His Voice

This story is true.

It was a bright and sunny morning. As I showered at the house before work, I was in limbo. I had just graduated from college, no closer to a future career than when I had started, yet with a debt to pay none the less. The work? It was a temporary job, first day. The house? It was my mom’s. My life? It was, hmm…a thought slipped through….you could be used by the devil without your knowledge, you wouldn’t even know it..…Whoa! Wait. What?  As the shower water fell on my face, eyes squinting away the sting, this thought seemed spot on (2 Timothy 2:26; Romans 6:12 – 14; John 8:41-44)  Anxiety filled me. I wanted to be used only by God, not the devil. I prayed right there in the shower, “Lord, never let me be used by the devil, ever” (2 Corinthians 6:17-18; Psalm 119:133). And I trusted the Lord, that He would make it so…make me so. I felt better. I finished dressing, got in the car, drove onto the interstate, recognized my exit, moved into the appropriate exit only lane, eyes on the road signs ahead, relaxing into continuing straight ahead on the exit ramp.

But quite suddenly, I was not continuing straight ahead. My mind sorted frantically for possible causes of this sudden change…I had not moved the steering wheel….I had not braked…I was not skidding, nor sliding…but I was still turning sideways…and now facing the interstate lanes, like a small dog set to dash across 6 lanes of rush hour interstate traffic…I grappled in thoughts that dripped slowly like molasses, like poking carefully through fog…WHAT was turning me into this incredibly deadly danger? My eyes scanned left…then ALL the way left, outside the driver’s side window…a grill, a large metal grill covering the expanse of the entire window, touching…no…pushing me sideways…And then realization broke through like a waterfall. And 18-wheeler had nudged and turned me into oncoming traffic, and for the moment I was being pushed by the grill on its nose down the exit lane, like the horizontal line on the capital letter     ” T “. Fear gripped hard. And my heart cried out, “Father! Is this it? Am I going to die?….and then my heart’s sorrow…”I have done nothing (worthy of reward)”. This was true. Nothing I had done was worthy of reward (I Corinthians 3:13-15).

Time stopped.

HE spoke… HIS voice…His Holy Spirit said to me, “Relax, you are not going to die. You will not even be harmed.”

I relaxed. All fear was completely gone.

His Voice was IN me. He was speaking from withIN me (I Corinthians 6:19-20; Romans 8:11; I Cornithians 3:16; John 14:16-17). There was no need for my eardrums. He spoke directly INto and from withIN me, and….I knew Him, I recognized Him, I recognized His Voice (John 10:4 – 5)! It was the first time I had ever heard Him like this, but I recognized His Voice. I knew He was the Holy  Spirit. The Holy Spirit of the living God, Jesus’s Father, my Father, our Father who art in heaven, answering my cry (Psalm 18:6, 3; Psalm 66:19-20;2).  Thank you Father God in heaven!

Earlier that month I had asked the Lord, like Pilate had, “what is truth?” (John 18:38). Through the concordance in my study Bible, I had looked at several places where the word “truth” was found in the Bible. I learned that His Holy Spirit guides us into all the truth (John 16:13). And like Pilate, this day I had learned that Truth is His Voice (John 18:37 ESV), the Voice of the living God, his Holy Spirit, who comes to us through Jesus Christ (John 14:15 – 17). And truly the account of the temple guards is accurate…’no one ever spoke like this man’ (John 7:46). Holy.

When I heard Him speak, HIS Voice was so kind, yet all Authority….so gentle, yet unshakeable…so concise, yet comprehensive…so quiet, yet crystal clear…

HIS Voice was an infusion of calm that pushed out and replaced all fear (Philippians 4:7)…a fullness of love and light working from the INside out, shining on all my unworthiness and showing it to me to help save me (Isaiah 6:5-8a). He is the ONE who decides, the only ONE who decides, and the only ONE who has ever decided. Holy. HE is Sovereign (Isaiah 45:5,6,18, 21,22) . Desist and know that I am God (Psalm 46:10). And HE had rescued me from my enemy…even though I was still stuck on the front of an 18-wheeler poised to hurtle across 6 lanes of rush hour interstate traffic… but I was no longer afraid. His Voice had spoken withIN me. His Word, HE Himself had rescued me. And I knew HE had. I was relieved, I was thankful, and I was s0 very glad (Psalm 16:9)! All praise forever to Yeshuah the Messiah for reconciling us back to the living God (Psalm 30: 10 – 12)! Holy.

Time began again.

I hit the brakes, and the car left the 18-wheeler grill and spun into oncoming traffic. Tires screeched. The passenger side was hit by a utility van. Glass shattered. The car spun again, and came to rest on the other side of the interstate. All traffic had stopped. No one moved. And I breathed. I was so overcome by hearing His Voice, that the accident itself seemed distant and unremarkable in comparison. I sat still, quiet, safe, mentally checking my body. My leg stung as if glass had pierced it, but I remembered His Word, “you will not even be harmed.” There was no cut, no blood, no injury on me. All was just as He had said. And I had known that it would be, the moment I heard Him say it (John 7:46, 18:37 ESV).

What’s next? A flurry of activity. Call insurance, police, wait they are already here..nice lady calling people, nice police officer helping me roll my defective car out of the way, me talking to the utility van driver who was so distraught and so relieved to see me unharmed. He thought he had killed me. I was glad the utility guys were ok too. We helped to clarify that there was no way he could have missed hitting me after the 18-wheeler had knocked me into oncoming traffic. I was angry with the 18-wheeler guy, asked him if he was ok…mentally ok….he looked perplexed, he still couldn’t figure out how he had hit me. It was like he was unable to comprehend that his vessel, his own body, was the conduit through which the terror had unfolded. And I remember….You could be used by the devil without your knowledge…you wouldn’t even know it…Perhaps my prayer in the shower that morning…”Lord, never let me be used by the devil, ever” … now needed to become his own (Romans 6:12-14; I Corinthians 6:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:25-26). Praying for him.

These thoughts begin to overflow…The Kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and receive Jesus Christ and be filled with His Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Truth. Learn from His Holy Spirit by reading the Bible, praying to Father God in heaven, listening to Him, obeying Him. Become God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them (Ephesians 2:9-10 NASB 1995). Let our vessels, our bodies, be used only by the living God. Ask Him to make it so…make you so, make us so  (Romans 6:12 – 14).

Soon after, I went to the bookstore. I had not yet gotten my boyfriend a birthday present. If Father God in heaven had chosen to end my days on earth that day, I would have been upset that this deed had been left unfinished.  I needed to get it done right away. I bought the National Geographic Atlas of the World book for him, the one he had wanted. We are now married, and it still sits on the bookshelf today. And what does God say? The world and the fashion thereof are passing away. But HIS Words will never pass away. His Voice will never pass away. His Love endures forever.  In Jesus(Yeshuah), God saves you.                       (I Corinthians 7:31; I John 2:17; Matthew 24:35; Psalm 136:1, 2, 3, 4, 5; I Corinthians 15:55-56; Psalm 46:10-11)