“The Lord Appeared” Hearing the Voice of God

“The Lord Appeared”

The other night I awoke from a dream at 4:00am.

 

While I laid in bed, I received two different thoughts.

 

The one thought sprang out of a vision.

I never did fall back to sleep because I wondered if it was God. 

In the quietness of the night,

could God be looking for my attention? 

If God had showed up in a shiny robe that night,

my day would have been very different.

But because I am not sure if it was God or not,

 I must prove all things and hold fast to that which is good.

 That night caused me to be more sensitive       

 to God’s voice as I waited for confirmation.

 

How about you? 

How sensitive are you to the Voice of God? 

 Abram was a man who honored God.

Abram showed honor to God

by building altars.

Places where he could

separate himself from everything else.

A place where he could be focused on God.

I know a man who dedicated

a place in his home for prayer

by building an altar.

People like this are called religious,

and sometimes strange.

I have to ask myself the question,

“Why is this strange?”

Is it strange because we don’t

have a dedicated place to pray?

Jesus talks about praying in a closet.

Jesus who hears our prayers

realizes that we, many times,

pray so that others can see us.

If others can see us,

we may not be as open with God.

I have realized that there are good times

 to talk to my kids and times that are not so good.

In the same way,

there are good times to talk to me

and times that are not so good.

The reason is simple…

Focus

I have to admit it’s not too hard

to give God my ‘shopping list’

(my needs & wants).

But I think you

and I want more than that.

We want what Abram had.

Times when

“God Appeared”

Over my life time,

I have met many people

who I call lighting rods.

They are tuned in

to the power of God.

 

Most of these people

are average everyday people.

What I have noticed about them

is that they make more good times

for God to speak to them.

They set the mood for God

by singing praise

or playing praise music.

They expect God to show up

in their quite times with Him.

God appeared to Abraham over and over again.

And God wants to appear to you and me.

Scripture Reading

Genesis 12:4-9 NIV

4 So Abram left, as the LORD had told him;

and Lot went with him.

Abram was seventy-five years old when he set out from Haran.

5 He took his wife Sarai, his nephew Lot,

all the possessions they had accumulated

and the people they had acquired in Haran,

and they set out for the land of Canaan,

and they arrived there.

6 Abram traveled through the land

as far as the site of the great tree of Moreh at Shechem.

At that time the Canaanites were in the land.

7 The LORD appeared to Abram and said,

"To your offspring I will give this land."

So he built an altar there to the LORD,

who had appeared to him.

8 From there he went on toward

the hills east of Bethel and pitched his tent,

with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east.

There he built an altar to the LORD

and called on the name of the LORD.

9 Then Abram set out and continued toward the Negev.