The Morning I Heard The Voice Of God
Few times in my life do I read articles that really speak to me concerning my walk with the Lord. This is one of them. John Piper hit this one out of the ball park. I hope it speaks to you as it did to me.
Pastor Mike Holtzinger
The Morning I Heard The Voice of God
By: John Piper March 21, 2007
Let me tell you about a most wonderful experience I had early Monday morning, March 19, 2007, a little after six o’clock. God actually spoke to me. There is no doubt that it was God. I heard the words in my head just as clearly as when a memory of a conversation passes across your consciousness. The words were in English, but they had about them an absolutely self-authenticating ring of truth. I know beyond the shadow of a doubt that God still speaks today.
I couldn’t sleep for some reason. I was at Shalom House in northern Minnesota on a staff couples’ retreat. It was about five thirty in the morning. I lay there wondering if I should get up or wait till I got sleepy again. In his mercy, God moved me out of bed. It was mostly dark, but I managed to find my clothing, got dressed, grabbed my briefcase, and slipped out of the room without waking up Noël. In the main room below, it was totally quiet. No one else seemed to be up. So I sat down on a couch in the corner to pray.
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throne, high and lifted up; and the train of his robe filled the temple. (2) Above him stood the seraphim. Each had six wings: with two he covered his face, and with two he covered his feet, and with two he flew. (3) And one called to another and said: “Holy, holy, holy is the LORD of hosts; the whole earth is full of his glory!” (4) And the foundations of the thresholds shook at the voice of him who called, and the house was filled with smoke. (5) And I said: “Woe is me! For I am lost; for I am a man of unclean lips, and I dwell in the midst of a people of unclean lips; for my eyes have seen the King, the LORD of hosts!” (6) Then one of the seraphim flew to me, having in his hand a burning coal that he had taken with tongs from the altar. (7) And he touched my mouth and said: “Behold, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away, and your sin atoned for.” (8) And I heard the voice of the Lord saying, “Whom shall I send, and who will go for us?” Then I said, “Here am I! Send me.”
Rarely is a leadership disaster rooted in a person’s incapacity to lead. It is most often an issue of failed followship. In fact, all of our failures can ultimately be traced to ceasing to follow Christ. Yet our twisted sense of values, exalting leading over following, independence over dependence, is evident in our whole attitude toward those whom we regard as qualified to lead and the qualifications we consider essential for the task. We are too easily seduced by the external qualities of charisma, competence, and credentials. This is not to say that these elements arn’t important. It is to underscore that these are not primary qualifiers. But American society refuses to accept the idea that character and submission to oral authority are important, particularly in the selection of leaders. – Joseph M Stowell “Following Christ”, Harper Collins Publishing, pg.37