Rise up . . . hear God’s voice today

I pulled up to the familiar Long Beach church, where a lot of gnarly-looking folks were milling around out front. The Duke of Earl
was waiting, ready to carry in my basket with my Bible, notes, music,
etc. Inside, folks were finishing up their breakfast of
donuts, eggs and fruit. My friend, Jay, (freckle-faced
young man), was just pulling up his hood, and heading out the door. “Wait! Jay,
aren’t you coming down for prayer?” “I can’t,” he said,
shaking his head, “’remember I told you? Remember I told
you my problem? I can’t be around people today—they just
make me want to be violent.” Yeah, I remember… once
when I asked the question, “What do you need God to do for you today?” He
had raised his hand, and said, through his humiliation, “heal me—heal
my mental illness.” Twenty-one years old…heck, I have two
children older than him! Twenty-one years old, alone and
on the street. A knot formed in my stomach as I watched
him go.

Victor took my teaching notes to distribute—hot pink paper for English-speakers, electric orange paper for Spanish. I put on the Bruce
Springsteen song, and folks looked around thinking—‘The Boss? In
church? What’s the PastorWoman up to?’ ‘Fact
is, Springsteen could have been standing on a Long Beach corner,
looking around--he sure seems to have a read on big, old tired inner
cities. “Now the sweet veils of mercy drift through the
evening trees, Young men on the corner like scattered leaves. The
boarded up windows, the hustlers and thieves, while my brother’s down
on his knees…my city of ruins… tell me how do I begin again? My
city’s in ruins . . . Now with these hands, I pray, Lord, with these
hands, for the strength, Lord, with these hands . . . I pray, Lord . . .
come on, Rise up!’ And that is just what the Lord had
brought me there to do—call his people to rise up! Rise up
in prayer . . . Rise up in faith, rise up!

‘Do you want to hear God speak to you?’ I started out by asking them. ‘Yes,’ ‘yes, of course!’ ‘yeah, man’—all of
these broke out across the room. ‘Do you think that God
still speaks to his people?’ I queried. Again, a
resounding, ‘yes!’ And, all around the vast room, there
was a buzz. So we unpacked the various ways God speaks. We
lamented how difficult it is to find a slice of quiet to offer God, so
that we might readily hear him. (I guess it is even more
challenging when you are living on the street. . . ‘you think you are
challenged to get up and move to another room? You think
you have it tough because you are so BUSY? Try having to
find a private spot . . . a quiet place . . . a safe place. Hmmmm
. . .)

And then I suppose the next consideration might naturally be: are there things I do that silence God’s presence? Perhaps. Perhaps we should stay away from those things that would grieve him. To
grieve God is to hurt him. It hurts God when you choose
sin over his way. It hurts God when you choose to disobey
him. Jesus said, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep my
word…”1 Scripture says, ‘Fear God, and keep his
commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.’2 You see,
‘obedience is not the major work of the disciple; it is the only work.3 An old
Scottish preacher said, ‘There are only two things that are required of
the disciple (student) of Jesus
Christ: to love God and to obey him’.4

What else grieves the heart of God---or what else would potentially keep you from hearing his voice? Lack of repentance. When you have erred—overtly or in your
heart, and have left it unresolved, unconfessed. The grace
of God covers all . . . and there is no greater gift than the grace of
God. Through it, we have guilt absolved, and our debts
removed.

Hardness of heart and also judgment of others is not pleasing to God, and will cause us to feel a separation from him. So, can we put off fault finding? Can
we stop being so critical? If possible, as far as it
depends on us, live at peace with everyone!5 Another
thing that shuts out God’s voice is our preoccupation with ourselves,
because then we are less attuned to him. Instead, ‘Let’s
have this attitude in ourselves which was also in Christ Jesus—who
didn’t require equality with God something to be grasped, but emptied
himself…6 What attitude did Jesus have? HUMILITY. So
you . . . so me . . . should have humility! Yeah, have
this attitude in yourself: humility. On a side note, folks
who are so poor may just have an easier time of hearing from God
because their ‘stuff’ is less likely to get in the way.

Besides these considerations, there are times in our lives when we just might not feel God…what then?’ He
is still God. He
is still there. Whether
or not you feel him, he is still the God on the
throne.He
who watches over Israel neither slumbers nor sleeps.7

After teaching and praying with my Long Beach folk, I spent several hours endeavoring to get my friend Jackie out of her car where she’s lived for seven months and into an apartment. We
went to the Village folk who were so helpful to this 62-year-old
unemployed bi-polar, legal secretary who loves God. We
looked at a small place, we talked about it over lunch . . . and I’m
hopin’, really hopin’, that on this day, Jackie felt God’s presence and
love as I reassured her and encouraged her to just keep going—it would
be worth it when she got off the street. Pray for her,
won’t you?

I pray that you seek to hear God’s voice and feel his presence around you this day.

Christine

1 John 14.23

2 Ecclesiastes 12.13

3 Calvin Miller

4 George Mac Donald

5 Romans 12.18

6 Philippians 2

7 Psalm 121