You Can’t See God, Unless You Can Hear God.
You Can’t See God Unless You Can Hear God.
“Then Job answered the Lord and said: “I know that you can do all things, and that no purpose of yours can be thwarted. ‘Who is this that hides counsel without knowledge?’ Therefore I have uttered what I did not understand, things too wonderful for me, which I did not know. ‘Hear, and I will speak; I will question you, and you make it known to me.’ I had heard of you by the hearing of the ear, but now my eye sees you; therefore I despise myself, and repent in dust and ashes.””
Job 42:1-6
You can’t see God working in your life unless you can hear God. And you can’t hear God unless you’re having a conversation with Him.
So how do we talk with God?
We pray and read His word to us. We allow His will for our life to produce good fruit.
When we pray to God we should be thanking Him for the things in our lives that show His work in us. This can be our Christian growth, other people that have encouraged us, blessings and answered prayer. We should be acknowledging and admitting our sin to God, asking for forgiveness and seeking to repent from it to bring us closer to Him.
Prayer is also a way to bring petitions before God for things we are struggling with or need help with. And we should always be praying for the salvation of others. Our prayer is an acknowledgment that we can not do things on our own, and a recognition that God has provided the help for us because we are coming to Him.
There is a link below which will give some great examples of how we should be praying. Not the words that we should use; but the heart that we should have while in prayer.
The Bible helps us understand God’s love for us.
The Bible is God’s “love letter” to us. We have to be in constant communication with Him to understand this letter. By reading His inspired and infallible word from Him, to us, we learn more about God through each and every word. His word encourages us, lends wisdom, gives insight and understanding, and shows us all the reasons why we are so important to Him.
As Christian’s, we must be reading the Bible and praying every day if we expect to hear God. And when we start to hear God, we can start seeing Him at work in our lives. And when we start seeing Him at work in our lives, we start to produce good fruits.
People get angry at God because they don’t take the time to listen to Him, or even to talk to Him. It’s easy to blame someone you’ve never had a conversation with - or even walked away from. So many times I’ve heard that someone blames God for something, when they don’t even believe he exists. Well I guess they believe He exists - so they can blame Him. Or often times people question the bad that God does, often excusing the bad that people do. Or even worse, never acknowledging the good that God is doing.
There are reasons for the way God responds and the will He has for our lives. But unless we take the time to understand God and to hear Him, we will always be asking the questions. You know the questions; “why does God let bad things happen to good people?” And “why did your God let that happen?”
It’s truly hard to understand the will of God, especially if you don’t take the time to try.
I don’t understand the physics of airplanes and flight. It’s seems so impossible to me - yet I’ve flown from one destination to another, often. And as complicated as flight is - we will always commend a great landing and condemn pilot error. There is so much to understand - yet for almost every person that doesn’t understand - they will have an opinion.
Studies have shown that many Christian’s, even pastors, have never read their Bible from cover to cover. Sadly, the number is much greater for those that have read it, but never more than once. And not only that, most professed Christian’s don’t even own a physical Bible.
It’s interesting, when I used to be a cop. I never wore a tshirt while I was off duty that said - “I’m a cop”. Although a lot of people could guess that I was. They could look at manners, demeanor, the constant looking around and the way I carried myself.
What’s really sad is you’d hardly know a Christian from anyone else.
I’ve watched people use foul language, only later tell me they are saved. I watch as people on social media put a Bible verse in their profile - only to post pictures at a bar, hardly clothed. I’ve watched children who go to church tell their parents to shut up.
We are all “works in progress”. But only true change comes from true desire. If you don’t want to change, you won’t. If you do, you will. It won’t be you that changes you - it will be the desire you have to have Jesus Christ in your life. Only He will make the biggest change in you.
Of course you can still be saved by wearing less clothes and drinking alcohol, you can be saved and still use profanity - and you can certainly be rude and condescending and get to heaven. But why would you want to honor God in that way? You decided at some point in your life to turn your life over to Christ for your salvation, did something change?
Back to seeing God because you can hear God.
Things that so many people would never acknowledge become present. Seeing God working in our life isn’t always a blessing or a reward. His work is decided by His will, not ours. Sometimes what we see is His presence. Nothing more, nothing less. We don’t always have to see a positive increase in our life, or a negative effect to know God is working. Just His presence alone can bring great peace. And best of all, God knows exactly when we need it.
Not only will you be able to see God at work in your life, you will see Him at work in other believers’ lives as well. But you have to hear God in order to see God. People that don’t hear God usually attribute what they see as “luck” or “something weird” or even “karma”. These things don’t exist. It’s like trying to read a book by only looking at the words. It doesn’t make much sense. And at the end you still won’t understand.
You cannot lean on yourself for your own understanding. I promise you, you can’t. Sure we can make some good decisions, some of the time. And for the most part, our hearts are in the right place. But if we truly want to live for God, by the teachings and principles of Jesus Christ - then we must be hearing God, obeying Him and allowing His work to be done in us.
Our lives will bear fruit. If we are obedient to God, submit for His will over our life and desire to live like Christ - out fruit will be good. You can always tell a tree by the fruit it bears. If we don’t allow Christ to work in us, our fruit can look damaged and awful. The more we seek God and humble ourselves, the better our fruit becomes. If we stray and don’t desire closeness with Him, well, our fruit doesn’t look so good.
We’ve all seen it. People who throw out how much “church” they do, that they read the Bible, pray before meals, keep their family in line - and yet, there is no fruit on the tree. I’ve listened to people tell me how much they do for others, throw around their “callings” and standing on a pedestal to talk about how much they financially give - only to still not be able to see God at work in their lives.
Your fruit will be determined by how you treat the tree. When you hear God, you will see God. And when you see God you know there is good fruit on the tree. You will see good fruit, because what you see and desire is good and of God. And when you have troubles, struggles and trials - you’ll know where to go.
The Bible will tell you how to bear good fruit. Prayer will let you talk with God. The Holy Spirit will produce fruit in you based on your relationship with God and through your prayer.
My prayer is that you will start to see God, because you will start to hear God.
“If one turns away his ear from hearing the law, even his prayer is an abomination.”
Proverbs 28:9
https://www.gotquestions.org/praying-will-of-God.html
“The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord has made them both.”
Proverbs 20:12
“The men who were traveling with him stood speechless, hearing the voice but seeing no one. Saul rose from the ground, and although his eyes were opened, he saw nothing. So they led him by the hand and brought him into Damascus. And for three days he was without sight, and neither ate nor drank.”
Acts 9:7-9