The Sound of His Voice

Listen to me; hold your peace, and I will teach you wisdom. Job 33:33 NKJV

These words were spoken by Elihu. He was a young man who listened in on the conversation between Job and his friends. Out of respect, he waited until they were completely finished before he voiced his opinion. Often times, there will be people in our life who seem to have the answers we are looking for. Several are coming to mind that I would take up on their offer of wisdom. They have a good track record with me. In the past, if they gave me advice I reaped the benefits when I heeded what they said. They are among the first ones I would call if I were seeking godly counsel. Some have been in my life for decades and some have only recently crossed my path. I thank God for them and treasure the gift they are to me.

But more and more the One who speaks Elihu’s words to me is God Himself. He daily invites me to listen to Him. This listening is more than just taking in the sound of His voice. It is active listening with the intent of obeying. When I do that He has much to teach me in the way of wisdom. It is not just a matter of knowledge but rather the application of knowledge. His desire is to teach me what to do with the knowledge He gives. I want the kind of relationship with Him whereby He is teaching me personally. While He will still use people and books in my life, I want the experience of receiving wisdom, answers, and guidance directly from Him.

I have lived too much of my life depending on “middle men” to get me through a minefield of questions. For most of my Christian life I trusted people to tell me what God was saying. It was always easier and felt safer to sit under their canopy of wisdom. I hung on their every word and for the most part they were godly words. But as long as they were the only ones I was going to for wisdom, I was missing out on learning to converse with God. His desire has always been for me to meet with Him directly.

If God chooses to speak to me through people I will accept that. But I have had enough conversations with Him to know the joy of hearing His wisdom spoken from His Word or in prayer. Many have been the times when taking a walk and pouring out my heart and my questions to Him have resulted in answers that left me in amazement and tears. Will I ever still seek the advice of people? Absolutely! But nothing compares to the sound of His voice in my ears.

Father, however You choose to speak to me today, I am listening. Amen.

When Others Have It Wrong

So these three men stopped answering Job, because he was righteous in his own eyes. Job 32:1 NIV

This verse follows 30 chapters of conversation between Job and three of his friends. They thought they knew the reason for the loss of Job’s children, wealth, and health. Stripped of everything but his life, they were convinced it was all due to something Job had done wrong. They brought accusation upon accusation against Job and he simply responded with the truth. They based their judgments on the belief that difficulties only come into one’s life because of personal sin. It was obvious to them that God had turned His back on Job and was punishing him for something he had done. No matter what Job said they were sure they were right.

What they did not know was that the difficulties had to do with satanic involvement not personal failure. Although Job was not sinless, God gave an impressive report about him to Satan. According to Job 1:8, God stated of Job, “there is none like him on the earth, a blameless and upright man, one who fears God, and shuns evil.” Satan was sure this was only due to the fact that Job had it so well in life. Convinced that he could get Job to turn away from God by bringing pain, suffering, and loss into his life, God allowed him to carry out his plan. God knew Job well enough to know he would pass the test! Job knew his heart and did not let the opinions of others persuade him otherwise. He has become a shining example to me!

I am sure each of us can attest to a time in our life when we were misunderstood or misjudged. We have done it ourselves and have had it done to us. There are times others may have it right. God has given them the ability to discern us wisely and accurately. But there are also times this is not the case. They think they know us and have drawn conclusions from a limited perspective. It is during these times that we must ask God to show us His truth and perspective. He is the only One who really knows our heart and our full story. He will let us know if another person’s words are meant for us or if we need to simply walk away from what is being said. As a person who is use to crawling under the care of people, I can bear witness to the difficulty of walking away from the opinions of others. But it is necessary if I am going to take God up on His invitation of “come unto Me!”

I don’t ever want to ignore God’s message to me when it comes from the mouth of a person. I have been blessed to have Him send individuals into my life for that very purpose. However, I have also experienced well meaning people who had it wrong and the enemy used their words to attempt to shut down the very thing God was doing in my life. May God help me know when either is happening.

Father, help me to trust Your voice above the voice of others. If they are sent by You to speak to me let me see that. If their words are not of You let me see that as well. Amen.

Setting Me Straight

Restore us, O LORD God of hosts; cause Your face to shine, and we shall be saved! Psalm 80:19 NKJV

When we pray the very thing God desires for us, we can have full assurance of an affirmative answer! I have often looked at past mistakes, failures, and sins in such a way that I thought I had messed things up too badly for any hope of a fresh start. Because I could not change the past I seemed to think the black marks would never go away and would forever remain a part of my present. I was like the person who had broken my leg and never had the bone set straight. Walking with a limp became a normal (and sadly accepted) way of life for me. There was the continual sense that although I was forgiven I had blown it…my track record remain marred. While this should not be the case for a child of God, I strongly believe it is often the reality of many. The continual self loathing, internal condemnation, and hopelessness is not God’s doing. He knows at which point we withdraw our hands from accepting His full gift of forgiveness.

I want to go back to the broken bone analogy. Asking God to restore me is the same as asking Him to “set me straight” again, to realign me with Himself, to get me back on course. It is the reality of a fresh start! It is coming to the place of seeing that whatever has happened is unchangeable but not unforgivable. Will I dare to embrace this truth and allow it to change my view of God and myself? Not if I keep putting conditions on it and limiting its full meaning! Not if I cling to condemnation rather than grace.

I have often said that becoming a Christian and accepting God’s free gift of salvation was easy. Living out the Christian life is the hard part. Not because it isn’t possible but because I carry with me wrong mindsets, unresolved issues, and areas in my life that have yet to experience the touch of God’s grace. My restoration and deliverance in any area requires honesty in the inward parts, opened hands lifted in God’s direction, and trust in His ability to do whatever “surgery” is necessary. He is not only the Landscaper of my soul….He is the Great Physician who heals and restores!

Living out my faith and seeing internal changes is a life long process. He will reveal to me where I have gotten off track, where I have demanded my way over His will, and where I have messed up big time. But the revelation and the restoration will both be done in love and with success!

Father, I can become over whelmed with all that needs to be seen, acknowledged, and changed in me. It is only as I see my need to simply cooperate with You that my soul relaxes and my mind becomes at ease. I join You in Your work of restoration and healing. Amen.

A Heart and Face Lift

For then you will have your delight in the Almighty, and lift up your face to God. Job 22:26 NKJV

My affections and my attention have a powerful effect on the direction of my attitudes, actions, emotions, feelings, and motives. What I derive pleasure from and who I am constantly looking to will shape my entire day as well as my life. This verse is now my heart’s cry for I have tasted of the fruit that has come when anyone but God is my delight or my primary source of comfort, direction, and acceptance.

This morning I finally admitted the weariness of my own soul. I have spent the past couple of weeks nursing a wound of rejection. It has been tender and painful. I have mulled over the situation, sought godly counsel, shed many tears, claimed verses, fought the enemy of my soul, separated my feelings and perceptions from actual truth, acknowledged the ending of a significant relationship, and engulfed myself in a capsule of pain. But this morning I woke up desiring a new way to live in the midst of a new season of my life. I simply told God I was tired of holding on to all the hurt and ache. I was ready to let go of the spider web of emotions that had wrapped itself around every fiber of my being. I gave the entire “bundle” to Him. A huge weight has been lifted off my back as well as my heart because I know He graciously takes what I willingly give to Him. While the situation has not changed the effect it has on me did change.

I am now free to live out the principles of Job 22:26. When I am tempted to obsess over my loss I can now proclaim, “My delight is in You, O God! I lift up my face to You!” God’s word says the power of life and death are in the tongue. He has given me life-giving words to speak to Him. They are words full of healing, comfort, strength, and freedom. They are the key to unlock the chain that has been draped around my internal world. Just when I thought the darkness would be my only companion, His light has broken through and my path has suddenly burst forth with life! The enemy of my soul has lost big time and God has recaptured my heart!

I have noticed one huge thing. The longer I am on this journey and the farther I go, the more profound and deep the lessons are becoming. While the trials seem to be harder the victories are definitely sweeter. God is intent on wooing me to Himself and helping me to experience Him as my all in all. It will mean exposing the many hindrances that remain in the way. It will be a matter of releasing one thing after another to take hold of His hand. These cannot just be noble sounding words. They must be the life lines for my soul!

Father, You have waited all this time for me to give You what Your hands were ready to receive. Thank you for walking me through another valley of tears. I delight in You and I look to You. Amen.

When Others Hurt

I also could speak as you do, if your soul were in my soul’s place. I could heap up words against you, and shake my head at you. But I would strengthen you with my mouth, and the comfort of my lips would relieve your grief. Job 16:4,5 NKJV

When we experience difficulty, loss, or grief in any amount we long for someone to come along side us to strengthen and comfort us with their words. Often the ones to do that best are the ones who have been in our place of pain. They bear the scars, recall the wounds, and know the ache. They reach out to us in a way that very few can. It goes beyond mere sympathy or pity. They KNOW how we feel and actually enter into our situation emotionally. With them we feel safe to open up and verbalize what is going on inside us. We know they will not think less of us, label us, or brush us off. We know we will see in their eyes and hear in their words a kindred spirit. They will connect with us in a special way because our story will have traces of their own.

God has been faithful to bring such individuals into my life at just the right moments. While He assures me He will walk through all difficulties with me, He also lets me know He will bring others along side of me to listen, empathize, and speak words of healing to me. I can always tell that they have been where I am at. Their circumstances may have been different but the effects were the same. Because of what God has brought them through, they now walk with wisdom and love. They are willing to open their arms, hearts, and ears to others who hurt. May God bless them and increase their kind on the earth.

I want to join their ranks! Knowing how they have ministered to me, I now want to minister to others. It will require some things. It will mean being open to the needs of others. Allowing God to show me when someone is hurting and being willing to invest the time to hear their story, sense their pain, and speak words that will comfort and relieve. Letting them know I have been where they are at and assuring them they will be okay will validate their feelings and give them hope. I rest in the fact that my past experiences will keep my words from sounding hollow and heartless. Each time I am able to reach out to another individual who is hurting and sense that it is helping will be an opportunity for God to redeem my own story of loss or pain. I will see Him graciously giving me beauty for ashes! They in turn will someday do the same.

Father, thank you for each person who has reached out to me during the darkest times of my life. Their words and actions made a profound difference to me. Help me to now be that to others. Open my eyes, ears, and heart to the hurting, hopeless, and helpless. Amen.

Phrases to Experience and Embrace

The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon Me, because the LORD has anointed Me to preach good tidings to the poor, He has sent Me to heal the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to those who are bound. Isaiah 61:1 NKJV

Jesus is whispering these words to me this morning. I must see Him as the only qualified One to carry out each of these truths in my own life before I can direct others to Him for the same purpose. I use to read through this passage with little more than an appreciation for the poetic sound. The phrases meant very little to me. The intended hope that was housed within their words remained unknown to me. But that began to change several years ago. Slowly but surely He is causing the phrases to come alive to me. Each one is beginning to resonate in me as I experience their full impact. He is not necessarily taking them in order but He is individualizing them for me.


When I read “to proclaim liberty to the captives” I immediately recall His invitation for me to step away from a legalistic, performance based way of living my Christian life. I learned the truth and it really did set me free! Sure, there were fears and tears along the way but the desire for freedom and the assurance of it bringing me into a more intimate, personal relationship with God far outweighed the emotions. It birthed in me the passion to share with others how they too can be free. Now I see that phrase and it brings me joy because God has taken me from captivity to liberty!

A harder phrase to embrace is the healing of the brokenhearted. I see it as a message that is being birthed in me for the purpose of ministering to others. Right now the healing is a slow process that is hard to detect at times and the brokenheartedness is profound. It is painful and confusing in so many ways. Good sounding cliches and bumper-sticker phrases will not suffice. I praise God for the people, books, and music that are powerfully ministering to me. But I am acutely aware of God’s personal, direct involvement each step of the way. When His healing is complete I will be equipped to look hurting individuals in the eye and understand like never before the depth of their pain. As with a broken arm, it does not matter how a heart is broken….pain is pain. I look forward to the day my heart mending is complete and a message of hope and healing is mine to proclaim.

Father, it hurts. I rest in the fact that Your healing hands have not left me for one minute. My hope is in You. Amen.

When Seasons Have Ended

Now when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord caught Philip away, so that the eunuch saw him no more; and he went on his way rejoicing. Acts 8:39 NKJV

Philip was involved in this eunuch’s life long enough to introduce him to the truths of Jesus Christ. They spent part of a day together as Philip explained a passage of scripture to him. Their meeting ended with this individual being baptized and then Philip was suddenly taken away. The eunuch saw him no more after that point. It was a brief encounter that changed his life! Here is the part of the story that grabs my attention: the man went on his way rejoicing!

I know what it is like to have an individual come into my life and teach me life changing truths about God. It has happened several times over the course of nearly 34 years. Each time I was affected greatly and the direction of my life was forever changed. There always seemed to be a certain pattern followed. God would prepare my heart for what I was about to learn, bring a person along to reveal truth, and I would take in the truth with a deep thirst! To this day, I love when that happens!

Here is the difficulty. Due to issues in my own life, it was often too easy to become enamored with the person God was using. I somehow would see them as necessary to my continued progress and growth. Unaware that their time in my life would be for a season, I would be crushed when it was time for me to move on without them. I wish I could say I readily released myself from them but that would be so far from the truth. It has often been a prying away of my fingers and a relearning of the necessity of it all.

God is gracious and very patient! I see Him awakening in me the realization to trust Him with this process. Under His care I am safe to experience relationships with the people He leads to me. There will be growth and at the right time (when He knows it is time) He will initiate the separation. He knows I’ll cry. He knows I will need to work through some issues. But ultimately He knows that I will resume a walk with Him that will have deepened. I thank Him for the ones He brings and I trust Him when their season in my life is over. When that happens, may I become like this eunuch who went on his way rejoicing!

Father, You know that I love the introductions and cringe at the goodbyes. You know when my heart is engaged and when it is broken. Through it all may I hold Your hand all the tighter. Amen.