And the Lord called...”Samuel!”

Now Samuel did not yet know the Lord, nor had the word of the Lord yet been revealed to him.So the Lord called Samuel again for the third time. And he arose and went to Eli and said, “Here I am, for you called me.  Then Eli discerned that the Lord was calling the boy. And Eli said to Samuel, “Go lie down, and it shall be if He calls you, that you shall say “Speak, Lord, for Your servant is listening.” 1 Samuel 3:7-9

All of us know people who do not know the Lord. This account of the boy Samuel reminds us that doesn’t mean those people cannot hear God speak. They just don’t know who’s speaking to them.

That’s a problem...

If we don’t know the source of the voice in our spirit,  our human inclinations take over and we reject (or follow) that voice  without paying due diligence. The results can be devastating. We read accounts of violent incidents where the perpetrator was only following the “voice in their head.” 

This truth bears two important lessons for us as believers. 

• We don’t always have to be the voice of God. Our unbelieving friends can hear God...if they listen.
• We must always be prepared to point people to God when they come to us with questions.

Christians today have become so secularized that our default response is generally to point people to our favorite author or to the latest “self-help” psycho babble. Instead, we need to be so bathed in the presence of God’s Spirit that we naturally recognize the prompting of God when it occurs.

It took Eli three times to recognize God was speaking to Samuel. When he did, he didn’t presume to know what God was intending to say. So, he said “go back and lie down. If you hear that voice again...listen!” How many countless times have unbelieving relatives and friends come to us and we didn’t even recognize they were coming to God? They just didn’t know it and...neither did we. So...we tell them they’ll be fine...and promise to pray for them. 

We might, instead, say “go lie down. If you hear this voice (feel this prompting) again say...speak Lord, I’m listening.”

God is faithful He will speak. He may even tell that person to come back to you...or not. In any case, we must continue to pray for our friends who do not know God and trust they will listen when God speaks.

Live boldly out there today...