God’s Voice – Hearing it for Real
Every once in a while I learn of an occasion when God talks with someone, in an audible voice. Here is a vivid example.
A nursing home was being closed by the state. A lady I shall call Gwen was called to assess some residents of the home, to see if they could be transferred into an alternative nursing home which was partly owned by Gwen. Gwen was accompanied by Jodie who was also a Christian.
When they arrived for the assessment it became a tearful scene. Some of the residents were crying. “Please take me to your nursing home. I don’t want to move out of town”. Family members were crying. “Please take my mom or my dad”. Gwen and Jodie were crying. “How are we able to choose?”
Gwen had always told God that she didn’t have enough faith in herself. “If You are going to speak to me, I need to be able to hear You,” she would say. As Gwen and Jodie were leaving the building, still crying, Gwen heard in a loud voice, Take Care of My People. Gwen and Jodie looked at each other. Gwen said “Did you hear that?” Jodie confirmed the voice through tears, “He said Take Care of My People”.
The two women freaked out. First, that both had heard God speak. But second, because they had only 5 beds in their nursing home, while there were 18 residents who needed to be transferred.
On the very next day the nursing home that was to be closed was put up for sale. Gwen and her mom were eventually able to purchase the home, and allow the residents to stay there. Take Care of My People.
An incident like this is called an epiphany. Mother Teresa had an epiphany while a young woman (a catholic nun) riding a train in India. God indicated she should help the “poorest of the poor” in India. She began her ministry by teaching children from the slums. Her first school-room was outdoors beneath a tree, and her marker was a stick scratching in the dirt. Epiphanies are rare events in which direction from God is clear, with little uncertainty. However it still takes courage for humans to make it happen.
According to one source: Jesus spoke to Mother Teresa and told her to work in the slums of Calcutta aiding the city’s poorest and sickest people. “I want Indian Nuns, Missionaries of Charity, who would be my fire of love amongst the poor, the sick, the dying, and the little children,” she heard Jesus say to her on the train that day. “You are I know the most incapable person – weak and sinful but just because you are that – I want to use you for My glory.”
Post-script:
Gwen’s real name is Staci, and many of you know her. And Jodie’s real name is Pam. Staci, who I know personally, still has a passion for helping the elderly. But she was stalled by two things. The first was an aggressive breast cancer, plus removal by operation, and ensuing treatments by chemo and radiation which she is undergoing now. The second was she has recently been released from her job as Administrator of an Assisted Living establishment.
Please say a prayer for Staci, that God will open up a way so that she can continue to Take Care of My People. A note such as Sundays for Staci on the refrigerator would be a helpful reminder.
Please feel free to share your insights and thoughts and feelings in the Comment box at the bottom of this blog. If the Comment box doesn’t show up, click on this link then click on the blog title, then scroll down to find it near the bottom of the blog.
The Gray Nomad.
Probing the practice of Christian believers……
Thank you Staci for allowing me to write and post this story.
And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself any more, but your eyes shall constantly behold your Teacher. Your ears shall hear a word behind you saying This is the way, walk in it, when you turn to the right hand and when you turn to the left. (Book of Isaiah, chapter 30).
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Very touching. I know Staciand I know this is a true description of her. Her compassion for people turns into action when there is need. Even when she is ill, she continues to take care of others if they are sick or in need. I will continue to pray for her healing.
Thanks for sharing about hearing the real voice from a real God. I do keep praying for Staci, that God is walking with her in this battle. I am always drawn to accounts of people hearing from God. I believe God is a personal God, who occasionally meets with people who are willing to hear from Him. A good North African believing friend of mine told me of a family she knew, where the mother was a believer in Jesus Christ and her daughter wasn’t, but was willing to hear more about this Jesus who was God who had walked this earth 2000 years ago. The mother heard the daughter talking with someone in the kitchen and wondered who it was. When she peeked in, her daughter was conversing with no one as she washed the dishes. The mother quickly understood she was talking with the Presence of Jesus, based upon the words the daughter was saying, and withdrew to let God do His work. Soon the daughter, who was trying to reconcile the earthly Jesus as also being God in the flesh, started shouting out and jumping up and down saying: “I believe! I believe”. Later the daughter confirmed that Jesus had been telling her what she needed to hear, and gave her the faith to believe in Him. God often works in personal ways in countries that are closed to the presentation of the Gospel truths. I’ve heard many personal stories directly from people who had such encounters and dreams. Jesus Himself prepared me to accept such visits by showing Himself to me in the clouds when I was 10 years old. He came as a result of my young prayer to Him after reading a child’s version of the biblical narrative of His creation, birth, life, death on the cross for us, and resurrection and ascension into heaven after appearing to many people on earth. No one in the US believed me, least of all several leaders in the church. That doesn’t matter. Jesus opened His arms wide in a gesture of “come to me”, then vanished once His work was done as I knelt in the middle of the country road to express thanksgiving and belief in Him. God shows Himself in many ways, all with the goal of getting people to know and believe in Him, so He might show His infinite grace and love to those who believe.
Dear Nancy, a deep and thoughtful comment…..thanks. Your statement “God often works in personal ways in countries that are closed to the presentation of the Gospel truths”. I last heard this from a good Lutheran friend from Australia, based on his lay-mission experience in Indonesia. In countries like the USA and Australia I wonder does familiarity water down our faith? And yet Staci proved that personal communication with God can and does happen. Thank you for praying for Staci.
Thanks, Ian. I don’t believe in God as a supreme being in heaven, but rather as all of the universe itself, of which we are an insignificant part. I think that the “bread of adversity and the water of affliction” are themselves our teachers, so of course we don’t lose sight of them if we know how to recognize them for what they are. I believe that things turn out okay, though not always as, or when, or as easily as we wish — in fact, there is a lot of pain in the world. I do wish Staci well.
Meg, I agree that adversities can be great teachers. I attribute my credo and concern to help someone to hope to a vertigo affliction I suffered for five years when I first went to college. But out of that also came a personal relation with God. And apart from anything else, the story above about Staci and Pam reveals their personal relationship with God. Thanks for your best wishes for Staci.