[column width=”1/6″ title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]

[/column]

[column width=”2/3″ last=”true” title=”” title_type=”single” animation=”none” implicit=”true”]

For the month of August we are taking a break from our usual schedule. Instead we invite you to be part of a challenge we hope will make an impact in your life and along the Silk Road.

This week our focus is listening to God.

What direction do I need in my life right now? Am I willing to wait on God for an answer? Am I willing to humble myself so that I can hear Him, no matter what He might be saying? Am I willing to allow wiser people to speak into my life?

These are a few of the questions that will come up this week in the Dying Out Loud Journal.

Daniel was a man who knew how to listen to God. In Daniel Chapter 2, Nebuchadnezzar has a dream that troubles him. He calls all the magicians of the Babylonian kingdom and asks them to not only interpret the dream, but to tell him what it was in the first place. Verse 11 shows the magicians’ response, “there is no other who can tell it to the king except the gods, whose dwelling is not with flesh”

The king became very angry and commanded that all the wise men of Babylon be destroyed, including Daniel and his friends. However, when Daniel finds out he asks the king to give him time, that he might tell the king the interpretation. He returns home, tells his friends to seek God with him, and during the night the secret is revealed to him in a night vision.

Daniel says this in verse 23,

He (God) reveals deep and secret things; He knows what is in the darkness, and light dwells with Him.

I love this story, because Daniel had such confidence in the Lord to be able to reveal secrets. He did not look at the impossibility of the situation, but instead set himself to seek the Lord and prepared himself to hear what He would say.

Hidden Things Uncovered

I find the magicians’ response amusing. They immediately see the impossibility. They practically scoff at the king’s request, inciting that only the gods could possibly reveal such a thing. So why do they not seek their gods? Because their “dwelling is not with flesh.”

Yet our God is as Daniel declared, a God who “reveals deep and secret things.” He uncovers what is in darkness and brings it to light. And how much more now, since Jesus has come and made His dwelling with flesh, leaving us His Holy Spirit.

I am thankful that I serve a God who can reveal the most hidden things. The question is not whether or not God is speaking, but whether or not we are listening. He wants to reveal secrets to us.

He can reveal the secret to your current impossibility, whatever it may be.

He can reveal the secret to reaching the Muslim world.

Set your face to seek Him. Position your heart to hear Him. Wait for Him to speak.

[/column]