When He Speaks (Part 1)

The Still Small Voice

Anyone who is a follower of Jesus Christ has heard His voice. Most of the time His voice initially comes to us through someone else who is already a follower and is sharing the message of salvation. This could be a local pastor of a church, your neighbor who lived a life in front of you that made you curious about what was different about them, or some random person like the person next to you on the airplane who spoke to you about Jesus and caused your heart to burn within you. There are a number of testimonies I have heard where people were walking through life and God just spoke to them and they knew they needed to respond. No matter how this happens it is a wonderful thing because it is an interaction with the Almighty God and He pours out forgiveness and love in a free gift of redemption making everything new. Sometimes, after this initial interaction with our Savior, the buzzing of the noisy world we live in surrounds us and we find that we are committed to living a Christian life and try to do so applying what we know, but as time goes by we lose contact with the voice that drew us into relationship with Him and changed our lives and we resort to living a more scripted life based on rote scriptural principles instead of the actively seeking the freshly spoken voice of the Lord in our life.

Several years ago there was thing at I saw quite often. It was on bumperstickers, bracelets, and tee shirts. It was the four letters WWJD that asked the question “What Would Jesus Do?” I have no idea where this started but it was something that I saw quite frequently. It was one of the most legitimate questions ever asked but I wonder how many Christians actually took the time to make the question part of their life? This simple phrase was an invitation from the Lord to us inviting us into a conversation with Himself. The problem is that if you ask Jesus what He would do you have to stop and listen for an answer and this is where the buzzing world around us seems to get in the way. Here is what I believe. I believe that Holy Spirit (His Voice) is actually speaking to us every moment of our life. He speaks complete wisdom for everything we are engaged in from what we should eat for lunch to what we should say in the board meeting where millions of dollars are at stake. His voice is always there stating what is perfect but all too often we move forward responding to the louder voice of logic and reason and settle for good instead of perfect. The more I have asked Him what He would do, the more I have come to realize the he does indeed have the answer for everything.

My wife and I were in Montana at her brother’s house visiting for a couple days. We were driving home to Alaska. The day before we were to leave Montana, knowing the long road ahead through uninhabited regions of North America, I found a quiet spot and asked the Lord what we needed for the trip ahead. I closed my eyes and after a few moments the Lord spoke to me in a vision. I saw my wife and I pouring bottles of drinking water into the steaming radiator of our truck. That was all. I went out and popped the hood. All the hoses looked good, the fluid levels were full and I rummaged around for some time looking for a problem. So, I asked again. The Lord responded by speaking a list of things into my mind: a length of 1 inch heater hose, a coupling, and four clamps. I got in the truck and went to Napa Auto Parts. I picked up the hose and clamps then went over to the rack where there were some couplings. There were two couplings to choose from one was a reduction from 1″ hose to 3/4″ hose and the other was straight 1″ hose to 1″ hose. The still small voice spoke again, “You should buy the 1″ to 3/4″ coupling.” I argued this time, “All I saw under the hood was 1″ hose why would I get that?” Silence. I made a logical choice and purchased to 1″ to 1″ coupling instead. Two days later we were in the middle of the Rocky Mountains of British Columbia and we were on the road at 5:00am. It was dark and, right about 40 miles from anywhere, we began to smell antifreeze. I pulled over to the side of the road in a cloud of steam and waited for things to cool off. When we were able to see under the hood there it was, a split in the heater hose. It was about an inch up from another coupling in the hose and what I hadn’t noticed back in Montana was that the hose reduced from 1″ down to 3/4″ so it could adapt to the water pump. The coupling that had been installed was the wrong one. It was 3/4″ on both ends so that when it connected into the 1″ hose it caused a slight bulge in the hose which is right where it had burst. I was able to use a short piece of hose and the coupling I had bought to fix it and I was pretty smug when I began to thank the Lord for His provision giving us a fix for a problem in the middle of nowhere. His reply was somewhat startling because when I stopped rattling on about His provision the still small voice spoke again, “Yes, it will do.” Silence. “What do You mean?” I asked. He took me back to Napa when I had two couplings in my hands. I saw them clearly and looked at my repair. There were now two splices in the heater hose and the still small voice spoke again, “It’s a good repair and it will get you home but if you had listened you could have replaced the wrong part with the perfect part. So many times you settle for something that is “good enough” when what I have in mind is perfect.” As my wife twisted the lid off the last of the water bottles and I watched the radiator fill up to the brim I knew I had just had another life changing conversation with the One who loves me the most.

I am not sure how many parts this series will have. I try to keep these short so they do not take too much time and deeply appreciate the fact that you stopped here to read. Hearing the voice of the Lord is so important. It is a conversation with the King. I hope you have heard His voice today and have a regular habit of stopping to listen.

His Kid, Your Brother

Ken