My husband and I raised three energetic, strong-willed boys who only, ever slowed down when their heads hit their pillows at night. The volume in our home amplified beyond three rowdy voices because friends were in and out on the daily, so getting my voice heard above the fray mostly felt futile.
In fact, most days I had to repeat my words multiple times before anyone actually listened to what I was saying. I learned that just because they could hear my voice did not equate to them taking it in and responding to it.
As I’ve sought to better hear from God – be it in His Word or by His Spirit – I’ve had this image in my head of God feeling much the same way. “That Shelley, she’s hearing my voice, but she’s not really listening.” I fail to hear Him over the raucous or to notice what He’s saying because too often I’m simply not listening.
Only four weeks into this year’s ‘hidden’ deep-dive and we’re already recognizing we have a role to play if we are going to hear consistently from God. We are starting to see that while God can feel hidden and His messages can be missed or misunderstood, God. is. speaking.
Not Just Israel
Here is another level of consideration. While God most certainly communicates with us, His people, He also speaks into the world. As chaotic, stressful, and divided as the world can be, God still desires for “all people to be saved and to come to a knowledge of the truth” (1 Timothy 2:4). But this is nothing new. If we scour the history of humanity, we’ll see God’s repetitive, redemptive attempt to make His voice known.
- In the Garden, God walked and talked with Adam and Eve (Genesis 3:8-9). Even after Adam “listened to [his] wife” instead of God (v.17), God continued to make His voice heard even though He no longer walked among them bodily (Genesis 4).
- When humanity had fallen so far from God that their thoughts were “only evil all the time,” God’s voice could still be heard by the singular righteous man, Noah (Genesis 6:5, 13-21).
- As humanity populated the earth, they sought to make a name for themselves, so God scattered them and confused their languages (Genesis 11:4-7). Generally speaking, no one was listening – except Abram, whom God called to become the father of His holy nation (Genesis 12:1-4)
- After His people endured four hundred years of oppressive slavery, God’s voice found listening ears in the shepherd, Moses, calling out to him from a burning bush to deliver the message of rescue (Exodus 3:4-10).
In the days of the Old Testament, God seems to be speaking only to a few. But the evidence points to God wanting to reach everyone. For instance, when God called Abraham, it was to be a blessing to all nations (Genesis 17:5). When Solomon dedicated the Temple to God, he reminded everyone that it was not only for Israel’s good:
“And…may [God] uphold the cause of his servant and the cause of his people Israel according to each day’s need, so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the Lord is God and that there is no other.”
1 Kings 8:59-60, emphasis mine
When Isaiah proclaimed the line, made famous by Jesus, that God’s house was to be one of prayer, he specified God meant it for all people (Isaiah 56:7). Isaiah himself was called into this world-wide role:
“You will do more than restore the people of Israel to me.
Isaiah 49:6 NLT
I will make you a light to the Gentiles,
and you will bring my salvation to the ends of the earth.”
Not Just Us
In time, spoken words were recorded, becoming written words – another avenue for humanity to hear from God. And while some listened, “eventually, God’s word had to become flesh—not in a book but in a body, not just mystically in heaven but materially ‘among us.’”1
Enter Jesus. The Word made flesh.
For as many ways as Jesus turned the world absolutely upside-down, the message remained the same. God loves humanity and wants everyone to know Him, His ways, His love, and His truth. So, we can rightly assert that God has been trying to get the world’s attention from the very beginning. By sending Jesus to earth, God asserted as loudly as possible:
“This is my Son, my Chosen One; listen to him!”
Luke 9:35 ESV, emphasis mine
While He walked the dusty roads of earth, Jesus spoke audibly, frequently imploring that “whoever has ears, let them hear” (ie: Matthew 11:15).2
Since Pentecost, Jesus’ voice enters the conversation at a new level because now every believer is gifted with the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And with the Spirit in us, our ability to hear God’s voice amps up exponentially (John 14:26, 16:23). All of us have the potential to hear from God. With that potential comes purpose:
- Like Israel of old, we’re meant to listen to God so that we can witness to what we hear.
- Like the Temple, we’re meant to be set apart in the world as a testimony to God’s presence, power, and sovereignty.
- Like Isaiah, we’re called to be God’s light in the world.
- Like Jesus, we walk this earth carrying the Father and His words within us – to share with people.
In that sense, we become God’s messengers to the world, planted in all sorts of environments with the sole purpose of making Him known – through actions, words, and presence.
While we might feel unworthy or ill-prepared to be such vessels, we can embrace the truth that the Word and Spirit dwell in us. As such, we’ve been given courage and wisdom because the power of the Spirit resides in us. We have all we need to know because the truth of God’s Word has been written on our hearts. And we have the words we need to speak because the message God wants us to share is woven into who we are – the story of our journey with Jesus.
Don’t believe the lies that God doesn’t use His voice anymore or that God only converses with the highly educated, deeply spiritual, or completely mature believers. No! The simple, unchanging, eternal truth is that the God who has spoken since the literal beginning continues to speak today.
Are we listening?
If we aren’t intentional, we’ll miss what God is saying. We can go our entire lives barely hearing the hum of a voice in our hearts unless we tune-in to it. Friends, let’s become faithful children who fix our eyes on Jesus and attune our ears to listen to God’s words. When we do, we can trust that because we are Christ’s sheep, we will know His voice when we hear it and be able to respond to it (John 10:27). Let’s believe God’s voice is speaking and can be heard above the fray — because we’re listening!
In these last few weeks, we’ve begun the work of hearing from God, but know that God’s ‘hidden’ message in all of this is bigger than us – it’s a forever impartation, meant for all people for all time. And, because His Word and Spirit are in us, we can carry Him with us everywhere we go to make Him known. In that way, we become God’s ‘hidden messages’ to the world.
Father God, it never ceases to amaze us how your Scriptures reveal to us a history in which You’ve been speaking to the world forever. Your desire for relationship with your creation astounds us – maybe because in your presence we become so aware of our unworthiness. So, we ask that You would continue to lead us and teach us to trust the truth that in Christ we are made worthy. Help us to keep listening to your Son! Lord Jesus, the fact that You reiterated – so many times – your invitation for ‘all who have ears to hear’ has awakened us to the fact that those very words continue to be our herald to stop and listen to You. Sometimes we’re tempted to fear that we won’t know your voice when we hear it. So, thank You for the promise that because we are your sheep WE WILL know your voice. You are our Shepherd. We turn our eyes and ears to You and wait to hear from You. Holy Spirit, how incredibly grateful we are for your presence in us. It dawns on us that without You, we’d be like the Israelites who wandered the wilderness – they witnessed your wonders yet failed to trust You. That’s not our story. Because of the Holy Spirit in us, we have everything we need to believe, seek, hear, and respond to our Shepherd and His voice. We ask that You’d keep encouraging us to share our stories with each person God puts in our paths. We desire to be faithful hidden messages for Christ in the world. In His name we pray, amen.
(inspired by Hebrews 1:1-2; Psalm 85:6; 2 Corinthians 5:20-21; Matthew 11:15; John 10:27, 14:26, 16:13; 2 Timothy 1:7-8; 1 Peter 3:15-16)
This ends our “Hidden Messages” series. It felt short to me, but I keep reminding myself that this series, in many ways, touches on themes and topics of future series. So, I try to write with patience and self-control. 😉 On February 14th we not only celebrate Valentine’s Day this year, but Ash Wednesday! Which means next Sunday will be the first post of our Lenten series, “Hidden in Christ.” I’d love for you to get word out about this Lent opportunity. Invite someone to join us!! See you here next week!! XOXO
Resources: I love sharing with you the books, podcasts, articles, and anything else that has inspired, encouraged, or taught me. These are humble offerings with no expectations.
- 1 – Pete Greig’s quote (p.xviii) from How to Hear God: A Simple Guide for Normal People,^ referring to John 1:14.
- 2 – In fact, these are the most quoted words of Jesus throughout the Gospels and Revelation (fifteen times). Who knew!?!
- On our Hidden Messages playlist, Tiffany Hudson’s song, “Hidden Here,” rounds out the list and our series. Her lyrics hover over us like a holy benediction that we can take with us into the week and Lent:
- “If You hide me in your shadow, what I thought I wanted now fades away. You unravel me till you become the only One I know…”
- “I will leave the crowd behind me — You’ll be the only beauty I behold. I come alive in our communion — just to be with You is my reward. I will meet you in the shadow every day…”
- “I will stay right here where You make me like You — if You hide me here, I won’t take it lightly ’cause You are here and that’s all I could need.”
- “What’s hidden here is holy!”
- Every Wednesday I post what I call “Teacup Videos,” where I expand a wee bit on each week’s blog post. You can find them on my Facebook Author Page and Instagram.
- Most of you who subscribe to this blog also receive my monthly newsletter, The Abiding Life. The first week of each month I send it out as a way to connect further with you! This last month I expanded on one of the songs on our playlist, “Hidden,” and the album it’s on — by Bristol House. Their website offers resources, like lyrics and devotions, for every song on their Altars album. To read the list of song titles on this album, it’s almost as though they’ve been reading along with us here for the last couple of years. That’s the Holy Spirit speaking!!! If you’d like last week’s newsletter, email me. If you’d like to start receiving my monthly newsletters, you can subscribe here.
Rhythms: As my newsletter’s title infers, we seek to develop an abiding life in this space — a place where we can get informed but also be transformed as we learn to abide in God’s presence throughout our days. I like to think that developing rhythms is what aids us in our desire to become more Christlike.
- Remember that our rhythms of stillness and solitude are meant to still our interior by getting alone, away from people and their needs. There’s no one way this looks or works. Trust the way God has wired you and lean-in to what stills your heart and mind the most.
- Finally, as a community, let us not neglect sharing God’s amazing grace with others! Share your God-stories with people around you. Share this site. Share God’s Word. Shine His light into the world!
Featured Photo by Ben White on Unsplash. “All the Bits and Pieces” photo by Sahand Babali on Unsplash.
^Denotes an affiliate link, with which this ministry earns a bit to help it keep going. 😉