Listening for God's Voice

God still speaks today. If you are not hearing from Him…guess who moved? He loves you, He has been in pursuit of you all your life. From the moment you were born to this very moment, God is setting appointments to meet with you that only YOU can cancel.

 

This past weekend the ladies from Women’s Teen Challenge were on our campus. If you are unfamiliar with the work of Teen Challenge, it is a ministry program that helps women and men addicted to drugs and alcohol get free. The method is simply introducing them to Jesus. As they ask Jesus to be Lord and Leader over their lives they experience the power of Christ to get free of the bondage of the addiction.

It was wonderful to hear their stories of how God had freed them from addiction. After the service, I was talking with one of the ladies (Ashley). She had shared how God was speaking to her even as she was rejecting Him. She could not escape the voice of God. She told me how she had moved away and took a job in Arkansas. During her time at work she would slip out at times to take a smoke break. She would be standing alone at the back of the building smoking and a lady in the community would drive by roll down her window and say: “Jesus loves you, young lady”. It did not seem to matter what time of day she took her break that woman would drive by roll down her window and remind Ashley that Jesus loved her.

That story reminded me of an experience I had several years ago in Phoenix Arizona. I was in the mall doing some last-minute shopping for Christmas. This young, women, with a newborn walked past me and God spoke to me: Tell her I love her. I was rationalizing in my head that this would be so awkward. I thought about how I would probably scare the young women by confronting her and after all she had a tiny baby in her arms. So, I let the moment pass without obeying God’s voice. I really felt awful about it. I turned the corner to head into my destination store and what do you know…There stood that young lady with the baby again. God spoke to me again: Tell her I love her. The store was crowded and I was looking for the moment, still feeling uneasy. The young women left the store and went back out into the mall and I felt bad again. I missed my opportunity.

I ran into her again about 15 minutes later. This time I did not even make the effort to share God’s words with her. I was embarrassed and ashamed of myself. So much so that I promised God that if he gave me one more chance I would obey Him fully. I really thought I was off the hook as I headed out of the mall and down the escalator. Heading toward the front doors and the parking lot I was feeling ashamed but at the same time a little relieved. The automatic glass doors opened and right in front of me was this young lady with her baby looking at me. I walked up to her and said something like: I know this will sound strange to you. God told me to tell you something and here it is: “Jesus Loves you”. She broke down, tears streaming down her face. She said you are the fourth person today that has said those words to me. We talked for several minutes and I had prayer with her.

Walking back to my car I was struck by how persistent God is with us. He wants to speak to us every day. www.godtalks.tv For the next 6 weeks we will be in our annual Fall series titled “GODtalks”. I want to invite you to tune it. The link above will have the weekly messages. Take time to Tune In! God is speaking and LISTENING CHANGES EVERYTHING.