{"id":91451,"date":"2024-08-28T13:58:07","date_gmt":"2024-08-28T13:58:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=91451"},"modified":"2024-08-28T13:58:07","modified_gmt":"2024-08-28T13:58:07","slug":"how-will-god-speak-to-me-part-1-of-5","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=91451","title":{"rendered":"How will God speak to me?\u00a0(Part 1 of 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Introduction<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Heaven has one Broadcasting Station but numerous channels on earth through which its messages are conveyed to us.\u00a0 The following passage puts the many earthly channels of divine communication into their three broad categories: signs, prophets, and sourced information (or knowledge).<\/span><\/p>\n

We see not our\u00a0<\/i><\/span>signs<\/b><\/i><\/span>: there is no more any\u00a0<\/i><\/span>prophet<\/b><\/i><\/span>: neither is there among us any that\u00a0<\/i><\/span>knoweth<\/b><\/i><\/span>\u00a0how long\u00a0<\/i><\/span>(Psalm 74:9).<\/span><\/p>\n

God could use any of the three channels or a combination of them for giving us reliable directions in life. \u00a0Unfortunately, we have generally become so accustomed to the often dramatic and spectacular second option of prophets, that we are prone to missing it when God tries to reach us by any of the other means, or we ignore those other means to the point of not developing our receptivity thereof.\u00a0 It is the tragedy of precious antennas through ignorance neglected to ruin, and valuable signals thereby missed.<\/span><\/p>\n

All three channels are as credible as they are prone to abuse or error or exploitation or invasion by extraneous hostile agencies. That is why God who gave them also tells us to\u00a0<\/span>\u201ctry the spirits,\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0and He was not excluding Himself (1 John 4:1; Genesis 24:21).\u00a0 I shall proceed to explain each of the three channels.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u2022 Signs<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n

Reading the Clock<\/b><\/i><\/span>
\nJust as we are able by the coordinates of the long and short hands of a clock to tell time, God has put bodies in space (the sun, the moon, the stars) by whose \u2018coordinates\u2019 we can tell times and seasons (Genesis 1:14-17). \u00a0The wall clock hangs up for everyone to see, but not everyone who sees it \u2018hears\u2019 what it says about time, unless they have learned to read it, as we were taught to do early in school.\u00a0 Unfortunately, for those who cannot read the clock, it is merely another piece of furniture.<\/span><\/p>\n

Ability to\u00a0<\/span>see<\/b><\/span>\u00a0the clock is not the same as\u00a0<\/span>reading<\/b><\/span>\u00a0it and being\u00a0<\/span>guided<\/b><\/span>\u00a0by it to plan one\u2019s day properly.\u00a0 The sun, the moon, and the stars all decorate space as well as give light in their seasons, but they do much more as markers of times and seasons \u2013 to those who are able to read those long and short hands of a different kind on the face of nature\u2019s clock.<\/span><\/p>\n

Times and Signs<\/b><\/i><\/span>
\nIn Matthew 16:3, Jesus tells us that God has put signs in place for telling times.\u00a0 In other words, times have signs, or times come with their signs.\u00a0 He called them\u00a0<\/span>\u201cthe signs of the times.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/span>\u00a0So, we can tell what time it is if we understand the signs.<\/span><\/p>\n

What are signs?\u00a0 Signs are observable events or situations or objects conveying a meaning beyond themselves; they are things that can be seen or felt, things that may be concrete or abstract.\u00a0 They are natural situations with a supernatural voice. \u00a0Often, they are processed (or discerned or interpreted) to arrive at their meaning.<\/span><\/p>\n

There are signs that tell you it is summer or winter or autumn or spring.\u00a0 Even if you were blind, you could feel them or hear them.\u00a0 In tropical Africa, we can tell dry and rainy seasons and even the onset of harmattan by the withering of trees, by the dryness or abundance of rainfall, by the general fall or rise in atmospheric temperature, by certain animals or birds or fishes migrating or behaving in certain ways or making particular sounds.\u00a0 Those situations are markers (or signs) of a given time \u2013 to those who have been skilled to \u2018read\u2019 them.\u00a0 Anyone who can \u2018see\u2019 those \u2018signs\u2019 of the season does not need prayer and fasting to be able to generally tell where they are in the calendar of the year.<\/span><\/p>\n

Times have their signs.<\/span>
\nApart from signs in the sky or in outdoor nature, there are other seasons of life that also come with their signs; for instance, the\u00a0<\/span>signs<\/b><\/span>\u00a0that come to a pregnant woman when the\u00a0<\/span>time<\/b><\/span>\u00a0comes to deliver. \u00a0To not know those signs can be a disaster to the woman. \u00a0There are signs in the body that tell that one is sick, and what sickness it could be.\u00a0 It is by reading signs that medical doctors are able to diagnose a sickness and prescribe medications.\u00a0 It is possible to misread a sign \u2013 in nature, in medicine, in spiritual matters, true; but it is still a sign despite being misread.\u00a0 Through experience, some are better able than others to read signs; all the same, the inability of others to read them does not discredit the signs.<\/span><\/p>\n

Signs and Context<\/b><\/i><\/span>
\nSigns are also contextual.\u00a0 For example, a red dress on a young girl would mean \u201cbeautiful,\u201d but if I should wave that same dress along a lonely road or a train track, it would mean something different; it would be saying, \u201cDanger!\u201d \u201cStop!\u201d \u201cDo not proceed!\u201d \u201cCaution!\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

Properly interpreting signs, then, takes context into consideration.\u00a0 For example, Jesus gave wine at a wedding \u2013 that was recreation.\u00a0 Times later, He held up wine at the Last Supper, and said,\u00a0<\/span>\u201cThis is my blood\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0(John 2:1-11; Mark 14:24; 2 Corinthians 2:15-16).\u00a0 All wine does not mean \u201cparty.\u201d All wine does not mean \u201cblood.\u201d\u00a0 A smile can mean opposite things depending on who is smiling to whom, when, and how.<\/span><\/p>\n

Discerning Signs<\/b><\/i><\/span>
\nUntil I went fishing with my grandfather, I did not know that in the open sea with no coasts in sight to the left and the right, it is still possible to tell the tide and the direction of water flow and the way back home merely by \u2018reading\u2019 the clouds or looking at the sun or the stars.\u00a0 I had always seen clouds in the sky, but they never meant that much to me.\u00a0 They had been merely mobile aerial decorations, and at sometimes, tellers of a coming rainstorm.<\/span><\/p>\n

We all have eyes, and we all see signs, but not all seers understand what they see.\u00a0 Philip\u2019s encounter with the Ethiopian eunuch in the Bible tells us not to assume that because someone has\u00a0<\/span>seen<\/b><\/span>\u00a0(or read) something, they\u00a0<\/span>understand<\/b><\/span>\u00a0it (Acts 8:30-31). \u00a0That is where discernment (or interpretation) also becomes important.\u00a0 Pharaoh had a dream, but thank God there was Joseph, for\u00a0<\/span>interpretation<\/b><\/span>\u00a0and <\/span>counsel<\/b><\/span>\u00a0or application (Genesis 41:1-38).\u00a0 Nebuchadnezzar saw clearly into the future, but he lacked interpretation. Thank God there was Daniel (Daniel 2:1-45; 4:1-33). Peter had a trance.\u00a0 He sought to know what it meant.\u00a0 The interpretation came later, at a more proper time than he had asked for it (Acts 10:9-21; 11:1-18).<\/span><\/p>\n

Patterns as Signs<\/b><\/i><\/span>
\nLike the signs in outdoor nature and the signs in the body, there are patterns in life that announce a spiritual state.\u00a0 \u00a0For instance, if the men in a lineage often die at a certain age, if a woman repeatedly suffers an abortion at particular times in the pregnancy, if war often breaks out between certain communities after every ten years, if a child suffers from a condition that affected a parent and a grandparent and a great-grandparent, the pattern could be a sign of something to look into.\u00a0 Even when it is not the sign of a season, it is a voice saying something, as much as a prophet might have done.<\/span><\/p>\n

Relational Signs<\/b><\/i><\/span>
\nWhile Jacob served Laban his maternal uncle, there were signs he saw, which told him that his\u00a0<\/span>time<\/b><\/span>\u00a0with that man was up.\u00a0 God was later to speak to him in more dramatic ways to confirm that he had properly read his signs.\u00a0 The relational sign he had seen with his eyes and processed by wisdom was Heaven speaking to him by other means.\u00a0 He did not wait for a \u2018vision\u2019 or further \u2018revelations.\u2019\u00a0 He prepared at once to leave.\u00a0 Had he missed those initial \u2018signs\u2019 of his season, he might have overstayed that location. From that point, then, what used to be a right location would have begun to turn wrong for him.\u00a0 In other words, the first voice he received was the voice of a sign, or the voice of God through a sign, before the other voices followed (Genesis 31:1-16).Let us assume that a girl was going to get married to a nice-looking church guy, and has been praying to know the will of God on the matter.\u00a0 The boy is very charming but often volatile in temperament, to her great dismay.\u00a0 Also, he usually has fine excuses for how he crosses the lines of decency with other females, resulting in great conflicts in their fragile relationship.\u00a0 By some strange luck, she comes upon very credible information that he has strong links with people of questionable financial disposition.\u00a0 Should she await a vision from heaven and \u2018prophetic declarations\u2019 to know what to do, or could all those observable details of concern be \u2018signs\u2019 to advise her next step? \u00a0The answer should be obvious, unless to a deluded lovebird blinded by infatuation and other vanities.<\/span><\/p>\n

In politics, in spiritual operations, in ministry, there are signs that also tell times.\u00a0 For example, about certain prophetic global end-time events, Jesus said that if we are able to\u00a0<\/span>\u201csee all these things\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0we would\u00a0<\/span>know<\/b><\/span>, from those\u00a0<\/span>\u201cthings\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0seen, that we have entered into a given prophetic season.\u00a0 Those \u201c<\/span>things<\/i><\/span>\u201d or signs are meant to make us to \u201c<\/span>know<\/i><\/span>\u201d that the\u00a0<\/span>time<\/b><\/span>\u00a0is\u00a0<\/span>\u201cnear.\u201d<\/i><\/span>\u00a0 In other words, those \u201c<\/span>things<\/i><\/span>\u201d (or signs) are like the long and short hands on the face of a clock \u2013 for those who can read signs (Matthew 24:32-33).<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25cf By <\/b><\/i><\/span>thepreacherdiary.com<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u2022 Introduction Heaven has one Broadcasting Station but numerous channels on earth through which its messages are conveyed to us.\u00a0 The following passage puts the many earthly channels of divine communication into their three broad categories: signs, prophets, and sourced information (or knowledge). We see not our\u00a0signs: there is no more any\u00a0prophet: neither is there […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":91454,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772,5777],"tags":[201,6770,2953],"class_list":["post-91451","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith","category-features","tag-god","tag-hear","tag-speaks"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91451","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=91451"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91451\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91454"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}