God Is Present – And 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." Every believer has experienced many times 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 are scoffing and sarcastic towards a believer who speaks of what God has said to him/her. 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 obvious guidance, 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 might come to the Lord in the morning with prayer, thanksgiving, intercession for others, and later when reading in his Word sometimes he might come across a passage that speaks to exactly what he prayed earlier. Many times as I write my daily devotional, I will hear the exact same message later from some other source, using the very Scriptures I used. The odds of that happening are phenomenal. How many chapters are there in the Bible? And how many verses in all those chapters? The odds of hearing again the very one I read in the morning - well it sure goes beyond the possibility of coincidence, especially when it happens often. And it does. There are times when one hears the voice of the Lord directly inside, in words. On a few occasions my experience has been that I've gone to the Lord about an issue, and he will interrupt me with his answer before I even have a chance to finish the question. 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 there are numerous ways that he interacts with his believers. We must be vigilant to be sure what we hear is actually the Lord, because the enemy can counterfeit it. But don't let that stop you from receiving what the Lord has to say to you. 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. Let your stories comfort and encourage those who need it. "Proclaim with the voice of thanksgiving and TELL all his wondrous works." He does not just speak, he waits to hear from you. Do not be silent.