We are in the midst of a teaching series called WORD.  It’s all about the fact that God will speak to us if we are willing to listen.  In fact, for all the talking to God we do, asking God to do stuff for us, what if… rather than doing stuff for us… He just wanted to say stuff to us?  And what if, with a Word he could do far more in us, through us, and around us, than we ever dreamed possible.  If that is the case, we should be the world’s greatest listeners — shouldn’t we?

But it’s not always easy…sometimes we have to persevere.  I want to share an e-mail from a person at our church who would tell you…don’t give up, God still speaks.

Hey Pastor Dan,

I was at the service last weekend, and you were talking about the power of words.  At the end of your sermon you challenged each of us to listen for God’s voice.  I’ve got to you tell that I was really skeptical about this, but I gave it a shot.  Every day last week I prayed that God would speak to me, and that he would make it clear to me that it was indeed His voice, and not just me wanting it to be him speaking to me.  By Thursday, nothing had happened.  With only two days to go in the week, and afraid of being disappointed, I gave up.  I brushed it off and thought oh well, I didn’t really expect anything to happen anyway.

Friday morning I went to work and had a meeting scheduled with one of my cases (I work in immigration and help people with visas and naturalization).  I had never met the man before, so he explained that he wanted to apply for citizenship for himself and his family.  He said he was from Pakistan, and that he was a Christian.  He told me that he is so glad to live in the U.S. because he can say that, everyday without fear of persecution.  I began to ask him about his life there, more for my own curiosity than anything else.  He said that God was calling him to be a priest, and that he studied in secret to become one.  It eventually put himself and his family in danger, and he decided to flee when his government began to question him and threaten his family.  He got teary eyed when he described the day he left his country, knowing that he would never see his parents again, at least, he said, not on earth.  Overcome with emotion, this man -who I had known for 10 minutes- looked me in the eye and said, “I don’t know if you are a Christian.  But you need to know that God speaks to you.  He doesn’t come down and sit beside you and whisper in your ear.  But he sends people to you and speaks to you through other human beings.  God is speaking to you through me today, and he is speaking to me through you.”

Pastor Dan, I didn’t doubt you when you spoke about the power of words.  I know that words can be powerful, but man when it’s God saying them they just seem to hit you extra hard.  Anyway, I just wanted to take a moment to tell you know how awesome that was.  Thank you for challenging me.

God still speaks.  He speaks in many ways, but if we want to hear Him, nothing will substitute for personal reflection on the scripture.  Don’t give up, just listen.