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