God Is Not Distant – He Is Not Silent

"That I may proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving, and tell of all your wondrous works." Psalm 26:7 Francis Shaeffer, a writer, teacher and a great man of God, wrote the book, "He Is There And He Is Not Silent." Truly, every believer has and will experience the fact that God is not silent but that he speaks to his believers and is ever present in their lives. "My sheep HEAR MY VOICE, and I know them, and they follow me." John 10:27 They hear his voice... Some people become angry and sarcastic towards one who speaks of what God has said to them. They think it outrageous that God would speak to an ordinary man or woman. On the contrary, what would be outrageous would be should God NOT speak to his people. The entire Bible is composed of the stories of God speaking to man. vs 4: "And when he brings out his own sheep, he goes before them, and the sheep follow him, for THEY KNOW HIS VOICE." Every believer has experienced the direct touch of God upon their lives. Some have experienced healing, others have been aware of his presence, his unexpected provision, his intervening in times of danger or great need. God is not distant. He did not put us here and then leave us saying, "Good luck, I hope you make it." The very thought of that is ludicrous. If he is so close that my next breath depends on him, how then could I think that he would not be present in all that concerns me? How does God speak to a believer? There are many ways. The most common would be through his Word. One comes to the Lord in the morning with prayer, thanksgiving, intercession for others, and later when reading in his Word he comes across a passage that speaks to exactly what he prayed. There are more than 1,100 chapters in the Bible. The odds of my reading a passage that specifically speaks to what I prayed earlier - is one chance in more than a thousand. Yet it happens frequently, I call it hugs from the Lord. His way of affirming to me that he is with me in what I do. There are times when one hears the voice of the Lord directly inside, in words. On a few occasions my experience has been that as I've taken an issue to the Lord, he will interrupt me with his answer before I even have a chance to finish the question. Many times as I write these posts, I will hear the exact same message later from some other source, using the very Scriptures I used. The odds against that happening are astounding. If it only happened once, that would be one chance in more than a thousand, but for it to happen several times in one week ...that sure goes beyond the possibility of coincidence. The point is that God is very involved in our lives. He leads, he guides, he provides resources and helps. And on occasion, he will grant a supernatural experience that no one could question, such as a healing or deliverance, a surprising provision, an intervention preventing an accident, oh how numerous are the ways in which he interacts with his believers. If you're a born-again believer, think back over your walk with the Lord and bring to mind the times he has directly intervened in an obvious way. When God makes himself evident to us in some concrete way, we are not to forget those incidents, they are gifts from Almighty God and are to be treasured. These stories are to be told. We are to glorify his name in all that he does. Do not be silent. "Proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and tell all his wondrous works." Here are some examples, short testimonies I've recorded from several believers: Make Known His Wondrous Deeds