Hearing His Voice #277

God works in different ways, but it is the same God who does the work in all of us.

1 Corinthians 12:6

God once spoke to Moses through a burning bush. He once spoke to Balaam through a donkey. He gave a sign of dew on fleece to Gideon, a sign of a child to Ahaz, and a sign of a reversing shadow on a sundial to Hezekiah. But He never repeated any of these forms or signs. Why? Because He is an enormously creative God, and He has no need to duplicate His works. His nature never changes, but His methods are infinitely varied. He knows how to reach each person’s heart—individually.

That’s why we can never definitively say, “This is how God speaks.” We can discern patterns and processes, but only generally. He will not allow us to put Him in a box. He gives a variety of gifts to His people, and even the same gifts will look different depending on the people expressing them. God speaks in a variety of ways because He created a variety of personalities and life experiences through which His words are filtered. He has never been a God of formulas in the way He interacts with us. We are all drawn to Him differently and respond to Him differently.

Honor the ways God speaks to you and to others. When you hear of how others have heard His voice, refuse to measure their experience against yours or yours against theirs. Acknowledge God’s creativity and our human diversity. And expect God to speak to you differently next time than the way He spoke to you last time. Allow Him the flexibility to approach you however He chooses. Reject any rigid principles about what His voice will sound like. He loves to surprise us with His range of creativity.

Lord, I worship You for Your creativity and welcome it in my life and the lives of others. May I never place limits on what I expect You to say or how I expect You to say it. Open my mind to anything that’s on Your heart.