When God says…

God says to us through all available methods and environments. Among them, the clearest, the most core-touching, and the most final method of communion is performed by the man who has the word. God gave Jesus to the disciples. God says to them through Jesus. In the Mount of Transfiguration, He tells them to hear Jesus.<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />

[Matthew 17:5] While he yet spake, behold, a bright cloud overshadowed them: and behold a voice out of the cloud, which said, This is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased; hear ye him.

As a man, Jesus preached the word of God to the disciples. Peter and Paul also spoke the word of God as men. So when you meet them who have the word, they will lead you to the way of communication with God.

The congregation of our church once went out for preaching. I used to join such missionary works and preach the word, but the thought occurred to me that I should stay alone in the church and do my own work in the office. While left alone in the office, it was almost lunch time, and a certain person, a pastor living in the country gave a ring. Other staff used to answer the phone in the ordinary days, but there was nobody but me so I had to answer it.

He said that he read the Christian newspaper our church published and the contents were very much impressive, he grasped the deep word of God so he had no big problem in preaching it, and he had one wish for a long time, i.e., it could not be better if he could hear even a single word directly from God. He spoke out of his heart that it was painful to preach God without hearing Him.

At that moment, I found that he desired it very earnestly so God adjusted the situation so that I might answer to him instead of joining the mission. I told him, “God has told you in your heart, and He is still speaking to you now through what I’m saying to you. You couldn’t hear Him because you did not hear Him while He was saying to you.”

However, other than this, he wanted something like the case in which God talked to Gideon. Gideon asked God to show a sign in which there is dew on the fleece alone and it is dry on all the ground if He set him up, and he asked Him again the next day to show another one in which it is dry on the fleece only and there is dew on all the ground, and He did so (Judges 6:36-40.)

I explained to him by saying, “Will such a sign performed for Gideon be like the current dialogue between you and me? As I already said, I was about to go out for preaching with my church members, but God made me left alone in the church and talk to you over the phone. (This corresponds to the case in which there is dew on the fleece alone or the other case in which it is dry on the fleece only, doesn’t this?) Nobody but God can do this sign. Now He is talking to you through my lips.”

I talked with him over the phone about one and a half hours. When we are almost finished, he said to me, “So, how can I hear Him? Please let me know.” “Oh, that’s what I’ve told you for so long!” I was at a loss because I told him what he wanted to hear but he did not look that he heard the answer. There was a big difference between him and me regarding hearing God so we crossed each other in the dialogue. He hung up the phone.

He sincerely hoped for the voice of God, and such his prayer came up as a memorial before Him, so He had him have a dialogue with me. He always hears our prayers as described. But, he went back, not knowing that the dialogue was His answer to him. God abides here and now in our lives. The memory I have about him still rankles in my heart. We should think deep if we miss the opportunity of communicating with Him unwittingly.

 



by Chung DuckYoung, pastor