Is this really how God works?

Have you ever stopped to ask yourself, How does God communicate with mankind?  Sure, sometimes He uses words as He talks to us in our prayers or through others.  But does He talk to us in other ways?  The answer is yes.  God is always speaking to us through the circumstances of life.  The Old and New Testaments are filled with stories of how God has communicated to people through circumstance.  Jesus taught in parables to help us grow in understanding this form of communication so that we can learn how to better understand Him as He interacts in life around us.  Have you ever thought about that before?  Have you ever thought about how He might be talking to you through the circumstances of your life?

When we come to understand how God is talking to us through the circumstances of life we are free to start seeing Him in everything.  When we start seeing Him in everything we can truly be delivered into the fullness of the Fruit of the Spirit as promised in Galatians 5.  At the end of the day, isn't this what God really wants for us; to be so one with the Spirit that we understand what God is doing in, through, and around us all the time?

Let's take a look at two scriptures and see if they will help us understand this fundamental mode of communication.  The challenge to these scriptures is to find "God's Love" contained within what He is telling us.  Once we find His love, we are free to understand who  He is attempting to communicate with, and what He is attempting to say.


 [Deuteronomy 5:9 NASB] 9 'You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers on the children, and on the third and the fourth generations of those who hate Me,

[Isaiah 3:1-5, 13-14 NASB]  For behold, the Lord GOD of hosts is going to remove from Jerusalem and Judah both supply and support, the whole supply of bread and the whole supply of water;  The mighty man and the warrior,the judge and the prophet,the diviner and the elder, the captain of fifty and the honorable man,the counselor and the expert artisan, and the skillful enchanter. And I will make mere lads their princes, and capricious children will rule over them, and the people will be oppressed, each one by another, and each one by his neighbor; The youth will storm against the elder and the inferior against the honorable............ The LORD arises to contend, and stands to judge the people. The LORD enters into judgment with the elders and princes of His people,"It is you who have devoured the vineyard; the plunder of the poor is in your houses.

In the first scripture it is hard for us to reconcile that God would visit the iniquity of the fathers onto the children to the third or fourth generations?  In the second scripture, is it hard to reconcile that God would "remove" all the mighty men, warriors, judges, prophets, diviners, elders,  honorable men, counselors, artisans, and skillful enchanters? If this were not enough, He even says He will make mere lads their princes, and put children ruling over them.

From a human flesh perspective this tends to make no sense.  If God loves us, and wants us to love Him wouldn't you think that He would do just the opposite?  If a father or mother were going astray wouldn't it make sense to lead their children back to Him so that He could use the children to lead the parents back?  If a country were going astray wouldn't it make sense to raise up a generation of prophets, judges, and youths of great wisdom to lead the country back into a positive direction?

The thing is, God wants us to choose Him on our own free will.  He wants us to love Him, but just as importantly, He wants us to embrace His ways.

2 Chronicles 7:14 gives us the key; If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.

You see, what God gives, God can take away.  We tend to see this only in the sense of what good things He gives He can take away.  Have you ever stopped to consider that maybe He brings challenges into our lives for the point of leading us into humility?  And that just as quickly as He brought them, He can take them away?  When we focus on what God is using we tend to miss what He is saying.  When we see what He is doing and ask Him to show us what He is trying to tell us everything changes.  It is form this position that we can hear His voice, grow into what He is asking us to be, and do the very thing that He is asking us to do.  I wonder how many of our prayers are being held up because we are not willing to hear what He is telling us as we try to get Him to remove the very thing He brought into our lives.

Over the next few posts we will go a bit deeper into some of the things that are going on around us, what is happening in the world, and look to God for the answers as to what He might be trying to tell us.  I pray that this blog has been thought provoking and drawn you into a deeper relationship with God.  If you find this to be a positive influence in your life please comment, share, and re-post.  Thank you and God bless.