Hearing God and Cell Phones

First, before sharing the analogy, let me say that I am a telecommunications engineer working in the cellular and wireless network segments of that market, so although hopefully understandable, this analoy draws from that field.

This morning, at breakfast with three good friends, we were talking for some reason about how cell phones work, and being the one with Telecom experience at the table, I was sharing some of the complexities of how things work. One of the things I mentioned was the fact that phones from Sprint use something called long-codes so that they have a unique address for communications with the network. This address is one of 4,398,046,511,104 (that's 4 Trillion) possible combinations and is used for the phones communications to the network, and communications from the network to the phone. So, this basic technology that we use every day is capable of idenitfying the unique identity of each phone, and be able to communicate with that phone directly, even while communicating to hundreds and thousands of other devices at the same time.

So, do you get the picture?

One network able to talk to 4 trillion devices concurrently, and the devices can talk back, each in a unique and secure manner.

We have no problem believing this can work, in fact most of us are totally unaware this is happening. We just assume that when we turn on our cell phone it will work.

I think of communication with God and being able to hear His voice in these same ways. God is capable of speaking to us each in a unique way, all at the same time, and in a such a way that we can hear His voice speaking to us, and He hears us.

I have heard some people say they don't hear God. I have heard some people say they don't hear God the same way I do. I know there are many people who don't even know God is speaking.

The reality is that God desires to speak to us all. He is speaking, and we just need to learn how to hear Him. He is constantly speaking to us all - whether we perceive this or not, just like cell phone signals are there whether we know they are or not.

We don't need to try and hear Him the way He speaks to someone else, because He speaks to us in the way He meant and created us to hear Him. Some people see pictures, some people hear words, others hear a still, small voice, others hear God in dreams, some hear Him by reading the Bible, and some people hear Him in all those ways.

God longs for us to hear His voice, calling to us, telling us of His love for us, speaking words of life and blessing to us. Whether you believe that's true or not doesn't mean its not happening. Billions of people have heard His voice, and responded, and heard even more from Him.

(NIV)John 10:27-28
My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. [28] I give them eternal life, and they shall never perish; no one will snatch them out of my hand.

Learning to hear God is one of the most important things we can do in our lives. Let us learn to hear Him, and recognize how He chooses to speak to us, and help others learn how to hear Him too.