Life can be pretty noisy. Our five senses are precious gifts, but the countless messages we receive every day through those gifts can be deafening. It’s no surprise, then, that God can seem distant, hard to hear, even silent some days.
To “hone my hearing,” I’ve spent some time considering five megaphones God faithfully uses to deliver life-changing messages of grace and truth.
The first is known as “general revelation,” or the testimony of Creation. King David tells us in Psalm 19, “The heavens declare the glory of God, and the sky above proclaims his handiwork. Day to day pours out speech, and night to night reveals knowledge.” (Psalm 19:1–2, ESV)
It is well worth our time to pause and listen to the voice of creation. As you take in the wonders of your surroundings, thank God for all that the beauty, power, complexity and enormity reveal about His nature. Celebrate the gift of knowledge given you by the world you inhabit.
The second megaphone we have available to us offers the greatest amount of clarity, but often suffers the greatest amount of neglect … the Bible.
Complementary to creation, it is commonly referred to as “special revelation,” meaning its content is more explicit than the general revelation of all that has been made. With the Bible in hand, we can better understand the messages we receive from what we see and hear throughout the natural world. Think of the Bible as our interpreter, translating for us the true meaning of all that matters in this life and the next.
There are few better places to read about the Bible’s intention and value than Psalm 119. The writer summarizes his grasp of Scripture’s significance in vs 105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” (Psalm 119:105, ESV) He undoubtedly viewed God’s word as an immense gift given with the greatest of care and affection.
In much shorter fashion than the psalmist, the Apostle Paul ascribes the same significance to Scripture in 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (ESV), “All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, equipped for every good work.”
I take these two passages to mean that our Good Father has put into words all that we need to know if we are to know him, ourselves, and the best possible way to navigate the fallen world through which we travel.
Along with the voices of creation and our Bible, there is a third megaphone broadcasting truth that sets us free.“In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. All things were made through him, and without him was not any thing made that was made. In him was life, and the life was the light of men.” (John 1:1–4, ESV)
As familiar as these few verses might be, don’t rush by them. Don’t miss the jaw-dropping realities attributed to our Lord. Just the name alone, “the Word,” conveys God’s heart to personally communicate and connect.
He could have just spoken everything into existence (see Genesis 1 & 2), then left us to ourselves. He could have let creation alone do the talking, or delivered his communiqués through nothing more than the mouths of prophets, priests and kings.
But He didn’t.
The Word that made everything out of nothing, made you and me to know Him. And for Him, it’s personal; so personal that He left the glory of heaven and unencumbered intimacy with the Father and Spirit, just so you could know Him in flesh and blood.
In just over a week, we will celebrate the pinnacle of Christ’s time on earth … his death, burial and resurrection. He gave his life so that we could have life, eternal and abundant, by grace through faith. What a Savior!
But there’s more …
The ascension of Jesus made way for yet another profound, personal means of communication; the Holy Spirit. To prepare his followers for his departure, Jesus assured his disciples that the Father would provide, “another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.” (John 14:16–17) Those words are meant to assure us as well.
If you are a Christ-follower, you are indwelt by God’s Spirit, a Helper no less real or benevolent than Father or Son. And one of His most notable attributes is His voice. And know this, the Holy Spirit is continually speaking to you, amplifying the voices of creation, the written word and the Living Word; all the while guiding you with the greatest of care.
Now if that were all we had, it would be enough. But God goes further still! God speaks to His people through His people.
Read through the New Testament with an eye for passages related to our communication with each other. What we say and how we say it to one another means a great deal to God and plays a crucial role in our collective grasp of his goodness, glory and love.
As a community of faith – indwelt by the Spirit and informed by the Scriptures – we are living messengers! We’re called upon to preserve and proclaim what God has chosen to reveal about Himself, His redemptive plan, and how we might fruitfully walk in a manner worthy of His calling.
We are stewards of God’s “voice” in the community of faith, and charged with reminding each other of what is true. All the more reason to give and receive encouragement in our conversations with humility, gratitude and great expectation. Surely, God intends to use what we say to each other for our good and that of our mission.