Hearing God

Surely the Sovereign Lord does nothing without revealing His plan to His servants the prophets.

Amos 3:7

I was prompted to write this because I’d like for us (including me) to hear God better. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if we could hear our Lord or understand Him more? He’s always speaking to us in myriads of ways! Yet, a typical answer when you ask a believer how he hears from God would be through the Bible, the preacher, or a friend. Yes, the Lord has spoken to me those ways too. It’s always touching and exciting when He reveals Himself to us even in familiar ways. But, could He speak in other ways?

I sat through a teaching this week-end at a women’s retreat (one of the great things about Chiang Mai!) and was bowled over by what I heard. She shared many things but the one that stood out to me was about her fascination and delight with flowers and how they seem to beckon to her. She added that the Lord spoke His love to her through them. I could only agree wholeheartedly. I have hundreds of pictures of flowers on my phone for the same reason. I feel like if I take their picture, I’m saying, “Yes, I hear you. I love you too and what you do.”

On Friday, I was on my way to chapel when I noticed that the water tower in the school property was overflowing with water. The water freely flowed from the top of this very TALL tower, cascading on all sides all the way to the ground. Hmm, what a strange and unusual sight! I wouldn’t have given that much thought but the message during chapel also showed an image similar to the previous one. It was of a beaker overflowing with water, again pouring out from all sides. What was that about, I wonder? Then later, I realized I left my sunglasses so I picked it up. As I donned it on, these thoughts followed:

• At the women's retreat, I will be filled to overflowing with the Lord’s blessings, His revelation, and His love. Later I wrote a friend and added that I just didn’t know which one He would fill me with. Now I wonder why I thought He would only fill me with one!
• I will see things in a new light, in new ways – just like seeing things differently when wearing sunglasses!
• I will change.

So now that the retreat is over, I can attest to the accuracy of what I heard. It just surprised me that not only was I filled with either blessings, revelation, or love, but all three of them combined! Amazing! Not only that, the speaker prayed for me and she said she saw a waterfall and would God please help me contain what He has for me? =)

Fascinating! The Lord is too fascinating. Now, if we could only free ourselves from all the distractions and the worries of this world. If only we could be still long enough to hear. Let’s incline our ears. “Speak Lord, your servants are listening.”