"Can You Hear Me Now"?

September 25, 2014

For many years we saw this thin man wearing glasses holding a cell phone in his hands on one of the most memorable commercials ever and the words that stood out and set this cell phone commercial apart from others were, “Can you hear me now?”

Everyday GOD is constantly trying to connect with us.  But there are little or no bars left.  There’s no signal, no connection.  The connection problem is never on GOD’s end but always on ours.  Many of us long to hear GOD speak to us, yet we spend more time waiting to hear than we do trying to clear the disconnect,  faulty lines or finding out why we keep getting dropped calls.

Dropped calls are a frequent occurrence so let’s examine this first.  A cellular network is composed of many different cellular towers that your phone communicates with in order to make a phone call. Your phone automatically connects to the nearest tower when you're making a call and continues to communicate with that tower as long as it remains the closest one in range.  If you get out of range that’s when you get a dropped call or your communication is interrupted.

Our heavenly network is composed of several communication towers that we believers can communicate with in order to make the communication or receive the communication.  Our towers are-THE FATHER, THE SON AND THE HOLY GHOST.  We can automatically connect to the nearest tower to make or receive communication and will continue to connect as long as we remain to the closest tower in range.  If we’re caught up on the daily humdrum of life, swept away by our pressing circumstances or distracted by the things of the world that peek our interest and not stay focused on GOD and the things of GOD, then we’re more likely to move out of the range of GOD, JESUS AND THE HOLY SPIRIT causing our call to drop, and our communication to stop.

We’ve all experienced dropped calls while using our cell phone which is due to extreme cell traffic on either one of the towers, glitches in the backend software, power outages, and more. But when GOD is trying to communicate with us none of these issues apply to why HE can’t get through or why the communication can’t be completed.

GOD has many ways of speaking to us but some of us may have not experienced hearing from GOD because of barriers that we may not be aware of, barriers that move us out of the area of the towers.   

If we’re honest with ourselves and admit we’ve had problems hearing from GOD, we’ll be able to quickly identify our barriers.  No one knows us like we know ourselves except GOD, so for any of us to ignore the signs of the barriers that are blocking our hearing would be a mistake.  This is one of those times we should be hard on ourselves because this is serious business.

We’ll start with the culprit that we’ve all had at one time or another in our lives.  DOUBT: doubt is one of the most common reasons we can’t hear from GOD. We want to hear GOD’s voice so badly that we at times do hear HIM accurately, and at other times, we may be mistaken or have doubt that it’s really GOD speaking, leading, guiding.  Have you ever came up with an idea thinking you’ve heard from GOD only to find out later that it was all you and not GOD?  So where was the error in communication?  It had to be in the hearing.  Doubt is common, even in the believer.  But we can’t let doubt hinder our communication and remain an obstacle to our connecting and staying connected to the towers.  Biblically we’re held accountable for our doubt, Zechariah is a prime example of our accountability.  He was visited by the angel of the Lord and told that he would have a son (Luke 1:11-17), he doubted the word given to him assuming that his wife was too old and because he doubted the angel said he would be mute until the day God’s promise was fulfilled (Luke 1:18-20).  When GOD speaks and we doubt HIM the communication is broken.  Gideon, on the other hand, didn’t doubt that GOD would speak; he doubted that GOD would speak to him.  Why would GOD want to speak to him?  So he asked for signs from GOD to make sure.  Every child of GOD is a somebody, there’s no such thing as a nobody.  Gideon felt he was a nobody and therefore he doubted what he’d heard.  Why would GOD want to use him?

But there have been other times that GOD was trying to speak to us, we knew it, but ignored it because of FEAR.  Fear of allowing GOD to take control.  Fear of release.  Fear of coming out of our comfort zone to do what GOD was calling us to do.  Fear that we’re not good enough to be used.  Fear of the unknown or the outcome.  Fear shouldn’t become a barrier that blocks us from hearing GOD.  The words “fear not” is used 365 times in the Bible.  It’s no coincidence that there are 365 days in the year.  Every single day of our lives we should wake up in the morning saying “fear not.”

A CLOSED MIND is another hindrance in hearing from GOD.  We get so stuck on ourselves, our way of doing things that we don’t want to hear anything that doesn’t line up with how we think.  This type of thinking gets us nowhere and it eventually severs relationships that can’t be repaired.  And GOD can’t get through this barrier to have that conversation that just may change your life.  We must have opened minds to receive the communication.

One of the biggest hindrances is PRIDE.  We want to be in control and stay in control.  We don’t want GOD to take control or become the captain of our ship because we don’t know where HE’s taking us, the path or direction HE has in mind.  We’d rather control our lives and situations on our own power.  Pride does indeed go before a fall as the saying goes; I’ve witnessed this among many people in high places.  But this can also happen to us if we’re not careful.

Here’s another favorite hindrance: REBELLION.  We refuse to follow what we know GOD wants us to do, live our lives according to HIS standards or do what we know is pleasing to GOD.  We want to do things our way.  Our way or no way.  We take the high road and don’t look back.  We don’t care about the consequences as long as we get our way.  How silly is this?  Having an attitude of GOD’s not the GOD of me, because of a rebellious heart, will only cause self- destruction.  It definitely won’t facilitate communication.

We beg and plead and cry out for GOD to speak to us and when HE does we turn a deaf ear.   We act like spoiled brats full of rebellion.  The whole Old Testament shows years of GOD’s wrath brought about because of rebellious people.  Our rebellious attitude will not move GOD to do what we want.  HE doesn’t cater to us and our whims and history shows that GOD will not tolerate a rebellious heart.

These are just a few hindrances that block us from hearing GOD.  The communication lines are always open, the towers remain in place, they’ve not moved.  If we’re having problems hearing from GOD it’s because we’ve moved out of range of the tower.  GOD, is the creator of all things including words, HE continues to speak therefore any inability to hear HIM is on our part. 

What is keeping you from hearing from GOD?  Examine yourself.  I can tell you at one time in my life I was guilty of most of these.  Pride was a big one for me, fear was second place.  But one day, my heart was transformed, my life was no longer my own and I had to surrender everything that stood between me and GOD.  Because of this transformation HE trusts me to share HIS heart, these inspired blogs with you.  If I couldn’t hear from HIM my life would be meaningless. 

I must say this, once you open yourself up to hearing from GOD whether it’s audibly, through HIS word, through another believer or through visions and dreams, be ready to hear things you’ve longed to hear as well as things you need to hear but you necessarily don’t want to hear.  This is a package deal; you don’t get to pick and choose what HE says.

Even today as you read this blog GOD is in the heavenlies saying “can you hear me now?”  This is the time to stop accepting dropped calls or interrupted, delayed communication and begin to remove those barriers and say “speak LORD.”

GOD BLESS