willing to try. What do we do?
Great! Yeah, don't
take my word for it, seek Him yourself. Well the first thing is to
ask the Lord to show you anything that stands in the way between you
and Him.
It's like this:
The point of the
church coming together should be so that we can crucify pieces of
ourselves so that Christ in us can live. Said another way, it's to
help each other identify the things that stand between us and Jesus
– and pluck them out.
The most common
thing we put in the way is our belief that God won't talk to us.
That's got to go! If you don't think He's a Living God and active and
able to speak and desiring relationship with you, then you're going
to have to lay that down.
One of the other
possibilities is that you're worshiping the WRONG Jesus. Paul said
that would happen, that someone would come preaching another Jesus
and people would accept it. It's very simple; if you make up your own
Jesus, don't expect an answer when you pray! Prosperity-Jesus,
Emergency-Only-Jesus, Not-Quite-As-Good-As-The-Virgin-Mary-Jesus, and
a zillion others are all MADE UP. If you make your own god from
scratch, expect about as much response as if you were praying to a
stick. Those are NOT Bible Jesus - who doesn't like to be toyed with
and put in a box.
Other things in
the way are a reliance on someone else for your holiness or
connection to God (Pastor, wife, mother, etc.). That's got to stop.
This is a ONE-on-ONE relationship with Jesus. Nobody is going to do
it for you. Other pipeline blockages include addiction, pride,
selfishness, bitterness, anger, laziness, fear and so many others
that keep us from experiencing the fullness that is IN Christ.
Ask the Lord to
show you what is in the way and He is faithful to ALWAYS do that if
you'll listen. Ask some other folks to pray with you if
possible and just pray in agreement that the Lord will make Himself
very clear to you about what to do next.
Just pray and
believe. He'll come and help unclog you. Believe that He wants to
talk to you and start conversing with Him. Find someone to be
accountable with that knows God really well and make sure you don't
act on anything that sounds fishy without verifying it with the Word
of God. Now, not with doctrine of Man, mind you – with the
Word of God.
If you like,
pray something like this:
Lord, I'm sorry
I ever put you in a box. I'm sorry I limited You in any way. I'm
sorry that I haven't been hearing you as well as I should and I
acknowledge that I clogged up my pipeline with stuff. Please, Lord,
whatever it takes, scrub it all out of there with the Blood of Jesus.
I just want You, Jesus. You direct my paths and organize my days. You
tell me what You want and I'll do it. Help me hear You better. Help
make me dangerous to the enemy. Increase the Jesus in me, even if it
hurts. I love you, Lord. You be in charge now. Amen.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Does God Still
Speak to People Today?
Posted by EttyB on
the F.O.T.M. online discussion board. (One of many like it!)
www.FellowshipOfTheMartyrs.com
____________________________________________________________
Some years ago, I
had awakened before my family, and I was in the kitchen when I heard
the voice of the Lord say, "Roast a chicken." I had heard
His voice before, so I said, "I'll be glad to, Lord, if You will
tell me who to give it to." While I was speaking, I was pulling
a chicken from my freezer and preparing to thaw it.
"I want you
to take it to Mrs. Ming." He said.
I didn't know Mrs.
Ming. I knew of her, though. I knew that she was an elderly woman in
our church who was the wife of a retired minister. I knew that she
had cancer and that her elderly husband was caring for her. I didn't
know what she looked like, had never spoken to her, and didn't know
where they lived.
But, the Lord had
spoken, so I thawed the chicken and prepared it for roasting, then
put it in the oven. As I prepared it, I thought of other things I
might fix to make a complete meal. Fluffy fruit salad...mashed
potatoes and gravy, corn. It sounded good, even to me!
It was just a few
minutes before noon when the meal was ready and I decided that I
would call our church office and see if anyone knew the address of
the Mings. It was Saturday and I knew the office was closed, but I
called anyway. Someone answered the phone and gave me the address of
the elderly couple. Bless them!
I got a large box,
armed with the address, and headed out to a nearby town that I was
not familiar with. Within two minutes of driving into the town I was
at their house!
Still, I felt
rather foolish pulling into the driveway of complete strangers,
holding a big cardboard box and saying, "Hey, I'm here with a
chicken dinner that God told me to bring to you!" That was out
of my comfort zone!
But...I got the
box out of the back of my car and did just that. A little man with a
dear face opened the door and looked at me questioningly.
"Yes?" he said.
"God told me
to bring you a chicken dinner for lunch, so here I am. Have you
already eaten?"
He opened the door
and stepped aside, motioning me to set the box on the kitchen
counter. I lifted the hot dishes out of the box and took the covers off.
Not only had they
not eaten. The kitchen was dark and nothing had even been started in
the way of a meal. The little man looked jolly as he said they hadn't
had a bite.
He lovingly
prepared a plate for his sick wife and took it in to her darkened
room. "This lady has brought us a roasted chicken for
lunch," he told her. I was still in the kitchen when he came
back and said, "My wife would like to talk to you."
I walked into the
room of a woman who was in the last stages of cancer. She reached a
frail hand out to me and in a soft voice she said, "This
morning, I was so hungry for chicken I thought I couldn't stand it!
So, I said, 'Jesus, I don't know how You can do it or if You even
think it's important enough, but if You could get me some roasted
chicken, I would be SO happy!" She looked at me with the
sweetest expression and said, "He used you!"
That dear lady
went home to be with Jesus before the next week was out and the Lord
let me be His hand reaching out in love to her! What a privilege!
Later I was
telling the little incident to one of my young daughter's friends and
she said, "Oh, that was my grandma! She didn't have any appetite
at all for weeks before she died. How nice that the Lord gave her
such a blessing right before she went Home!" I thought then that
if I'd failed to respond to God's voice, refused to move out of my
comfort zone, that the Lord would probably have found someone else
who would be faithful. But what a blessing I would have missed!
EttyB – 4/4/05
(From
Doug: Personally, I have more stories about this exact kind of
stuff then I can even write down.
My life is full DAILY of stuff like this. Giving exact amount
of money someone needed for a bill, the exact groceries they needed,
a phone call at the moment they were calling me, knowledge of issues
in their past that no one should know, telling them what parts of
their body are diseased, and on and on. God speaks. If you're not
hearing Him, you're missing the greatest adventure EVER!!)
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