How God Has Spoken to Me

I believe that God speaks to us today because I believe that God has spoken to me on a number of occasions.  To help you see how God has spoken to me, I offer the following testimony.

1. “My friends will all laugh at me.”

I was 16 years old at the time.  I had grown up in Baptist churches for as long as I can remember.  My family was one of those that was there every time the doors of the church opened.  I had been baptized when I was 7 or 8 because I saw my brother get baptized.  I figured if he could, then I could, too.  I knew enough about church stuff to answer my pastor’s questions about being baptized and he let me go forward with it, even though I knew nothing about what conversion and baptism really meant.

I was attending a youth-led weekend revival at my church near Tyler.  I came because a girl I was interested in also attended services there.  I sat through the services Friday and Saturday.  Sunday morning, for the first time, I understood what salvation, conversion, was all about.  I had always known that we were supposed to confess our sins and ask Jesus to save us, but at the end of that service I finally understood what that meant.  I was convicted to make that decision.

Instead, I went forward at the invitation and asked the pastor if he could visit with me that afternoon.  He said he would, and I went back to my seat.  The problem was I was still under conviction by the Holy Spirit.  I stood there wondering what I was doing.  I remember thinking to myself, “If I make this decision, all my friends will laugh at me.”  Almost immediately, a thought entered my mind, alien from what I was thinking.  The thought said, “All your friends are standing around you.  They’ve already made this decision.  Rather than laugh, they’ll rejoice with you.”

At that point, I confessed my sinfulness before God and asked Jesus to save me.  The conviction ended and peace descended.

 2. “Make my wife submissive.”

My wife, Kim, and I had only been married a few months.  All the pressures of adapting and blending two lives into one sometimes got contentious.  Kim and I had a bit of a spat on a Saturday morning.  She left to go shopping with her mother, and I took the time to get God on my side in my fight with Kim.

Please understand that I wanted, and still want, Kim to be the person God wants her to be.  I have never been the kind of person that thought she was to be the meek, quiet, all-adoring and unquestioning devoted wife.  But at that moment, I thought a little bit of submission might be a good idea.  So I prayed, “Lord, please make Kim a more submissive wife.”  This was in keeping with Ephesians 5:22-24.

Immediately, the thought came to me.  “Sure.  Are you loving her like Christ loves the Church?” from Ephesians 5:25-33. In other words, was I willing to do all I could for her, to serve her in a way demonstrated by Christ, even willing to die for her if the need arose?  I knew the superficial answer to that question was “yes,” I also knew that I had a far way to go to truly live it out.

My prayer changed that day.  I also learned not to ask God to change Kim, but that He help me love her as she needed to be loved.

3. “Make Mom like she was before the problems arose.”

My mother began exhibiting forgetfulness around the time she turned 50 or so.  She went to doctors.  They did tests, and could find nothing wrong with her physically.  They suggested it was psychological, so she tried that.  Nothing worked and Mom was getting worse.  (It turns out my mother had Alzheimer’s disease, but there were no real tests for it back then.)

I was praying to God about Mom.  I had had a friend who told me about a lady in his church who had been diagnosed with cancer.  The church had prayed that God would make her like she was before she had first had cancer.  Miraculously, the cancer had been removed without treatment of any kind.  I thought if it was good enough for that person, it would also work for Mom.

So my prayer:  “God, make Mom like she was before all this started.”  I knew that was the desire of my heart.  But a thought entered my mind, “Is that really what you want?”  I was stunned.  Of course I wanted my mother’s health restored to her former self.  But as I thought about it, I realized that the most important thing was to let God’s will be done regarding Mom.  My prayer changed.  I still asked God to restore Mom’s health, but I always ended with, “More importantly, God, I ask that Your will be done with her.”  (cf. (Mark 14:32-39)

4. “Father, I feel all alone, and I don’t like this feeling. Take it away. Now!”

It was August 22, 1986.  Kim and I had been to a week-long conference in Glorieta, New Mexico.  Our oldest daughter, Laura, was eight months old at the time, and had just started making verbal noises the night before.  We decided not to stay for the closing session at Glorieta, and early in the morning we drove away, heading to Irving, Texas, to spend the night with my in-laws then home to Cumby where I was pastoring my first church.

All across New Mexico and Texas, I was thinking about Dad.  His birthday was August 29 and we’d be going to Tyler that weekend.  I’d fix Dad his favorite meal for his birthday, either lasagna or enchiladas.  He’d get to see how much Laura had changed and we’d get to see Mom and Dad.  I was looking forward to the next weekend and Dad’s birthday.

We got to Irving close to 11 o’clock that night.  Oddly enough, both my in-laws were awake.  My father-in-law usually was in bed shortly after 9 p.m.  We walked into their home and my father-in-law said, “We have some bad news.”  My mother had been suffering from Alzheimer’s for the last 10 years; I was not expecting his next words that Dad had early that morning.

I pushed my way past everyone, got to the phone, and called Mom and Dad’s house.  My sister answered.  I told her we would be in the next morning and went over some details.  Kim’s dad had gone to bed, and Kim and her mother were sitting in the living room, while Laura played on the floor.  I sat down, looked at my daughter and realized she’d never know my dad, her grandfather.  The shock wore off, and I rushed upstairs to our bedroom.  Closing the door, I feel on my knees, and I told God in no uncertain times that I felt completely alone.  It was a misery I could not and did not want to have.  I demanded He make it go away.

Instead, a thought entered my mind.  “Of course you feel alone.  Your father has died.  It’s natural for you to feel like you do.  But I am with you.  I’ll always be with you.  You may not feel it now, but you know it’s true.”  I recalled the promise of Matthew 28:20.  I got up off my knees, still feeling alone and abandoned, but I knew God was with me and that He had been with me across New Mexico and Texas that day.

5.  “Father, I’m worried and I need to know where You’re leading us.”

I was pastoring a small church on the Texas coast.  Out of the blue, Kim suggested I’d be a good attorney and that she’s put me through law school if I wanted to try it.  I placed it before God, sending resumes out to other churches while also taking the LSAT and submitting applications to various law schools in Texas.  A church talked with us, but opted to go with someone else.  Meanwhile, one law school accepted me while two put me on their waiting lists.

I announced to my church that I would be leaving at the end of May.  Sometime in April, I woke up in a bit of a panic.  At that time, I knew two things for certain.  First, I would be out of a job and a house (we were living in the parsonage) at the end of May. Second, I had no idea where God was leading us. I needed to provide for Kim and my three young children, and I had no idea how I was going to do it.

I lay there in bed, thinking and worrying, finally realizing that I needed to ask God for direction.  I prayed that night my fears and my concerns, asking God to let me in on His plan.  As I lay there, God let me know that He knew what He was doing and brought to my remembrance Isaiah 40:31: “Those who hope (or wait) in the Lord will renew their strength; they will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

I got up from there, found the verse, and started reading more.  Here’s what else God lead me to in that chapter: “Comfort, comfort My people, says your God” (v. 1).  “See, the Sovereign Lord comes with power, and His arm rules for Him.  See, His reward is with Him, and His recompense accompanies Him.  He tends His flock like a shepherd; He gathers the lambs in His arms and carries them close to His heart; he gently leads those that have young” (10-11).  Isaiah 40 is a truly remarkable chapter in the Bible for someone who needed and needs to know that God has it all in hand and will not forget His people.

6. Turning 60 years old.

As I write this, I’m 61 years old.  I’ve never been bothered with getting older, but I’ve never really contemplated turning 60, either.  After all, once I passed that landmark, I’d stop being middle aged and be “old.”

I was driving down the road one day, thinking about how I was about to turn 60.  As I was considering this milestone in my life, I was suddenly overtaken with an excitement and eager expectation.  I’d gone from, “Oh, no.  I’m going to be 60!” to “Wow!  I’m going to be 60!”  I began looking forward to it, expecting God to do something through me like I’ve never been used by Him before.

The only thing exciting that happened after I turned 60 was two things.  One, I had surgery for a head injury to remove a hematoma that was severely affecting me.  The other has been the realization that Jesus Christ is coming back within the next 50 years.

I’ve always known that Jesus would return, but I never had a sense of the return being imminent.  That changed in November.  Suddenly, I became aware that Jesus would be coming back, if not in my lifetime, then within the lifetime of my children.  I have a certainty to this belief, and it’s changing the way I preach and minister.

CONCLUSION

When God has spoken to me, it’s not been with a verbal communication, but a contrary thought, a thought that radically changes me and ties to at least one verse from the Bible.  It doesn’t happen often, but happens when I need to learn something different, something new.

© 2017 Glynn Beaty