God Put Me On Read

When you get crickets from God

Sometimes it feels like that. We send our prayers up to heaven and anxiously await a response. God listens to His children. Right? Then nothing…….

Why the crickets? 

The Bible is full of stories about God talking through visions, trances, dreams, and even burning bushes, but most of us can’t get a “how to” on basic life stuff. 

In case you don’t know, God primarily speaks to us through scripture. Now I know we all want blinking signs or directions written in the sky, but for whatever reason God has chosen a different way. For the majority of us, scripture is where we will hear God speaking to us.

The Bible is not only an instruction manual for life; it contains wisdom that the Holy Spirit can apply to our individual circumstances. It’s challenging to fully explain, experiencing it firsthand is the only way to truly appreciate its power. But to experience it, you’ve got to read your Bible.

In my own life, I’ve noticed God has gotten chattier and chattier. Or maybe I just recognize His voice better these days. Funny, I used to believe people who claimed to talk with God were seriously confused about the voices in their head. Now here I am at the front of the parade rambling about the voices in my own head!

On to a couple of personal examples of God speaking to me through scriptures. I’m a card carrying introvert and have always ridiculed this compulsive sharing that flops out of my phone every day. So when God started gently nudging in the direction of this blog, I started whining immediately. No one wants to put their past mistakes on blast and I pleaded with God not to have to share it. I wanted to move on with life and forget about my past. But God had other ideas and this is was the spark.

One morning, I woke up at 4 am with a scripture running through my head. It was a verse about a man who was cured of demon possession and was told by Jesus to go home and share what God had done for him. I didn’t know the exact wording or even where it was in the Bible but I looked it up and realized I’d read the story many times. It’s of course the story of the man who lived in a cemetery and was possessed by the demon called legion. Jesus sent the demons into a herd of pigs and later the man begged Jesus to accompany Him. Jesus refused, instead telling the man to go home and tell people what God had done for him. This verse had never meant much to me but this time it was accompanied with what I call a Holy ping. Just something that made me sure it was from God. The point is, if that scripture hadn’t been in my head for the Holy Spirit to “pull out”, I may not have received my answer.

Another instance happened after I’d been in prison for a couple of years. I had been praying and hoping for a miracle via the courts that would shorten the time I had left to serve. One day, as I was reading Hebrews 10:35-36, what do I get but my very first Holy Ping. I can’t explain how this happens or what it feels like but if you’ll read you Bible regularly, you’ll find out.

As I read this verse, “Do not throw away your confidence, it will be richly rewarded. You need to persevere so that when you have done the will of God, you will receive what He has promised,” my heart sank. Sitting in prison, waiting on appeals, this is NOT the word you want to hear from God. My inner translation went something like this, “Mark, your not getting out of prison any time soon but don’t let that get you down because you can be confident that God will do what He says. In the meantime, it would be great if you could keep trudging through this nightmare until some unknown date in the future.”

For the longest I could be found stomping around the recreation yard muttering perseverance like it was a cuss word. Even today, as I type the word persevere, all I see is severe.

You see, for many of us, it’s hardest to hear God when He’s telling us something we don’t want to hear. Something that doesn’t align with what we think is the best path for our lives. That giving up control stuff is the worst!

I was weeks walking around that yard before I finally submitted. It was my first lesson in true surrender and it was a hard one. Ultimately, I realized that it came down to belief. Either I believed that God loved me and had a better plan for me, or I didn’t. Easier said than done, I know! Eventually, I chose to believe.

Even today I find myself stumbling when I hear things from God that don’t seem to make sense in the world I see. A call to testify, like in this blog, or my personal bang-my-head-on-the-wall favorite, a call to do nothing and just wait.

Even though He’s come through every single time, I still struggle. What can I say other than He’s not finished with me!

One things for sure, if you want to talk with God, you need to read His word. As a bonus, something magical happens when we spend time in the scriptures, those huge life problems we so want to worry about seem to fade into the background or maybe we’re just gifted an extra measure of trust. Regardless, it's something that can easily be experienced, but not fully explained.

To persevere is the key. Do it and keep doing it. It works.

Even if it feels like God’s put you on read!