I Can Hear You Now
Day 125
I have been rereading the Old Testament, to put all of the stories and people in chronological order. I am a librarian, and I have always loved historical nonfiction. And while I read, I am paying attention to how the Lord communicates with people in the Bible. The Lord confronted Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden when they ate the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden. He spoke to Noah. He not only spoke to Abraham, he appeared at his tent in the form of three men (the Holy Trinity maybe?). The Lord spoke to Rebecca about her pregnancy, and he appears to Jacob in a dream. Jacob actually wrestles with God in a dream and wins . . . crazy.
I don't remember hearing about Jacob's dream in any of the sermons I have listened to growing up, but read it for yourself (Genesis 32:22). It is the night before he is about to meet Esau again after years of separation, and he is worried that Esau is going to want to take revenge on him for stealing their father's blessing before he died. And of course we can't leave out Moses and the burning bush. And these are just some of the ones he talks to in Genesis and Exodus.
I am not sure why God does not appear out of a burning bush today, or why I don't hear his voice when I call his name. I once thought that I saw Jesus in the middle of the night in the room. I reached out my hand and called out his name, only to find when I turned on the light that it was a white robe that my friends mother had hung up to dry in the room that I had not noticed before bed. I laughed, but I was disappointed at the same time. I thought that I was getting an old school visit from the Lord, and he was going to tell me something prophetic.
Maybe I have never seen Jesus in a robe in my room, but when I read about Jacob wresting with God in his dream, I can say that I have done that. You probably have too. I have had sleepless nights when I am asking God for help, but I because I am struggling with fear, anxiety, depression, or other emotions I cannot rest until I can lay my burden at his feet. And even though I have not seen Jesus in his white robe, when I read the passage about Jacob, that is how I felt after each of my seizures. I felt like God was shaking me. I would wake up in the middle of the night and toss and turn, and I would be aware of what was going on. I knew what was happening before it would happen. I was struggling with God too. I needed to cut out alcohol and increase my epilepsy medication. I have, and it has made a difference.
Maybe I have never seen Jesus in a white robe, and maybe God has never spoken to me in the forest or from a burning bush. But I have wrestled with him, and he has spoken to me, in my dreams . . . old school Biblical style. I have been asking for him to tell me what to do next. "What do you want me to do next?" I keep expecting him to reply with something like "You need to finish the book that you have started to make me known." or something big like "You and your husband need to quit your jobs and become a missionaries in Zimbabwe!" But instead I have two dreams about inviting friends to church.
When I had the first dream, a light came on in the dream, and I remember thinking answer has been right in front of me all along. I keep asking God what He wants me to do. When we ask Jesus into our hearts, we become his disciples, and our job is not just to follow Him where He asks, it is to make Him known.
I have a lot dreams, and when I wake up, I try to remember them, to make sense of them. But how can you tell if something you dream comes from God, or if it was a dream inspired by an episode of Inside Edition that you were watching last night? I have noticed that if you are worried about something, you will probably dream about it. If you watch something disturbing on T.V. right before bedtime, you might dream about it. Here is a peaceful way to end the night, to drift into sleep, to give yourself time to talk to God, and time to listen.
So try to do this before you lay down to go to sleep. Read some of the Bible. That is a good way to end the night. Choose a chapter, or start at the beginning of old or new testament and read a few verses or a chapter. Meditate, and by that I mean contemplate what the verses mean. Close your eyes and ask God to speak to you through his word. Put the Bible on your nightstand, get comfortable, and pray.
When we ask Jesus into our hearts, we become one with God. When Jesus died on the cross, he took on our sins and became our sacrifice. He made us pure. So if you would like to have Jesus in your heart, so that he is always there, always with you when you need him, you can pray this prayer: "Dear Lord, thank you for giving your son to die on the cross for my sins. Please save me from my sins, Lord, by coming into my heart, and use your grace and mercy to wipe away the past. I am reborn. And you are with me always. Amen.
After you ask the Lord into your heart, praying can becoming a daily conversation with God. And if it becomes part of your routine, it will help you to make sure that you are making time not only for God, but for yourself, your family, and those who are important to you. Last summer, I read Fervent: A Woman's Battle Plan to Serious, Specific and Strategic Prayer by Priscilla Shirer. * I recommend the book, and it is a powerful book about power that can benefit women and men in my opinion. In the preface, she writes about how to pray. No one had ever talked to me about how to pray. Or if they had, I had forgotten what I had learned. Here is an excerpt from her book:
P—Praise: Thanksgiving is one of the most important aspects of prayer. It’s not just a means of warming up (or buttering up). It’s not just a preamble before getting down to what we really came to say. Gratitude to God for who He is and what He’s already done should thread throughout every prayer because ultimately His name and His fame are the only reasons any of this matters.
(Me: nothing makes us stop and listen more than when someone praises us for a job well
done. Our Father deserves our praise, and know that when we give it, he will stop and listen. I
am trying to get in the habit of praising him at the beginning of my prayer--no matter what is
going on in my life at that moment. No matter what, I can think of why I am thankful on that
day. And I start with that.)
R—Repentance: God’s real desire, in addition to displaying His glory, is to claim your heart and the hearts of those you love. So prayer, while it’s certainly a place to deal with the objectives and details we want to see happening in our circumstances, is also about what’s happening on the inside, where real transformation occurs. Expect prayer to expose where you’re still resisting Him—not only resisting His commands but resisting the manifold blessings and benefits He gives to those who follow. Line your strategies with repentance: the courage to trust, and turn, and walk His way.
A—Asking: Make your requests known. Be personal and specific. Write down details of your own issues and difficulties as they relate to the broader issue we discussed in that chapter, as well as how you perhaps see the enemy’s hand at work in them or where you suspect he might be aiming next. You’re not begging; you’ve been invited to ask, seek, and knock. God’s expecting you. He’s wanting you here. The best place to look is to Him.
(Me: Don't be afraid to ask for what you need or for what you want. Ask him when you need
help if your marriage is in trouble, or if you are sad from losing a loved one, or if you are
struggling with an addiction. But don't be afraid to ask for what you want. We don't always get
what we want, but we can ask. God does like to use our passions to help others though, so
think about that. How can you use what you are passionate about to help or inspire others? Ask
for God's help in this endeavor. I love to write, so I ask for God to give me the time and the
words. )
Y—Yes: “All of God’s promises,” the Bible says, “have been fulfilled in Christ with a resounding ‘Yes!’” (2 Cor. 1:20 nlt). You may not understand what all’s happening in your life right now, but any possible explanation pales in comparison to what you do know because of your faith in God’s goodness and assurances. So allow your prayer to be accentuated with His own words from Scripture, His promises to you that correspond to your need. (I’ll provide lots of options in each chapter to choose from.) There is nothing more powerful than praying God’s own Word.
If you read a little of His word and PRAY before you close your eyes, then you can go to sleep
and think about the Spirit of God in the recesses of your heart as you are sleeping. Think about what he might be trying to say to you in your dreams. When you wake up, did you dream? Can you remember any of your dreams? Can you make any sense out of them? I keep a journal next to my bed, and if I have time, I jot down a few notes about my dreams right when I wake up. Then when I take a bath, if I had a dream, I think about it and whether it might have any meaning. And then I pray to help center myself so that I can get ready for the day.
I did not mean for this post to be this long. But my last post was about waiting for God to speak to me. And I have spent the last two weeks listening to God, and I realized that he has been speaking to me all along. I just have to take the time to listen. He may not be in a burning bush or walking through the forest like he was in the Garden of Eden. Or he may not be in a while robe in room waking me up in the middle of the night to tell me a prophetic message, "Like quit your job and move your family to another country to serve me!" He does not have to get my attention on the outside because he is inside of me. We are one. He is in my heart. And if I want to hear him, I have to slow down and be very quiet. I have to remove all of the distractions. I have to make time.
Let's make some time for our Father today, and for someone else. Reach out and make time for someone else in your life today too.
*Check Fervent by Pricilla Shirer out at your local library, or is a link to it online if you would like to download a sample on your Kindle or purchase a copy for yourself from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Fervent-Womans-Serious-Specific-Strategic-ebook/dp/B076HF43LG/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=&sr=&dpID=41Y4TeW94xL&preST=_SY445_QL70_&dpsrc=detail .