Greetings in the name of Jesus Christ – THE Crucified and Risen Saviour! I trust that you are enjoying this “given day” and have taken time to thank God! I am believing that you had a good weekend and were touched by God’s graciousness and mercy. I will be praying for you today, asking Father to release “power thoughts” into your mind.
It starts in Genesis and ends in Revelation…a process that is central to our Christian journey and yet is so common place that I think we miss its importance. Jesus understood and practised it…and it is essential to our maturity as Christ-followers. In Genesis 1:3 we read: And God said – in Revelation 22:18, 20: I warn everyone who hears…He who testifies to these things says…” Aha! you guessed it – the process of God speaking and someone hearing.
I have been challenged by a series of devotions by A. W. Tozer about “listening” to God in prayer rather than talking all the time…and then as I was pondering over this communication process – the light went on and I was able to see that the words: hear and hearing and hearken and hearkening appear again and again in Scripture, as do the words that deal with God speaking and declaring. I have a sense that we spend too much time talking to God and not enough time listening to him. If I am reading things right, when God spoke the words of creation in Genesis…it was light and water and earth and plant life and animal life that “heard” God before mankind. And it was Adam, who hid from God because he “heard” God.
I want to give you a challenge…get a page or two of paper and write down, as it comes to you, how often the process of communication between God and man is referenced in the Bible, in music, or in literature that you are familiar with. Does prayer start with you and I or God? Does God speak without us hearing? Do we need to say more often; “speak Lord, they servant is listening? Next time you are having a devotional time with God, why not simply sit and listen before you even begin to verbalize what is in your heart and mind. It might surprise us to find out that God is not the ‘strong, silent-type’ we thought he was.
Be blessed!