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| Not paying attention while Jesus is speaking |
The world we live in today is different from the world we had 10 or even five years ago. Everything is moving so fast. The demand for attention from various things happening in your life is getting higher and higher every day to the point that we are willing to let others do some things for us while we concentrate on other things. You may ask yourself, "Is it wrong to live like that?" In the secular world, that sounds like an efficient way of getting the most done. In the business world, it is highly recommended as the best way to accomplish things. It is called delegation.
However, the big question is this: Can we say or do the same with our spiritual journey and hope that we get the best outcome for ourselves? Can we delegate someone to hear the Word of God or God's voice for us while we are busy with other things, and hope that produces the best spiritual outcome for us?. Well, it doesn't work like that for the follower of Jesus Christ. In other words, it does not have to be that way even though the opposite of it is exactly what is happening right now.
A lot of Christians do not want to read the Word of God and meditate upon it for themselves. They don't want to pay attention to the details of the dreams that God has given them. Instead, they have delegated that crucial spiritual discipline to their church pastors, ministers, prophets, and many spiritual leaders in their lives. Their Christian identity in Christ is tied to their own expectations of what their church leaders would tell them, rather than what Christ is telling them.
You may be asking yourself again, "Is God really speaking to me?" Well, God is speaking to you every day through His Spirit and His Word.
John 10:14-16 (NIV) says: "I am the good shepherd; I know my sheep and my sheep know me just as the Father knows me and I know the Father and I lay down my life for the sheep. 16 I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd."
This passage talks about the relationship you have with Jesus Christ. If you receive Jesus Christ as your personal Lord and Saviour and acknowledge that He came to die for your sins so that you can have eternal life, then you are definitely in relationship with Him. Through His perfect will, you become His child. So what you have is a Father-child relationship and no relationship survives without communication that is based on intimate knowledge about each other, commitment, and sacrifice (verse 16).It is through this relationship that God is speaking to you every time, expecting you to hear His voice. He wants you to make a conscious and deliberate choice to hear His voice.
Do you prefer to delegate? It is not completely wrong to want to hear the Word of God through your prophets, pastor, or church leaders. However, God is not only speaking to church leaders—He is also speaking to all of His children, including YOU, every day. Not just every Sunday, or through texts and phone calls to your church leaders.
Job 33:14-18 (ESV) says: "For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds, then He opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings, that He may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man; He keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword."
Joel 2:28-30 (NKJV) says: "And it shall come to pass afterward that I will pour out My Spirit on all flesh; your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, your old men shall dream dreams, your young men shall see visions. And also on My menservants and on My maidservants I will pour out My Spirit in those days."
If God is talking to the people whom we have delegated our relationship with God to, then He is definitely talking to you. And perhaps we don't want to listen, don't trust His voice enough, or we are just not paying attention as we give our attention to other priorities. Or we just don't trust God enough. If only you can reduce the delegation and take more control of your own relationship with Jesus with discipline, then you will be able to hear the voice of God. Then you will walk in communion with Him toward the discovery of yourself and your purpose in life here on earth.
Heavenly Father,
I come before You with a humble heart, acknowledging that You have been speaking to me all along through Your Word, through Your Spirit, through dreams, and through the quiet moments I have overlooked. Forgive me for the times I have delegated my relationship with You to others, for the times I have given my attention to everything except Your voice.
Lord, teach me to be still and know that You are God. Open my ears to hear You clearly. Give me a hunger for Your Word and a heart that delights in meditation upon it. Help me to trust that You are speaking to me not just to leaders and prophets, but to me, Your child.
I choose today to take responsibility for my own spiritual journey. I choose to listen. I choose to pay attention. I choose to walk in communion with You, that I may discover who I am in Christ and the purpose You have for my life on this earth.
In Jesus' mighty name I pray,
Amen.
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