God's Voice

In front of me is empty highway for miles and miles, 11:30pm. It's dark, save for the pool of light my headlights cast in front of me. For some reason, maybe the prompting of the Holy Spirit, maybe the intuition of the sensitive, I hear in my head "Pull over and pray." I debate, in my head and a little out loud whether or not I should, and then I do. I signal to no one that I'm moving from the left lane, to the right, from the right lane to the shoulder. I sit and pray for about 30 seconds until I feel silly, sitting alone on the highway, in the dark.

No cars behind, no cars in front, nothing but blackness and that pool of light.

I drive back into the right lane, signaling to no one. About 200 yards down the road, in the median, in total seclusion, headlights dead, inside lights off, a state trooper. "Wow" I say, "Wow, God so that's what you sound like? I've always known your voice, but I don't think I thought it was yours."

This taught me a couple things. 1. Obey the traffic laws no matter what time of night it is. 2. And more importantly, listen for the prompting of the Spirit. Also, I like the spiritual picture of a dark highway with only headlights as vision. The path that God puts us on often times is a journey of obedience, with only the next step in sight. Whereas the path we try to get ourselves on is one where we can see for miles and know every turn ahead. How boring that is!

Knowing God's voice is the main lesson and the main goal of any believer. To hear it when you're on the street talking to a homeless person. To hear it when you're talking to a friend, when you're in line at a store, when you're alone in your car. When you're reading your bible. God gives us a taste of his presence and a whiff of his scent so we know he's near and we know what turn is next.


This morning during prayer we discovered through Chris Bressoud's insights that following God really is pretty simple. Like a tree our job is simply to soak in the illumination, the sunlight, of the Word and drink in the water of the Spirit. By being, not doing, we bear fruit. Of course we will be doing things left and right when we first seek the kingdom and God's teachings. But it's not our doing that makes us BE the way God intends us to be. It's our being that moves us to do what God is prompting.

Therefore, wait, watch, listen, and read. Mix this with obedience. You'll grow and bear fruit.

God bless.