Reflecting: Have we heard and obeyed God's voice?

 'I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me.'
Deuteronomy 26:14

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When I recently read through this chapter these words grabbed my attention,  'I have hearkened...and have done.' 

In other words, I have listened and obeyed. 

"What has the Lord spoken to me that I have heard and then obeyed?" I mused. 

"Are there things He has said to me which I haven't done?" 

Thoughts immediately started coming to my mind of a recent message that two ministers preached to us. 

"What had I done about it?" 

Perhaps you too have had messages from God which you have yet to obey.

Well, let us first take a look at the context of these words and then think about them in a general sense before coming down to a more personal application.

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• The context

These words are part of the teachings from the Old Testament leader, Moses.  He was telling God's chosen people what they should do and say, showing them how they should live as followers of God.

God had brought them out from captivity in Egypt almost forty years ago and was to soon bring them into the Promised Land of Canaan.  Once settled and living there they were to present to God a portion from their first products of harvest in acknowledgement of what God had done for them, and in trust for what was to come. 

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Additionally there were set times when they were to give to the priests, strangers, orphans and widows who lived with them and to then declare, 'I have hearkened to the voice of the LORD my God, and have done according to all that thou hast commanded me'.

It was a statement of fact.   It wasn't a boast, a proclamation of how good they were, but rather a simple, as 'I have been told, I have done'.  Their obedience was a sign of their respect for God's commandments and a sign of their trust, that God would continue to provide all they needed.   

They were to obey a specific command - a specific message for a specific time.

• What about us - have we listened and obeyed?

We have been given many messages and commands from God in the Bible, which is the written voice of God.  Many things which we should and shouldn't do are recorded there.  Many things which we should listen to and obey that we might be happy, content, blessed and favoured by God.

But there are many things which we don't do, or do when we shouldn't because we are 'sinners'.  This is why Jesus, the perfect Son of God, came to live on earth as a human, like you and me.  Try as we might we cannot obey all the things God tells us to do because we are 'sinners'.  In contrast Jesus couldn't do anything wrong because he is 'sinless'.

We are born with wrong inclinations, selfish thoughts, and disobedience to God.  We want our own way and our own independence.  We want to live 'the life we want', and to 'choose our own destiny'. 

We see our propensity for wanting our own way in even a baby which screws it's face up in a temper tantrum when it doesn't get what it wants quick enough. 

As we go through life we experience time and time again constraints and hindrances which make us fret because it isn't what we want, other people telling us what to do and things which happen to get in the way of our plans.  We don't want to listen.  But God may be speaking to us through these very circumstances and events in our lives.

As we disregard his voice in his Word, in our circumstances, and in the glory of His creation around us, we are like those to whom He says, 'I have called, and ye refused; I have stretched out my hand and no man regarded; but ye have set at nought all my counsel, and would none of my reproof' (Proverbs 1: 24,25).

Despite what we are like, God, in His love and mercy to those He has chosen from before time began has made this way through Jesus in which we can be saved from His judgement and wrath for disobeying Him.

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He sent His perfect Son, Jesus, who couldn't sin, to live as a human - to do what we can never do in our place.  He then allowed Himself to be crucified, shouldering all the guilt and sins which His children have done and will do.  He experienced God's anger for all our sins.  And then, because He is perfect, God brought Him back to life.  Death is the wages of sin.  After bearing God's punishment for our sin Jesus couldn't be kept in the grave because He had never done anything worthy of eternal death.

• What about us as followers of Jesus?

So, how does this find us today?  What specific personal instructions has God given to you and to me?  Have we listened and obeyed?

All believers and followers of Jesus have been given commands in the New Testament, such as 'this do in remembrance of me' (Luke 22:19) -  a command from Jesus to continue to eat broken bread and drink wine in memory of His last supper with His disciples and how they signified the sacrifice He made for His people. 

We are also to strive, leaning on God's grace and life within us to 'love one another'.  Jesus said to His disciples, 'This is my commandment, that ye love one another, as I have loved you' (John 15:12).  How we feel to fall short in obeying this and how we need to continually pray to be made more loving like Jesus! 

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• What about you and what about me as individual followers of Jesus?

But what about even more individually - have we listened to the words God has spoken to us in our circumstances and lives?

We have many opportunities to hear God's messages for us:

 - when we attend worship services where the minister brings a message which God has given him; 

 - when we read our Bible and the verses speak to us making us to pause and think;

 - when Christian friends speak to us of things which they believe God has put in their hearts and minds to speak to us from Him;

 - or when our circumstances make us stop and notice - why is this happening?  Is it God speaking to me?  What does the Bible instruct me I should do in this sort of situation?

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But as we think back over these times, we may reflect that we enjoyed listening to, observing or experiencing these things, that we felt the specialness of hearing God's words and instructions, but did we then go away and do them?!  Can we stand before God now and say, 'I have hearkened and I have done'?

I think particularly at this time of year of words which the Lord breathed into my heart on 7th September 2009,  'Give me thine heart'. 

My immediate response from my tired, sad and broken heart was, 'Lord I give thee my heart' and I physically felt all my heartache flow away and be replaced with the most amazing peace. 

But as I look back over these past 15 years, have I continued to 'give' the Lord my heart in my daily life?  Yes I will always belong to Him, but have I lived as if I do?  Have I lived as if my life is in His hands, as if every aspect of it is under His control and His plan?  Do I live 100% trusting that He loves me and cares about me, resting in Him?  Do I live as if I am His child, serving Him and wanting to be submissive to Him, living for His glory?

This is a lifelong 'message' to me.  One to continually treasure and hold in my heart.  A message to look back on and know that it is as relevant to me today as it was 15 years ago.

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Do you have an individual message or verse which was given or spoken to you?  One that was so effective and life changing?  Do you still listen to that message and seek through God's grace to obey it?

Sometimes we have further specific messages of guidance to us from the Lord. 

Where I worship we recently had a minister bring us a very specific message - a message which he didn't know he was to bring until he got to the end of his long journey to us and words were finally given from God to him to give us:

'They shall come, and shall declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, that he hath done this' (Psalm 22:34).

As he preached, in utter amazement at what he was saying he told us to write down this message....the Lord is going to bring in people to worship Him - people who will not perhaps look like the average christian - and how will we receive them?  Are we prepared?  Would we judge them and look down on them?  

Four days later a completely different minister preached from the Old Testament book of Ruth. 

Ruth would not have looked like the other women gleaning in the fields of Boaz.  She was a foreigner, of different background, different religious upbringing, different dress, maybe different skin colour, different language.  But Boaz, the owner of the field received her lovingly.  

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"How would we be?" the minister asked, "If we were to have new people come into our services, people who didn't look like us, dress like us, have our background...would we receive them lovingly?"

Dear reader, this is a speaking voice to us and perhaps to you.  God has spoken through His ministers.  He has given a specific message to us.  Have we hearkened?  Have we listened?  Are we praying to be prepared so that we might obey?  Are we thoughtfully examining ourselves and the scriptures for guidance and wisdom on how to advise people who may be converted to christianity who have backgrounds, social situations and circumstances entirely different to our own.

"They will ask you how to live as a christian!"  The first minister declared.  How will we answer?!  How it brings us to examine ourselves and whether our lives glorify God.  How it brings us to think - how much of my 'christian living' is a 'hand me down tradition' and how much is real love to God?!

So dear reader, as we bring these thoughts to a close, I pray that they may be helpful to you too today. 

May they make you too reflect on the voice of God to you as a human in this world, to you - I hope - as a follower of God, a disciple of Jesus, to you individually and specifically. 

May you too be helped to consider whether you have listened and obeyed, and if you are yet to obey Him, but feel so insufficient and unable may you be helped to lean on Jesus for all that you need to go forward in obedience trusting that He will never leave you or forsake you.

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