God really talks...so please listen

Jer. 33:3

”Call to me and I will answer you. I will tell you things great beyond reach of your knowledge.”

Having read the old and the new testaments of the Bible, I always marveled at how God talked to the prophets personally. He talked personally to Noah, to Abraham, to Jacob, to Samuel, to Paul, and to many others. He gave them directions, and they followed what God told them to do. Such was a very intimate communication indeed, and deep inside I wanted that same intimacy......... yet I was wondering whether it could be possible.

When I accepted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord and Savior (way back in 1977), God inspired me to write a sort of a diary to Jesus. I had a big notebook, which always contained my day-to-day personal messages to God. I wrote about how thankful I am that God brought me back to His Kingdom,and  how grateful I am of the gifts and talents that He gave me. Everything written in that notebook reflected my message to God. I wrote pages of notes every day, yet, I was always the one who was "talking" to God through my notebook. That was a very one-sided relationship and there was no communication that happened. God knew all about me but I only knew a little about him because I did not allow him to talk to me. My knowledge of God was just head-knowledge” – all taken from my readings about Him. But it was a beginning.

Then I noticed that as I grew in my personal relationship with the Lord, I learned to communicate with God – meaning that not only that I talk and He listens, He also gets His chance to talk and I listen. Talking to God was very easy, but listening to God needed a lot of quietness of my own thoughts. Because I already had enough practice in writing – I wrote the “messages” that I received.

I discovered that God talks through the heart not to the mind. How was this possible? He puts His message through - by letting me experience the message itself. This time, not only that I get to talk to God, He taught me on how to listen to Him. As Jer. 33:3 promised – God told me things beyond my knowledge. 

I did not just write about it, I shared it to friends and even acquaintances. I always encountered eager faces - which seemed to understand what I was talking about, but did not really understand. I also encountered blank faces – those faces which wanted to say – are you insane? Deep inside, I prayed that God will confirm His message.

Then, I met a Franciscan sister and we were sharing with each other our thoughts and ideas about spirituality and the presence of God. As I was listening to her, it was as though she read about my reflections, and listened to my sharings – though it was our first time to meet. For a short while – God’s messages (the once which I wrote and shared) rung in my ears through her mouth. 

It was a very joyous experience, mainly because it confirmed that God indeed talks – and His messages are clear and personal – directed specifically to the hearer.

For this I praise and thank the Lord.