The voice of God

Quote evee - I was sitting there scared at what to do and these words came to me, Be still and know that I am God.

I looked it up and that was in the scriptures.





I've had a few strange things happen evee but nothing like that...i've never heard a voice talking to me if that's what you mean.
But i think it's good that it calmed you down .

Hi all!

I have always liked Stephen Crane's "The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds":

The livid lightnings flashed in the clouds;
The leaden thunders crashed.
A worshipper raised his arm.
"Hearken! Hearken! The voice of God!"

"Not so," said a man.
"The voice of God whispers in the heart
So softly
That the soul pauses,
Making no noise,
And strives for these melodies,
Distant, sighing, like faintest breath,
And all the being is still to hear."

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I moved to Israel in November 1986. That's when I became observant , i.e. orthodox. My dual decision to come to Israel & become orthodox was very sudden. I tell people, half-jokingly, that a bolt of (Divinely-tossed) lightning fell on my head. (My family is not even remotely close to orthodox, not involved in Jewish community at all & rather assimilated.)

I got my BA from GWU in the spring of 1985. I was getting ready to go back to GWU & start working on my MA in the fall of 1985. I quickly realized that if I did that, I'd go stark raving bonkers very quickly. I needed some time off. The Dean was very cool. He gave me a leave of absence for 1 year. I was admitted, but my actual registration was deferred to the fall of 1986.

I worked at my summer job (bartending) in Ocean City, Md. until the restaurant closed for the winter at the end of October. There is nothing more therapeutically head-clearing than being in a bustling seaside resort AFTER Labor Day, when things start winding down. I am convinced that that period helped clear my head & lay the sub-conscious groundwork for my bolt-out-of-the-blue decision. (See Song of Songs 5:2, "I was asleep but my heart was awake.")

For November & half of December, I went back to Pittsburgh & vegetated. Just before Xmas 1985, I went back to DC & crashed with friends till I found a flat (in a group apartment). I then found a job (waiting tables in Falls Church, Va) & figured that I'd work until it was time to go back to class in the fall of 1986.

Or so I thought. I went back to DC one day after Xmas. I still had friends on campus, my bank was there, etc. The corner of 21st St & Pennsylvania Ave. (now a parking lot, Grrrr....) then housed the Circle Theatre, which showed old movies. That day it was showing "Fiddler on the Roof". I saw it once when I was a little kid (parents dragged me). I had time to spare & nothing else to do, so I bought a ticket & went in.

Near the beginning of the film, Tevye the dairyman talks about "tradition." He said: "Because of our traditions, each one of us knows who he is and what God expects him to do." I reeled. That hit me for such a loop; I really went flying. It was like getting hit in the head with a puck. I had never thought about it that way before. I had no clue who I was and that God a) knew I existed, b) cared, and c) actually wanted me to DO something was something utterly, utterly new to me. I was in shock. I watched the rest of the film in a semi-trance & then at the end, after the pogrom, when all the Jews have to leave the village, the old matchmaker comes up to Tevye's wife & tells her that she is going to (the Land of) Israel. WHACK! That was puck-to-the-head #2. I went reeling again. I left the theater in quite a state. I took the Metro back home & decided then and there that I had to become orthodox (keep kosher, study scripture, keep Shabbat, pray regularly, the works, etc., etc,) and come to Israel.

My parents (whom I didn't tell until I had occasion to go back to Pittsburgh in April 1986 for Passover) were absolutely shocked. By then, I had already registered for a special Hebrew-language school here in Israel (where I met my Cape Town-born wife) & sent in a non-refundable deposit. I worked in Falls Church until mid-September. I arrived here in early November.

I have never regretted my decision(s) and never looked back. I believe that God Himself decided that if He had to wait on me to come to Him, He'd probably still be waiting, so He decided to come to me and introduce Himself, via the movie "Fiddler on the Roof." (He talked to Moses from a thorn bush, didn't He?) He called to me & I have been answering His call ever since, His Name be praised!

Be well!

ssv

He'd probably still be waiting, so He decided to come to me and introduce Himself, via the movie "Fiddler on the Roof." (He talked to Moses from a thorn bush, didn't He?) He called to me & I have been answering His call ever since, His Name be praised!

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Wow! You know that's not as crazy as some may think! I kind of had a similar experience with one of the songs in the movie 'The Prince of Egypt' (great testamony by the way!).

The one I'll share here though was later on in 2001 - I was on vacation in Morocco trying to rebuild my marriage. I chose Morocco because I was trying to find a vacation that both myself and my husband would like. As it turned out he loved it (he was out 5 times a day to the local mosque) and I hated it. I had the choice of being around topless sunworshippers or getting harassed by the local males if I went out without my husband. So most of the vacation was spent in my room. One day I was in the hotel room on my own and I felt very sad - I questioned whether it was worth continuing with the marriage (was he worth me giving up my job etc after our recent rocky episode), where I would go from here, how we would manage if I gave up my job and lived with him overseas. I even began to question my faith as I was getting no answers. So with the walls closing in (it was a small room) I grabbed my Sony player and decided to read my Bible outside on a large sun-drenched balcony.

As I sat down to read I switched on my Sony with the intention that no one disturbs me (yes, real loud). Whilst it was playing the reference Matt 6:25 & 26 kept jumping into my head even though I wasn't reading it at the time. Then over my music I heard the most beautiful birdsong - I looked up from my Bible and saw 3 little birds, about 4 feet away from me sitting on the balcony wall. What surprised me at the time was that their birdsong could penetrate my CD volume and as I was pondering this the same Bible reference popped into my head, "Matthew 6:25 & 26". With the birds staring at me , I took off my headphones and turned to the verses :

"Therefore I tell you, do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear. Is not life more important than food and the body more important than clothes? Look at the birds of the air; they do not sow or reap or store away in barns and yet your Heavenly Father feeds them. Are you not more valuable than they? "

A 'loving peace' (the best I can describe it) then came over me and at the point where I thought "Ohhhhhh, I get it now" these 3 staring birds promptly flew away.

When I returned to my Bible reading I'd reached Joshua 1:9 which was the next "Wow!". With the same powerful inner reassurance I read:

"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go"

It was exactly 1 month later that the Twin Towers were bombed and remembering what happened in Morocco, I made the decision to give up my job as a teacher, my country and my family to go and live overseas with my husband.

So now whatever God has in store for me I've come to realise that He is the one who is in control

Praise the Lord oh my soul!

What do you consider the voice of God? When an evangelist or pastor preaches or prophecies to you is that not from the Lord? Or tounges of interpretation, that is directly from the Lord. I have heard God's voice in these ways. I did hear the Lord speak directly to me (in my heart) about the subject of video games. I agree there is nothing wrong with playing a few, altthough some are very bad. In my case, the problem was that that was all I did. Every week I would buy a new video game. I would play so much that I would forget to do my homework, chores, and things for church. I just stopped this past week. It got so hard not to play. I didn't have anything to do. Just as I felt I couldn't take it anymore and was about to forget my burden, I found this website which has given me so much to do and talk about. I just thank the Lord my God, Jesus Christ for all He has done for me!

Hi all!

Evee posted:

With all the sadness with war violence and people losing their faith because of seeming like we are being ignored by God.

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Tucked away in Exodus 2:23 is a marvelous message that attests to the sure mercies of God. I can say that it certainly has meant a lot to me and that it helped me during a particularly difficult period in my life. Exodus 2:23 says:

...and they [the children of Israel] cried, and their cry came up unto God...and God heard their groaning...and God took cognizance of them.

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Note that while it says that, "their cry came up unto God," it does not say that they cried to Him; the text simply says that, "they cried." Generations of the mind- and soul-numbing drudgery of slavery had long since drummed any God-consciousness out of the children of Israel. They didn't cry to God because, after generations of bondage, they had no idea who He was or that He even existed at all. Their cry was a raw, wanton cry, like that of an animal in pain, out of sheer misery. Yet for all that, as the text tells us, "their cry came up unto God," and He heard them. How many times in our generation, now, have we seen people, who have been raised with very little, if any, God-consciousness, in their lives and/or who have it drummed out of them by the mind- and soul-numbing emptiness of Western materialism (or of Eastern communism?), cry out, a raw, wanton cry, out of sheer misery and unhappiness, not crying to Anyone in particular because they have no idea that Anyone is listening or that Anyone cares. Yet for all that, there is Someone listening, and He cares and He takes cognizance.

Be well!

ssv