By Lukas Wallace

 

ONE EVENING, a little over a week ago, I was spending time in prayer, asking the Lord to speak to me. I’ve wanted to hear His voice so desperately, lately. Sometimes, I have the patience to wait and hear His voice clearly, but other times I’m distracted by concerns or quicker fixes. This night was a good night for me. I didn’t have to wait long before I heard a gentle beckon to, “Come outside.” I didn’t put it off, and within a minute I was out the front door. I stood in a small garden staring across the dark expanse of the Ben Hinnom valley, which was created by the nightfall. In front of me, taking up the majority of the panorama, was the beautiful Mount Zion. If you haven’t seen it, it’s really not as grandiose as one might think of a Mountain that the King of the World would reign from, but that’s just like our God, isn’t it? As I looked across the chasm between the mountain’s face and I, the Lord began to speak. “What do you see? What do you hear?”, He asked me unassumingly. “I see lights, walls, and streets on the mountain. I hear the noises of a developing city. Opposed from what I know, It seems like a very normal city.” He began to explain His question, “Everything you see, everything you hear has come quickly, and it will go quickly, but this mountain will remain. The walls will fall, the noises will fade, but this Mountain won’t be moved. You have come, and you will go, but this Mountain, which I have placed here from the beginning will continue to the end, until my Son returns and reigns from it.” He then went on, sharing a few other things. I understood His point, or at least part of it. I was staring at a big mound of dirt and rock, but it’s importance was so much bigger than what I could wrap my head around. The role of this hill in history has been so much more vast than my short existence. The Lord was drawing me out of myself to see the greatness of His Kingdom. People change, move, dig up, blow up, level off and reshape mountains all the time, all over the world, but this one will never be removed. And there I was, sitting right across from it on a garden bench, sipping a cup of tea. I went to bed so thankful and incredibly elated that the purpose of my finite life is not myself, but about something, rather, Someone who is boundless and infinite in every way.

It didn’t end there, though. Much like our Father, He loves to say the same things to us in different ways making it ever so clear that He is, in fact, talking to us. Also, it’s amazing to me how throughout my life, He does this in times and ways I least expect it. When I woke up the morning after, I went through my morning routine, and eventually made my way to the couch with a cup of tea, my Bible and a few different books to enjoy. After awhile, I began to read an amusing book I received as a gift from a friend. It’s about the real journey of an Israeli born Jewish journalist. You learn in the first few chapters that the Journalist had run away from his country and faith, only to be thrust back into Israel for six months by the paper he worked for. The man is not particularly faith-full, and so I wasn’t expecting to hear the voice of God through his story, but there it was as plain as day. The man had gone on a walk early in his journey, and decided to take a tour of the Temple Mount. He wrote down the words, which the guide shared with them, and which just so happened to be the same words that the Lord had spoken to me the night before, concerning the very same mountain. Now, I have been to the Temple mount several times, and never have I heard a guide say those things in such a way. As I realized what it was I was reading, I shot up off of the couch, grinning from ear to ear, and cheered in amazement. And it is amazing, how sometimes, a whisper can be so clear, yet at other times, indistinguishable.

One of my favorite songs is One Step Away by Jason Upton. One of the lyrics in the song asks, “Sometimes it’s hard to hear Your voice, my God. Is the reason that You’re whispering because You’re one step away?” I hear the Lord speaking to me fairly frequently, however, not as many times as I would intend to. At times, I just become distracted. Other times, try though I might, there’s nothing to hear, or so it seems. But there is an answer to the song’s question. I know because it echos in my soul. Yes. God whispers because He wants us to lean in closer. When we don’t hear Him it’s because our ears aren’t turned and pressed toward the gentleness of His voice. There have been points in my walk with God where I grew tired of leaning in to hear Him. I cried for God to shout to me, or at the very least talk normally (whatever that means). Now I pray that may never happen. May we never be so far from our Father that he has to shout for our attention. May He only ever be one step away from you, so  you only ever have to hear him whisper. Now, let’s take that last step.