I have a question regarding your response to “Is that you Lord”
Christianity always speaks of “a personal relationship with Jesus”. To me a relationship means a two way communication or two way intimacy. But when we pray, we wait for “something” to happen and try to interpret. To me this seems equivalent to a witch doctor reading animal intestines for a message … both are hoping for a sign and hoping to be able to read it (and both assume they read it correctly). This “he wants us to see what we’ll do” can also be a cop out for not getting any assistance.
In this personal relationship, it seems a one way street?
I guess my ultimate question is, why a lot of the time there has to be guess work in whether your prayer is being answered when prayer is supposed to be a powerful form of communication with God?
I spend as much time in prayer as the next person, but in all the years I’ve been praying, I’ve only heard his voice 3 times. All the other times I’ve gone forward in faith that He heard me, looking for doors to open or close as I went.
When a critical matter arises, as it did with the person who asked the question, and we really want to know for certain what His will is, then the methods I gave in my answer are Biblically sound ways to know for certain if it’s the Lord speaking or if it’s the enemy putting words into our head, or simply our own desires propelling us.
And like any good parent, the Lord will sometimes indicate that He trusts us to make the right decision, and wants us to go ahead on our own.
The difference between us and the witch doctor is that we’re dealing with the Creator of the Universe.