Stay tuned!

Sometimes I am faced with a situation and don’t know how to help. Maybe I see a person with health problems, maybe someone with difficulties at work. With my human strength I cannot help much, I can simply be there and listen!

In the Bible we read how Jesus reacted to situations like this:

So Jesus answered them, “I tell you the truth: the Son can do nothing on his own; he does only what he sees his Father doing. What the Father does, the Son also does. John 5:19

Jesus notices, hears and sees what God is doing . We shouldn’t forget that although he was fully God, on earth he was fully human. He listened to the Holy Spirit as a human being and thus did healing, signs and wonders. Jesus, together with the Holy Spirit, brought the Kingdom of God on earth, and he wants us to continue his work as his representatives. However, we can only be his representatives when the Holy Spirit imparts God’s words to us, because only these have the power to have an impact! We are commissioned to be the transmitters of his power.

I think of it like a radio. I know that radio waves are in the air and I have to turn the radio on and tune it to the right frequency. Then I hear what’s on that channel. When I have the radio on, I also have to pay attention so I know what is being said. When I understand it, I can pass it on to other people.

Jesus has, so to speak, tuned in the radio waves of God’s speaking. He knows what it sounds like when his Father speaks, he pays attention and listens. And then he puts into practice exactly what he has heard.

But how does he turn on the radio? And how do we turn on the radio?

Prayer works in the spiritual world – even if we don’t see it. However, prayer also works in us! It brings us onto God’s wavelength! It changes us and tunes us into the way God thinks. When we are hungry for what God wants to do through us, we need to pray! Prayer makes us more open to God and we tune into His thoughts.
We can tell God in the morning that we want to be ready.
We can ask Him and listen for what He has in mind for us.
We can also pray for difficulties that come our way.

Our radio is tuned to his station and wavelength through prayer.
Then we need to listen consciously (preferably also in our everyday life), it shouldn’t just be background noise. Otherwise we don’t understand what is being said. After all, I am meant to tell and pass on to someone else what I have heard on the radio, so that he or she can receive it.

An example: you feel that you should send a WhatsApp to a certain person or encourage someone on the phone. And you find out afterwards that this person really needed it at that moment. Have you also experienced that?

Do we recognize when it is God who is speaking? Sometimes we confuse his voice with our thoughts and then push them aside. But as we spend time with Him and get to know Him better through prayer and reading the Bible, we become better at discerning.

Passing on what we have heard is a prerequisite for God’s speaking to get to the right place and have its impact. Should we pray for or with someone, should we pass on a prophecy or speak God’s word over a situation? Whatever it is, it’s so much greater than anything we humans can do on our own! So we are God’s instrument, His extended arm for people.

With prayer, attentiveness and obedience, we can recognize more and more when and how God speaks to us. We have the ability to hear God even in everyday life! And as with everything, we can start small and practice! We can ask God what’s up. I would like to add that this is not an instruction or a prerequisite for being close to God! God is always near! His name is “God with us,” Emmanuel.

“I will instruct you and teach you concerning the path you should walk; I will direct you with my eye.” Psalm 32:8

I pray that God’s light will shine through you like never before as you do what you hear in his words and see in his eyes!