{"id":91467,"date":"2024-08-29T22:23:55","date_gmt":"2024-08-29T22:23:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=91467"},"modified":"2024-08-30T21:14:32","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T21:14:32","slug":"91467","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=91467","title":{"rendered":"How will God Speak to Me? (Part 2 of 5)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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How will God Speak to Me?\u00a0(Part 2 of 5)<\/h1>\n
\u00a0By thepreacherdiary.com<\/span><\/div>\n<\/header>\n
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Circumstantial Signs<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
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The experience of Balaam in the course of one business mission provides a handy illustration of circumstantial signs that God sometimes puts in our path to slow us down or altogether deter us from potential dangers, if we would hear.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many times, we think ourselves too \u2018committed\u2019 to a people or to a project to hear those signs and save ourselves. Only from hindsight do we rue our losses.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Famous Balaam, the CEO of Balaam and Sons, was about to embark on an important international trip when, the night before, he had a strange experience, something like a dream, restraining him from the trip.\u00a0 However, as he had already committed himself to his clients, and those were diplomatic partners, he had to go.\u00a0 The lure was too attractive to be lightly dismissed on grounds of one nightmare.\u00a0 He packed for the trip.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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He rode his very reliable limousine.\u00a0 It had served him faithfully for many years.\u00a0 On the way, that otherwise dependable car began to behave in strange ways.\u00a0 No matter what he did to drive it, it seemed very reluctant to go. \u00a0It kept wheeling itself this way and that way off the road, bumping against sidewalks in unusual ways, until it simply broke down.\u00a0 It won\u2019t be forced any farther.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Balaam flared up in his usual temper, this time against a car, kicking and slapping against it.\u00a0 Then he heard a very strange sound, which such vehicles were never known to make.\u00a0 As he listened in angry amusement, it became clearer that his path was strewn with danger.\u00a0 Then he saw another bizarre object in his foggy path: a giant rock against which he might have crashed and died if he had forced the car any further.\u00a0 Somehow, the rock began to transmit a radio message to the effect that danger was ahead.\u00a0 Balaam was concerned about the consecutive signs he had seen and heard and experienced in that one day.\u00a0 Something was not altogether right, he seemed to sense.\u00a0 Still, he had to go.\u00a0 The gain ahead was too huge to be missed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Reducing the spectacular experience of that prophet to relatable contemporary terms shows how, sometimes, we ignore the voice of signs to our doom.\u00a0 The story is in Numbers 22:1-34. Probably you or someone you know can identify with this story of Balaam in some way.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The Signs of Illumination
\n<\/i><\/b>To the extent that a sign is something to be interpreted, something that means more than it seems, we can speak of the sign of illumination.\u00a0 By the light from the word of God, a scripture could assume a fresh meaning, applying to us in a present situation as if had been written or spoken for that particular moment.\u00a0 You must have had your own experience where a verse of the Bible seemed to be calling out your name.The Bible says in Psalm 119:130:\u00a0\u201cThe entrance of\u00a0<\/i>thy words<\/i><\/b>\u00a0giveth\u00a0<\/i>light<\/i><\/b>; it giveth\u00a0<\/i>understanding<\/i><\/b>\u00a0unto the simple.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0When light is cast upon something, we see it more clearly than before, even though it had been there all the time.\u00a0 Then certain Bible verses seem to jump out to you, as if a spirit led you there.\u00a0 It could be a sign in the soul.\u00a0 Sometimes the sign could be a song, or a sermon, or an act, which strikes one with a significance that it doesn\u2019t strike others with, providing more light to our path.\u00a0 Psalm 119:105 describes that situation well: \u201cThy word<\/i><\/b>\u00a0is a\u00a0<\/i>lamp<\/i><\/b>\u00a0unto my feet, and a\u00a0<\/i>light<\/i><\/b>\u00a0unto my path.\u201d<\/i><\/div>\n
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Valid as this could be, it also should be discerned.\u00a0 I remember a story once told, of a man who wanted to conjure the Bible to guide a decision.\u00a0 He opened to a random page of the Bible and pointed his finger at a verse.\u00a0 It read,\u00a0\u201cAnd he cast down the pieces of silver in the temple, and departed, and went and hanged himself.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/i>He was worried.\u00a0 He was not Judas.\u00a0 He tried a second time, and landed on a verse that read,\u00a0\u201cGo, and do thou likewise.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>\u00a0He was getting worried, so he tried one more time, and the verse he found, said,\u00a0\u201cThat thou doest, do quickly.\u201d\u00a0<\/i><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Discerning Signs
\n<\/i><\/b>In Matthew 24:32-33, Jesus said,\u00a0\u201cwhen ye shall see all these things, know\u2026\u201d<\/i>\u00a0\u00a0In other words, the\u00a0\u201cthings\u201d<\/i>\u00a0are see-able.\u00a0 They won\u2019t be things so hard to see.\u00a0 They won\u2019t be things shrouded in a mystery.\u00a0 The matter, however, is not just the\u00a0seeing<\/b>, but also the\u00a0knowing;\u00a0<\/b>or a seeing that should lead to a knowing.\u00a0 So, there are \u201cthings<\/i>\u201d that God puts in nature, in our respective spaces, for us to\u00a0\u201csee\u201d<\/i>\u00a0and\u00a0\u201cknow\u201d<\/i>\u00a0times and seasons. \u00a0If some seasons take us by surprise, it could be because we missed their signs.\u00a0 Sometimes we have vainly blamed the prophet for being blind to our plight, whereas it was we who had failed to \u2018see\u2019 the signs at a time when God chose to speak not through the prophet but through those signs missed.<\/div>\n
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In the Gospel of Luke, we are also presented with the matter of\u00a0discerning<\/b>\u00a0signs, beyond\u00a0seeing<\/b>\u00a0them.\u00a0 There, Jesus rebuked a people, saying,<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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54 \u2026 When\u00a0<\/i>ye see<\/i><\/b>\u00a0a cloud rise out of the west, straightway\u00a0<\/i>ye say,<\/i><\/b>\u00a0There cometh a shower;\u00a0<\/i>and so it is.<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
55 And\u00a0<\/i>when ye see<\/i><\/b>\u00a0the south wind blow,\u00a0<\/i>ye say,<\/i><\/b>\u00a0There will be heat; and it cometh to pass.<\/i><\/div>\n
\u00a056 Ye hypocrites,\u00a0<\/i>ye can discern<\/i><\/b>\u00a0the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye\u00a0<\/i>do not DISCERN<\/i><\/b>\u00a0<\/i>this time?<\/i><\/b>\u00a0(Luke 12:54-55).<\/div>\n<\/blockquote>\n
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Jesus admits,\u00a0\u201cye see\u201d;<\/i>\u00a0and further from seeing,\u00a0\u201cye say.\u201d\u00a0<\/i>In other words, proclamations informed by vision; vision so accurate and fulfilled that Jesus confirms,\u00a0\u201cand so it is.\u201d<\/i>\u00a0 Only\u00a0\u201cwhen ye see\u201d<\/i>\u00a0can\u00a0\u201cye say,\u201d<\/i>\u00a0but the saying is the product of discernment.\u00a0 Jesus\u2019 worry in that passage was not the seeing but an inability to discern or interpret vision, for what we see does not always mean what it seems.\u00a0 God often asked His prophets,\u00a0\u201cWhat seest thou?\u201d<\/i>\u00a0(Jeremiah 1:11-12; Amos 8:2; Zechariah 4:2-6; 5:2-3).<\/p>\n

Things to See
\n<\/i><\/b>What are the \u201cthings<\/i>\u201d to see?\u00a0 They will differ from context to context.\u00a0 The hands of a clock may be differently designed from clock to clock, but their function is the same.\u00a0 In the case of Jacob, the \u2018things\u2019 he saw were the changed attitude of Leban his boss, the change in the atmosphere of the working environment, the increasing unpleasant toxicity and vilifications in the relationship. \u00a0Jacob could not take it for much longer.\u00a0 Incidentally, God was saying the same to him: \u201cIt\u2019s time to go.\u201d\u00a0 In the case of the fig tree of which Jesus spoke, the \u201cthings<\/i>\u201d to see were not to be hostile emotional expressions on the face of a bitter boss.\u00a0 They were to be external socio-political and environmental events meant as time-markers; natural events with supernatural eloquence.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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Gideon in the Bible also had signs.\u00a0 In his case, he was specific on what signs he wanted to see: his fleece getting all wet or all dry over the night (Judges 6:36-40).\u00a0 Abraham\u2019s servant was similarly specific.\u00a0 God was leading him to get a good wife for Isaac, but he would \u2018know\u2019 by the \u2018sign\u2019 of character: the girl who was charitable enough to attend well to a stranger, fetching water for him and all his ten camels, each camel capable of drinking over 200 litres (53 gallons) of water, that would be the girl (Genesis 24:12-14). There are signs everywhere. May the Lord open our eyes to see and be able to discern them, so that we can \u201csay\u201d or act appropriately. Amen.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

From The Preacher\u2019s diary,<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n
August 13, 2024.<\/i><\/b><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How will God Speak to Me?\u00a0(Part 2 of 5) \u00a0By thepreacherdiary.com Circumstantial Signs The experience of Balaam in the course of one business mission provides a handy illustration of circumstantial signs that God sometimes puts in our path to slow us down or altogether deter us from potential dangers, if we would hear.\u00a0 Unfortunately, many […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":91468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5772],"tags":[201,6770,6775],"class_list":["post-91467","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-faith","tag-god","tag-hear","tag-see"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91467","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=91467"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/91467\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/91468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=91467"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=91467"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=91467"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}