CAN'T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD? (Shultz) Ch. 7-13

CAN’T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD?

Secrets to Hearing the Voice of God

Chapters 7-13

By Steve Shultz – Destiny Image Publising, 2007

(All bullets are quotes from the book unless otherwise noted.)

FRIDAY, November 21  Does God Speak Through the Bible?

Hebrews 4:7

Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

• God wants us to take the Living Word and apply it to our personal lives.
• God often lifts a word or two or a verse or two off the page and says, ‘This is for you…now...today!’

            The Scriptures aren’t meant to be a mere history to be read and noted, ‘That’s what happened two thousands years ago! Interesting!’  God is speaking to us through those words – directly – with words that apply to our current life situations.  It just takes us a little time to work out the application apparently!  When reading the Bible, if a phrase or word pops out at us, for whatever reason, we should stop and take note.  Write it down.  Post it.  Reflect on it.  The message from God might not be clear right away.   If we remain open to receiving the rest of the message, however, chances are in the days ahead the meaning will become more apparent.  God speaks in a variety of ways...and the Bible is definitely one of them.  

SATURDAY, November 22  Pineapple Theology

Jeremiah 29:11 MSG

 I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

• I’ve come to understand that not only what the Lord reveals, but when He reveals it often signifies something.
• Do you want the real thing? The power of God? The healthy (not cooked up) genuine – God Himself -  in your plans? Then you can’t put God into your plans, because your plans simply won’t gel.
• This wasn’t how I planned it, God. It was better than I planned!

            Pineapple Theology is based on the scientific knowledge that fresh pineapple cannot be put in Jell-O.  An enzyme prevents a gel.  The pineapple must be cooked or altered.  We cannot have a pure and true relationship with God if we alter God to fit OUR life.  Our life won’t completely ‘gel’.  The scripture from Jeremiah spells it all out: God already has it planned.  We just have to allow God to carry out his plans, rather than sabotage something that isn’t ours alone.  It is the ‘Let Go and Let God’ philosophy somewhat. 

            How do we know God’s plan?  We learn to tune in, we learn to listen more than we speak, and we learn to hear God’s voice in our lives.  I am currently reading through several books or devotions.  I find it amazing the number of times passages or phrases overlap and because I am trying to ‘tune in’ I notice it.    

SUNDAY, November 23 

What Does God’s Voice Actually Sound Like?

Acts 2:16-18 MSG

This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
    on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
    also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
    your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
    I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
    and they’ll prophesy.

• God sounds very much like YOU – since He speaks in your own language.
• Only a few hear an audible voice of God and that has nothing to do with worthiness. Sorry!

            Author Shultz reminds us that God doesn’t speak King James English as a rule and usually doesn’t scream and yell.  God is much more subtle than that.  The part I appreciate is the reminder than God speaks in a language we can understand…individually.  God

speaks through our personal talents and interests.  As an artist and nature-lover, I hear the voice of God in creative works, through the expression of art, through a walk in the woods, or the majesty of a mountain. Perhaps I hear God in the letters I find in my world!   Writers are going to hear a different voice, but the same God!  God may speak to a plumber through pipes and a painter through brush strokes.  God speaks our own language.  Rarely, is that voice audible, and if we’ve never HEARD God in that way, it doesn’t mean we are lower on the worthiness scale!  God didn’t send the angels with a birth announcement to the leaders, but to low-level shepherds! 

            The key to hearing God’s voice for ourselves is to recognize HOW God speaks to us….and then listening.  

TUESDAY, November 25  COMPELLING  

Luke 14:23 NRSV

 Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.’

• Doesn’t compel mean to make someone come in?  To be so forceful so as to give people no choice?
• Evangelism is a process as well as an event.  According to Scripture, it is not what we have been taught!
• Evangelism is sowing and reaping.  Sowing is the hard work.  Reaping – what most people think an evangelist does – is easier, by comparison.

            This was not the chapter I expected to find in this book.  It was not so much about how we hear God’s voice as to how that hearing related to the dread word of ‘evangelism’.  How did Jesus ‘evangelize’?  He hung out with those who lived on the other side of the tracks.  He spent time with the sinners, getting to know them, telling stories with them, sharing a meal together.  It wasn’t a one time event. 

            The scripture passage of John 4:36-38 illustrates Shultz’s point – the story of sowers and reapers.  Sowing the seeds of God’s love is the hard part and we may sow many seeds that we never realize IF we spend time in the ‘field’.  The actual ‘reaping’ of the harvest may be a one-time event, but the slow growing of the seeds takes time. 

            Many more modern translations do not use the word compel.  We have a negative connotation to it, like we are forcing someone to believe.  But perhaps the one who should feel compelled is we sowers and reapers…..that when God speaks to us to scatter some seeds or that the time is ripe for reaping, we listen and we act.  ‘The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few’ is a Luke passage from Chapter 10 (our missional group has read repeatedly!)   Perhaps the message is that many seeds have been sown (Christ scattered more than just a few!) and now it is time to gather in the harvest. 

            Am I scattering seeds with my prayer drawings?  With this blog?  We scatter seeds anytime we witness to our faith, to the power of God-love in our lives.  Scattering seeds and growing seeds is a long process. Yet how easily do I ignore God’s voice when the moment of harvest comes?  How often do I act because I feel compelled to do so?  Not all compelling may be bad…..

WEDNESDAY, November 26

 Hearing God Through the ‘Father Filter’

John 5:19 MSG

The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. 

• God is building a personal relationship with each of us…one clue at a time, one dream at a time, one impression at a time. 
• As a result of having parents who made mistakes, we tend to see God through foggy glasses and hear His voice through muffled ears.  Clogged filters are no good.
• When you are afraid of God, it affects your relationship with and worship of Him.

            This was an interesting chapter on God the Father.  We all have fathers.  We all have a well-established impression of fathers based on our relationship with our own.  We cannot help but use this ‘filter’ to affect our image of God.  For many, the image of God the Father invokes fear.  Their fathers were the disciplinarian and punishment for wrongdoing is the only vision they have.  A loving, compassionate image of Father is not conceivable.  (Perhaps those are the ones who prefer the image of Mother God!)  Regardless, our ‘father filter’ clogs our ability the hear God speak to us clearly.  The filter clouds our thoughts and blinds us to God’s guidance and leadership. 

            Even within one family, the filters can be different, the image of ‘father’ can vary.  The father is the same, but our memories may focus on positive or negative moments.  One child might remember only the good times, while another can’t see through the fog of one or two mistakes.  That fog affects the vision of God.   As parents, we KNOW we make mistakes.  It is only after parenthood ourselves, we realize how tough the job is to always be ON, to always provide love and compassion in a positive way.  

            Is my filter clogged?  Is yours?  How might we clear it to hear God speak more freely?  From my Celtic Prayer book….Show to me this day amidst life’s dark streaks of wrong and suffering, the light that endures in every person.  May that light purify and clear the dirt in our filters.  

THURSDAY, November 27  Hearing vs. Obeying God’s Voice

Matthew 7:24 MSG

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.

• It’s not what you hear, but what you do with what you hear that counts.
• Sometimes obeying God is done best by doing nothing.
• If God promises something great for your family, just love them and pray into it. 
• Remember to let God be God. He is really good at His job!

            When God affirms and encourages, take that affirmation and relish it, live and love into it.  In essence, do not ACT base on it.  God has not given you a directive, just support.  But when the directive comes, God expects us to obey.  Yes, it perhaps can be tough to know the difference, but when you know someone well, you can ‘read between the lines’ much better.  We need to have the kind of relationship with God that provides that confidence in communication. 

            Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  Let me be attentive to the yearnings that you have planted in every human soul …..Let me be guided by your wisdom. (Celtic Benediction -Newell)

FRIDAY, November 28  Just How Busy Is God?

Joshua 1:5 GNT

 I will always be with you; I will never abandon you.

• God has all the time in the world.
• God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, omni-caring, and omni-everything else.  

            How often do we assume that God is too busy to bother with our petty little problems?  The lost keys, the sore back, the dent in the car?  Yet, at the same time, we assume God keeps track of everything wrong we do, including all those little white lies, miscommunications, and missed opportunities.  So is God too busy or not?  The answer is simple:  God has all the time in the world for you and for me.  There is nothing too petty or insignificant for God to involve the Spirit in.  Often God becomes involved before we realize we have a need!  Why?  Because God knows us inside and out, because we are crafted in the image of God, because there is a part of God inside our soul.  We can never be too busy to know the God within us;  yet so often we ignore that presence. 

            Time spent each day in conversation with our God is time well spent.  God is never too busy for that time. 

Let me be set free by love, O God.

Let me be set free to love. (Celtic Benediction -Newell)