MY FRIENDS, ARE WE LISTENING IN THE MIDST OF THE NOISE AND STORM?

July 5, 2017

MY FRIENDS, ARE WE LISTENING IN THE MIDST OF THE NOISE AND STORM?

It’s personal today my friends. So, with a sincere and contrite heart let’s have a conversation with God, as we tell Him how badly we need Him to just get us through the day, because we are breaking under the weight of it all and we are afraid we might fall and become unable to get up. So we feel empty but still willing to keep listening for that still small voice, looking for Him in the midst of the noise and storm of our life to hear if He is telling us to go or stay, or maybe our God is telling us to hold on to Him for just one more day? (Mandisa, Where You Begin)

My friends, this journey Christ has us on and the weight of it all takes its toll at times. And at times we can say with no reservation that we have been in a war zone surrounded by the enemy where it seems there is no way of escape. But like “Moses who was at Horeb, the mountain of God tending His Father-in-laws sheep when a Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire….

And when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, Moses, Moses!” Ex. 3:1-4 (NKJV) What a journey, from a child of parents held in bondage by the Egyptians, to being raised in the royal courts by Pharaoh’s daughter, to a fugitive on the run for murder and now Moses is eighty years old and have been in exile for forty years.

I can only imagine Moses is having a conversation with God but unlike you and I we must listen for God’s voice in the midst of the noise and “breaking news” of this world which at times makes us feel we are breaking under it all. But friends, we must still be willing to keep listening until we hear that still small voice of  God’s Spirit saying here are my plans for you. “Plans to prosper you, and not to harm you.”

And at that point we realize God’s plans for our life were created from the foundation of this world. Even before God said “let there be light” and His desire for our life was sealed with the blood of Christ at Calvary and on the third day He rose, which gives us hope and a future in “that place eye have not seen nor ear heard, nor have ever entered into any man’s heart [all that God has prepared for all who love Him [with a passion] and are willing to give it all to Him, even our life]” 1 Cor 2:9 (NASB)

My friends, if it’s personal, we also understand if we desire salvation we must also follow Christ wherever He may lead. And like Moses, we must deny self and everything this world has to offer “and take up our cross and follow Christ.” [wherever He may lead] For what will it profit a man if he gains the whole world and forfeits his soul? Or what shall a man give in return for his soul?” Matt. 16:24-26 (KJV) and once we have made that choice we will be one of the redeemed who one day soon will come through great tribulations, with washed robes that have been made white in the blood of the Lamb” Rev. 7:14 (KJV)