I am, like many of us, quite wary of people who claim to have heard God speak to them.
As Anne Lamott writes in Bird by Bird, “You can safely assume you’ve created God in your own image when it turns out God hates all the same people you do.”
That is, it’s way too easy for us to hear what we want to hear, and then attribute it to God.
However, I do believe God speaks.
Certainly, through Scripture — and not the “Bible roulette” kind of reading, where God’s Word becomes little more than tarot cards or tea leaves as we try to divine the future.
No, the kind of reading that engages us at the deepest level, where it grabs hold of our thoughts and to which we return again and again weeks after reading it. The kind of Bible reading that illuminates our understanding of how things are and the incomparable heart and character of God. The kind that challenges, upsets, and upends our way of thinking.
I also believe God speaks through His people.
Again, not through the blustery megaphone wielded like a sledgehammer or the arrogant presumptions of those who simply want to control others.
Often, I find that God speaks most powerfully through people when they don’t even realize He’s speaking through them.
A friend from our church community recently shared an amazing story about how God was at work in ordinary and unforeseen ways through him.
One of his friends, who we’ll call John — whose only religious background is Buddhist — had a dream in which someone came to him, handed him a book, and told him that if he wanted to be successful in life, he should read this.
When John opened the cover, he discovered it was the Bible.
My friend directed John to connect with a church in his area, and he has been taking steps toward faith.
However, God did not speak to John randomly, out of the blue (although I know God does speak powerfully through dreams, particularly in areas in which following Jesus is dangerous or against culture or law).
John revealed that it was a Facebook photo my friend had posted that got him thinking about what he wanted his life to be about.
That photo was from one of our church’s housebuilding trips across the border to Tijuana, Mexico. And as John saw this photo, it made him think that about sacrifice and service.
My friend is a phenomenal photographer with an amazing artistic eye. But he had no intention of proselytizing through his photo.
He was simply sharing with family and friends what our community was up to. And that natural discussion of how we’re joining what God is doing in our ordinary and everyday lives is, to me, an incredibly powerful witness.
May you walk so closely to Christ that you cannot help but hear His voice, and may He speak powerfully through you.
headsparks* 