Divine Communication

"Does the Lord still speak to us nowadays?"

I often ask God this question. When I pray, is it only me who speaks?
I believe God hears but does He respond?

Most of the time, especially when I'm down, I think God does not want to speak to me.
I can't hear His voice. I can't sense His presence. And worse, it makes 
me reflect on how sinful and unholy I am. Why do other Christians hear from
Him and I don't? Why can other Christians boldly say "I heard from the Lord"
or "the Lord told me to."

I am somehow thankful because I have not reached the point where I ask if the
Lord is really alive.

I still firmly believes He is. He is alive, well, and outrageously active in my life.
But why can't I hear from Him? Have I silenced Him? Or made me dumb
from hearing Him?

"My sheep hear my voice, I know them, and they follow Me." John 10:27

I am surely one of His sheep....So, why can't I?

For God may speak in one way, or in another,
Yet man does not perceive it.

In a dream, in a vision of the night,
When deep sleep falls upon men,
While slumbering on their beds,

Then He opens the ears of men,
And seals their instruction.

In order to turn man from his deed,
And conceal pride from man,

He keeps back his soul from the Pit,
And his life from perishing by the sword.

“Man is also chastened with pain on his bed,
And with strong pain in many of his bones, Job 33:14-19

Then, it hit me. I cannot put God in a box. Maybe, I am expecting

God to respond only in ways that I can think of, forgetting that

He is God and He can choose to speak to me through other ways.

It can be through His Word, 

through a preaching I "happened" to watch, 

through a random someone talking to me, 

through the advice of my parents, friends or colleagues, 

through a poster I "happened" to look at,

through a stat message in FB,

through a song I "happened" to be listening at the moment,

even through a disease (why not?),

through a random dream!

There are tons of ways God can speak to us. We just need to watch out

for it. We need to free our mind from clutters that we may be able to

meditate on His word and receive from Him. 

"But how do you know it is God?"

I cannot answer this specifically. All I know is, you will just feel it. 

Try to remember the questions you asked God before and watch

out everyday. When people speaks to you, try not to ignore what

they say. Try not to easily ignore the events in your life and you

will be surprised. 

And funny thing, I found out that He speaks to me using the most

familiar method I know because I do this everyday -- imagining. I thought I control

my imagination or the train of thoughts that I meditate on the way to work.

Turned out, God uses them to teach me, warn me of future things, disclose

to me something important and many more.

A lot of times I miss it. But, it's not too late for us. 

Believe that He speaks. He speaks to you as a father speaks to his child, 

a groom speaks to his bride, a friend speaks to another, and

a master speaks to his servant. 

After all, what is a relationship without communication

Scriptures Fulfilled Right Before Me

In one of my prayer times, I asked the Lord in awe how He is able to change me for the better in the middle of a place where one honestly don't want to be. 

I can say that being in a place where you don't want to be should not be a place of growth. It is like the desert. It's uncomfortable, hot, and naturally the habitat of an all-time famine. No one wants to live there. I personally don't want to live there.

But it seems that the Lord had led me to a desert these past few months. To my surprise, my Christian foundations are immensely strengthened and the fruits of the Spirit are still there. I expected myself to give up Christianity because it seems hard. In awe, I saw that the outcome was the exact opposite.

" Lord, how can this be? "

He answered me through the Scriptures.

Blessed is the man
Who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly,
    Nor stands in the path of sinners,
    Nor sits in the seat of the scornful;
But his delight is in the law of the Lord,
    And in His law he meditates day and night.
He shall be like a tree
    Planted by the rivers of water,
    That brings forth its fruit in its season,
    Whose leaf also shall not wither;
And whatever he does shall prosper. (Psalms 1:1-3)

“Blessed is the man who trusts in the Lord,

And whose hope is the Lord.

For he shall be like a tree planted by the waters,

Which spreads out its roots by the river,

And will not fear when heat comes;

But its leaf will be green,

And will not be anxious in the year of drought,

Nor will cease from yielding fruit. (Jeremiah 17:7-8)

" But Lord, there's no river in the desert!! "

Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened,
And the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.
Then the lame shall leap like a deer,
And the tongue of the dumb sing.
For waters shall burst forth in the wilderness,
And streams in the desert.

The parched ground shall become a pool,
And the thirsty land springs of water;
In the habitation of jackals, where each lay,
There shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

A highway shall be there, and a road,
And it shall be called the Highway of Holiness.
The unclean shall not pass over it,
But it shall be for others.
Whoever walks the road, although a fool,
Shall not go astray.
 

No lion shall be there,
Nor shall any ravenous beast go up on it;
It shall not be found there.
But the redeemed shall walk there,

 

And the ransomed of the Lord shall return,
And come to Zion with singing,
With everlasting joy on their heads.
They shall obtain joy and gladness,
And sorrow and sighing shall flee away (Isaiah 35:5-10)

God's very word being fulfilled right before my very eyes. 

Worthy is He of praise. His Word endures forever!