October/November
2016 - Vol. 88
An Excellent New Book
by Sam Williamson
Hearing
God in Conversation
.
How to recognize his voice
everywhere
.
Reviewed by Don Schwager
This book is a rare gem
full of spiritual wisdom, practical
insight, and personal examples of how God
converses with us in our daily
lives. I was captivated from the
first to the last page.
Sam Williamson is a great
natural story teller, a sound biblical
narrator and armchair theologian, and a
wise counsellor with spiritual depth and
insight. He is also an excellent writer –
easy to read and joyful to follow. Reading
his book is more like carrying on an
enlightening conversion with an
experienced and faith-filled friend while
sitting in an easy chair enjoying one
another’s company. You can’t savor
enough and you want to come back for more
and more.
The book drives home a key
Scriptural truth - God speaks to us at all
times. Our challenge is learning how to
recognize his voice and tune in to the
conversation he desires to have with us.
This book covers a wide
range of topics related to hearing God.
Several chapters are devoted to the
Scriptures - how to meet God personally in
the Scriptures, how to recognize the voice
of God, how to interact with Scripture to
understand the truth in God’s Word, how
our conversational relationship with God
is born in meditation, the role of the
Holy Spirit in witnessing with our spirit,
and how to hear God for others.
God wants a two-way
relationship with us – not only when we
pray and read his Word in the Scriptures,
but in every area of our lives as well.
The book gives numerous examples on how
God speaks to us in the ordinary
circumstances of daily life, in our
conversations with others, in our detours
and disruptions, how he shouts to us in
his silence, how he teaches us through our
emotional curiosities, and questions us to
draw us into a conversational connection
with himself.
The book is balanced in
dealing with potential pitfalls and
aberrations. It treats the need for
discernment, how to distinguish God’s
voice from other voices, how filters and
biases can shape and bock our ability to
hear God’s voice, and the role of
community in helping us discern and
confirm God’s word for us.
For many years I have been
reading with delight Sam Williamson’s
essays in his online journal, Beliefs
of the Heart. And I’m delighted to
see this book in print. I think it will go
a long way to help, inspire, and encourage
many Christians to grow in their personal
walk with the Lord. Read it, savor it, and
give it to your friends. And let it awaken
in you a deeper desire to better know,
hear, and understand the Lord as he
converses with us and draws us into a
deeper heart-to-heart relationship with
himself.
Hearing
God in Conversation: How to
Recognize His Voice Everywhere,
by Samuel C. Williamson, published
by Kregel Publications, 2016,
available from Amazon