This post is from my previous blog, Ear to the Heavens. Enjoy.
I recently was asked by my 7-year old daughter what it meant to hear from God. She wanted to know what his voice sounded like. Could I actually hear his voice?
Let me say first, in all humility, that it is rare that I hear from God. His word is for me, as it is for most of His children, sufficient enough. The only time I really hear from the Lord is when, in my own stiff-neckedness, I have reached an impass and I need to hear His voice to nudge me beyond it.
So, I tried to explain to her that I don't actually hear a voice, but rather, deep inside, a thought comes to me in a small still voice that I recognize as not being my own. Usually it's only a few words, and with those words comes a deep and complete understanding of God's will in the issue.
I am humbled when I think about the prophets of the old testament and how often God spoke to them. Even moreso when I think about how little and rarely He spoke to some of them - for God to speak to me at all is amazing.
I was trying to provide my daughter with an example, and to my shame, I struggled to recall some of those moments. How could I not remember???
It was then that I recalled the monuments that the patriarchs laid to revisit and recall the great things that God had done. One, because we forget, and two, because the enemy seeks to distort the truth and will make us doubt that which we should be sure of because God as approved it with great and mighty acts.
When God has spoken to us, that event should be so great in our minds and so remembered that we never fall into the same trap we were in when He spoke to us.
So, with that in mind I have decided to start a record of the times and things God has shown me and spoken to me to reaffirm His will and His love.
Tuesday, September 4, 2007
Friday, March 23, 2007
Genesis 1:1... More thoughts: The implications of being the created and not the Creator.
This post is from my previous blog, Ear to the Heavens. Enjoy.
Being the Creator, God knows everything there is to know about His creation. He understands the detailed workings of our planet and the universe around us. He is the architect and has knowledge about the systems around us that we cannot begin to comprehend.
He understands us - mankind - better than we do ourselves. Not just the physical workings of our bodies, but the mechanics of our inner most selves- emotions, psychosis, fears, etc. He created us to emote, empathize, sympathize, and so on.
He even came and dwelt as one of us lest we ever doubt that He can't possibly relate to us or understand us, because we believe Him to be so distant and unavailable. He already understood- but just to prove it to us, He sacrificed it all to be one of us.
He also knows the end from the beginning. He is surprised by nothing and has anticipated everything. He exists outside the limits of our dimensionality and - as is proven in the creation - can manipulate the very cosmos at will.
So what does that mean to us? What are the implications of being the creature in the creation that was created by an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient God? (These aren't enough words to really describe Him, but you get the picture.)
Besides realizing that He is in charge and not us, what it should mean to us is this: There is no one greater that we can trust than the One who made us and made everything around us. His will WILL be done, so the most logical response we can have is to yield to Him and trust Him.
Kicking against the goads and rebelling against God merely shows that we have no real understanding of who He is, who we are, and how it all fits together. How can we, finite and incapable, ever hope to control our surroundings or our path in life? The world is spinning though space at thousands of miles an hour, on a path to... what? Trying to control one's surroundings, destiny, etc. can only lead to madness.
Obedience and trust in God is the only way of living that makes any sense. He made me, loves me, has a purpose for me, and knows my future. He knows the path that our world is on and is in total control of it.
To rest in Him is the only way one can have real peace.
Being the Creator, God knows everything there is to know about His creation. He understands the detailed workings of our planet and the universe around us. He is the architect and has knowledge about the systems around us that we cannot begin to comprehend.
He understands us - mankind - better than we do ourselves. Not just the physical workings of our bodies, but the mechanics of our inner most selves- emotions, psychosis, fears, etc. He created us to emote, empathize, sympathize, and so on.
He even came and dwelt as one of us lest we ever doubt that He can't possibly relate to us or understand us, because we believe Him to be so distant and unavailable. He already understood- but just to prove it to us, He sacrificed it all to be one of us.
He also knows the end from the beginning. He is surprised by nothing and has anticipated everything. He exists outside the limits of our dimensionality and - as is proven in the creation - can manipulate the very cosmos at will.
So what does that mean to us? What are the implications of being the creature in the creation that was created by an infinite, omnipotent, omniscient God? (These aren't enough words to really describe Him, but you get the picture.)
Besides realizing that He is in charge and not us, what it should mean to us is this: There is no one greater that we can trust than the One who made us and made everything around us. His will WILL be done, so the most logical response we can have is to yield to Him and trust Him.
Kicking against the goads and rebelling against God merely shows that we have no real understanding of who He is, who we are, and how it all fits together. How can we, finite and incapable, ever hope to control our surroundings or our path in life? The world is spinning though space at thousands of miles an hour, on a path to... what? Trying to control one's surroundings, destiny, etc. can only lead to madness.
Obedience and trust in God is the only way of living that makes any sense. He made me, loves me, has a purpose for me, and knows my future. He knows the path that our world is on and is in total control of it.
To rest in Him is the only way one can have real peace.
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
Genesis 1:1... In the Beginning
This post is from my previous blog, Ear to the Heavens. Enjoy.
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
Heaven and earth is all-encompassing.
The Hebrew word for heaven is "shamayim" which is used for all three definitions of heaven or heavens: the sky and the earth's atmosphere; the stars and all the expanding universe; the dwelling place of God. So, when the scripture says that God created the heaven(s) it means pretty much everything the we imagine exists beyond our physical world: the stars, space dust, the other planets - including anything that exists on those planets - and so on. (I don't want to get too specific as we don't really know for certain what exists out there, but suffice it to say that there is a whole lotta stuff out there.)
In regards to the earth, that includes the animals, the plants, the land, the seas, the sky, all the elements, the electromagnetic fields that hold molecular structures together, and just about everything else you might think of, even man.
In a nutshell, God created everything we know, have yet to know, and ever will know. He alone is responsible for its creation (Genesis 1:1, John 1:3, Col 1:16), its ongoing existence (Col. 1:17), and ultimately, for its destruction (2Pet 3:10, Rev. 21:1).
God existed before He created anything. Everything He created belongs to Him. It is of, by, and for Him and He can do with it as He pleases. We are in no position to question God, to question His acts, or to question His motives. We are one more piece of His creation to do with as He pleases - completely subject to His will.
God owes us nothing.
He has given us everything.
It's important to gain perspective and remember that "I" am not in control. If anything, "I" should tremble in fear and awe of Him and His creation. This is the building block upon which everything I know and do should be built. Then, when I look at the way He desires to know me, to engage with me, to sacrifice for me, I am beyond words. I am silenced by His amazing mercy and unfathomable grace.
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"- Psalm 8
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." Genesis 1:1 (KJV)
Heaven and earth is all-encompassing.
The Hebrew word for heaven is "shamayim" which is used for all three definitions of heaven or heavens: the sky and the earth's atmosphere; the stars and all the expanding universe; the dwelling place of God. So, when the scripture says that God created the heaven(s) it means pretty much everything the we imagine exists beyond our physical world: the stars, space dust, the other planets - including anything that exists on those planets - and so on. (I don't want to get too specific as we don't really know for certain what exists out there, but suffice it to say that there is a whole lotta stuff out there.)
In regards to the earth, that includes the animals, the plants, the land, the seas, the sky, all the elements, the electromagnetic fields that hold molecular structures together, and just about everything else you might think of, even man.
In a nutshell, God created everything we know, have yet to know, and ever will know. He alone is responsible for its creation (Genesis 1:1, John 1:3, Col 1:16), its ongoing existence (Col. 1:17), and ultimately, for its destruction (2Pet 3:10, Rev. 21:1).
God existed before He created anything. Everything He created belongs to Him. It is of, by, and for Him and He can do with it as He pleases. We are in no position to question God, to question His acts, or to question His motives. We are one more piece of His creation to do with as He pleases - completely subject to His will.
God owes us nothing.
He has given us everything.
It's important to gain perspective and remember that "I" am not in control. If anything, "I" should tremble in fear and awe of Him and His creation. This is the building block upon which everything I know and do should be built. Then, when I look at the way He desires to know me, to engage with me, to sacrifice for me, I am beyond words. I am silenced by His amazing mercy and unfathomable grace.
"O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth! who hast set thy glory above the heavens.
Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger.
When I consider thy heavens, the work of thy fingers, the moon and the stars, which thou hast ordained;
what is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the son of man, that thou visitest him?
For thou hast made him a little lower than the angels, and hast crowned him with glory and honor.
Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet:
all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas.
O LORD our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the earth!"- Psalm 8
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