When God Speaks To US
Kevin Probst
6/16/2025
Picture Credit: Vexteezy
We get to know each other through our conversations. The path to deep friendships and intimate relationships is through conversing with others about our experiences, thoughts and perspectives. After revealing ourselves to one another a decision is made to either pursue the relationship or back away from it.
God reveals himself to us through his words. Sometimes he speaks words of encouragement, sometimes words that bring conviction. Sometimes his words reveal who he is and sometimes they reveal who we are. His words are always meant for our own good, they are meant to encourage having a relationship with him. They are never meant to discourage or to destroy.
His words reveal his omnipotence, his power. He spoke this world into existence by simply declaring it to be. “By faith we understand that the universe was created by the word of God, so that what is seen was not made out of things that are visible.:” (Hebrews 11:3) He created all that is Ex Nihilo,‘out of nothing’.
His words reveal a depth of love that the human heart and mind cannot grasp. Moses received a glimpse of God’s love when he revealed himself on Mt. Sinai: “The LORD…is a compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger and abounding in faithful love and truth, maintaining faithful love to a thousand generations, forgiving iniquity, rebellion, and sin” (Exodus 34:6-7) Who would dare question the love he has for his created beings. For we know this; he gave his only begotten son to die on a brutal Roman cross as a sacrifice for ALL those who would believe in him might escape eternal punishment and instead be given eternal life. (John 3:16)
These are his words we love to hear. If these were his only words to us we would be justified in questioning whether he truly loves us. A father who never reprimands his children for their wrong doing, who doesn’t use his words to try to help them avoid the snares that have been laid for them by an enemy who “walketh about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour” (1 Peter 1:5) does not truly love them.
God was faithful to give Moses a balanced view of his true nature. After revealing to Moses his wondrous love, he also revealed his righteous and holy nature. Listen to more words from Exodus 34: “But he will not leave the guilty unpunished, bringing the consequences of the father’s iniquity on the children and grandchildren to the third and fourth generation”. (Exodus 34:6-7) Moses was deeply moved and convicted by the voice of God. He saw a God revealing himself as a God of love and mercy as well as a holy God, a righteous God who was justified in his punishment toward those who were rebellious and disobedient. Moses knelt low to the ground and pleaded with God: “My Lord, if I have indeed found favor with you, my Lord, please go with us (even though this is a stiff-necked people), forgive our iniquity and our sin, and accept us as your own possession.” (Exodus 34:9)
In a previous article I wrote about the intimate relationship we can have with a Shepherd who calls us by name. First names indicate a deeper level in the relationship. I am “Mr. Probst” to the students I teach and to acquaintances I meet along the way. But I am “Kevin” to my friends and family and I am addressed with an even more intimate label by my children who call me “Dad”.
The Shepherd who knows us by name also knows everything there is to know about us. He knows us perfectly. The writer of Hebrews wrote: “And there is no creature hidden from His sight, but all things are naked and open to the eyes of Him to whom we must give account.” (Hebrews 4:13)
A great privilege is conferred upon those who follow him. We can experience a perpetual walk with God during which we may converse with him and he with us. However, there are also special and specific moments when he speaks to us.
He calls us to salvation
Have you ever heard your mother behind a closed bedroom door praying for your soul? Have you sat under the ministry of a preacher or youth pastor, and felt a flood of conviction for your sin? Have you ever felt the strong, firm tug on your heart encouraging you to abandon your sin and embrace your Savior? This is the Shepherd calling you by name. I know he did indeed call me by name. He convicted me of my sin and convinced me of my need to repent.
When we assemble together to worship, have we come to hear the words of a preacher or do we come yearning to hear the voice of the Holy Spirit? We often enter into worship inundated by distractions. Might we rather be focused as the Psalmist was when he said “...as a deer longs for flowing streams so pants my soul for you, O God.” (Psalm 42:1)
He calls us to sanctification
When we respond to the voice of God calling us to repent, please know this, we will surely hear the inevitable call to enter a deeper life, a more mature spiritual experience. He wants to sanctify us. A truly sanctified heart is one who has made a complete and total surrender to Christ. "And you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your might." (Deuteronomy 6:2) Unfortunately, there is a large number of Christians who consider this deeper walk with God optional. It is not. Some opt out of this deeper life by labeling it legalism. It is not. It is God’s call to all of his followers to enter a deeper life of commitment and consecration so that we might better glorify him. We are commanded to “Pursue peace with all people, and holiness, without which no one will see the Lord,” (Hebrews 12:14) It is a preparation for our eternal life with Christ the Lord.
“A road will be there and a way; it will be called the Holy Way (the Way of Holiness). The unclean will not travel on it, but it will be for the one who walks the path. Fools will not wander on it.” (Isaiah 35:8)
His voice calls us to a way that leads the sorrowful into joy, the weak into strength, the spiritually mediocre into spiritual maturity and excellence.
And then there is…
The Final Call
There is a future time for all of us, a time unknown to any of us when God will send a messenger to retrieve us and take us home. Sometimes the messenger comes for the young, sometimes for those in mid-life and sometimes for those who have lived a very long time and have finally arrived in those “days of trouble … the years when you say, ‘I find no pleasure in them.’ ” (Ecclesiastes 12) They want relief, they want to go home. They want nothing more than to be reunited with loved ones and to have the ability to glorify God perfectly as they have never been able to do in their earthly life. The messenger enters, extends his hand and says: “Arise and come away.” Jesus promised us: “In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I am going to prepare a place for you?” - (John 14:2)
His final call will reunite us with those who have gone before us into the heavenly realm and who sing along with the heavenly host: “Holy, holy, holy, Lord God, the Almighty, who was, who is, and who is to come.” (Revelation 4:8)
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