"it's God here..."

Does God still speak? Does He speak to you? How? What does He say?

Acts 16 has an interesting story of a time when the Holy Spirit spoke to Paul and his entourage giving them the unusual command NOT to spread the gospel. We're not told how God communicated this -- through inner promptings, prophetic utterance, external circumstance, an audible voice, or...?

Later when they were in the place God told them to go (through a vision) and there were problems, they did no second-guessing, no questioning about whether they had actually heard right. Instead they faced arrest and jail with their trademark reaction: joy, prayer, praise.

God does still speak today. Last night I listened to an archived It's A New Day TV show where Todd Bentley gave his testimony. You'll be amazed at how God got through to this profane, addicted 17-year-old ex-con biker-boy raised by a single (deaf) mother and alcoholic father on B.C.'s Sunshine Coast. (January 22, program 33042 - linked on this page)

I love the verse: "Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying, 'This is the way, walk in it.' whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left" (Isaiah 30:21). That's how closely I'd like to be tuned to God. That's how clearly I'd like to hear Him.

But it doesn't end there. Hearing demands a response. May my response be like that described by Oswald Chambers (I quote the original Chambers edition):

"Be resolute when God speaks, act in faith immediately on what He says, and never revise your decisions. If you hesitate when God tells you to do a thing, you endanger your standing in grace. Take the initiative, take it yourself, take the step with your will now, make it impossible to go back. Burn your bridges behind you -- "I will write that letter, I will pay that debt." Make the thing inevitable."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (May 10)

"Get into the habit of saying 'Speak Lord,' and life will become a romance."
- Oswald Chambers, My Utmost for His Highest (Jan 31)