Does God Still Speak to Me?

I’m reading Richard Foster’s Celebration of Discipline right now. It’s a book exploring some of the practices of Christian faith – prayer, solitude, fasting, study, worship, etc. I’ve never really explored a lot of these and have this inner desire drawing me towards understanding them.

As I was reading this morning, Foster talks about how as Christians, we are content to get God’s Word second hand. Followers of God have done this for thousands of years – just look back to the Israelites as they left captivity in Egypt. They didn’t want God to talk to them. Instead, they wanted Moses to act as a go-between (Ex 20:19). What is it that makes us so afraid to hear from God ourselves? I mean, look at the church today. How often do we rely on our Pastors and teachers alone to communicate God’s Word to us? Do we really make hearing from God a priority? I struggle with this in Student Ministries. For our teens, it’s much easier to let the leaders be responsible for God’s input in their lives. When it comes to them connecting with God on their own, I often hear it’s too much work or then their faith becomes like homework or something they are forced to do. What happened to loving God so much that you want to grow closer to Him? We can do it with girlfriends and boyfriends but struggle when it comes to God…

One of the questions I get a lot in youth ministry is, “How do I know God is talking to me? Does God still talk to people?” There are only 2 possible answers – yes or no. If He doesn’t talk to his creation anymore, then we’re in a whole load’o’hurt. He’s made promises never to leave us, no matter what we do. I don’t think ‘no’ is an realistic option for an answer.

So, yes, He still does speak to us. Why, then, is it such a challenge for me to hear Him? I think it’s because I don’t know how to listen. You know what I mean. We’ve all been there where we are sharing a story with someone and they may be saying, “Hmmm” and “oh yeah” with their mouth as we speak but their eyes and mind are off somewhere else. We tend to be better at pretending that we’re listening than actually listening. If we’re like that with the people around us, how can we not be like that with God?

Maybe God is always speaking. Every moment, at every time and place in our day – we just don’t tune into Him. On Easter morning, I had a chance to ‘tune in’. At our church, the Student Ministries Department is responsible for our Sunrise Service on the oceanfront (Not sure who in their right mind thought youth ministry was a natural pairing for a sunrise service, but that’s another discussion). I was leaving the house at 4:30 AM, before the sun even thought of rising, to set up for the service and heard a solitary bird singing in the woods behind our house. This bird wasn’t just tweeting – it was singing away like a performer. Earlier that week, I read the triumphal entry account in Luke and remembered the ending of that section. When the religious leaders asked Jesus to quiet the crowds, He said that if He quieted them, the rocks would praise Him. As I listened to this bird, I just got the sense that on Easter morning, God’s creation was praising Him and my perspective and awareness changed. Now, the sliver of a moon and stars seemed brighter. As I was getting into my truck, even the wind seemed louder (I actually turned around because I thought it was a truck coming down the road). I heard God’s voice all around me.

As I think through this today, what makes Easter day so special? Doesn’t God speak like this all the time? I want my spiritual sense to be tuned in to His voice and hear Him more often. So, that’s why I’m reading Richard Foster’s book. I’m going to experiment and see how these practices help me to ‘tune in’ and experience the God all around me. My prayer is that more of you may do the same.