Many times, especially this summer, I have heard people say something along the lines of, "I want God to talk to me." What Christian wouldn't want God to talk to them? I've been learning about God and more about why so many Christians have this desire to want God to talk to them that is never fulfilled. If God loves us, wouldn't He be talking to us?
I have learned two things when it comes down to this. The first thing is that God is always speaking to us. He is talking, we are just missing it. That leads me to the second part. While God is talking, we often ignore Him while trying to seek Him. It is such a strange situation. We ignore God talking to us because it is not in the form that we want or we are unsure. We hear a whisper but do not know if it was Him or us.
Looking over in Exodus 19, we see a picture of Moses interacting with God the way that we are expecting Him to talk to us. We see smoke and clouds and fire and thunder and lightning and the voice of God coming down to Moses crystal clear. Why is God not doing this for us? Well, the talking all happened in verses 16-24. Looking at 10-15, the people had to do a few things first. They had to set limits on where they were allowed to go. They had to consecrate themselves. They had to become humble enough to hear God. You get the voice after you humble yourself.
God is not one to be played with. You cannot just tell Him to speak without humbling yourself. He is holy. Seeing His face will kill us. He does not look upon sin. The reason we do not hear Him is because of us. So many times we will get into a situation and then want God to speak to us when He already gave us the Word. The Bible is His word! It is one way that He speaks to us. If we do not look in His word while we are in the midst of sinning, how will we truly gain His help and repent? Yes, there is prayer and that is an important key; but we cannot expect God to accommodation us. He has already done so much for us: sacrificing His son, creating us, giving us food and water to survive, clothes on our back, etc. We cannot sit back and do nothing. We must seek Him in order to hear Him.
If we are not seeking Him, we will not hear Him. He talks in many ways: through His word, the Bible, through opportunities opening and closing, through experiences, through the Holy Spirit, and even with His own voice. Here is the key though. If we are not seeking Him, how do we expect to hear Him? He has already extended His hand. It is our turn to take it or leave it. He is speaking, but we are not listening.
When Jesus was walking the Earth, there were no amps, no microphones, no megaphones. He had to speak to crowds with His own voice. When Jesus spoke, it was the people's responsibility to get where they needed to be in order to hear. The same applies for now. God is speaking. It is our duty to get into position to hear Him. If we want to hear Him, we must seek Him and try to hear Him.
There are only two ways to learn to hear God. You must read the Bible and pray. Christian books at book stores will only repeat what the Bible says. It is not bad to buy a book, but the Word of God should be first. You want to hear Him, not an author. You must pray to God humbly. Asking a mature Christian to help you will only enhance your prayer life. In the end, the only way to hear God is to seek Him through prayer and meditation on His word. Are you willing to hear what God has to say?
-D
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