"resurrected" for lives of goodness and holiness -- from a response to the One Family, Many Faiths blog by Y. Warren.
- AnonymousMarch 23, 2013 at 2:08 AM Most of the time it came as a thought that I knew was not from me. There was a couple of times it was an audible voice, but I did not see anything. Several times it was through scripture, and other people. That's what I love about the Lord He meets you where you are ******************************************************************
Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor (Luke 7:22).
Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the Lord his God,
the maker of heaven and earth, the sea, and everything in them --
the Lord, who remains faithful forever.
He upholds the cause of the oppressed
and gives food to the hungry.
The Lord sets prisoners free,
the Lord gives sight to the blind,
the Lord lifts up those who are bowed down,
the Lord loves the righteous.
the Lord watches over the alien
and sustains the fatherless and the widow,
but he frustrates the ways of the wicked (Ps. 146).
It seems to me that the most characteristic feature about the way God works with every one of us is that He is constantly drawing us out of our "narrow spaces" (the Hebrew translation for Egypt) into what Psalm 18 calls "a spacious place:" He rescued me because he delighted in me (v.19).
I talk to people all the time who remind me of my own "narrow spaces," from which God has graciously and repeatedly delivered me. It seems that the world, human error/sin, and the devil, if you will, are constantly closing in around us, threatening to drown us in a sea of trouble and oppression. I love Ps. 18 because it so graphically describes the narrow spaces of our own minds, hearts, physical conditions, etc. from which the Spirit of God is forever attempting to deliver us:
He reached down from on high and took hold of me;
he drew me out of deep waters.
He resecued me from my powerful enemy,
from my foes, who were too strong for me.
They confronted me in the day of my disaster,
but the Lord was my support.
He brought me into a spacious place;
He rescued me because He delighted in me.
And how does the Spirit of God do this for us? The Book of Job puts it well: It is the Spirit in a man, the breath (ruah) of the Almighty, that gives him understanding...For God does speak -- now one way, now another---though man may not perceive it. In a dream, in a vision of the night,
when deep sleep falls on men as they slumber in their beds, he may speak in their ears and terrify them with warnings, to turn man from wrongdoing and keep him from pride, to preserve his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword...(Job 32 & 33).
I think if all of us could be more aware of how, when, and why God speaks to us, the prayer of the person who responded to One Family, Many Faiths would be answered: all of us could crawl from our "narrow spaces" into the light of resurrection on a daily basis.
The Sacred Spirit takes over my consciousness in dreams and random thoughts throughout the day.
When do you tend to 'hear' Him?
The Sacred Spirit pulls my mind away from conscious thought and into reflection throughout the day, but seems to be more active in my dreams and just as I come awake in the morning, while I'm still in the "twilight" state.
How does He guide you?
The Sacred Spirit guides me through dialog with and example of other people who seem to be seeking peace through dialog and responsible compassion in their lives