Reading through the Book of Acts this last month, the story of Philip being translated to the desert to meet the Ethiopian eunuch stuck out to me. I don't remember every noticing the wording in Acts 8:29-35. It says:
"Then the Spirit said unto Philip, Go near, and join thyself to this chariot. And Phili ran thither to him, and heard him read the prophet Esias, and said, Understandest thou what thou readest? And he said, How can I, except some man should guide me? And he desired Philip that he would come up and sit with him. The place of the scripture which he read was this, He was led as a sheep to the slaughter; and like a lamb dumb before his shearer, so opened he not his mouth: In his humiliation his judgement was taken away: and who shall declare his generation? for his life is taken from the earth. And the eunuch answered Philip, and said, I pray thee, of whom speaketh the prophet this? of himself, or of some other man? Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus."
God knew when Isaiah wrote those words hundreds of years before that that man would read them in the desert that day. God knew that Philip would be able to use that Scripture to preach unto him Jesus. (After all, it was Isaiah!!)
My dad and I used to play a game when we rode in the car together. We would try to find patterns in each license plate we saw. For instance, the license plate 84404. One would notice that each numeral is the difference between the two previous. In other words: 8-4=4; 4-4=0; 4-0=4. This was our game, and on occasion, we would each see a different patter, sparking a discussion about the intricacies of the human mind.
Reading through the Bible can sometimes, in a small way, be like plaything that game. When reading the Scriptures, I sometimes have to stop and ask myself, "Ok, what is God trying to say here?" The Holy Ghost inside of me leads me into all truth (John 16:13), but I am still required to use the intellect and understanding that God has given me in order to understand what I am reading.
For instance, I was asked by a fellow student at Texas Bible College why I thought the geneologies were listed and saved in the Bible and why it could possibly be important for the New Testament church to read that. My answer was, "Maybe God was trying to remind us that every single person is inportant to Him and that He knows us each by name."
Being able to hear Jesus' voice while reading the Scriptures is very important. It is also important to be able to hear His voice when going through our day. Sometimes we don't hear from God through Scripture. Sometimes it is something simple. (See this song by 33Miles)
The Bible says in Romans 1:20:
"For the invisible things of him from the creation of the world are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even his eternal power and Godhead; so that they are without excuse."
While this is talking about nature, it could also be said about living our daily lives. Fine-tuning our ears to hear His voice in the every day events will help us keep Him first in our minds. Some examples of this would be finding a coupon in the grocery store for an item you were about to buy, or cathching every light green on your way to work, or perhaps catching a red light and then coming up on an accident that you may have been part of if you hadn't been delayed. I had a God-moment like this the other day when I was able to hear my hometown's Christian radio station on the way to work (3 hours away from the tower!). I believe God delights in doing little things to remind us of His love so that we can more clearly hear His voice. When we stop to notice these God-Moments, we truly are "without excuse" as the Scripture above puts it.
The final lesson that I took from the story of Philip is that we need to not only be able to hear Jesus, but we also need to be able to preach Jesus. I am speaking of preaching from Scriptures. If someone knows you are a Christian and asks you about a certain Scripture in the Bible, you should do your best to preach Jesus to them from that Scripture or Bible story. You should also be able to preach Jesus from YOUR story. You should testify of Jesus' grace and provision throughout whatever situation in which you find yourself. You should be able to "preach Jesus" from unanswered prayers, hard situations, and times of great need, JUST AS MUCH as you preach Jesus when you land the job of your dreams, have a miracle baby, and have the best day of your life. Jesus allows you to hear His voice so that you can BE His voice to others. Remember, Peter's (and our) calling from the Lord was, "Feed my sheep." We are His sheep and we must learn to hear His voice for ourselves, but others around us who are not familiar with His voice need us to preach to them so that they might hear. As Romans 10:14b asks:
"How shall they hear without a preacher?"
The Ethiopian in the story in Acts was reading the words of God, but he needed someone to preach to him so that he might hear the VOICE of God.
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