Hope and the Action of God.
Something happened today that gave me pause – a prodding to be still and listen. I was immersed in preparation to lead a Learning Retreat over the minor prophets. I’ve felt convicted to lead this time of study and prayer because the minor prophets seem especially relevant to our day. In the middle of exegeting a text from Amos, I received a text message. The minister of a congregation in western Kentucky wrote that his staff had also planned to lead their congregation through the minor prophets this year. He wanted to know if there was still space available to participate in the Learning Retreat.
A few hours later I received a call from a minister in Tennessee. “This summer we are preaching through the minor prophets. Do you have room for one more at the retreat?”
I’m not quick to claim divine direction and by nature I’m a little skeptical when someone begins a statement with, “God told me…” I have lived long enough to know better than to casually make such pronouncements. But I have also followed Jesus long enough to know that God is not silent. He is active and desires to communicate with those who seek Him. So when two pastors from different states tell me they’ve felt led to preach from the minor prophets this year, my instinct tells me to be still and listen. Could they be experiencing the same prompting I felt. Could God be drawing the church to hear from these timeless voices? These two pastors are not alone. Several other leaders who will attend the retreat have communicated a similar desire to listen to the minor prophets during this season. I’m not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, so I will not say, “Thus says the Lord…” unless it is a word directly from Scripture. Yet neither will I cease to keep my ears open, listening for the still small voice of God who may still speak to his people today.
The prophetic books themselves draw attention to the God who revealed himself in both act and in word. He was not silent, and he did not fail to dramatically insert himself into the affairs of humanity so that His redemptive purposes might be realized. The prophets testify to a present active God. The lesson for ancient Israel was clear: if God spoke and acted in the past, then He might just speak and act again. This is what the Scriptures call “hope.”
In His book Hearing God Dallas Willard quotes comedian Lily Tomlin who asked, “Why is it, that when we speak to God we are said to be praying but when God speaks to us we are said to be schizophrenic?” The prophets, and ancient people in general, embraced the notion that God spoke in discernable ways.
Today could God be drawing us into the words of these prophets of old. Might he still desire to speak to us through them? Could those words to ancient Israel also be for such a time as this?
I sometimes follow the lectionary in my preaching because I know that other Christians around the world hear the same texts on any given Sunday. God transcends physical distance as believers find themselves bound together under the same living Word. If God draws some leaders to bring their congregations into a hearing of the prophets, then a similar bond might occur. And who knows how God might work in our hearts to fulfill His redemptive purposes in our time.
I must confess, I hesitate to suggest that God is speaking in this way. Yet hope rests on the conviction that God has, does, and will speak and act. Therefore, I enter a posture of listening for the voice of God and the leading of the Spirit. I’m encouraged by the words of Dallas Willard who wrote, “It is much more important to cultivate the quiet, inward space of a constant listening than to always be approaching God for specific direction.”[1] I believe the prophets modeled such a posture before God. May we learn from them.
“And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions.”
Joel 2:28
[1] Willard, Hearing God, pg. 200.