It was June 1st of this year that I promised in my blog post Don’t Make Me Tell You Twice that I would blog about the other two times I heard God speak to me in an audible voice. Before I go any further, I want to make sure that there is no misunderstanding. God does not only speak audibly; I would even go as far as to say God rarely speaks audibly. He has given us His word to read, His spirit inside of us to guide and His people, fellow Christ followers, to walk with us. There is often no need for God to speak in the form of an audible voice. He chooses the right thing to say, the right time to say it, using the right delivery system best suited to the person He is addressing and the situation they are facing.

Sometimes God only gives part of the answer and it isn’t always what we want to hear.

When telling people that God spoke to me audibly, I often wonder what they think. There will always be the people, Christian and non-Christian, that think I am crazy (they may be on to something, I am a little off the wall). There are those who love the idea of a God who reveals information in an unmistakable way, desperately wish they could hear Him speak audibly so they can find comfort. There are the skeptics that will wonder if I was hearing what I wanted to hear rather than hearing God.  

For those who think every time God speaks audibly it brings comfort, read on. For those who think that I was hearing what I wanted to hear, read on. There was no comfort in the answer God gave me because it wasn’t what I wanted to hear and because it was incomplete.

I prayed not expecting a direct answer. All I wanted was leave my worries at God’s throne.

Boy was I surprised! My sons and I had completed a year of renovations and we now had a functional and beautiful house. Still our finances were tight and there was no improvement in sight so I laid it all out in one question. Standing in front of the newly completed built-in shelving unit created to cover the new duct work that now ran to the second floor of our house I simply asked God, “will we have to sell our house?” To my surprise He answered audibly and simply, “yes.”

Once I got over the shock of this quick and rather abrupt answer I replied with a new question, “when?” God responded, “you will know.” What type of answers were these! None of these were answers I wanted to hear. I didn’t want to give up this house that we put our blood (literally – I needed stitches), sweat and tears into, but if I had to it would have been nice to know when.

I found out the when soon after we had this little chat.

Within three months a deal was reached and two months later our house was sold. One month later after years of ignoring the symptoms and pushing through the pain I could no longer keep going. I could barely get out of bed or think straight. The wrong word would come out when I tried to talk or no word at all because I couldn’t figure out how to say the word even though I could describe it or even worse I couldn’t remember what I was trying to say in the first place. My coordination was gone and my body was always weak. I could not work but that no longer mattered because God already had set His perfect plan into motion.

Selling our house without knowing the turn my health would take was miraculous but the miracle didn’t stop there. We sold our house to a developer who turned around and rented it back to us; we didn’t have to move! We had three months free rent and a rental rate $700 -$800 cheaper than the market rate. Our lease was month to month with an estimated duration of one year but God gave us more than three years, it was as if we never sold it! God spoke because He already knew the future, God provided because He already knew the future and we benefitted because we got to live out that future.

It is so easy to forget the way God works.

I had dreams, God had a plan.

I had goals, God had a calling.

I had it all figured out, God already knows what will happen.

I still forget the way God works

I still have dreams, God still has a plan.

I still have goals, God has a calling.

I still have it all figured out, God already knows what will happen.