What if?

“Our failure to hear His voice when we want to is due to the fact that we do not in general want to hear it, that we want it only when we think we need it.”
― Dallas Willard, Hearing God


      I am in awe of how far God will go to communicate with us.  He has the whole world at His disposal and is willing to use it to speak to us.  We need only to pay attention and be willing to hear the answer.
     Yesterday, I had a friend call and ask if I wanted to give my day to Jesus with her.  I did.  I needed it.  I went to her house and we talked awhile, catching up and sharing what God is doing in our lives and then we set out to follow Jesus.  He first led us to a coffee shop and asked us to speak to a man who was having high anxiety, and his life was about to change.  We gave him the words God had given us for him and prayed with him.  One thing that stood out to me was that we went there only to talk to him.  We didn't even get a coffee.  He had to have seen this and known that Jesus sent us there just for him.  We didn't just pick someone out of the crowd, the Lord took us to him. 
     Next we were led to speak to a young man walking.  My friend was overwhelmed with the love Jesus had for this guy and he welled up with tears when she told him.  His heart was broken.  His significant other had left him and taken their daughter.  He was so open to our prayers for him.  It was amazing to see God use us as we were willing. 
     We sat in the car talking and praying about where Jesus wanted us to go next when we became engaged in a conversation about how many people are against women teaching or ministering to men.  We both struggle with this old religious rule.  Then we realized, when we both submitted and followed Jesus that day the first two people He took us to were men.  We had a good laugh.  He had answered our question before we asked Him.  He will answer if we are willing to pay attention and hear.
     I had a friend recently meet me for a late night snack.  We were leaving from the same place and meeting at a restaurant.  Even though we took different routes I was surprised by how long she was delayed.  She told me she had sat through three cycles of lights at the intersection and her left hand turn light never went green.  She was asking the Lord what He wanted.  She prayed for people around her, she moved her car forward and back to trigger the light, but nothing worked.  Finally after the third cycle it turned green and she went on her way.  Later in the conversation she asked me if I had heard a new song about Him waiting on us.  I couldn't help it.  I had to laugh.  I asked her if God had asked her to do something lately she was putting off and she confessed she was to write a letter but she was struggling.  I could clearly see the Lord was talking.  I have your journey stopped until you do what I have asked.  We won't even get into the left hand turn.  She realized the Lord was trying to get her attention. 
     I can see where some people who like to box up God can't imagine that He would talk to us in these ways.  Of course if it's not in scripture??    Maybe she should have waited at the light for a burning bush or for God to push her out of her car and strike her with blindness.  Maybe a donkey talking or an angel appearing would have been easier to believe. 
     I drove home one night asking God how to do something I felt He was asking me to do.  I saw two huge male deer standing in the opposite lane unshaken by the fact a car was driving by.  They both had a huge set of antlers and I found it odd just the two of them were standing there in the night watching me drive by.  Then I heard the Lord say He was sending someone to walk through it with me.  I saw by the appearance of the deer we have the same strengths and weaknesses.  Maybe it would have been clearer with donkeys?  Scripture, scripture.  It's funny how closely some want to follow scripture when they don't believe something and how loose they can be with it to twist it to what they want to convince us of.
     It is much easier to see when it's someone else at times, like my friend stopped at the light.  Sometimes it's by choice.  People choose not to see.  So what if there was a pastor who the Lord wanted to speak to and was not listening?  Let's just say he listened in the areas he wanted answers, but was not open to anything outside of that.  What if the enemy was totally influencing his ministry, but he refused to listen to the messages sent by God.  What if people who don't usually see the demonic, were wondering what they saw in his church.  What if the Lord placed a frog in his church and it croaked through every service?  Would he even recognize the message?  Then let's say when he paid no attention to the frog, the Lord sent a rat to torment him at home?    And when he was in a country the Lord said he was not to be in, on two separate days he was attacked by a bird.  Seriously, walking outside, a bird physically attacked his head and it hurt?  If this all happened within a couple months, how many people would notice a message being sent?  If the Lord lifted His hand off of this man and demons began tormenting him in his sleep, would he pay attention?
     What if many of us don't see what the enemy is doing, because we think the signs are ridiculous?  God knocked Paul of his horse and struck him blind to get his attention.  In todays world I could see many blaming God instead of asking what He wants them to see.  Especially in this country there is such an arrogance about our churches, that we are not open to them being under attack. 

Ezekiel 3:27New American Standard Bible (NASB)

27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you will say to them, ‘Thus says the Lord [a]God.’ He who hears, let him hear; and he who refuses, let him refuse; for they are a rebellious house.
.     I am not saying that every bad thing that happens is a sign that we are doing something wrong, but how many times do we ask God and believe He is not answering, when if we opened our minds to His communication, He is shouting loudly?  The Bible warns that in the last days there will be false teachers and prophets.  How will we recognize them?  By their fruit, but we need to open our hearing so God can speak to us, too.
     If we are not open to God speaking to us and warning us in unusual ways, then we are most likely blinding ourselves to what the enemy is doing also.  We are naïve to think the Church is not under attack.  The enemy will use any door we leave open.  To think our pastors and leaders have it all under control and are doing battle on our behalf is not being responsible.  We should be protecting them through prayer.  They can't be everywhere, they can't see everything, we aren't to spend our lives drinking milk.  This is a spiritual battle.  Many churches are being ruled by blind leaders who are too full of pride to admit there may be a problem.  The spirit of religion is flowing all over, the spirit of fear and perversion and even the spirit of control, Jezebel.  How many babies have to be miscarried in a church before somebody asks, "Is Jezebel sacrificing our children?" 


Numbers 22:30New American Standard Bible (NASB)

30 The donkey said to Balaam, “Am I not your donkey on which you have ridden all your life to this day? Have I ever been accustomed to do so to you?” And he said, “No.”