Listening To God

I had a conversation with a friend recently about whether Angels are HE/SHE or neither male or female. It is an interesting one and a subject which probably needs me to go off and dig a bit deeper, certainly some of the better known ones are Michael and Gabriel. Angels are often described as "the angel from the LORD".

Anyway, this is not really the subject of this entry, but it got us talking about Angels and how they are round about us (and also the ever present threat of demons trying to trip us up and snare God's people) and also how I have in recent years really been hearing God in my day-to-day life. There are so many examples recently of God through his Holy Spirit making me more aware of how He is speaking directly and evidently in my life.

Things which happen that people often might treat as coincidence I am now seeing as God guiding me and talking to me. How God really is interested in my mundane life each day. Some of the things other people might laugh at but I know. Twice recently I have got low of fuel on my journey to work, missed a garage, the computer says miles to empty...ZERO. I really do not need to be running out of fuel here, I am running late as it is... But I get to next garage, an answered prayer! I can now enjoy the Tim Hughes CD without the worry of an RAC/AA visit...(now did I renew my membership ? hmm....or was in Green Flag!)

Again, a few weeks ago I was in my car on the way home (Tim Hughes, again I think) and I just spoke out to God about something and whether I am just imagining all these things and was it really Him (you know those doubts..) and I turned right over the bridge and there was van with the words "Mark" on it. (er, WOW! ... slap me round the face with a wet fish).

Then last week I ordered half a dozen copies of Andrew Wilson's "Incomparable" (see http://my-life-as-a-christian.blogspot.com/2008/11/book-review.html) which I have found a real blessing and I wanted to give them as presents tomorrow night to a men's bible study group. Last week they were out of stock, over the weekend they were out of stock, I get to work this morning and they are sitting on my desk via courier (still out of stock by the way). There have been other examples recently where I have had similar things and I have just known that is God's hand. A God, a Father who is interested in all this stuff, who is guiding my every turn and who is giving me every breath I take. Another one, in terms of giving, the week you look in your wallet and put all of it in the collection Sunday morning and then a month or so later when you are short, the money turns up. Earlier this year we sent a small sum of money to a couple who have taken the step of Faith and have given up jobs and are doing full time work in schools. We sent them some money which they would not have been expecting but that God knew all about. I recently had a little extra in a pay packet that was exactly double the amount that I gave those few months earlier.

It is very easy to become sceptical about this sort of stuff but I would encourage you to rest on the Lord, listen to His Holy Spirit, Let Him guide you in the incidental things in life, read his Word, listen to Worship music in the car on the way to work "set your minds on things above...".
It is also important that we share these things with each other, to encourage each other, to remind each other that being a Christian is not just about turning up on a Sunday morning for an hour and half but also about a life that is is guided and that can be empowered by the Holy Spirit in the practical things of life.

And another thing, one morning I suddenly became aware how sometimes I am only looking directly in front of my own eyes, when I am driving along perhaps and just looking at the car in front, in my own zone. I thought to myself, hold on, is this sometimes how our lives can become, I need to look up, even just a little bit, see the sky, appreciate the countryside and the tops of the trees, notice the stars, the moon and the night sky - to realise I am but a speck in the greater scheme of things, but how a mighty God is still in interested in me. It is so easy for us to only have eyes for our own situation or our own views & understanding and have tunnel vision without appreciating what is going on around us or with other people. We need to look up in every sense of the word.