The Eyes of God

I don’t recall when I began recognizing the Presence of God in my life, but I’ve been aware of His Presence for as long as I can remember. Perhaps it was the song, “Oh, be careful little feet where you go…for there’s a Savior up above, looking down…” I learned as a child that made me feel like I was always being watched. Perhaps it was the messages of hell fire and brimstone and that would be my destiny if I wasn’t right with Him that made me conscious of His Presence. I know one thing, as a child of mischief, I often felt His eyes on me.

I used to try to push Him out of my consciousness, but I found that I could not hide from His Presence no matter how hard I tried. I often wished that He would leave me alone, to do my own thing. He sort of did, but I was constantly looking over my shoulder because I felt that His eyes were on me. I used to hate this about God—but that was then.

These days, this is one of the qualities that I appreciate and love about Him—that nothing goes by Him unnoticed. There is nothing that He doesn’t know and there is nothing that surprises Him.

I see my deficiencies, my failures, and my sins. He sees them too. What I see is probably very superficial. He sees beyond that and sees the root of my faults. He also sees and considers my struggles and I take comfort in this. Under His watchful eyes, I know that He will not only be fair and just, but merciful because He still loves me. For this I am eternally grateful.

Journeying With God

Some travelers on a plane from Spain to Britain were told that their flight would be delayed for at least eight hours due to a mechanical problem. When this was announced, a passenger stepped forward and identified himself as a licensed aircraft engineer. The man fixed the problem and the flight ended up being only 35 minutes late. Later, one of the passengers commented that it was reassuring that the person that fixed the plane was still on the plane.

In our journey through life, isn’t it comforting to know that our LORD will help us and is always with us (Hebrews 13:5-6) until we arrive at our final destination?

To him who is able to keep you from falling and to present you before his glorious presence without fault and with great joy—to the only God our Savior be glory, majesty, power and authority, through Jesus Christ our Lord, before all ages, now and forevermore! Amen. (Jude 24, 25)

Does God Speak To Us Today?

Last year I received several email forwards from friends that related a story of a man’s desire to know whether or not God speaks to us in an audible voice today. In the story, the man asked God to “speak to him” and he would trust and obey His voice. While the man did not hear an audible voice, he felt a strong sense of being led by God. Following the leading of the spirit, the man was compelled to buy a gallon of milk and delivered it to a house in an unfamiliar part of town. The man knocked on the door and the man who opened the door did not seem to be very happy with this late night visitor. After handing over the milk, the homeowner began to cry and explained that he had just fallen on hard times and he and his wife was just praying for some milk for their baby just before the knock on their door. The wife then asked the stranger if he was an angel sent by God. The email forward concluded with God is alive and well and His voice will become clearer the more we listen and obey. The forward then said to pass it on if I believed.

I could not bring myself to forward this email even though I have heard about things like this, and have no doubt that God can guide or speak to us in this way. For myself, I want more assurance that I’m not down the end of a gun barrel when I knock on a stranger’s door. Call it a lack of faith, if you will, but there are some things that I wrestle with when I think that I’m “hearing the voice of God.”

There was a time when I used to think that I knew the “Voice of God” and I used to prophesy. One day after I made a prophetic declaration, I was bewildered when the Voice of God was wrong and it really distressed me that God could be wrong. After wondering how God could make a mistake, I had to ask myself several questions. These questions were, “Was God wrong?,” “Did I misunderstand?,” and “Was it really the voice of God that I heard?”

If God was wrong and God can make mistakes, then how can I trust Him? If I heard wrong, then how could I trust myself? What I thought I heard seemed perfectly clear to me on the day that I heard it. If it wasn’t God that was speaking, then who was it? After struggling with these questions for a season, there are three underlying questions that I ask myself before I come to a conclusion. They are:

1. I have been wrong before and I most likely will make mistakes in the future. In the past, I have had an intuition about some things and have been “sure” about other things. Sometimes my feelings or intuition were correct. Other times they were wrong. What or who can I trust?

2. The Scriptures say that we should test everything. I believe this includes our thoughts, feelings, and motives (I Thessalonians 5:21, I John 4:1) to see whether they are from God or from another source (II Corinthians 11:14-15). What is the standard for my test?

3. The Scriptures claim that it is flawless, right, and true (Psalms 33:4, 119:160). The “Living Word” (Jesus) claims that His words are sure, dependable, and eternal (Matthew 7:24, 24:34). Do I believe this?

The conclusion that I have come to is that I should not always believe the voices in my head when I often do not believe or obey the revealed words of Jesus (Matthew 5:23-25, 44, 25:40, 45). So far in my life, there is no one or nothing that I have complete trust in. On the other hand, there really is no one in running except the “Voice of God” (Jesus) in Scripture.

Prayer Is Overrated

Prayer is overrated. Prayer is important, but not that important. I don’t know how many times I’ve been in a store when I’ve witnessed a child telling their parents, “I want that!” After countless “No’s,” the bawling child says, “But I need it!” As a bystander, I empathize with the parents’ embarrassment, discomfort, and frustration because no matter how long and how loud the child screams, I know that the child does not “need it.”

Over the years, I have witnessed some Christians behaving in a similar way as these children. As “adults” we may not throw tantrums and our prayers are a little more sophisticated than the whining of our children, but sometimes our begging and pleading are deaf to the “No’s” of God. It is in this context that I say that prayer is important, but not that important.

James says, “You ask, and receive not, because you ask amiss…” (James 4:3a). What I hear James saying is that sometimes our prayers are not answered because we pray in ignorance to God’s will or to what God desires. Jesus knew exactly what the Will of the Father was. It is on this basis that He prayed, "Abba, Father, everything is possible for You. Take this cup from Me. Yet not what I will, but what You will." (Mark 14:36)

Granted, we are not Jesus and we are not filled with all the wisdom and knowledge of God. But before we can make sense of what’s going on around us, and before we can even hope to “keep in step with the Spirit,” we need to know which direction the Spirit is going. We need to know what God’s will and desires are. This is why we have been given Scripture—so that we can come to know and trust God.

Having said this, I don’t think that we should stop praying and even pouring out our hearts out before God. What I mean is that we should not be so busy talking that we are not open to hearing the “voice of God” as revealed in Scripture.

In the story of Job, Job had a lot of things to say and a whole lot of questions. But in the end, Job was still not privy to the workings of God and not all of Job’s questions were answered. But after he heard the words from God, he confessed, “…Surely I spoke of things I did not understand, things too wonderful for me to know…My ears had heard of You but now my eyes have seen You. Therefore I despise myself and repent..." (Job 42:3-6). Job still did not understand a whole lot of things, but he had come to know and trust God and that was enough.

Peter writes, “His divine power has given us everything we need for life and godliness through our knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and goodness” (II Peter 1:3). If our prayers are not being answered to our satisfaction, it just might be because we are looking for answers in all the wrong places.

Beauty Nipped in the Bud

One of life's little disappointments for me is to watch a rosebud start to open up, then without warning shrink back into a bud, shrivel up, and die. When this happens, I feel like I have been cheated out of its beauty and splendor.

I suspect that the LORD feels the same way when one of His children fails to mature properly. I think that God feels robbed when Christians refuse to open up and allow the Holy Spirit to transform them into the image and majesty of our Lord Jesus. Perhaps God even sighs or groans when Christians shrink back and withdraw into themselves.

The reason why we do is obvious. We feel safe. There is no risk of failure and there is no threat of rejection. The probability of pain and humiliation is considerably lower and we find comfort in not opening up to the dangers of the big bad world.

On the other hand, if we do not have the desire to be outgoing and share out faith, our spiritual growth will wither and God's Spirit will be quenched. We will not experience the depths of peace and joy that the Scriptures promise us. Our faith in Him will not be renewed and we will not blossom into the full radiance of our LORD Jesus.
[Father, I pray] . . . that whenever I open my mouth, words may be given me so that I will fearlessly make known the mystery of the gospel . . . [I pray] that I may declare it fearlessly, as I should; [In Jesus’ name, Amen!] (Ephesians 6:19-20)