The God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the God of Moses and Joshua and Rahab and Ruth and David and Solomon and Isaiah and Jeremiah and Daniel and John the Baptist and Mary and Peter and Paul is not a God who spoke—past tense. He is a God who is speaking right now, and that is a very important distinction to make. A. W. Tozer compared God’s words to children who are born but then continue to exist. God may utter his words at a given time, but his words are unlike our words that slowly get dispersed as they reverberate through the air and eventually cease. When God speaks his words, they continue to resound into eternity future. Just as God exists in the eternal present, so do his words.
It is tempting to believe that at certain times God falls silent. I have confessed to several people over this past summer that God has seemed to close his mouth and simply stare at me every time I’ve come to him. And to some of those same people I’ve admitted that it’s been hard to make out his facial expression. One person reminded me that even when he’s silent, the look on his face is one of utter compassion and love. I’ve held onto that for months now.
God through A. W. Tozer put a whole new thought altogether into my mind. What if God is still speaking right now the same words he’s been speaking for millennia? Sure, he might not be saying what I wish he’d say to me in this moment in this particular season of my life, but that’s something very different from concluding that he’s fallen silent altogether.
How is he speaking now? If it’s true that God’s words continue to exist even after they’re spoken, then a promise that he said once thousands of years ago continues to remain as present and powerful today as it did back then. In that sense, his words once uttered are words still being uttered today. And if that’s so, all I have to do is open my ears to hear them again. We should not say that God once said, “I am merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.” Instead, we should say that God is, in this very moment, saying, “I am merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love.”
It’s not that once a long time ago God uttered some promises to his children. It’s that God is, right now in the present, uttering those very promises to us if we have ears to ear them.
What does this mean for our daily lives? It means that if I want to hear God speaking to me in the present right here and right now, I can simply recall any promise he has made to his chosen people and hear it proclaimed over me in my present. That’s the way God’s words work.
“Long ago, at many times and in many ways, God spoke to our fathers by the prophets, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed the heir of all things, through whom also he created the world” (Hebrews 1:1-2).
The ultimate word of God—that is, the ultimate revelation of God—is his Son, Jesus Christ. That means that when Jesus went about revealing who God was, he was not revealing the nature of God just once at a specific moment in history and limiting that revelation to only one specific time and place. His words were spoken and then continued to be spoken on into eternity future, which of course means that Jesus is still speaking today. As Jesus continues to reveal the nature of God to us here and now in our present, so does he continue to speak here and now in our present.
That is amazingly comforting to a guy who feels like sometimes God is silent. The fact of the matter is that everything God has ever spoken and revealed about himself is what he continues to speak right now, and amazingly enough, we have a book containing his words, words in the eternal present, words that he’s still speaking over us right now as loudly and as clearly as the first time he uttered them.
So when I look up at God and feel he’s silent, he’s not. He’s speaking an entire book of words over me, even if he is refusing to say the very specific words I so long to hear right now.
And the most amazing part? Every last word he’s speaking to me is ultimately rooted and grounded in a love that is wider than the galaxies. All his words to me must be heard through this final reality.
Here’s an example of how God is speaking right now to me, even as I type these words.
“In this the love of God was made manifest among us, that God sent his only Son into the world, so that we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).
Yes, God’s love was made manifest among us—past tense. But that same resounding proclamation reverberates as loudly and as clearly today as it did 2,000 years ago. That means that in the revelation of God’s love for mankind that Jesus demonstrated to us through his death, I can hear now—present tense—the words of my Father saying to me, “Eric, right now, in this very moment, I love you.” And amazingly, he never tires of repeating himself.
If you long to hear God’s voice speaking to you, just open your ears. He is speaking to you right now. Don’t balk at the fact that he’s been speaking his words over you and over all his children throughout the last 2,000 years, as if you wanted to hear something new from him. Instead, marvel at the fact that you can hear his voice at all, and marvel at the unfathomable riches to be found in the simple statement from the lips of the infinite, omnipotent, holy God of creation: “I love you.”
Hear his words afresh over you, dear friend. He’s speaking. And when he doesn’t necessarily say the words you sure wish he’d say to you (like, “Here’s what I’m doing in your pain,” or, “Here’s how this is going to work out,” or, “This is the reason that I’m doing such and such,” or, “You only have this much longer to wait”), you can rest in a thousand other words that he is speaking over you right now in the eternal present. They are more than enough to sustain a sheep longing to hear the voice of his good shepherd, even as he waits for that day of final revelation, the day he will finally be like Jesus because he will finally see him as he is.
Wait in hope. And wait with ears wide open.