Tag: A Time To Speak

Very truly I tell you, we speak of what we know, and we testify to what we have seen.¹—Jesus, to Nicodemus.

I didn’t talk until I was two years old. Oh, there was “Mommy” and “Daddy” and a few other words—very few—but that was about it. But when the time finally came, my thoughts poured forth in sentences: “I want some foup (soup),” I said to my startled mother, and there it began. For two years, I had absorbed the world around me—watching and listening—and now it was time to engage it. To this day, I prefer listening over talking, and gathering my thoughts before voicing them. Yet as Solomon said, there is “a time to be silent and a time to speak.”²

We long to bask in the presence of God and to hear His voice, yet there comes a time for us to share what we have heard. For as a friend once observed, “When God speaks to me for something, it is always to accomplish an overall objective greater than [myself].” The apostle Paul wrote that the Spirit of God knows the thoughts of God, and He shares them with all who have received the Spirit through faith in Christ. This is very empowering to us, for in Christ “we speak not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.”³ God’s voice is the voice of truth—whether it proceeds through His Word, or a still, small voice within—that we would both receive it for own well-being and share it, when called, for the well-being of others.

And here is the greater beauty of it all: When the God of all creation engages us, He speaks truth that sets us free.⁴ His whispers of comfort release us with the witness of hope. His words of assurance equip us with contagious joy. His personal promise of forgiveness emboldens us with good news of unending life. God’s personal presence is uncontainable. Proclaimed Peter to those who would silence the gospel, “We cannot stop speaking about what we have seen and heard.”⁵ This is freedom. These are the words of one who has heard God. This is you, and this is me.

Father, every word You speak accomplishes what You desire and achieves Your purpose.⁶ Grace me to hear words I cannot contain. In Christ I pray. Amen.

¹ John 3:11
² Ecclesiastes 3:7
³ 1 Corinthians 2:13
⁴ John 8:32
⁵ Acts 4:20 NASB
⁶ Isaiah 55:11