The Power of a Whisper Week 3
This week we talked about times when we don’t hear from God and the importance of remembering His faithfulness even when we’re not seeing it. One way to remember is to look to the Scriptures that have been meaningful to you in the past. Bill Hybels talks about a “life verse” or passage that we can hold on to for a lifetime. Share the verses that have been most meaningful to you.
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April 19, 2011 at 9:07 pm
This is both a testimony of what God is doing in my life and a devotional to maybe encourage you to allow God to whisper some powerful truths into you as He has with me.
This is entitled,
God isn’t finished with me yet
I want to begin my story with how God spoke to me with the use of a trapped toothpaste cap. I have a special chair in my room that I call my prayer chair and that’s where I start in the morning and where I end at night… usually it starts out with praise and thanksgiving and flows into requests, and with a husband, six children, daughter in laws, son in laws and now almost eight grandchildren, this is where most of my time goes…..This particular morning I was whining. I had felt I had some of the same ole prayers for decades and hadn’t heard from God or saw any indication He was even working on some of this stuff. I guess you could call this a dry season.
I didn’t feel He was listening and was really needing encouragement that He not only heard my prayers but cared enough to do something about them… Have you ever been there?
Well in my despair the Lord spoke to me in a whisper about a toothpaste cap that had been stuck in my bathroom sink for a month. I think the cat had knocked it in there and it was way down the hole too far to reach but not too far that when you brushed your teeth it backed the water just enough to be gross. This particular morning, He told me to watch the cap as the water swirled around it and see the pattern as it was getting beat up, sorta how I was feeling.
His message to me then was,
yes the world is spinning around you just like the water around the cap,
and yes, I never said life would be easy or did I promise your life to be perfect, just like the world is not perfect.
And what He did then was encourage me that in His perfect timing He would make all things beautiful and right.
I was so excited that in my dry spell of waiting on God, He spoke to me…
As I was getting ready to put my toothbrush back I thought, I know God You could get that out of there if you wanted to.
Then God demonstrated His perfect timing by telling me to put my toothbrush on the side of silver ring where the water was swirling, I placed it, the cap popped up and in perfect timing I caught it in my hand.
I cried a delighted cry because He was speaking to me and encouraging me when I needed it most.
Weeks following My church did a series on the Power of a Whisper, (isn’t that how He works sometimes) and since that time, God has directed me to read several books and listen to tapes on Gods whispers and all these books on relationships. What have we been studying in Genesis? The answer is Relationships and restoration.
Now the rest of the story as Paul Harvey would say
You see, right after Christmas, My mother and I had this blow up and I didn’t realize it but I had turned my ear off to God because I was not going to make up to her, I Had this new sense of freedom and felt it was the best thing that had happened to me for a while and I was not going back to that dysfunctional relationship that was cruel, manipulating, and oppressive. Once you taste freedom from a bad situation, you don’t want to get back to that spot. I was fearful that all these messages were to make me go back, and I wasn’t giving God a chance to speak because I had been down that road before. (Pride)
God doesn’t necessarily want us to live in abusive relationships or allow someone to control or make us feel less than what He designed us to be. You see, my mom was not the picture perfect mom that many of you have had, and I don’t want to waste mins. going into details because that is not the message here today.
As a matter of fact I have totally forgiven my mom for all she has done or even will do, I know this now because after I finally allowed God to whisper to me again, hence the books and sermons, He was quite different than how I expected. He first told me to write Him all my hurts and fears and wrongs been done. I remembered things I had never talked about to anyone. I felt anger and grief and was not happy with God for dragging down this path. I kept turning the letter and anger to my mom and He kept redirecting it back to Him. He met me right there and then step by step He allowed me to see Truth and error, mine and hers.
As a child we tend to own things done and said to us as truths and this allows Satan to trap us into a pit of depression and oppression. We hold onto guilt, fear, and pain and then we can’t be all that God intended for us to be. As we went through these steps He spoke truth into me and set me free from my past.
Even though I have forgiven her we still have not reconciled and God says this is okay. In His time He will make all things beautiful and right… and this might be on the other side of heaven and I am okay with that. You may have or have had relationships like this.
I just recently heard Joyce Myers testimony and I cried my eyes out to what she had endured and where God has taken her in her life. Look at all the people she has touched in her life and who she reaches because of her past pain. She made a statement in that, if you were raised even semi normal, you should kiss your parents twice a day. Her life made mine look pretty good.
I never would want God to change one thing about my past because I wouldn’t be who I am today or have the family I have, had it been different. And I am very proud of all of them…. And just like Joseph and his entire life of hard knocks, God has a plan…I know what God can do with all mine and your past and what he can do with our future.
Things I want to encourage with:
1. Don’t turn a deaf ear to God because of your pain, run to Him with it.
Read: Naham 1:7
He is our refuge in times of trouble
2. Gods timing is always perfect… even when it seems to be soooo long. Remember the toothpaste cap, I carry it around with me as a reminder
John 14: 1
Do not let your hearts be troubled, trust in God and trust also in me… no not me but Jesus
3. God may not necessarily restore the relationship do to circumstances, but He will restore you if you ask him
Philippians 4:6,7 and 19
Do not be anxious for anything but in everything by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God which transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.
Just like with Joseph, when He was in the pit, when he was in jail and slavery… God wasn’t finished with him yet and I thank God, He isn’t finished with me yet either. Amen?
God gave me this beautiful song to share…. I hope it inspires you as it did me.
It’s called
I lay down my life
by Sidewalk Prophets
Listen to the words and I pray it speaks to you
March 8, 2011 at 12:59 pm
I have had a number of life verses over the years, sometimes it changes from month to month depending on what my circumstances are and what the Lord is teaching me at the time. This is the one I am meditating on now:
Surely God is my salvation; I will trust and not be afraid. The LORD, the LORD himself, is my strength and my defense.”
Isaiah 12:2
March 8, 2011 at 12:54 pm
I remember the day that I was introduced to and read Jeremiah 29:11-14. I was 22 years old.
God immediately spoke to me through these words of His and it was life changing for me. Now, even at the age of 41, God continues to whisper this very promise to me through much heartache, human betrayal, feelings of failure and loneliness, trials, and tribulations. I embrace this scripture and will choose to believe this truth even when I am not hearing or seeing God’s faithfulness in my life……”For I know the plans that I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and future. Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will listen to you. You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart. I will be found by you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back from captivity or will restore your fortunes. I will gather you from all of the nations and places where I have banished you,” declares the Lord, “and will bring you back to the place from which I carried you into exile.”
March 1, 2011 at 9:03 am
About a week into the Whisper series, I received a significant whisper. It was right after a Men’s Breakfast. The conversation had been deep and I was moved. I used to right songs a lot until three years ago when I had throat cancer and singing became impossible. Before that, when God gave me a song, I was unable to stop writing and playing and singing until I got it all down. Sometimes I would be in a room for 8 or 10 hours before He let me go. Anyway, that day, after Men’s breakfast, He sent me a song I could not refuse. It was a 5 hour intense moment. I played it that week in Small Group and the group wanted me to post it here. I failed then, but this morning came the whisper. So here are the lyrics. I have to post it. Remeber it is a result of all of us being together and listening to His whispers:
It’s You
John Abato 02/11
There is nothing, nothing I want more,
Than to be with You. Let me make no other choice.
Let me give to You, everything I have.
Then let me rest in You and hear the whisper of Your voice.
Lord it’s You, when my heart is broken.
And it’s You, when I can’t find my way.
Lord it’s you and all the words You’ve spoken,
That help me through. It’s the whisper of You’re voice.
I was crying. I felt so ashamed.
So You sent a friend to say Your Holy Name.
Mountain streams rushing through the morning,
Gentle breeze, the source is all the same.
Lord it’s You, when my heart is broken.
And it’s You, when I can’t find my way.
Lord it’s you and all the words You’ve spoken,
That help me through. It’s the whisper of You’re voice.
Lord it’s You, when my heart is broken.
And it’s You, when I can’t find my way.
Lord it’s you and all the words You’ve spoken,
That help me through. It’s the whisper of You’re voice.
Lord it’s You. It’s the whisper of You’re voice.
Lord it’s You. It’s the whisper of You’re voice.
February 26, 2011 at 10:31 am
There are many scriptures that I would consider foundational in my life. Here are two that have the Lord has used in my life and I have given away to others:
Colossians 3: 15-17 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom and as you sing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs with gratitude in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, whether in word or deed do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.
Revelation 2: 4-5 Yet I hold this against you: You have forsaken your first love. Remember the height from which you have fallen! repent and do the things you did at first. If you do not repent, I will come to you and remove your lampstand from it’s place.
Both of these verse the Lord has spoken to me on many occasions and have served to encourage and admonish of which I am very thankful.
February 23, 2011 at 11:16 pm
This is short and sweet but I love it and it gives me strength and carries me through each day and in particular, those moments when I have to deal with difficult situations or people.
Psalm 19:14 May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, O LORD, my Rock and my Redeemer.
It reminds me that in word and thought, to be God pleasing no matter what comes my way (regrettably, I’m not always successful) and helps me lean on God as my Rock and as my redeemer when I screw up despite my desire to be God pleasing.
When we lived in Falls Church, our pastor there started each message with that scripture and I think it prepared me as much as it did her.
February 23, 2011 at 4:10 pm
This is my life verse
1 Peter 5: 6-11
6 Humble yourselves, therefore, under God’s mighty hand, that he may lift you up in due time. 7 Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you.
8 Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that the family of believers throughout the world is undergoing the same kind of sufferings. 10 And the God of all grace, who called you to his eternal glory in Christ, after you have suffered a little while, will himself restore you and make you strong, firm and steadfast. 11 To him be the power for ever and ever. Amen.
February 22, 2011 at 5:28 pm
Saint Francis of Asissi has a great prayer that I find so much comfort in:
Lord make me a channel of thy peace
- that where there is hatred,
I may bring love
- that where there is wrong,
I may bring the spirit of forgiveness
- that where there is discord,
I may bring harmony
- that where there is error,
I may bring truth
- that where there is doubt,
I may bring faith
- that where there is despair,
I may bring hope
- that where there are shadows,
I may bring light
- that where there is sadness,
I may bring joy.
Lord grant that I may seek rather to comfort
than to be comforted
- to understand,
than to be understood
- to love,
than to be loved.
For it is by self forgetting that one finds.
It is by dying that one awakens to Eternal Life. Amen
It reminds me to be like Jesus rather than be like me!
February 22, 2011 at 1:27 pm
I guess it is a whisper ,or a call to prayer or both !!!! yeah thats it….GOD has been nonstop telling me to pray for all of his people in the middle east,and even our enemies that are doing so much wrong,even for the Gaddafi family that are possibly planning to follow thru with a war against thier own people…Lord give me strenth to do your will for meand the people of all the world
February 21, 2011 at 9:42 pm
my favorite Bible passage is Psalm 23.It gives me simultaneously great reassurance that He is totally surrounding me at all times…Yea though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death,Thou art with me…with that,who could be afraid of anything!
Also,He …prepares a table for me in the presence of my enemies…and annoints my head with oil.I will dwell in the house of The Lord forever….with these words of Mis absolute protection for me,and His uplifting care,I am totally excited all the time!