BY LOIS PECCE

NE THING THAT’S ALWAYS INTRGUED me about the Bible is the phrase “And God said . . . ,” with which God commands His prophets and people. The fact that the great omnipotent God breaks through the barriers of infinity to convey a message to a human being at some place and time on Planet Earth is mind-boggling.

As a child, I fantasized about the story of Samuel. If God spoke to that little boy in his bed, couldn’t He speak to me in mine? “Please, God, I’m listening,” I’d whisper, waiting and hoping to hear His voice while staring wide-eyed into the dark. All I would hear was silence.

Haven’t you ever wanted God to give you a clear command?  Haven’t you ever wanted Him to say, “Go to this school. Choose this career. Enter this relationship”? Life would be so much easier if we didn’t have to think and wonder; if we just had His voice to direct us: “Go here, go there, do this, do that.”

God is always seeking relationships with His people. Rather than barking orders from a command center or programming us like robots, He has created us in His “likeness” (Gen. 1:26)* and given us power to reason and choose. Fear and doubt are not bad things—unless we give them control. Questions are good if we search honestly for the answers. In fact, we learn little if we don’t have questions and our minds aren’t open to inquiry.

Like Children—Curious and Expectant
Working with the youngest children in church, I am intrigued and delighted as I observe them developing and learning. They’re constantly filled with curiosity and questions. They ask, “What’s this? What’s that?” They want to feel things, examine them, test what they can do. Parents (and teachers) derive great pleasure from a child’s joy of discovery and learning. Actually, words are the least important tools of communication and learning. Unquestionably the most important is love and the ongoing presence—visible or near—of a parent or parent figure. The second most important tool is example or demonstration. The third is personal experience.

God calls us His “little children.” Since He “invented” parents and children, it stands to reason that He communicates with us in the same ways that we communicate with each other—with expressions of love and presence, by example or demonstration, and by allowing us to experience for ourselves. Hebrews 1:1, 2 describes His methods: “In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe” (NIV).

While it seems at times from the Bible record that God isn’t much of a talker, one must consider that God doesn’t need words or voice to accomplish His designs. His power is in who He is. His very thoughts can become substance. Ellen White describes Christ as “God’s thought made audible.”1

In this sense, there is never a moment of silence in the universe or on the earth. Every drop of water, every singing bird, every blade of grass proclaims God’s power and will. Every breath we take is a communication of God’s love and care. Human language is but one of His many and lesser forms of speech. “Cease striving,” He says, “and know that I am God” (Ps. 46:10). Other interpretations say: “Be still” (NIV), “let go,” “relax.”

This reassures me that God doesn’t have to speak out loud or give me dreams and visions to prove His presence or demonstrate that He cares about me. Certainly I’d like to hear His audible voice, but there are many other ways I can “hear” Him. When I need guidance, I can look to the principles laid down for others, because those same principles can guide me. As David said: “Thy word is a lamp to my feet, and a light to my path” (Ps. 119:105). “Thy word,” he says, “I have treasured in my heart, that I may not sin against Thee” (verse 11). What’s important is receiving the word He has given and treasuring it in my heart.

Christ spoke of people who “while hearing they do not hear, nor do they understand” (Matt. 13:13). Unfortunately, sin and a sinful world have conditioned our minds to hear what we want to hear.

When we desire God to speak to us in ways other than He has, we invite danger or trouble into our lives. To covet “new light” when we do not follow existing light is to lay ourselves open for deception and delusion. Roger Morneau’s book Beware of Angels gives a prime example of how far earnest, praying, “new light”-seeking people can fall from truth, for failure to listen to what God has already said. They  too cried, “Speak to me, Lord,” and devils were ready to answer.2

If we should covet anything, it should be godly wisdom. We should pray for understanding and discernment. James 1:5, 6 says, “If any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all men generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him. But let him ask in faith without any doubting.”

For Our Good
One of our family’s greatest pleasures is watching our grandchild grow in knowledge and understanding. We do all we can to facilitate this process. There are times she rebels against our rules and restraints, but we still continue to love her. Our plans for her reach into the ultimate future, far beyond the pain or frustration of the moment.

Infinitely greater is the scope of God’s love and plans for us. “‘For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope. Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart’” (Jer. 29:11-13).

How much more plainly can God speak?

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*Unless otherwise indicated, all BIble quotations in this article are from the New American Standard Bible.
¹ Ellen G. White, The Desire of Ages, p. 19.
² Roger Morneau, Beware of Angels (Review and Herald Pub. Assn., 1997).

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Lois Pecce is a freelance writer from Dayton, Ohio, and a member of the Dayton Christian Scribes, a local writers’ organization.