Hello friends! I wanted to give you a sneak preview of a new book I am co-authoring, with a dear friend, Joseph Pomar-Webb, called God Speaks Today. Here is a draft of our preface.

God has been speaking to us since the beginning of humanity. God spoke directly to Adam and Eve in the garden. God walked alongside them and cared for them. After the events in the Garden of Eden, sacred scripture tells us that God continued to speak to his chosen people long after Adam and Eve. God spoke to the Israelites and guided them through their multi-generational journey to the Promised Land. In that time, God used three different methods to speak to them: directly and audibly to individuals, through intermediaries, and through visions and miracles.  

Directly and Audibly 

God spoke directly to the Israelites on Mount Sinai when He sent Moses to begin his petitions to Pharaoh. “Then the Lord said, ‘I have observed the misery of my people who are in Egypt; I have heard their cry on account of their taskmasters. Indeed, I know their sufferings, and I have come down to deliver them from the Egyptians, and to bring them up out of that land to a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and honey, to the country of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites. The cry of the Israelites has now come to me; I have also seen how the Egyptians oppress them. So come, I will send you to Pharaoh to bring my people, the Israelites, out of Egypt.’” -Exodus 3:7-10, NRSV 

Intermediaries

God has used prophets to reach the Israelites, for example: Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah. These men were given the unique opportunity to speak and receive messages from God the Father.  Not only did they serve as teachers to the Israelites, but they also served as direct intermediaries between God and his chosen people. The last of the Old Testament prophets was John the Baptist, who we meet in the New Testament, and who declared, “I am a voice crying in the wilderness, ‘Prepare you the way of the Lord.’” He proclaimed the coming of Jesus who would baptism with water and the Spirit.

Visions and Miracles

God connects with His chosen people through visions and miracles to help develop their faith in Him and demonstrate His authority. The best illustration of God showing the Israelites visions of His authority is the Ten Plagues. Through the plagues, God showed the Israelites that their obedience could save them and literally set them free, all while demonstrating to political powers on Earth that they are, in fact, powerless against God.  

The two most powerful miracles performed for the Israelites are the parting of the Red Sea and the Manna from heaven. These two miracles set the stage for Christ’s arrival while still safeguarding the Israelites. 

Passing through water has historically been used as a sign of change and spiritual cleansing, as in baptism. In this example, it was literally the Israelites' passage from slavery into freedom. Once the Israelites had passed through the waters of the Red Sea, they began wandering the desert, and God met their needs with manna from heaven. Scripture doesn’t tell us what the manna was made of; all we know is that it sustained the Israelites in the desert as they walked toward the Promised Land. 

God spoke to many of His prophets through visions.  Jacob’s ladder and Zechariah’s five visions are clear examples of God speaking to His prophets through visions. In both cases, God was communicating information vital to the safety and care of His chosen people and/or communicating with them in a way they would understand on a personal level to advance their mission for Him and deepen their faith in Him. 

God spoke to the Israelites in these three distinct ways, and He’s speaking to us today. You may be reading this and thinking to yourself, “I’ve never heard God.” If you take the time to sit, be still, and listen, you may hear His voice or allow yourself to place your life into his hands; you may be surprised to find just how much God is speaking to you. Throughout salvation history God has spoken to His people through visions and miracles,  including those of many great and well-known saints, but also to ordinary people, some of whom you will meet in this book.

Watch for this book to be released later this year. I will keep you posted.