If you have walked with the Lord for any length of time, chances are you have heard His voice speak to you in some way. God speaks today, just as He did in the Bible. Sometimes through a deep, Spirit-filled impression, sometimes through a still, small voice, sometimes through art or a word from another believer. Each time He speaks, there is such a feeling of peace and hope. His voice fills our spirits to overflowing! Even in words of conviction, hope is the lasting emotion that fills the heart once His voice has been heard.
Recently I was reading the story of the Israelites in the Zin Wilderness where they began to complain about having no water (Numbers 20:1-12). This story is similar to another story found in Exodus 17, where the people were camped at Rephidim. Here they also complained and God told Moses to strike a rock so that water would flow out of it and everyone would have enough water to drink.
Although these two stories are similar, Yahweh did not give the same instruction in Numbers that He gave in Exodus. This time, rather than striking the rock, He told Moses to speak to the rock (Numbers 20:8). Surprisingly, Moses disobeyed the Lord and struck the rock instead. The very vessel God had used to bring the ten plagues in Egypt, part the Red Sea, and receive the Ten Commandments, began to lose his trust in Yahweh. As a result, God refused to allow Moses to be the leader who would take the Israelites into the Promised Land. Moses settled for an old miracle and it cost him God’s promise.
How devastating! How remorseful must Moses have felt to learn that after wandering in the wilderness for forty years leading a rebellious, complaining people, he would never get to inhabit the Promised Land. I recently read this story with my family and my daughter looked at me with big round eyes and said, “If I was Moses, I would cry!” I think I would have, too.
Friend, we serve a God who is both omnipotent and creative. I believe in the book of Numbers, God had a desire to build the faith of His people by moving in a new way and working a new miracle in spite of the same old problem. Isaiah 43:19-20 reads “Watch closely: I am preparing something new; it’s happening now, even as I speak, you are about to see it. I am preparing a way through the desert; Waters will flow where there had been none…There will be water enough for My chosen people.” (The Voice)
As I reflect on the words, “There will be water enough,” I’m reminded of the deep desire I feel to hear God’s voice. There is nothing sweeter. Yet each time I come to him, I find myself secretly afraid that He won’t meet me. Maybe He will choose to be quiet. Maybe He will decide not to speak. But when I read these words, I am reminded that God’s well will not run dry. His method for communication may change, just as He desired for it to with Moses at the rock in Numbers 20, but His provision does not. There is always more of His presence and more of His spirit to be had. He says that if we will seek Him, we will find Him (Jeremiah 29:13).
Friend, wherever you are on your journey with the Lord today, can I encourage you to have faith and keep seeking? God longs to bring fresh water into whatever wilderness you find yourself in. Will you trust Him? Will you dare to ask, what area of my life are you wanting to do something new?
-Liz Cox