You Will Hear a Word Behind You

 Your ears will hear a word behind you, "This is the way walk in it whenever you turn to the right or to the left." [Is 30:21]

Life is filled with decisions. Some are of greater importance than others. The will of God is of the utmost importance. His will is not something so much to be discovered as it is something for Him to reveal. He can reveal His will in numerous ways. One of those ways is through the voice of the Holy Spirit. 

When I use the word voice, some may get the impression I am referring to an audible voice. That has not happened for me. The voice of the Holy Spirit in my life has been like a strong impression, like a persistent thought in my mind, like a holy hunch. I cannot give you an exact science on how to discern the voice of the Holy Spirit. 

He communicates in various ways. He may speak through scripture, through other people, through dreams or visions. He once spoke to Moses in a burning bush. He spoke to Mary through Gabriel the angel. He spoke to Paul in a vision in the night more than once. He spoke to the apostles all through the book of Acts in a way they could understand exactly what He wanted. The fact of the matter is God can speak through the Holy Spirit in anyway He wishes. That is not the point. 

The point is that He does speak. When faced with difficult decisions the Lord will communicate the best choice. He will guide our paths. He will make His will plainly evident for those seeking and listening. People in the Bible knew when God spoke and they knew what He called them to do. We should expect no less in our day. 

This is the way walk in it. That is what we should all desire to know. For God to guide us continually on this life journey. Like God guided Israel with a cloud in the day and a pillar of fire in the night. We need that same kind of guidance. We need to discern when He wants us to wait and when He wants us to move forward. 

If we are serious about listening, we may not always like the directives He gives. He may require us to turn left when we prefer to go right. He may tell us to pause when we want to charge forward full steam. He may tell us to pick up the pace when we start lagging behind. His ultimate goal is not to make us or keep us comfortable. His goal is His will. What He purposes to do. That requires living in a state of constant surrender on our parts. 

Living surrendered is total abandonment to God and His desires. You can throw five and ten year plans out the window. He does care about our vision and mission statements. He purposes to do things where we live. He chooses us to be a part of those plans. He assigns us certain roles in His unfolding drama. We do not get to choose the parts we play. We seek and listen. Then we trust and obey. 

We say we want God to speak to us. Sometimes I wonder if what we really mean is that we want Him to speak comforting devotional words. I am not sure we all want Him to speak life altering, course changing, faith requiring messages placing us on mission for Him. That is part of the price of wanting Him to speak. He can speak any message at anytime calling us to do anything He pleases. 

For Abraham in meant a change in location. For Moses that meant a change in vocation. For the disciples it meant a change in both. For Paul it meant living a nomadic life as a bi-vocational church planter constantly on the move. For several of Jesus' followers it meant death as a martyr. Others suffered violently for following His voice. 

I am thinking of that old song sung at altar calls in some churches where some of the words are; I have decided to follow Jesus, though none go with me I still will follow, the world behind me and the cross before me, my cross I'll carry until I see Jesus, no turning back. That is sometimes the price required for hearing Him speak. It's not always comforting words and soothing sounds when He speaks. Do we want a fresh word from Him? Do we invite Him to speak His message? Will we trust and obey?