God is speaking

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Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ,

This past week has just about driven me crazy. It seems like anything that could go wrong has. From the internet to the phone system to lights it has all messed up in some way. There has been nothing that has gone completely out, but it has messed up enough to bring some things to a standstill.

It seems like that we were hit with a power surge at the church. They had just replaced the modem for the internet so they had to come back and put another one in. The internet allows us to minister in several way so I want things to be up and going.

Even our phone system went out. We have had the system for years, but guess what? We don’t have it anymore. It even started smoking when the IT guy plugged it back in. So it was back to the beginning and start over again.

I did a basic check in the sound booth and found some things were working just fine. But I didn’t go far enough and on Sunday morning we found some things that weren’t working as they should. Even the overhead projectors didn’t work.

I turned on lights when I got to the church early on Sunday. Things looked good, but found out later that the lights in my classroom went out. Just a quick check and I found that a breaker had flipped. So it was a fairly easy fix.

I can tell you that is not the way I had envisioned things going as I began my Sunday morning. Some things only required me to check a breaker panel while others it was simply changing to another receptor for a microphone cord. But one thing we found out is that things just kept messing up.

But guess what? God took care of everything that we needed to have our service. We used the microphones that worked, JoAnn played the piano and we all just sang. Since the overhead didn’t work, we reverted back to the 90’s and used the song books! Even though things weren’t ‘normal’, God was still in charge!

I preached on God speaking through prayer. God really knew what we needed to hear during this time. My text was John 14:10-14. My focal verse was from John 14:13 where Jesus said – “Whatever you ask in My name, that will I do, so that the Father may be glorified in the Son.”

Prayer is a time when we can share our hearts with God, but it’s also a time for God to speak to our hearts. God wants to hear what is bringing struggles into our lives as well as the joy and peace we are experiencing.

Yet He wants us to ask whatever we need in our lives to fulfill the call He has given us. We need to ask in His name whether it is Jehovah-Rapha, the Lord our healer; Jehovah-Shalom, the Lord our peace; Jehovah-Jireh, the Lord our provider.

Once we have asked in His name and according to His will, He will do it. The power in prayer is that God is working as we surrender our lives to Him. He won’t do it so we will be lifted up but so that ‘the Father may be glorified in the Son.’

We just have to remember that prayer doesn’t change God, it changes us. God is still God when the entire sound system goes out. He is still God when the internet is down, the phone system is out and you can’t put service on the overhead projector.

Even though I don’t want to walk through another week like we just went through, I will if that is what God wants me to do. I want to give Him all the glory for how everything worked together for good! He took what we had and allowed us to worship.

God is speaking to us in the midst of all of our struggles. He is speaking in the midst of it all. Are you listening to Him?

JESUS, JESUS, JESUS, there IS something about that name!!

Christ only, always,

Bro. Paul

Brother Paul Nachtigall is the preacher at Highland Baptist Church. He can be reached at bropaul@centramedia.net.