God is Speaking, Are You Listening

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"Behold, I stand at the door and knock. If anyone hears My voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and dine with him, and he with Me" (Revelation 3:20).

Many people wonder where God is hiding lately. Is He aware of what is happening in the world or is He forsaking His children? They do not realize that God is around us, protecting us, and He has a great desire to speak to all of us. God will never lose His desire and His love for His children for He suffered, died, and arose in order to save us all.

Hearing God's voice, listening to His advice, and having an intimate conversation with Him is something many of us long for. Through the Holy Bible we see many examples:

"'Oh, that My people would listen to Me, that Israel would walk in My ways!'" (Psalm 81:13).

We find many of His children communicated with Him. He had a relationship with people such as Adam, Cain, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Job, Moses ...etc.
There are many prophets who spoke by divine inspiration and communicated His message to the people: Samuel, Elijah, Jonah, Jeremiah ...etc.
The Holy Bible is full of God's word, that we rely on in our lives, such as God's commandments, prophecies, personal testimony, the life of our Lord Jesus Christ on earth, the instruction to live a holy life...etc.
Through nature, God will reveal Himself. Nature such as the wind, the sea, the darkness of the sun, the animals....etc.
His angels come down and speak on God's behalf, such as When the angel came to rescue Lot and his family from Sodom and Gomorrah, or when the angel announces the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ on earth, or when the angel announces the birth of John the Baptist to Zacharias...etc.

Therefore we must keep ourselves attentive to all opportunities to communicate with God, read His word and know Him more. This will help us recognize His voice easier.

"Now the word of the Lord came to Jonah the son of Amittai, saying 'Arise, go to Nineveh, that great city, and cry out against it; for their wickedness has come up before Me.' But Jonah arose to flee to Tarshish from the presence of the Lord..." (Jonah 1:1-3).

Jonah was a minor prophet, an ordinary man who had no special qualifications other than being chosen by God as a vessel to communicate His word to His people. Prophets are usually faithful in proclaiming God's word and not their own and they speak the message without fear and concern for their welfare.

In the book of Jonah, amazingly we realize there were many ways that God used to communicate with Jonah to get his attention.

Jonah had so much zeal for His people and that is why he had difficulty obeying God's requested to go and warn the city of Nineveh (Gentiles). Jonah decided to run away from God's presence, instead of having any part of saving the people of Nineveh. Thus he fled on a boat to Tarshish.

It is amazing to see someone running away from God. But come to think of it, that is what we Christians do every time we sin and ignore our transgressions. We who were baptized in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ do not follow God's commandments and teaching. For this reason, I believe we also are running away from Him.

"But the Lord sent out a great wind on the sea, there was a mighty tempest on the sea, so that the ship was about to be broken up. Then the mariners were afraid; and everyman cried out to his god..." (Jonah 1:4-5).

God speaks to us in many ways. Sometimes He speaks to us softly (in order to comfort us) and other times loudly (in order to warn us). For example, He speaks to us through the voice of a gentle breath, the wind, the waves of the sea, the Holy spirit in us, the word of the Holy Bible, a sermon, or the problems we face every day and the tribulations that we get from time to time. But sadly, most of us still do not recognize His voice. We shut our ears and we close our eyes, thinking it will pass and we miss the opportunity to listen.

The mariners, "the nonbeliever", understood the message that the Lord was angry and started praying to their gods in hopes of finding out why this was happening. But Jonah went down into the lowest part of the ship and fell fast asleep. Then God spoke to Jonah through the people on the ship "'Arise, call on your God; perhaps your God will consider us, so that we may not perish.'" (Jonah 1:6).

The men were exceedingly afraid when they heard that Jonah was a prophet and he fled from the presence of his God, and said to him "'What shall we do to you that the sea may be calm for us?'" (Jonah 1:11).

And here we need to examine on what happened. These people do not know the true God but:

They were attentive to His voice
They tried to find out why He was angry
They prayed
They did not want to harm Jonah, even after all he had done to them
They feared the Lord exceedingly and offered a sacrifice to Him (they believed)

Sometimes we look at others and think we are more righteous than them. We neglect to understand that God loves all His children the same and He welcomes all back to Him. He will speak to everyone in the hope of opening their eyes, so they can realize His love for them. That is why we pray that God will open their eyes and ours.

Although Jonah was a prophet, he decided that dying is the only answer to the problem. But the Lord did not wish for Jonah's life to perished. So He arranged for him a way to be saved and prepared a great fish to swallow him.

The big fish was another voice of God, telling him that God is still with him and He did not forsake him in spite of his disobedience. Sometimes we see God's hand even when we are away from Him, in order to remind us of His unfailing love for us. This is another way He communicates with us.

After Jonah cried, prayed, and fasted in the fish's belly for three days, God forgave him all that he had done. So the Lord spoke to him through the Holy Spirit in him "Yet I will look again toward your holy temple" (Jonah 2:4).

"Then God saw their works that they turned from their evil way; and God relented from the disaster that He had said he would bring upon them, and He did not do it" (Jonah 3:10).

Jonah was displeased and angry that God forgave the people of Nineveh after they repented from their evil ways. So God wanted to teach Jonah another lesson by making Jonah a shelter outside the city. God prepared a plant and made it grow to come up above Jonah, to protect him from the heat of the sun. Jonah was very grateful and he slept.

"But as morning dawned the next day, God prepared a worm, and it so damaged the plant that it withered" (Jonah 4:7).

Here we see another example of communication through nature. The plant yielded to God's command and grew and covered Jonah. And at dawn, God let the worm come and eat the plant, to give Jonah a lesson and remind him that:

God is gracious and merciful and expects His children to have the same love and compassion
God can be patient with His children
God wants all His children to be saved
God sends us many messages hoping to protect us from our ego
God can put us through many tests and tribulations for the sake of saving us

The worm was God's voice to Jonah saying that the worm was very tiny, but she was able to destroy. The analogy is that even small wickedness or sin in our lives will cause the heart to be blind to God's word. Sin will destroy our relationship with God and His Holy spirit in us, if we allow it to do so.

"'The voice of joy and the voice of gladness, the voice of the bridegroom and the voice of the bride, and the voice of those who will say: 'Praise the Lord of hosts, for the Lord is good, for His mercy endures forever' - and of those who will bring the sacrifice of praise into the house of the Lord. For I will cause the captives of the land to return as at the first,' says the Lord" (Jeremiah 33:11).

God hears, God is aware, and He is ready always to come and help us. And we, as His people, need to trust, have faith and watch for His voice. We must listen for His hidden message to us and pray that some day we will have eternal life with Him.