Karen Rabbitt

Hearing Voices, Seeing Visions

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. John  10:27  NIV

Sheep know who they belong to and they listen to their shepherd’s voice. Urban Americans have little context for this concept. If Jesus were walking around suburbia now, telling his truths, he might talk about dogs rather than sheep. When my son-in-law asks his normally placid dog, Kodo, “Do you want to go outside?” he prances around Chad’s feet. Chad speaks a language Kodo understands.

As we pursue God, he will speak to us in language we understand. He knows us personally, and knows how to communicate in a way we can hear. For some of us, his voice gets translated into images. Others get vague senses and feelings. And for some, God communicates in words. And of course, he reveals his will in the Bible, by which we evaluate our personal guidance.

Especially as an impetus to prayer, he gives me images. When, several years ago, a malfunction of my spine was pinching my sciatic nerve, creating pain down to my knee, I saw myself lying on my stomach, with three people laying hands on my neck, lower back, and knee. My pain dissolved and has never returned as we obediently prayed, using that image as our guide.

Another time, I reported to a friend a word a pastor had given for me: “I want to touch that intensity with joy.” She said, “I get “senses” rather than words, but that’s just what I’ve been feeling from God for you!” She recognized God’s words when she heard them, but she didn’t hear the words first-hand.

Whether God speaks to us for someone else or for ourselves, he is a communicating God who wants to interact person to person. 

Jesus, thank you for your speaking voice. May we hear you today.    

Feeding Wonder

Thankfulness is a key to heavenly living on earth. It's easy to get used to the good parts of our lives. But we grow in thankfulness when we take nothing good for granted. I often think of the kingdom of heaven as the place where we walk in wonder. We will never get used to the goodness of the kingdom of God fully come.

We dishonor God when we take goodness for granted. We worship him when we recognize his hand in our health, our finances, and our relationships. We worship him as we thank him for every good thing: from the neighbor who becomes a friend, to the trees that make oxygen, to the messy goodness of democracy. We especially worship when we thank him for the unexpected gifts of difficult days.

We long for Jesus to fully establish that wonder-filled kingdom on earth. But we more fully engage in his rule and reign when we practice conscious thankfulness now. We feed our wonder when we acknowledge his good gifts, even if they come as a result of bad days. They are truly wonderful gifts—he owes us nothing. James says, in 1:17: Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights. All the good we experience comes from the only source of goodness.

Father, we need a spirit of thankfulness. May we take nothing good for granted.

 

Holy Steadiness

Within one week, we held a successful multi-denominational prayer meeting, an old friend was put into a coma in a car accident, a current friend was offered a wanted job, two other friends underwent surgeries, and the young adult son of another friend died. I went from great elation to deep sadness, with several stops in between, in just a few days.

What holds us steady when our emotions get whipped around like that? God, of course, but how, exactly does he make himself known? How do we access his grace, his power, his holiness? David filled his prayerful poetry with the heights and depths of his emotions. His psalms have spoken for generations of believers, as we wrestle with the God we also praise:

My God, my God, why have you forsaken me? Why are you so far from saving me, so far from the words of my groaning? O my God, I cry out by day, but you do not answer, by night, and am not silent. Psalm 22:1-2, NIV

On the other hand:

I will praise you, O LORD, with all my heart; I will tell of all your wonders. I will be glad and rejoice in you; I will sing praise to your name, O Most High. Psalm 9:1-2, NIV

Through my tears and joys this week, “Holy God” has been my breath prayer. Unlike the poet David, I am fresh out of words. But his holiness is our steadiness in this joyful, terror-filled life.

Come Holy Spirit, be our life.

A God Solution

“Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine,” Ephesians 3:20 NIV

On summer Sunday evenings, my husband and I enjoy paddling a canoe around our local forest preserve lake. For many years, we easily handled our 75 pound aluminum canoe. But after lugging the boat to the water one day in 1999, I said, “Let’s look for a something lighter.”

We searched the web and scouted out large outdoors stores on our fall vacation that year. An Old Town Discovery 119K seemed just right. Our combined weight was well under the weight it could carry and the boat itself only weighed 43 pounds. But we couldn’t find one in stock anywhere on vacation. The day after we arrived home, we pulled into the parking lot at our local dealer. As we walked up to the outdoor display, I said to Jerry, “There it is! God must want us to have it!”

We purchased it, easily hoisted it onto our car and took it out to test it. Jerry stepped into the little boat and held on to the dock as I climbed in.

“This feels cramped,” I said, squeezing my overweight body against the end of the boat. 

Jerry paddled a few strokes. “This is harder to row than the aluminum canoe, too. We’re drawing several inches.” 

Dismayed, we stored the new green canoe in the garage and devised a golf cart contraption to carry the old one.The golf cart conveyance worked, but every time I saw that green canoe hanging from the ceiling, I thought, “God, what’s the plan on the canoe? We spent $500. 

We tried to sell it, and even though a few people came to see it, nobody ever even gave us an offer. I finally stopped asking questions and accepted it as one of God’s mysteries. 

Then, in 2003, I lost 40 pounds See article and Jerry lost 20. Something clicked one July day and I said, “Let’s try the green canoe.” You can guess the rest of the story. Jerry could paddle around easily with 60 fewer pounds and I had plenty of room in my smaller body. 
The solution of losing weight had never crossed my mind. I’d been overweight for years and expected to continue to be heavy. But God had a surprise for me and a solution to the canoe problem. Sometimes situations remain mysteries, but sometimes, God has a solution for us way beyond our meager imaginations! 

Jesus, we want your solutions, not our own feeble ideas. Help us keep taking our problems to you, so you can surprise us with your solutions.

Thank Him

Praise the LORD.
Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good; his love endures forever. Psalm 106:1 NIV

 
Whether in spite of or because of, give thanks. 

Give thanks in spite of a wild child.
Give thanks in spite of a pink slip.
Give thanks in spite of singleness.
Thank him, regardless of all.

Give thanks if you can see.
Give thanks if you can speak.
Give thanks if you can read this.
Give thanks if your child grasps reading.
Give thanks if you have a comfortable chair.
Give thanks for purple, scarlet, and indigo.
Give thanks for the morning and evening light.
Give thanks for tomatoes, sweet potatoes, and onions.
Give thanks for African savannah and Brazilian rain forest.
Give thanks—the kingdom has come, is coming, and will finally, fully, and forever, arrive. 

Father, You know what you are doing and we give you thanks