Good day
people. How are you doing?
I’m ready
for Part 4 in this series (Yaay!!!). As I was reading through a devotional, I
found this phrase that I believe is important when talking about hearing God “Obedience
is my part of His speaking to me”. When God leads us (particularly in the way
our flesh does not like), we should obey. It makes it easier for us to hear
clearly the next time.
I’ll also
like to share potential distractions to hearing God (on a surface level) – Busyness,
Tiredness, Hopelessness, Doubt, Deceit. One other distraction I have learnt
more about is “Keeping an idol in your heart”. You’re seeking God’s will
concerning a matter yet you have what you have purposed to do in your heart.
That thing in your heart is an idol and if you refuse to let go, God will
answer you according to the idol in your heart. Let’s read Ezekiel 14: 1-4
“Then came
certain of the elders of Israel unto me, and sat before me. And the word of the
Lord came unto me, saying, Son of man, these men have set up their idols in
their heart, and put the stumblingblock of their iniquity before their face:
should I be inquired of at all by them? Therefore speak unto them, and say unto
them, Thus saith the Lord God ; Every man of the house of Israel that setteth
up his idols in his heart, and putteth the stumblingblock of his iniquity
before his face, and cometh to the prophet ; I the Lord will answer him that cometh,
according to the multitude of his idols.
I have
looked through a couple of translations and come to the conclusion that the
answer that the man/woman who has an idol in his/her heart will get when he/she
inquires of the Lord is not God’s perfect desire/will concerning the matter.
The nature and number of idols in his/her heart will determine the kind of
answer such a person will get from God. Uhmmm…
I’ll start
my ‘case studies’ with the story of Noah. The account of Noah is found in
Genesis 6-9. The days Noah lived in were evil days. There was corruption
everywhere; God was FED UP with man. God had decided to destroy the world that
He created. “But Noah found GRACE in the eyes of the Lord.” (Genesis 6:8).
Why did Noah find GRACE in the eyes of the
Lord? Was he chosen randomly or is there something he did that somehow “qualified”
him? Frankly, only God can tell us what it was that caused Noah to find GRACE
in His eyes. However, we’re told that “Noah was a just man and perfect in his
generations, and Noah walked with God.” I believe that our reverence for God,
as expressed in our manner of conduct, is more or less like our “application”
for God’s grace. It is ultimately up to God to determine if they are acceptable
to Him or not (God’s sovereignty at work). The question then is “If we are only
saved by God’s grace, why do we do good works?” If God will decide who He will
show His grace to whether we do good or not, why do we do good? Please feel
free to share your thoughts on this point.
Going back to Noah, as a result of God’s grace
(which was possibly as a result of Noah’s conduct as a just man, his perfection
in a perverse world and his walk with God), God “commissioned” Noah to build an ark.
The first record of God speaking to Noah was
when He asked him to build the ark. So, how was he judged to be a just and perfect
man? Remember that the laws of Moses came many years after Noah died. Please
share your thoughts on the metrics used in judging Noah as a just and perfect
man…Uhmmm…
All the same, Noah got the instruction to build
an ark. It would have sounded ridiculous to those who Noah may have confided
in. He was building the ark to save himself and anyone that believed him from an
impending storm. Please note that there was no record of rain before then!
There was no record of a flood before Noah started building the ark.
As I studied, I realised that Noah’s previous
acts that earned him the title of Mr. Just and Perfect, as noble as they were,
were not sufficient to save him from the flood. Their only route to salvation
was Noah’s wise choice to hear what God said to him and to go ahead to build
the ark ACCORDING TO GOD’S SPECIFICATION. I once watched a documentary in which
it was suggested that a root cause of the sinking of the Titanic was that some
parts of the ship were built with substandard material that could not withstand
the low temperature the ship experienced when it collided with the iceberg. I
can imagine what could have happened if Noah had tried to “work around” some of
God’s specifications for the ark…Ouch, I think I just stepped on MY own toes,
lol.
I suppose that this was not the first time Noah
heard God speak to him. I came to the conclusion based on the phrase “Noah
walked with God”. I don’t believe it is possible to walk with God and God will
be silent throughout the walk, lol. I believe Noah and God had been gisting
about “small stuff” – what do I do today? Should I pay the dude in cash or
kind? Which route should I use today to get to my farm? Etc. I believe that was
how Noah knew God’s voice when He asked him to build an ark. I’ll reiterate the
point I shared earlier from the devotional - “Obedience is my part of His
speaking to me”. As you obey Him in the “little stuff”, you gain enough trust
for Him to show you a clearer picture of His plan and purpose.
Another instruction that preserved them was for
them to enter the ark AT THE RIGHT TIME. I can imagine that when the flood
began, a few people began to knock and take Noah seriously, it was too late. As
earlier noted, there is the issue of timing when it comes to hearing God and
obeying His commands. May the Lord help us to do as we are told PROMPTLY.
I pray for you that as you hear His voice, you
will not harden your heart so that you may enter into God’s rest, thus ceasing
from your own works, just as God has ceased from His works. (Hebrews 4: 7-11)
Please feel free to share your comments either
on this post or in the blog. I always enjoy hearing from my brethren. The link
to the blog post is below
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