When we listen, God Speaks.  When we obey, God moves.  When God moves things happen.

These words are written on top of a painting in my room so that I can always remember these truths that God taught me.  I don’t remember when He taught it to me, but it has stuck with me for many years now.  While it is inspiring, this thought is a lot harder said than done. 

Two of these are contingent statements.  “When we …” which means we have to listen if we want to hear God.  We have to obey if we want to see Him move.  So, let’s break this down. 

When we listen, God speaks: When we listen, we need to be doers of what He says to do.  Not just as the ones described by James when he says to not be a forgetful hearer but a doer of the work because a forgetful hearer is like on who looks at himself in the mirror and walks away and immediately forgets what he looked like.  (James 1:21-25) How crazy is that, but if we are not having a heart that listens to God, then that is exactly what we do to Him.  In my book Alignment: God’s Will or Mine there is one convicting phrase that says something like: Are we wanting to hear form God so we can decide if we want to obey or are we listening to do the will of the Father.  God wants to speak to us, but the heart He loves the best is a willing one.  It is not our job to decide if we will obey or not, it is simply our job to follow what God has said. 

When we obey, God moves: When our hearts are willing and obedient God will move.  Over this year, I have been contemplating that part and sometimes find myself wondering, when will He move if I am walking in obedience.  As I was wondering that, God spoke through the passage where Elijah is sending his servant to see if rain is coming.  At Elijah’s word it had not rained for a year and a half and now God had called Elijah to pray for rain.  Seven times, Elijah sent his servant to go and look for rainclouds, and six of those times God did nothing.  You may be in that season with me, where we are in the middle, trying to obey and seeing nothing for our efforts, but hang in there.  Keep being obedient because on the seventh time, God sent a cloud the size of a man’s fist.  That was it, and Elijah said “Run!” because God was about to pour out rain!  (1 Kings 18:41-46) Sometimes what God sends does not look like much, but it will expand and be enough, more than enough.  The lesson God taught me here as I was contemplating the statement “When we obey, God moves,” is that sometimes (often even) God does not move immediately, but it is after the constant obedience of His children that He moves in a mighty way.  He will move, but will we remain constant and obedient to during the times of waiting before the rain cloud appears? 

When God moves, things happen: Because when God does move, things really do happen, we are to be ready.  We need to be at a place where we will know that the tiny rain cloud is about to pour forth God’s promise and not wait till it gets bigger, but to know it is God moving and to act in accordance with what God is doing. 

May God bless us with hearts that are ready to hear, ready to obey, willing to endure until He moves, and understanding to recognize when He does.