“Earth’s crammed with heaven, every common bush afire with God; But only he who sees takes off his shoes; the rest sit around and pick blackberries.”
Jesus is everywhere,
all around,
trying to interrupt your thoughts,
your plans with His presence.
What if we lived life this way – noticing – being so in tune to each moment, each person?? Finding Jesus in every moment, every person, everything!
We miss Him all the time and call it a dry season or a dark season.
We claim God is not speaking to us, He has us in the wilderness.
It’s simply not true.
Jesus is always speaking to us.
One of Jesus’ names is the Word.
He is never silent,
He is always speaking!
We mistake change in spiritual transition with silence or “dry seasons” instead of stopping and finding Jesus in the change. Jesus is the Living Water, He is never dry and with Him we never find ourselves in drought or lacking fruit. He is never separate from you.
Romans 8:38-39 NIV For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
We have those seasons where relationship with Jesus is rich, its emotional, we can tangibly feel His presence with us, or we can hear Him talking and directing us. Then all of sudden it seems to end – we cant hear Him, He seems to be gone. He’s not! Your season just changed and what we tend to do is keep moving forward without stopping to find Jesus in the transition and then moving forward with Him.
He is always near;
He is always moving in your life;
He is always speaking.
Psalm 139-7-10 (ESV) Where shall I go from your Spirit? Or where shall I flee from your presence? If I ascend to heaven, you are there! If I make my bed in Sheol, you are there!
If I take the wings of the morning and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
God is not stuck to speaking to us in one way. Jesus never healed anyone in the same way. He interacts and responds to people on an individual, specific, intimate way. We must stop and find Him when change happens.
Scott Thompson, Instructor at the School of Ministry in Bethel Atlanta and on the Senior Leadership Team for Jesus Culture shares in his book, Words of Knowledge Made Easy, the many ways God can speak to us – he can speak audibly like He did with Moses, Joshua, Gideon and Samuel. He uses physical sensations – touching our physical body with His comfort, His presence, His healing. Another way He speaks to us is through divine imaginations – opening up your imagination to experience Him, to see Him. Think about breakfast this morning or imagine dinner with someone special this evening – our minds can create and see things through our imagination. When given to the Holy Spirit you make space for a living, real relationship with Jesus. Open visions are another way God communicates to us, different from divine imaginations that take place in your mind, an open vision is seen with your physical eyes. God uses Words of Wisdom to enlighten us and Words of Knowledge about a person, place, thing or circumstance to help them. Dreams are another way He speaks to us. God uses Emotions to speak to us – when you walk into a room and can feel the atmosphere or what another person is going through emotionally, mentally or physically, this is God uses emotions to speak to us. God uses other people to speak to us, He loves community. He uses the bible, music, and nature to communicate. Another way is through visual prompts – ever been driving down the street and see the very same thing you read in your devotional on a billboard or gas station sign. That’s God!
He is so creative and never tires of finding ways to get your attention. God is always speaking, always moving. Stop and find Him in transition. There is a reason that His means of communication changed – maybe He wants to connect you to community and use other people to speak to you, maybe He wants you to open your eyes and find Him in nature, in the butterflies and sunrises as creation sings His glory. Maybe He wants to wow you with open visions or words of knowledge but you have been thinking you are missing Him and keep looking for Him other ways so you keep missing Him.
Stop and find Him and then move forward.
