still soft voice

I read this in my "blue book" today. (If you haven't heard of it, it's a devotional that Jim Branch from Knoxville YL put together that is pretty great). I wanted one for years, and one day sweet Katie Lindeman sent me one in the mail! Love her. 

"I am not sure exactly what all I think we mean when we say that we are made in the image of God. But part of it, I believe, is that the calling  voice of God is sounding out in the caves and caverns deep beneath the soil of our souls. And it is by obeying this call we learn who we truly are and what we can become. 

So if I do not seem to hear him speak from outside, and if there does not seem to be any message from the sky, then I must listen to the voice that is within me. For that voice, too, is the purposeful, calling voice of God to us. 

Not many of us have enough confidence in ourselves to listen to that whispering voice that comes from within. Most of the time, we do not even hear it. But it doesn't matter because we wouldn't trust it. We cannot believe that this inner voice is capable of leading us due north. 

We seek advice from friends and professionals, disc jockeys and Dear Abbys. We put out a fleece. We flip coins. We take aptitude tests. We do everything but believe that we could possibly have the answers deep within. 

The message of Paul in this place is that the calling indeed comes in the lives of the unlikely and the "foolish". You think you are unlikely, well you're not. You have difficulty believing God could do great things in you; well, he wouldn't. 

Now if God can take a tiny seed and, in the process of giving it his life, endow it with knowledge of what it is supposed to be; if he can give it the purpose and strength and fruitfulness to not only accomplish it all, but to perpetuate itself as well; and if he can give it an inner calendar to tell it when all of this is supposed to be done, why is it so hard to believe he has done the same for our hearts?

Since he has done this for tomatoes and thistles and beans and dandelions, it shouldn't stretch our credibility so much to believe that his image in us, the image inherent in the life he gives to each of us, is calling us to be. 

The trick is to hear the voice, to believe it, and to trust it." (See You at the House by Bob Benson)

Sorry that is kind of long, but I really loved it. It just got me thinking. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that I have heard that voice before. I hear it when I take the time to sit and be still. I can also hear it slipping away when I am running 150 mph getting things done. Kind of like its right there waiting if I would just slow down. 

The author above is right, it is hard to trust it. It think its so easy to say "I just thought that...that wasn't the spirit". But we know. When its the spirit, we know. Awhile ago I was having trouble discerning and trusting, and I feel like the Lord showed me I could trust him by showing up when He said he would. Its crazy I ever doubt, but its an easy cop out to think it was just something we randomly thought. 

I love the part about the seeds. I've never thought of it like that. I definitely want to be a better listener for his voice. I want to slow down and take the time to hear, because what in the world could be more important? 

Another other cool thing is that even when we aren't sure, we have His word. He calls us to go out and love and teach and make disciples. If what we are hearing from him falls within the truth of his word, we have our answer. Isn't it great that He didn't leave us here hanging? I hate that I live like that is the case. Just like Marshall talked about at leadership, we love to tinker. But that is a subject for another day :)