Now the boy Samuel was ministering to the
Lord
in the presence of Eli. And the word of the
Lord
was rare in those days; there was no frequent vision.
At that time Eli, whose eyesight had begun to grow dim so that he could not see, was lying down in his own place. The lamp of God had not yet gone out, and Samuel was lying down in the temple of the Lord, where the ark of God was.
Then the Lord called Samuel, and he said, “Here I am!” and ran to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call; lie down again.” So he went and lay down.
And the Lord called again, “Samuel!” and Samuel arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” But he said, “I did not call, my son; lie down again.” Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, and the word of the Lord had not yet been revealed to him.
And the Lord called Samuel again the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.” Then Eli perceived that the Lord was calling the boy. Therefore Eli said to Samuel, “Go, lie down, and if he calls you, you shall say, ‘Speak, Lord, for your servant hears.’” So Samuel went and lay down in his place. 1 Samuel 3: 1-9
As seen in the scripture above, God chose to speak directly to Samuel. Although Eli occupied a significant seat as high priest and was more seasoned than Samuel, God chose to speak directly to Samuel. God communicated to Samuel for many reasons but mostly because Samuel was about to embark on a special mission that greatly assisted in God’s purpose for others.
There were other instances within the Bible when God chose to speak directly to specific people such as Adam, Noah, Moses, Abraham and others that made significant contributions which greatly assisted God’s purpose for others too. God spoke to all of them in languages that they understood and He can choose other methods of communication as seen in other instances within the Bible. In other events within the Bible, God spoke in significant ways like in the story of Elijah versus the false prophets, the story about the three men in the fiery furnace in the book of Daniel, and many other stories. All these aside, none are more important than when He effectively communicated His love for us by sending His only begotten Son, Christ Jesus, to save us.
Today many people are wondering if God is effectively communicating to us like He spoke to people in the biblical era. He is effectively communicating to the people of today and most of the people that He speaks to directly do not have the same impactful tasks of the people in the biblical era. There are numerous miracles and testimonies given daily throughout the earth to remind everyone that God is still effectively communicating to His people. This leads to the questions of “Are you listening to God?” and “How are you effectively communicating to God?”.
How can someone hear or see if they do not know what to listen to or look for? This is a mystery to many people because many of them are searching and longing for a human communication from God instead of recognizing His divine communication. If we continue to look for what we call communication then we’re effectively missing God’s communication. God chooses to communicate to each individual however He chooses and it’s mostly because everyone’s method of learning and understanding are not the same. This is why He doesn’t communicate to everyone at one time because many people will confuse themselves instead of leaning on Him. We have seen enough to know that God is real and that He is consistently communicating by allowing us to exercise free will. He could program us to be like robots but that would go against His love for us thus He allows us to effectively communicate to Him via our own efforts. This leads to the second question, “How are you effectively communicating to God?
We communicate to God through our obedience to Him, our praise and worship to only Him, and our efforts toward others, but these things have to be done with sincerity or the efforts void themselves out. We can’t rely on another human being to communicate to God for us because we must develop our own personal relationships with Him so that we can be blessed accordingly. Many have become so traditional and so religious that they are losing the focus of building and maintaining a relationship with God which spearheads that One on one communication. The only One that we can rely on to communicate to God for us is Christ Jesus! Let’s remove all excuses and let’s focus on effectively communicating to God. Remember in Genesis 11 when God said, “Come, let Us go down and confuse their language, so that they may not understand one another’s language.” This is not what we want to happen to everyone right now but this is how the collective efforts are communicating to God today. There is a massive amount of bad communication from particular people to God and that bad communication is infecting many believers of the Body. What must we do? Take action now and assist with saving more souls through our effective communication to God and others. Now is the time that we say, “Ask not what God can do for you, ask what you can do for His kingdom.” Although that was inserting a few words into John F. Kennedy’s famous speech, but it is a way of effectively communicating what we must do for the kingdom of God. We must effectively communicate in our efforts for our households, for believers and nonbelievers, on social media and in everywhere that we go.
Today, God effectively communicates to us by having mercy upon us, providing His grace and love, protecting us while we are sleeping, allowing us to wake up, answering our prayers, allowing us to see and do things that many can’t do, speaking directly to many of us, and allowing us to have things although many of us are not worthy. He has always communicated to us effectively and since He has proven this to us then we have no choice but to go out and imitate His Son by fulfilling the Great Commission. Lets effectively communicate to God with our praise and worship of Him only, remaining obedient to Him, imitating Christ Jesus and loving our neighbors as we love ourselves. The Word of the Lord is not rare today but true listeners and communicators are! When God effectively communicates to you and calls your name you should be ready to say, “Here I am” and effectively communicate to Him.
Blessings.
