- Create Margin
- Hearken!
- God Leads Us Through What We Know
- Hearing His Voice through the Din
- Hearing His Confirming Voice
- Hearing His Voice through a Child
- Invite the Lord’s Chastening through Obedience
- Believe and Abide (3 parts)
- Simply Surrender
- Worship and Pray Without Ceasing
- Be Content and Hope in Christ
- Wisely Steward Your Liberty in Christ
CIRCUMSTANCES AND RELATIONSHIPS
In 2002, my nephew was two years old. My sister and I, with our families, were visiting our mother. My sister needed to run an errand and asked me to look after her son, who was napping at the time.
About a half hour passed and her son began to awaken—his eyes still closed, sucking his thumb. One of his habits was to twirl his mom’s beautiful long hair in his fingers as he was awakening. So I picked him up before he opened his eyes and let him twirl my long hair while he laid his head on my shoulder, still sucking his thumb. I patted his back and walked around with him in my mother’s living room.
Within a short time, my sister walked in the front door. There was quite a bit of commotion in my mom’s home at the time, as there always is when we visit—many people talking and laughing. My nephew kept his head on my shoulder, eyes closed, twirling my hair while my sister unloaded the packages she had purchased.
But as soon as my sister spoke in her very quiet way to my mother, her son lifted his head off my shoulder, took his thumb out of his mouth, tensed his body in alarm, jerked back, stared at me, and then looked at his mom and wailed in distress, “Mama!” as he reached out his arms to her. She, of course, immediately came for him and cradled him in her arms.
Through all the other voices in that room, my nephew knew the voice of the one who cared for him and loved him like no other.
HEARKENING
TO HIS MESSAGE
FOR ME
Throughout my Christian walk, I often wondered what it meant to “hear the Voice of the Lord.” Would I really be able to discern His Voice among all the others? Through these circumstances and relationships, the Lord “spoke” to me—not audibly—from His Spirit to mine:
- He is the One Who cares for and loves me like no other.
- He assured me that I was indeed recognizing His “Voice” among the din of other voices, just like my two-year-old nephew could recognize the voice of his mother through the din.
- He also assured me metaphorically that if I was in the arms of some stranger—someone whose doctrine was not sound and would bring death to my spirit and soul—I would be able to recognize His Voice among din of those voices beckoning me to follow them.
- Additionally, He assured me that if I was resting in a place that would be an obstacle to His Life in me, when I called, “Abba, Father,” He would come and cradle me in His arms, just like my sister had done for her son. I need not fear making a mistake. His love for me never fails, even though I do.
