Christian Living

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God talks to us in many ways. Sometimes, it isn’t until much later that we realize that it
was God. More often than not, words aren’t involved. One day, I was driving in my car,
deeply depressed. It was an overcast, foreboding day, which wasn’t doing a lot for my
spirits. As I came around a curve in the street, a single beam of sunlight cut through the clouds, brilliantly illuminating a mailbox. The name on the mailbox was Goodson, but one
of the o’s was missing, making it Godson. And not a word was spoken. You just have to know the language.

I Was Talking With God the Other Day

My wife Ruth and I were in Wisconsin visiting my family, and we’d gone out to dinner with my son, Aaron. I don’t remember how the subject came up, but Aaron asked me, “What do you mean when you say that God told you something?” It was a question on his mind, asked respectfully. Aaron is an Agnostic, but we’ve always had good conversations about my faith: a faith that Aaron once had as a child. It was a good question, worthy of a thoughtful answer. It all goes back to what is prayer?

Too often, people think of prayer as asking God for something. It may be something good, like the healing of a loved one, or the strength to do a task set before us. But, prayer is much more than asking. If that was all it was, that would assume that we are wise enough to know what to ask for. As often as not, we aren’t. Sometimes, the most loving answer that God can give us when we ask for something is “no.” He knows what’s good for us far more than we do. There’s a difference between talking to God and talking with God. Prayer is a two-way street. Listening is as important as talking. Sometimes our conversation is like the lines I wrote in a song many years ago:

We’d sit and we’d talk ‘till there’s no more to say

But we never needed words, anyway

Winter to Spring by Jerry Rasmussen

And that’s the way that it is with God. Silence is a natural part of a conversation with a close friend. Every available moment doesn’t have to be filled with words. God often speaks without words when we are silently waiting for him to speak to us. This is how I tried to explain to Aaron, how God speaks to me. In biblical times, God sometimes spoke out loud, as he did to Moses. He also sent angels (Gabriel usually got the call) to deliver a message for him. Most of us don’t “hear” God speak in a stentorian voice (off screen.) And while I do believe that there are times when angels are sent to tell us something, they may not speak out loud, and they can come in the form of a person, minus the wings.

Many years ago when I was in a state of depression, caught in a trap of my own making, I
was walking down the street in Stamford, Connecticut where I was living at the time. My
head was hung low and as I was walking along deep in thought, I heard a little girl singing.
I looked up, and skipping down the sidewalk toward me was a young girl singing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God” at the top of her lungs. It took a moment to sink in, and by then she’d passed me. I turned around to look at her and the street was empty. A few weeks later, I was walking down that same street and when I came to the place where I’d seen the young girl, I was reminded of that day. At that moment, the carillon tower in the church down the block started playing “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” There were no burning bushes, and no words spoken, and yet God spoke to me clearly. Not to worry. God is a mighty fortress. He’s in the business of solving problems, if we just take them to him. God speaks to us. He doesn’t have to shout.

When I am in prayer, it is in the times of silence that God speaks to me. He may direct
me to do something as simple as to call an old friend whom I haven’t spoken to in a long
time, or to sit down and write about something that he has put on my mind.. More commonly, God gives me a new insight into an old problem. At first, I may not understand what he is saying to me. I get the message, but not the meaning. It may take days or weeks, or even months of prayer, reflection and reading the bible before I fully understand what he is trying to tell me. Revelation comes slowly. I’ve learned to wait on
the Lord for his enlightenment before I step out on faith

Every parent at some time or another has complained, “My kids never call me!” God
must feel the same way. If we want to come to know God, it can’t be on a “Use as needed” basis. We need to spend time in daily prayer and reflection. Oswald Chambers in his book "My Utmost for His Highest" wrote:

The only responsibility you have is to stay in living constant touch with God and to see that you allow nothing to hinder your cooperation with him.

Many years ago I spent a summer studying about the Holy Spirit under the guidance of
my pastor. I spent an enormous amount of time reading, meditating, praying and just
spending time with the Lord in silence. I ended up boiling down that whole summer of reflection into a single sentence: “Something tells me that the something that tells me something is the Holy Spirit.”

If you want to hear God, ask Him to speak to you, and then be quiet.


Jerry Rasmussen/Razzgospel

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