I’ve lead a Bible study for almost a decade and one thing that comes up very frequently is does God still talk to people? Like literally tell people things and answer what they ask for? Does He really even care about the things we ask him for? Or are we all just sitting around going through steps, begging for an answer that is never going to come?
It’s so easy for us to be in a relationship with someone and get angry because we don’t hear from them, or can’t understand their point of view, or can’t see how they feel. Communication is listed as the greatest need for good relationships. If “thought reading machines” ever become available, we will all be set, but until then, we usually have to have literal conversations in order to understand someone and really know them and to be able to truly love them.
So then how much more complicated must it be to have a relationship with God? What if you’re one of those people who never hears an audible booming voice in a burning bush telling you the answers, the plans, the reasons for your questions and fears and concerns?
It’s very easy to become a Christian and have a kind of “honeymoon” period, where everything seems easy. Every time you take out your Bible, you find a verse that seems to speak directly to you, people are always giving you encouraging words from God, and its easy to feel happy all the time. It’s like a new relationship- fun, easy, and exciting. But far too often, people forget the promises, the hope, the joy, they had at the beginning and when things do get tough, its easy to want to give up and leave. You did everything you can to listen, to encourage, and to wait for a clear answer, so why didn’t one come?
I love the chorus of this song, because I’ve been there in relationships with friends in my life- frustrated and begging for them to give me something, anything! Proof that our relationship was real and not all in my mind. I’ve been there in my life with God as well, in a difficult place and begging God for answers and direction and feeling like I was getting nothing back at all. Begging God, “say something (because I feel like) I’m giving up on you. Anywhere I would have followed you,” but I need you to show me I’m in the right place and you still care. Please, just give me something!
So does God ever speak back and if so, why do we sometimes feel like we are getting nothing and it’s time that we were “giving up and saying goodbye”? Was God speaking some type of special thing necessary in the past before we had the Bible and now it’s done?
To answer that question for myself I keep going back to college. I will never forget that when I was in college, I kept sleeping through two alarms, and missing morning classes. I was a perfectionist, so sleeping through classes was not okay for me. I actually started praying every night before I went to bed that God would wake me up in the morning. It was a dumb prayer, I wasn’t even in a committed relationship with God or anything, and there were so many more important things in my life I could have been worried about. But do you know that for the remainder of the year I woke up, without an alarm, every day? Sometimes with dreams, sometimes with light that wasn’t in the room when I opened my eyes, and sometimes with a soft voice telling me to wake up. And when things get tough now I always look back at that time in my life and remember that God hears the things that matter to us, loves us deeply, and does answer and speak to us today in various ways. What can you remember in your life that comforts and reminds you that God does hear and answer you?
The Bible says, “Jesus Christ is the same yesterday, today, and forever” (Hebrews 13:8). God really does speak today. He speaks the same ways he did in the Bible. He spoke in the Bible in numerous instances including visions, dreams, words, prophets, circumstances, and miracles, and He is the same God now that He always was. But in order to hear him, we have to put forth some effort and not just get frustrated and walk away.
First off, remember that God speaks through the Bible. “The Word of God is alive and active” Hebrews 4:12, and it shows us clearly God’s plan not only for our own life but also God’s plans throughout history. The Bible should be our first stop every time and is the most reliable, most important, and most filling way we can hear from God. Second, remember that things in our life can get in the way of us hearing from God. The main one being sin, which can cloud everything. The other crucial aspect of hearing from God regularly is faith. You have to trust that he has things He wants to tell. We can’t afford to give up on the Sovereign Creator of the Universe, we need to be ready and willing to hear His words all the time. Finally, God speaks to us through the Holy Spirit in various other ways– like dreams and circumstances, just as he did in my story above. He sometimes shows us, leads us, and loves us through the things He does in our lives rather than literal words, and we have to look for them. God desires to have good communication in multiple ways with each of us. God is not always going to answer us the way we necessarily want, but he will answer us if we trust him, obey him, and believe. So don’t give up on Him, I promise you He’s still there.