Hear My Voice

“Be eager to turn away from your sins and pursue what is right. 
I stand at the door and knock – if your heart is open to hear my voice 
and you open the door within, I will come and feast with you”
– Revelation 3:19, 20 (amplified translation)

In This Issue: 

Heart speaks to heart

The Lord wants to speak to each of us from the depth of his heart to the very core of our own. He invites us into an intimate dialogue of love – the love of an eternal Father who yearns for the reciprocal love of his sons and daughters. He is always ready to speak – at any moment, any season, any place – he only waits for us to open the door of our heart to welcome and receive him. 

In the Book of Revelation, the last book of the Bible, we hear the invitation which the risen Lord Jesus speaks to all his disciples throughout every age. Every day Christ stands at the door of our heart and he longs to enter. 

“Behold I stand at the door and knock; if any one hears my voice and opens the door, I will come in to him and eat with him, and he with me”. 

(Revelations 3:21)

In biblical times the invitation to join someone in a meal was considered the most gracious and intimate sign of friendship and communion. When God speaks to us, he treats us as his beloved sons and daughters – he draws us into intimate communion with himself. God made us to know him – not simply to know some things about God – his greatness, glory, and majesty – but to know him personally as our God and everlasting Father. That is why the Lord speaks to us – day after day – to communicate his great love and care for us. 

Seeking the Lord with prayer and fasting

The forty days of Lent is a special season of seeking the Lord in prayer and fasting in imitation of Jesus’ forty days in the wilderness as he prepared to take on the mission the Father entrusted to him. Forty is a significant number in the Scriptures. Moses went to the mountain to seek the face of God for forty days in prayer and fasting. Elijah fasted for forty days as he journeyed in the wilderness to the mountain of God. The people of Israel were in the wilderness for forty years in preparation for their entry into the promised land.

We are called to journey with the Lord in a special season of prayer and fasting as we prepare to celebrate the feast of Easter, the Christian Passover of Jesus’ victory over sin, Satan, and death.

The Lord Jesus gives us spiritual food and supernatural strength (faith, hope, and love) to seek his face and to part with sin in our personal lives. We must follow in the way of the cross in order to share in the victory of Christ’s death and resurrection. As we begin this holy season of testing and preparation, ask the Lord Jesus for a fresh outpouring of his Holy Spirit so that each of us may grow in deeper faith, hope, and love. May we be attentive to his word and eager to embrace his will more fully in our lives.

Sincerely in Christ,

Don Schwager
editor