God speaks and His children listen
By Jackie Morfesis
If anyone knows me, they know that if I was given two choices, to serve a life of imprisonment or never to hear my Lord speak to me again, I would willingly choose a life of incarceration. To me, not being in communion with my God is the greatest punishment I can possibly imagine; nothing and no torture could compare to such a punishment.
He is the one who holds us in our sorrows. The one who comforts us in our pain. The one who guides us in our trials. The one who protects us and gives warning. He is the one who gives us our gifts and talents and uses them for His glory. He is the beginning, the end, the great Alpha and Omega. He has no boundaries and no limitations. It is not up to us to put limitations on a limitless God or to define the possibilities and potential of Him reaching us even in the most shadowed places of our lives.
We serve a mighty God. A God who not only reveals Himself to us but who speaks to us. He speaks to us through His Holy Word, through the presence of the same Holy Spirit He gave to the disciples at Pentecost. “I will not leave you as orphans; I will come to you” (John 14:18). He speaks to us through the words of knowledge He puts on others to give us as messages. He speaks to us to open the door and receive Him as our Lord and Savior. “Behold, I stand at the door and knock, if anyone hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).
Recently, I had an experience that gave clear confirmation that God heard my prayer and set me up to hear His word to me. It was so profoundly powerful that I am going to repeat here what happened.
My dear neighbor, who is a woman of strong faith, prayed for me one evening to have a divine appointment when I served at an event at my church. The next day I prayed in God’s house, my church. I asked Jesus to “open the right door in my life and place me where He wants me to serve using my hands for His mercy.”
Within minutes another devout woman entered the church, someone I personally knew. We spoke, and before she left, I asked her if she would pray with me. I asked if she would just pray whatever God put on her heart. She did. She said: “God has a divine appointment for you. Jesus is going to open the right door for you to use His mercy for His glory. It will be something that you did not choose but that He chooses for you. It will be beyond anything you could have imagined.”
This was confirmation. This was God speaking to me. It could not have been any clearer. No one can tell me that God does not speak to His children. This was a holy message shouted from the mountain that was orchestrated and set up by the one who can move mountains.
We must be ever mindful of our own speech. As scripture tells us, we must speak power and life over others. A man I have been ministering to lately, who is experiencing homelessness, said, “Everyone says I am a lost cause.” I replied, “You aren’t a lost cause to God.”
No one and nothing have the power or authority to keep us from God’s love, a love which includes reaching us in every way imaginable. “Neither height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Romans 8:39).
We must never put a limitation on God because we have not personally experienced something. Because I do not speak in tongues does not mean that I will deny that others are gifted in this way. When I visited Seacoast Church in Mt. Pleasant, a worship team member from Nashville, Tennessee, spoke in tongues during my healing session, and I not only personally experienced spiritual healing but also witnessed miraculous physical healings in others. We must not deny or diminish God’s awesome power and majesty. We must not be so invested in the mystery of God and holding His mystery in our hands that we do not see that He is a God who continually not only reveals Himself to His children but speaks to them.
As one of my spiritual mentors, an Orthodox Christian monastic, Mother Helena, recently told me: “God speaks to us, but we are the ones who choose not to listen.” “My sheep hear my voice and I know them and they follow me; and I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish and no one shall snatch them out of My hand. (John 10:27-28). Right now, around the world, there are countless souls praying to God, reaching out to Him in their sorrows, praising Him in their joys. Rest assured, He is not silent. He opens doors and shuts doors. He warns us, chastises us, reprimands us and corrects us. He guides us, moves us and directs us. He lifts us, emboldens us and sanctifies and purifies our hearts.
The day will come when we will stand before the judgment seat of God, and in that moment, the faithful will still long to hear our mighty God speak. Only this time, the words we long to hear are “Well done, my good and faithful servant” (Matthew 25:21). Imagine the legal defense we would have in the high heavenly court if we were told “I do not know you,” and we could say, “But you never spoke to me. How could I know you or listen to you or follow you or believe your promises?”
Let us be bold and courageous in our faith. Let us encourage and empower others to seek God and have a personal relationship with Him, knowing full well the forgiveness, redemption and promise of salvation He holds for all of us. Most importantly, let us never speak limitation or underestimate our God and His ability to reach us in whatever way possible. Let us never lessen the hold He has on our heart, our soul, our mind, through His presence, His Word and His eternal love and mercy.
Jackie Morfesis is an author, advocate and creative artist. She holds a BFA in fine arts and an MA in liberal studies and is a former Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar to Greece. She is a Greek Orthodox Christian and devoted to spiritual matters.
