Have you ever had one of those moments where you had thought you were hearing something?
I was driving to work this past Tues when I first heard it.
It was soft and so faint that at first I was not sure if it was what I thought it was. I quickly passed it from my mind and continued about my morning. About seven minutes had passed when I heard it again. As I strained my ears to hear this faint noise my heart skipped a beat when I identified it.
Yes! It really was what I thought it was, but where was it coming from? My CD player was off, my phone was silent and hooked up to the car charger, and when I rolled down the windows to see if this was coming from another car everything went silent.
The sound I was hearing was most definitely the theme song from the 1978 Superman movie. I am not sure if you have ever heard a song so much that you can play it in your mind note for note, but even now if someone were to call out a song you knew well you would be able to play that song in your mind as if you were really hearing it?
As I drove to work I think I heard this song playing at least five times. As I pulled into the parking lot I had the sinking feeling hit my stomach, "Dan, what if you have really flipped? I mean what if this is what it is like to do that. You are going to be able to hear this song non-stop and it was all your fault." I picked up my pace trying to drown out the strains of the John Williams orchestra score because it seemed as if I walked heavy and fast the sound went away. As I stood in a silent elevator, there it was again! By now the song had lost it's thrill and by the time lunch had arrived I found myself slipping into a stage of acceptance. I chewed my food in time to my own private hellish orchestra.
I would hear it and then things would be silent for about seven minutes and I would begin to pick it up again. I think at one time I actually was sad at the prospect of hearing this tune for the rest of my life in this fashion and I thought, "Well Dan, you have finally went all 'Beautiful Mind' and get used to living with this". Maybe my parents were right? Comic books would hurt my mind and even now I regretted ever picking up that cursed "Man of Steel" comic book as a young boy. How foolish I had been to think that it was just an innocent child like yearning for something greater in those days gone by.
By about 4:00 pm I was standing in line at the post office and by now I was humming along with my constant companion. By this time, after hearing this in the background of my mind all day I could not help but wonder if this was some kind of cue for me. Was I supposed to be doing something when I heard this song play? Maybe my wishes had in fact come true and I just needed to find a phone booth?
I reached into my cargo pocket of my pants to get my post office key when my hand felt something that had been in the pocket all day long. It was my MP3 music player!
I pulled it out and saw the Superman theme had been on repeat and the song I heard in "My Head" all day long had actually been playing in my pocket and I had been hearing them through the ear buds that were crammed into the bottom of my pocket. I could not help but laugh out loud with the relief that I had not lost my mind (at least in this way) after all!
I had been hearing something all along that I had excused as something other than what it was.
Have you ever done that?
Hear something but go on acting like it was not anything more than just a "Thought"?
Genesis chapter 1:3 is probably one of the most overlooked historic passages in the Bible. I say thatwith confidence, because I know that I have overlooked it before as I have read the account of creation.
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." ~Genesis 1:3
Did you catch it? No? Well, I did not either, let's look again, and this time I will underscore what both of us missed the first time. I will underscore what just about everybody missed the first time they saw this.
"And God said, Let there be light: and there was light." ~Genesis 1:3
This is the first recorded words that God spoke. There is a lot to what He said in the first recorded words, because this is something that Jesus came to earth to say as well.
I GUESS the point I am making in Genesis is that God spoke, and man missed it. You missed it, and I missed it. The fact is, we seem to be very good at missing God's voice in our lives.
This is perplexing because Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice." He also said repeatedly in scripture, "He that hath an ear, let him hear." He spoke in parables, and even his disciples missed it many times.
Why is that?
This is perplexing because Jesus said, "My sheep hear my voice." He also said repeatedly in scripture, "He that hath an ear, let him hear." He spoke in parables, and even his disciples missed it many times.
Why is that?
I believe it is because we expect God to speak in the way we understand Him to be. In many cases I believe we have just given up on God's voice in our lives because it has been a long time since we "heard" His voice.
"And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt."
~Exodus 3:2-3
Moses was walking and working when God came to Him. (God will not use a lazy man to do anything for Him other than be an example of what not to do)
Moses was walking, and saw the voice of God before he heard the voice of God. This hit me like a ton of bricks the first time God brought this to my attention.
GOD SPEAKS IN MANY WAYS.
I was always taught growing up that God spoke through the preacher at the local church. "Listen up and don't color during the preaching because that is when God is speaking" or "Be sure to be faithful to church, because the time you miss may be the time that God speaks to you."
It was as if the voice of God was a lottery call and His will for my life was like a rare flower on the side of a mountain somewhere. You may get it and you might not. It all depended on whether or not you attended all of the conferences and events that your church held that year and if you fully participated in everything that unrolled at those conferences and events. I understand that phrases like that are attention getting for a boy, but the problem with that approach is that a boy is what God uses to make a man.
I grew up with that mentality, and I rejected any other "Frequency" that God broadcasted across my airwaves with.
I was in my mid twenties and I was working at a trucking company. I had been given an area of the 250,000 square foot warehouse to oversee. I was honored at the confidence placed in me and was determined to be the best at what I did. The area was new to our company, and I had the freedom to create process and procedure action plans. The only problem was that no one followed them. I was frustrated.
I was also serving as a youth director for a tremendous church, and had a similar situation going on there as well. I poured my heart out to the teens each week, and invested a lot of me into that area as well. I laid out with clarity what God wanted them to "do" and had similar results as at work. I was frustrated.
Then she came . Her name is Charlotte. Her "Assignment" was taking care of the computers in the warehouse. She walked back into the area that I worked and asked me how I was doing. I was busy trying to make people "do" what they were supposed to "do". I was rude, and annoyed when she asked, "Why does God have a preacher working in this area, at this time, and with these types of problems? What is He trying to speak to you about?"
"I don't know Charlotte, I have work to do and don't have the time to talk about this with you." I replied. (Yes, I can be rude too, and no I do not sleep in a three piece suit either)
Then she gave me an Elijah moment.
"Dan, could it be that God doesn't want you to make anybody do anything, He just wants you to show them how to be what He wants them to be. The teens at church are no different than your co-workers, you cant make them do what you want them to do, you just need to help them fix things when they are broken and you need to be willing to be that for them as often as they need you to be that.", with that message she turned and walked away.
I could not believe what just happened. How did she even know about the teens at the church? She spoke, and it resonated with my Spirit. I jumped on the forklift and caught up with her.
"Charlotte, what just happened back there? What did you do to me when you spoke to me?" I asked, thoroughly concerned at this point. She just casually looked up and said, "God used me to speak to you."
God used her to teach me that God speaks in many ways. Over the rest of her "assignment" there, she would teach me about God's voice, and God used her to help me tune in his frequency on the airwaves of my heart.
We are very visual people, and 95% of our communication is through body language. As we read the story of Moses, I love the fact that our personal God revealed his His voice visually to see first if Moses was alert enough to catch it.
Before God spoke to Moses with His voice, He first spoke to Moses with a burning bush.
"And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt"
~Exodus 3:2-3
How much have I missed because I was not looking to be spoken to? How much have you missed because you have not anticipated God speaking to you?
It takes effort to be alert.
Do you anticipate hearing from God?
God has been waiting for you to wake up this morning so that He can speak to you! Think about this, of all the things that you could have read right now, He let you read this post. Why?
I grew up with that mentality, and I rejected any other "Frequency" that God broadcasted across my airwaves with.
I was in my mid twenties and I was working at a trucking company. I had been given an area of the 250,000 square foot warehouse to oversee. I was honored at the confidence placed in me and was determined to be the best at what I did. The area was new to our company, and I had the freedom to create process and procedure action plans. The only problem was that no one followed them. I was frustrated.
I was also serving as a youth director for a tremendous church, and had a similar situation going on there as well. I poured my heart out to the teens each week, and invested a lot of me into that area as well. I laid out with clarity what God wanted them to "do" and had similar results as at work. I was frustrated.
Then she came . Her name is Charlotte. Her "Assignment" was taking care of the computers in the warehouse. She walked back into the area that I worked and asked me how I was doing. I was busy trying to make people "do" what they were supposed to "do". I was rude, and annoyed when she asked, "Why does God have a preacher working in this area, at this time, and with these types of problems? What is He trying to speak to you about?"
"I don't know Charlotte, I have work to do and don't have the time to talk about this with you." I replied. (Yes, I can be rude too, and no I do not sleep in a three piece suit either)
Then she gave me an Elijah moment.
"Dan, could it be that God doesn't want you to make anybody do anything, He just wants you to show them how to be what He wants them to be. The teens at church are no different than your co-workers, you cant make them do what you want them to do, you just need to help them fix things when they are broken and you need to be willing to be that for them as often as they need you to be that.", with that message she turned and walked away.
I could not believe what just happened. How did she even know about the teens at the church? She spoke, and it resonated with my Spirit. I jumped on the forklift and caught up with her.
"Charlotte, what just happened back there? What did you do to me when you spoke to me?" I asked, thoroughly concerned at this point. She just casually looked up and said, "God used me to speak to you."
God used her to teach me that God speaks in many ways. Over the rest of her "assignment" there, she would teach me about God's voice, and God used her to help me tune in his frequency on the airwaves of my heart.
We are very visual people, and 95% of our communication is through body language. As we read the story of Moses, I love the fact that our personal God revealed his His voice visually to see first if Moses was alert enough to catch it.
Before God spoke to Moses with His voice, He first spoke to Moses with a burning bush.
"And the angel of the LORD appeared unto him in a flame of fire out of the midst of a bush: and he looked, and, behold, the bush burned with fire, and the bush was not consumed. And Moses said, I will now turn aside, and see this great sight, why the bush is not burnt"
~Exodus 3:2-3
How much have I missed because I was not looking to be spoken to? How much have you missed because you have not anticipated God speaking to you?
It takes effort to be alert.
Do you anticipate hearing from God?
God has been waiting for you to wake up this morning so that He can speak to you! Think about this, of all the things that you could have read right now, He let you read this post. Why?
God's way of speaking to His children is not limited to the Bible and the church house. Both of these are tremendous things that God has given us, but He also gives us ears to hear His voice in the everyday things we do, places we go and people that we meet.
God is broadcasting to you today and that voice is one you can identify as Him or just some faint sound in the background of your mind and heart. I do know that when I discovered Proverbs 3:5-6 was not just a verse to memorize for Sunday School, but the tuner for my reception from God it was a day that changed me FOREVER!
"Trust in the Lord (Jehovah) with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding. In all thy ways (The places you go, the people you meet and the things you do) Acknowledge (Search for and Discover) Him and He shall direct thy paths". ~Proverbs 3:5-6
Could it really be that simple?
It is!!!
Climbing with you,
~Dan
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