Over the years God has spoken to me through His word, through the words of other believers and through the promptings of the Holy Spirit within me, but I have never heard His voice audibly. I now know two people, a man and a woman, who have actually heard the audible voice of God. Each of them shared their story with humility, awe and thankfulness to God for an experience so personal they share it with their closest friends.
The first friend is now a strong believer and an ardent student of the Bible, but when he was a young man without Christ he was living the wild life and he became depressed because it wasn’t satisfying him. He was driving alone on a highway and he decided to end it all by swerving his car in front of a semi. Suddenly a voice from the back seat said, “You won’t die.” He looked back but no one was there. As he realized he did not want to go through that kind of wreck and not die that suicidal thought left him. When he became a Christian he realized that God had a plan for his life and had saved him for a reason.
The second friend is a wonderful Christian woman who has been through a lot of suffering and pain in her life. She seemed to go from one severe problem to another. She found herself in the middle of a divorce and being forced out of her home. She lay on her bed filled with hatred for her abusive father whom she blamed for everything bad that happened in her life. In her deep despair she stared up at the ceiling and cried out, “God, why did you give me such a horrible father, why me!” Suddenly a voice said, “He is not your father. I am.” It seemed to come from the pillow next to her but no one else was in the room. The hatred in her heart melted away as she renewed her relationship with her heavenly Father.
Both of those stories touched me deeply because I know they are true experiences. Both took place during extremely stressful situations. Both people experienced life changing results. In one case God spoke to a non-believer who He knew would eventually serve Him and in the other case He responded to the desperate plea of a believer in deep distress. In a way, I’m glad I have not been in such dire circumstances that God felt it necessary to speak to me in such a miraculous way, but it is comforting for me to know that He will if it ever becomes necessary.
There is nothing more powerful than the firsthand testimony of a personal encounter with the Lord. The mad man with a legion of demons, the Samaritan woman at the well, Andrew and countless others to whom Jesus spoke or touched with healing, all became evangelists when they shared with others the story of their personal encounter with Jesus. As believers, we each have the most powerful story in the world to tell. It is our personal encounter and relationship with Jesus Christ. Our encounters may not be as dramatic as those two, but they all have the power of authenticity, gratefulness and awe. Lord, help us to always be willing to share our story with others in order to draw them into their own personal encounter with you.