"God can
talk by thunder because thunder is really God talking out loud," says
Dianna, 8.
I'm not sure how
this works but Lane, 7, will explain: "God is in heaven, and when you are
high, it's easy to talk down."
Oh, I get it.
It's kind of like being on top of a mountain and shouting down to those below.
Friends, if you
want to focus on God speaking from high places, remember Mount
Sinai where Moses received the 10 commandments. But first consider
Moses' experience when he was shepherd in the desert. He heard God's voice from
an unusual bush that kept on burning.
Because Moses was
spiritually alert, he inspected the burning bush. He heard the voice of God,
and it transformed him into the deliverer of the Hebrew people.
On the
mountaintop, we expect to hear God's voice. Yet, often we're deaf to God's
voice in the ordinary bushes of our everyday experiences.
Who knows? Maybe
God wants to use you to deliver a nation. If not a nation, maybe he's calling
you to deliver neighbor from self-destruction.
As Chad, 8, says,
"God can talk to us when there is something he wants us to do."
Before you act,
make sure you hear God's voice first. Remember what happened to Moses the first
time he tried to deliver his people. He killed an Egyptian taskmaster and had
to flee into the wilderness where he spent 40 years caring for sheep.
Hannah, 9, says God's
voice may not be audible: "God used to talk out loud so that people could
hear him like any other person. Now he doesn't do that. He talks to us through
our hearts. It sounds pretty hard to do, but God can do anything. God sort of
puts the idea in our heads, and somehow, it just works!"
"God puts it
in your heart, and it goes all the way to your brain," says Taylor, who at
6 years old has a distinct advantage over adults. God's voice has a shorter
distance to travel between his heart and brain.
Before listening
to their hearts, Hannah and Taylor would do well to listen to the prophet
Jeremiah, who wrote, "The heart is deceitful above all things and
desperately wicked."
God promises to
transform deceitful hearts by placing the Holy Spirit into all those who trust
Jesus as Savior. "Do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy
Spirit?" wrote the Apostle Paul to the Christians in Corinth.
But even a new
heart needs a new program. "I think the way God talks to us is through the
Bible, but we must read and study it," says Kyle, 12. Why? "Because
the Bible is God's word," adds Ryan, 10.
Think of the
Bible as a love letter from God. When God speaks directly to the hearts of his
people, it will never contradict his love letter, the Bible. For example, if
you think you hear God telling you to steal something, it's not his voice.
While some view
prayer as a one-way street -- from us to God -- Adriane, 10, says it's two-way:
"God can talk to us by answering our prayers. If we ask him to do
something in our prayers, and he does it, that is him answering our prayer. God
does not have to speak [in an audible voice] to be able to talk to you."
Quietness is the
key, says Hillary, 6: "When you pray to God, and you're very still and
quiet, you can hear him."
Have you been
missing out on the greatest conversation you could have because you haven't
been still?
Point to ponder:
God wants to talk to all his children. Scripture to remember: "Be still,
and know that I am God" (Psalm 46:10a). Question to consider: Has God
spoken to you today?