What more can HE say?

I begin this article with some measure of trepidation. You see, I’m not sure how you, the reader, will perceive it. I know what I am about to try to communicate, but in all things written, you the reader will read into this article from your own personal perceptions, experiences, and backgrounds. So, let me state from the beginning that it is not my desire to offend, but to inform. It is my hope that some will recognize the truth in this article and enjoy the benefits, while for others more inclined to be offended, I merely hope that you will consider with a thoughtful heart what is written, and to try to understand.

I remember a time, back in my college years, when I thought I would never get married. I was a very outgoing person, but when it came to talking with girls, I seemed to go mute. To put it bluntly, I was socially clumsy when it came to talking with girls. I had little success with dating, and in anguish I prayed for God to give me a wife while secretly thinking there is no way it would ever happen. I opened up my feelings on the matter to a close mentor who simply told me, “When the right girl comes along, you’ll know it.”

My question was: “But how?!?!?!

Answer: “You just will.”

He smiled, gave a few more words of encouragement that I don’t remember, and I walked off feeling no more comforted or assured of getting married one day than I did before the conversation.

A few years later, God put me in some very special circumstances. It is a story in itself in which I will not go into here, but suffice it to say my path crossed with a young lady who seemed to light up my world when I first laid eyes on her. Suddenly, I just knew. That very night I walked into my dorm room, and I knew I would marry this girl I had met just this very day. A year later exactly to the day, on August 22nd, she became my wife.

Now, my question to you is this: How does God speak to you?

I ask this because there is a group of Christianity that is of the belief that God only speaks to us through the Bible. Some are a little more open and would say that God speaks to us through the Bible and through preaching. I wonder though, what your reaction would be if I told you that God speaks directly to you as an individual?

Let that question soak in for a minute. Some are reading this right now and shutting me down. Others are reading this and already you know where I am about to go. Again, my objective here is not to offend you in any way, but rather to get you to consider some truths of the Bible that have been largely shut down by most of the people in Christian circles I know who would say “God doesn’t speak to anyone directly” and “The Bible is of no private interpretation” and “There is no new revelation” and other such statements basically echoing the words of an old song, that goes “What more can He say, than to you He hath said . . . ”

To those who are in that camp, let me ask you to consider a few verses from the Bible: (italics mine)

Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”
Psalm 102:2 “Hide not thy face from me in the day when I am in trouble; incline thine ear unto me: in the day when I call answer me speedily.”
James 1:5 “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him.”

Do you speak to God through prayer? I would guess most would agree that, yes, Christians speak to God in prayer. Then how does God answer you?

We pray about a great many things. If you are like most Christians I know, we tend to pray more along the lines of asking God for things, for God to act or intercede on our behalf or on behalf of someone else. Then we sit back and wait, and if things go the way we want, we say “God has answered our prayer!” When things don’t go the way we want, we either assume God must have either not heard us, said no (because it didn’t happen), or that we should keep praying.

How about my prayer for a wife? How did I know the moment I met her that she was the one God would have for me? How did that “knowing” occur? What verse in the Bible told me “she is the one” for me? There was no preacher or sermon that pointed out clearly to me that she was the one for me, so how did I “just know” that she was the one?

I will tell you simply, that God spoke to me.

Does God speak to you?

I mean really. Do you believe that it is possible? Do you believe that God actually wants to speak to you, personally, on an individual basis? Even as you read this article right now, is it possible that God may be using these words to knock on the door of your heart asking to be let in? Revelation 3:20 “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”

Is your heart open to God, or are you so busy with “sin management” that you have not been listening? Are you so busy doing the things expected of good Christians that you have forgotten to take time out and listen for the voice of God in your heart? You see, I believe you know, deep down inside, that as a Christian God does speak to your heart. You may have even used the words “I felt led to . . . ” do this or that, or speak to someone, or in some way felt the pull of the Holy Spirit living within you to some action.

How one-sided would a relationship between parents and children be if only the children did all the talking? God wants an interactive relationship with you. God wants to speak to you personally.

Are you listening?