The Power of a Whisper: Samuels' Ear

My mother lost custody of three of her children before she met my father. Because of her age, my mother never expected to have any more children. So when my mother would called me her "little Samuel" I thought it was because I was an answer to prayer. I was a child she so wanted but didn't expect. I was God's consolation prize for to make up for the children she had lost in an ugly legal battle. This put an incredible burden on me as a child and teen to never let her down, but that is for another blog entry.

I now know that the reason my mom called me her "little Samuel" was not because I was an answer to prayer but because like Hannah my mom had dedicated me to the Lord and like Samuel as a young child I heard from the Lord. At a very early age I learned not only hear the voice of God but more importantly to respond. As I grew as into an adult, God's voice has seemed more distance, harder to discern. I remember recently telling my wife as we were trying to make tough decisions regarding our careers and our finance, that I felt I had all together lost the ability to hear God's voice. I no longer knew what it sounded like.

We arrived in Florida on Saturday to temporarily live with my in-laws since we rented our home in Westchester as my wife and I both seek career direction. I was pretty tired from our trip but I felt like I should go online and see if I could find a church we could attend the following morning. This didn't make sense, we hadn't yet unpacked our bags, besides, it wouldn't be as good as my church C3M in New York, yet despite these excuses I went online and found a church called the Bridge in Bradenton. The next day we got up early and made the long trek the chuch, where the pastor starting a lecture series based on a book he was reading, "The Power of a Whisper" by Bill Hybels. The message he gave was a simple , not anyway near the intellectual somersaults I was use to, but it was exactly the message I needed to hear. I realized, God hadn't stopped speaking to me, I forgot how to hear His voice and I would have to get back on a mission to having Samuel's ear to hear God's voice and obey it. In that simple but elegant message I realized God had been in fact whispering to me all along, and it started with the whisper to go online and find a church even though it would have been reasonable for me to take a Sunday off after 22 hours behind the wheel.

In the book, "The Power of a Whisper" Bill Hybels says, "Do you think anyone is orchestrating those ideas that float through your mind? I mean, do you think your thoughts are just random, or is it possible that God is trying to communicate to you in some way?" As I read this book, I find myself on a mission to have Samuel's ear and hear God's voice by slowing down, blocking out all the extra noise and distractions of this world and listen to His whispers.

Preserving Your Spirit

I'm writing this from a bathroom in the Hampton Inn in Fayetteville, North Carolina on my way to Bradenton, Florida. I have just rented out my home in Bronxville, New York and I'm on my way to moving in with my in-laws. I sit here and think this doesn't make sense, this is not the vision God gave me for our future. I remember something I recently told my connect group, God typically reveals to us the end of the vision without given us the path, because if we actually saw the path our vision would take us we might not want to go. God is cheeky that way. If Joseph had known that he would have to be sold by his brothers and become a slave and put into prison in order for his vision to come true of his brother's bowing down to him, he may have asked God to give the vision to one of his other brothers.

As I uncomfortably sit in a sterile Hampton Inn bathroom so as to not disturb my wife, two year old son and one month old daughter asleep in adjoining room, I contemplate moving onto the army green and yellow diamond carpeting, in a hope that it will be more comfortable. It is then that I see Joyce Myers book "The Secret Power of Speaking God's Word" and I find inside the following verse: "You have granted me life and favor, and Your providence has preserved my Spirit." Job 10:12. I recognize that these gifts Life, Favor andProvidence keep in in good cheer and preserve my spirit. Without the gift of life, I wouldn't be able to appreciate the vastness of His unfailing love and mercy, without His Favor I wouldn't be able to recognize His divine intervention even in the middle of trouble times and without his providence I would not have the faith to know that he will complete that what He has promised and that "All things work together for good for those to trust God and are called according to His purposes (Roman 8:28)."

So if your like me and the vision God gave you seems sidetracked, trust that like Joseph you are precisely in the place God wants you to be. His providence that will ultimately preserve the vision and the destiny He has in store for you. So preserve a cheerful spirit despite your circumstances.