Powerful!

O people of Zion, who live in Jerusalem, you will weep no more.

How gracious he will be when you cry for help!

As soon as he hears, he will answer you.

Although the Lord gives you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction,

your teachers will be hidden no more;

with your own eyes you will see them. 

Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying,

"This is the way, walk in it" (Is. 30:19-21).

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I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen.  I must bring them also.  They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd (John 10:16).

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What is the Source of salvation for those who "weep," for those who eat the "bread of adversity" and who drink "the water of affliction"?  What is it that draws people together, even though they are not of the "same sheep pen?"  It seems from both the Old and the New Testaments that those who hear the voice of God find the way.  Those whose ears are opened find "rain for the seed you sow in the ground" and "streams of water flowing on every high mountain and every lofty hill" (Is. 30: 23 & 25).

"But I have never heard the voice of God," people will say; "He has never spoken to me!" 

From the beginning of time, God has spoken:  He spoke to Adam and Eve; He spoke to Cain and Abel; He spoke to Noah, to Abraham, to Hagar, the slave girl, in the desert, when her son was dying from lack of water.  He spoke to Moses, to the people of Israel, to the prophets.  And lastly, says Peter, "he has spoken to us in His only Son."  The problem is not that God does not speak; the problem is that we do not know how to hear Him.

Last night, our pastor told us a powerful story.  When people come to confession after years and years of not going to confession, he says to them, "What made you decide now, after 30, 3, or 5 years, to come to confession?  What was going on when you thought to yourself, 'I need to go to confession'?  We need to go back to that moment, for that is the moment that God was speaking to you, and we need to learn to listen to that voice, that moment."

It is the voice of God that speaks in a still, small moment that gives us direction for the future.  My sister-in-law had a tragic first marriage that ended when her husband committed suicide.  She had not seen it coming; she had an infant under one year of age, and she was devasted, without any means of support.  She was completely overwhelmed and lost.  Then one morning, for no apparant reason, she woke up knowing what she had to do.  At the time, she was living in the French Quarter, painting for a living.  But somehow, she just knew she had to go buy a house in Waveland, Mississippi. 

On a rational level, that "plan" made no sense.  She had no money to buy a house; her husband, also an artist, had left her with no insurance.  Her only income came from the one or two paintings she could sell at a time.  But without words, she "knew" she had to go to Waveland and buy a house.  That day, she and the baby went to Waveland and looked around.  She saw a house that she knew she was to buy.  The real estate agent laughed at her; there was no way anyone would lend her money to buy that house.  But my sister-in-law got in touch with the owner and told him her story.  He agreed to sell her the house with no down-payment, but just a monthly note. He would carry the loan. 

How did she know that?  How did she have the courage to believe that she could do the impossible?  Although she had eaten the bread of affliction and had taken in the water of adversity, she heard a voice behind her saying, "This is the way; walk in it."  And that house became her salvation, her place of healing, her place of silence where she could paint.  Before long, she met my brother and re-married. 

God speaks to all those who belong to Him, no matter which "sheep pen" they belong to.  I have interacted with Muslim women in abusive marriages who hear the voice of God comforting them, directing them. I have counseled a Buddhist woman from Taiwan who was being blackmailed by an unscrupulous lawyer holding her papers.

There are no words "from above," just a quiet knowing in their hearts what they need to do.  God speaks in diverse ways; we just need to be willing to hear and obey.  His word is like a fire in our hearts and like a hammer breaking a rock to pieces (Jer.23:29).  All God asks of us is to "stand in [His] Council to see and to hear His word to us" (Jer 23:18).  Then, when we cry to Him, He will answer.  A door will open in the wilderness; a path will unfold before us. 

We will be led to the 'one flock and one Shepherd,' and we will find pasture for our souls.