Why Would God Want to Talk to Me?
Imagine having a child, fathered by you or adopted . . . doesn’t matter. Now imagine raising that child without ever speaking to him. He comes to you all the time, asking for stuff, pouring out his needs. He worships the ground you walk on. He adores you. But you never speak back to him. You have all the wisdom in the world. You could give your son courage and insight and comfort. But you stay quiet.
Why would a good father stay quiet when his son has such pressing needs?
Carry the analogy a step further. If the son decides his father is mute, that he can’t or won’t speak no matter what, the son’s gonna’ try and handle everything on his own, never tapping into his father’s strength, wisdom or insight. The son could die without ever hearing from his father just because he didn’t believe he would speak.
So it is between God and us. Someone has to break the impasse. Since God has been speaking all along, it seems we may be the problem. Our fear of ‘being weird’, of looking stupid, of becoming ‘that guy’ (e.g. our pride) may have us cut off from our ultimate source of love, wisdom, encouragement and confidence.
When Larry Green (cloudwalk.org) talks about prayer, you get a sense he knows what he’s talking about. We all “get” the idea of praying to God…of telling Him what we need, what we want, how much we love Him, all that stuff. But start talking about hearing from God…about Him ‘speaking’ to us, it feels weird real quick.
Larry says there are multiple ways God speaks to us, including….
- Scripture
- Our thoughts
- Visions/Dreams/Visually (pictures)
- A felt sense (e.g. the fruit of the Spirit)
- People
- Nature
- Music
- Miracles
A lot of people struggle with the basic premise that the God who created and perpetuates everything would “speak” personally and individually. Somehow, we’ve come to think He spoke to people in Biblical times but got laryngitis and lost His ‘voice’ about then.
And if He could ‘speak’, why would He?
Larry’s answer is simple . . . and profound. God loves us. He loves us personally and individually. He is our Heavenly Father and we’re His adopted sons and daughters. Jesus said so. And as a father loves his own child, so our Heavenly Father loves His adopted children. That’s you and me.
And that says He wants to communicate with us. He wants us to hear His heart, to know His nature, to feel His love, and sense His guidance.
Don’t take it from me . . . or Larry Green.
Take it from Jesus himself.
“I still have many things to tell you, but you can’t handle them now. But when the Friend comes, the Spirit of the Truth, he will take you by the hand and guide you into all the truth there is. He won’t draw attention to himself, but will make sense out of what is about to happen and, indeed, out of all that I have done and said. He will honor me; he will take from me and deliver it to you.”
–John 16:12-14
“My sheep listen to my voice; I know them (intimately), and they follow me.
I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.”
–John 10:27-28
Question: If you aren’t sure you’ve ever heard personally from your Heavenly Father, will you open yourself up to hearing from Him? Will you ask “Father, what would you have me know?” Then write down what you hear. Will you tell us about it here?
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