The Fathers Voice

"Call to me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you did not know"
Jeremiah 33:3 NKJV


I've wondered many times what it's like to actually hear from God.  What is "Gods voice" like.  Would we recognize his callling?  The truth is, we all need to hear the voice of our Heavenly Father from time to time.  The voice of God can provide counsel, help when in need, warning and comfort among other things.  I'm guessing that anything we can receive from a human conversation we can get from God.  Now, this begs the question, does God have emotions?  I've had emotional conversations, I'm sure you have also.

Then God said, "Let us make man in our own image, according to our likeness."
Genesis 1:26 NKJV

We all know from the new testament that, when informed of the death of his dear friend Lazarus, Jesus wept.  I suppose that one could make the argument that this was just the "human" side of our Lord Jesus manifesting itself.  However, I'm of the opinion that if we, his creation, were created as we are, in our Fathers image, then we possess all the attributes our Heavenly Father does.

And when the donkey saw the Angel of the Lord, she lay down under Balaam; so Balaam's anger was aroused, and he struck the donkey with his staff.  Then the Lord opened the mouth of the donkey, and she said to Balaam, "What have I done to you,  that you have struck me these three times?"
Numbers 22: 27-28 NKJV

In Numbers 22:27 we see a unique interaction between the Angel of the Lord and our man Balaam.  It seems that ol' Balaam was venturing where God did not want him to go.  Therefore, the Angel of the Lord was dispatched to halt Balaams progress.  Now, we should take note here that Balaams donkey was the smart one in this situation, for when the donkey saw the Angel  of the Lord with flaming sword in hand, she resisted and refused to go further.  Seeing this, Balaam did the only logical human thing, he blamed the donkey!  Now, I know that the many times that I've had car trouble on the road, my first inclanation is to blame the car!  After all, it couldn't  possibly be my own fault for neglecting it, right?  Well, this is the very situation that Balaam finds himself in, that donkey of his was only trying to protect herself, Balaam couldn't see the big picture.  One thing I will say, when I've had car trouble and blamed my vehicle for letting me down, I've NEVER had that car talk back to me.  However, this is exactly what happens to Balaam here!  I can almost see Balaams expression as the trusted donkey speaks to him!
I bring the plight of Balaam up for one very important reason.  As we go through the motions waiting for a word from our God, what response are we waiting for?  Are  we waiting for a spoken word?  A whisper?  A "inner" word?   Whatever word from God we are waiting for, we can be assured that he hears us and will make his response known in his time.  I recently hit a pretty low point in my llife as I faced the sickness of my mother.  Other people were recruited to pray for her, but I somehow felt that this God I worship was unconcerned with what I was going through.  Ignoring the fact that each day I would see signs that God was healing her, I continued to plead with God to show his healing!  It was a pretty emotional time as you can imagine.  Then, one morning as I was driving to visit my mom fully expecting the worst when I arrived, out of the blue I received a message from a friend of mine.  At my lowest point this man, this non christian, sent me a short message "Your mom is ok."  Now, there are countless people out there who will shrug and say that this was just my friend trying to comfort me in a time of need.  Although that's true, in my heart I believe that my heavenly Father used my friend to relay his word of comfort to me when I so needed to hear it.  In his wonderful timing, God soothed my fears.  You may not believe in such things.   Then again, you may not believe in a talking donkey either!

~Scott~