Voice of God (and other devotionals)

Voice of God 

The voice of the LORD is over the waters; the God of glory thunders, the LORD thunders over the mighty waters. Psalm 29:3

God’s voice has not vanished. He has not lost His voice because of overuse. His vocal cords are not strained but strong. God does not cough or become congested. His voice is clear and intelligible. His voice is all around us; listen and be in awe. Thunder and lightening display His glory in the heavens. We hear His thunder and gaze up in both fear and amazement. His voice reminds us of His glory. It is the Lord’s majestic presence that thunders from above.

The glory of God governs the heavens. He is the source of light, heat, cold and darkness. God is the creator and sustainer of the earth. His creation continues because He continues to recreate. Just as humans are an ongoing creation of the Lord’s, so earth is the Lord’s ongoing creation. He resides in eternity but still engages with earth. His glory has not been gutted but validated by scientific explanation. Christ can be seen in all corners of His creation. His voice is clear.

“God’s voice thunders in marvelous ways; he does great things beyond our understanding” (Job 37:5).

The power of His voice is applied in our life. His voice can be stern in discipline or tender in grace. The powerful voice of Jesus called Lazarus back from the dead, and on the cross He interceded to His Heavenly Father for forgiveness on behalf of His enemies. Use your voice to pray for people who are dead in their sin and in need of a Savior. Lift up your voice on behalf of others who have offended or hurt you. God hears your voice. You are not a lone voice for the Lord.

God’s voice is majestic and regal. He is enthroned above all His creation. Jesus is our King of Kings and Lord of Lords. When He speaks, we listen. His words matter most. The Bible is the wisdom of His words in written form. His voice speaks through the pages of Scripture. So, take what He tells you and obediently apply it to your life. Tell others what Christ tells you. Those of us who hear the voice of God cannot keep quiet. Be a clean conduit for His voice to speak. The voice of God is clear and comprehendible to the ears of a humble heart.

“Now, Lord consider their threats and enable your servants to speak your word with great boldness” (Acts 4:29).

Prayer: Heavenly Father, speak to my heart the words of Your truth and love.

Application: What is the Spirit saying to my soul? How can I distinguish God’s voice from competing voices?

~Wisdom Hunters Devotional~
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Orpah kissed her mother-in-law; but Ruth clave unto her.

Both of them had an affection for Naomi, and therefore set out with her upon her return to the land of Judah. But the hour of test came; Naomi most unselfishly set before each of them the trials which awaited them, and bade them if they cared for ease and comfort to return to their Moabitish friends. At first both of them declared that they would cast in their lot with the Lord's people; but upon still further consideration Orpah with much grief and a respectful kiss left her mother in law, and her people, and her God, and went back to her idolatrous friends, while Ruth with all her heart gave herself up to the God of her mother in law. It is one thing to love the ways of the Lord when all is fair, and quite another to cleave to them under all discouragements and difficulties. The kiss of outward profession is very cheap and easy, but the practical cleaving to the Lord, which must show itself in holy decision for truth and holiness, is not so small a matter. How stands the case with us, is our heart fixed upon Jesus, is the sacrifice bound with cords to the horns of the altar? Have we counted the cost, and are we solemnly ready to suffer all worldly loss for the Master's sake? The after gain will be an abundant recompense, for Egypt's treasures are not to be compared with the glory to be revealed. Orpah is heard of no more; in glorious ease and idolatrous pleasure her life melts into the gloom of death; but Ruth lives in history and in heaven, for grace has placed her in the noble line whence sprung the King of kings. Blessed among women shall those be who for Christ's sake can renounce all; but forgotten and worse than forgotten shall those be who in the hour of temptation do violence to conscience and turn back unto the world. O that this morning we may not be content with the form of devotion, which may be no better than Orpah's kiss, but may the Holy Spirit work in us a cleaving of our whole heart to our Lord Jesus.

~Charles Spurgeon~

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Now may the God of peace himself make you completely holy and may your spirit and soul and body be kept entirely blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. He who calls you is trustworthy, and he will in fact do this.—1 Thess 5:23-24

Many years since I saw that “without holiness no man shall see the Lord.” I began by following after it and inciting all with whom I had intercourse to do the same. Ten years after, God gave me a clearer view than I ever had before of the way to obtain it; namely, by faith in the Son of God. And immediately I declared to all, “We are saved from sin, we are made holy by faith.” This I testified in private, in public, and in print, and God confirmed it by a thousand witnesses. I have continued to declare this for above thirty years, and God has continued to confirm my work.
—John Wesley in 1771

“I knew Jesus, and He was very precious to my soul; but I found something in me that would not keep sweet and patient and kind. I did what I could to keep it down, but it was there. I besought Jesus to do something for me, and, when I gave Him my will, He came to my heart, and took out all that would not be sweet, all that would not be kind, all that would not be patient, and then HE shut the door.”
—George Fox

My whole heart has not one single grain, this moment, of thirst after approbation. I feel alone with God; He fills the void; I have not one wish, one will, one desire, but in Him; He hath set my feet in a large room. I have wondered and stood amazed that God should make a conquest of all within me by love.
—Lady Huntington

“All at once I felt as though a hand—not feeble, but omnipotent; not of wrath, but of love—was laid on my brow. I felt it not outwardly but inwardly. It seemed to press upon my whole being, and to diffuse all through me a holy, sin-consuming energy. As it passed downward, my heart as well as my head was conscious of the presence of this soul-cleansing energy, under the influence of which I fell to the floor, and in the joyful surprise of the moment, cried out in a loud voice. Still the hand of power wrought without and within; and wherever it moved, it seemed to leave the glorious influence of the Saviour’s image. For a few minutes the deep ocean of God’s love swallowed me up; all its waves and billows rolled over me.”
—Bishop Hamline

Holiness—as I then wrote down some of my contemplations on it—appeared to me to be of a sweet, calm, pleasant, charming, serene nature, which brought an inexpressible purity, brightness, peacefulness, ravishment to the soul; in other words, that it made the soul like a field or garden of God, with all manner of pleasant fruits and flowers, all delightful and undisturbed, enjoying a sweet calm and the gentle vivifying beams of the sun.
—Jonathan Edwards

“Love’s resistless current sweeping 

All the regions deep within; 

Thought and wish and senses keeping 

Now, and every instant clean: 

Full salvation! Full salvation! 

From the guilt and power of sin.”

~L. B. Cowman~

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Three World Powers with No Room for a Savior? by G. Campbell Morgan

The three great world forces when Jesus came were the Roman, the Greek, and the Hebrew. The Roman was the nation of government, the Greek of culture, and the Hebrew of religion. The militarism of Rome utterly despised Judea, looking down upon it as one of the small and turbulent provinces, always to be kept in subjection. The Roman was certainly not waiting for a new king to be born in Judea. And what was the attitude of Greece? The cultured men of Greece held in contempt the religion of the Hebrews. Hellenism and Hebraism were utterly opposed as ideals of life. The Greek would have treated with the utterest scorn the idea that a new teacher could arise out of Hebraism. All this serves to show that there was not, neither could there be, any welcome to the Savior from the world as it was when He came. He was neither expected nor desired. All the known world was in a spirit of unrest, but men had no conception of the character of the deliverance really needed, and therefore Jesus came unrecognized and unknown. There was no welcome for Him. But the time was now ripe in the economy of God for His advent, for man in sin had sunk to deepest depths. The world has never had a more powerful government than the Roman, and in many respects Greek culture has never been surpassed; but in spite of all this, sin was rampant. While there still exists terrible corruption in the world today, there is nothing to compare with the pollution of life when Jesus Christ came. Corruption was everywhere, and that in spite of the best that men could do in government, in culture, and in religion. ___________________________