June 24th, 2020: God Speaks through Visions

 How to Hear from God's Voice - 10 Ways to Know it's Him
 
Yesterday was not a very good day for my wife and me. A daughter of a friend of ours went hiking and fell to her death accidentally on Sunday. We met about 20 years ago when she was a university student at the university where I served as Campus Minister. She bacame an avid hiker in recent years.  

The most intriguing moment for me yesterday was the fact that I woke up with her face image in my head. I closed my eyes and wondered what that meant. I got up and had a coffee with my wife, and then I told her: "I wonder how ____is doing these days?" My wife let me know that she saw her at her mother's place a few weeks ago. That was it. Neither of us pursued that thought any further until my wife received a phone call to confirm her death.

I believe that God speaks to me through visions and images. It was not the first time. They happened most of the time when people's pictures appeared in my mind. I usually would call the person up and check to see how he (she) is doing. Most people would tell me what has been happening to them and what they have been up to. I had the same thought after I finished the morning coffee with my wife yesterday morning. "I think I am going to give her a call," I let my wife know.

I don't think that I am unique in any way. Most of us, if we pay attention, we might discover how and when God wants to talk to us. I met a pastor who was with the South Vietnamese Army. After the war was over, he was captured and sent to a concentration camp (a hard labor prison) by the communist authority. He went to a Catholic boy school and was told that he needed to memorize his daily Bible verses. He fought that as any young boy would. However, there was a voice in his heart telling him that he needed these verses in the future. He was put in isolation a few times during his time in the concentration camp. The isolation cell was about .5mX.5mX2m in size. He could not do anything except reciting these verses. He was comforted by that because he knew that God was speaking to him via these verses.

Maybe we need to take some time of our day and to be still so that in the stillness of our heart, we might get a chance to hear God. Some people told me that God spoke to them when they play a musical instrument. Some would say they hear God in their time of meditation. One of the favorite lines in the movie "Chariots of Fire" is when Eric Liddell, trying to explain to his sister his enjoyment for running: "When I run, I feel His pleasure." It is comforting, and yet in that very comfort comes responsibilities. Providing care for people who are in need is how we feel God's pleasure.

1 Peter 4:11
"Whoever speaks, is to do so as one who is speaking the utterances of God; whoever serves is to do so as one who is serving by the strength which God supplies; so that in all things God may be glorified through Jesus Christ, to whom belongs the glory and dominion forever and ever. Amen."

 

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