Simple to say. Wonderful Advice. The key is to do it!
We all know every believer in the
Lord Jesus Christ should pray regularly and should keep his spiritual ears open
to hear the Lord. God will speak through
the words of the Bible certainly. He
will speak through circumstances and events, and even through other
people. And he will just speak to you in
real words. My experience is that most
of this occurs in that famous still small voice of God that you alone will
hear. Sometimes though he might speak to
you in an audible voice, or at least a voice that to you is bold and audible
whether it really is or not.
What else can you do of more
importance than to truly live a life of prayer and always, always be in an
attitude of listening expectantly for God’s word, for his guidance?
Anyone who has followed us has
heard or read of instances in my life where the Lord has spoken. I only write or speak about a few as
appropriate to what I am writing. And
too, some of God’s words are just for me, or for Cathy and me.
Let me present one great example
of the Lord’s speaking to me. It occurred
in August and September of 2001. Cathy
and I had an important meeting scheduled near New York City for September 11 of
that year. It involved many people and
had been fixed for some time.
About six weeks prior to that
date, one day while sitting quietly in prayer about that upcoming meeting, God
spoke: “No need to make airline or hotel
reservations…” That’s what he said.
Then in succeeding weeks he spoke
again and again on this. Always the
words contained advice about taking no airplane. Sometimes they included no hotel and no car.
All in all, he spoke about five
or six times on this.
Needless to say Cathy and I were
concerned about these words from God and about the meeting. We even invited over the minister of the
church we were attending and his wife.
They were obviously amazed. One
said “You can’t go!” The other said “You
have to go!”
So we pondered and prayed.
Finally we made what seemed
sensible from a human standpoint. We
flew to the area early, before September 11.
And then we took a hotel quite a few miles away and rented a car.
So on September 11 we were there,
in a city outside New York City, and we drove to the place of our scheduled
meeting. We parked in a garage, got out
and walked through a tall hotel on the way to the building of the meeting. While walking through the lobby we
encountered a television set blaring in the lounge in the bar, and one or more people
standing rapt in attention watching. We
stopped. The television was showing an
airplane flying into the World Trade Center.
It was quiet. A man at a nearby
table prayed out loud. The moment was
overwhelming. Cathy and I looked at the
television and at each other.
Soon quietly we stumbled on to
the place of our meeting. A few minutes
there and we heard another plane had hit the World Trade Center and one had hit
the Pentagon. The meeting was postponed.
Cathy and I left. Later in the day I telephoned the minister
back home. Simple comment. “Did you see what happened?” Of course he had. No words fit.
God had warned Cathy and me over
and over about 9/11. He never told me
what was to happen, but he told me what we needed to do to protect
ourselves. In terms of the gifts of the
Spirit, this could be called a gift of knowledge, and perhaps also a gift of
prophecy. It was a warning to us about
an event to happen, and thank God we at least adjusted our travel plans.
In these difficult days leading
up to the Lord’s return, we all need as much of God’s guidance as he will give
us. Listen to God. Ask him to speak. Seek him.
He will be found by those who seek him.
Who knows the truth but God? Who knows the future but God? Who cares more for you than God?
Keep Your Eyes on Jesus!
(December
2016)
Copyright © 2016 by John
Newlin
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