Supernatural Power For Everyday PeopleSample

What do you do when you feel like God isn’t speaking to you?

We must remember in these painful moments (and seasons) of life that our relationship with God isn’t identical to our relationships with other people. There’s the issue of visibility, of course. Even friends you don’t live close to can be seen online or heard on the phone. You can dialogue with them instantaneously. Relationship with God is less instant, less tangible. And yet the Bible still speaks of our relationship with God in terms of realness, intimacy, and depth.

God isn’t just sending messages. In fact, he is making friends.

“No longer do I call you servants,” Jesus said to his disciples; “I have called you friends” (John 15:15). The sweetness of this declaration belies its staggering import. Jesus Christ is the holy and anointed King of the universe. He upholds the universe. He is the ferocious Lion of Judah and the spotless Lamb of God. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end. He is the Lord of lords, the great I AM in the flesh, God incarnate. And yet he called these ruffians and rednecks friends.

They are not worthy to untie his sandals. But he embraces them. I think of Exodus 33:11, which tells us that God used to speak to Moses “face to face, as a man speaks to his friend.” I don’t rightly know what this entailed. What does it look like to speak face-to- face with God? I imagine it might have involved a christophany—a preincarnate manifestation of the Son of God who could relate with Moses visibly, audibly, tangibly. We have other examples of such theophanies (visible appearances of God) throughout the Old Testament, but Exodus 33:11 is one of my favorites because it displays the glory of the Lord Most High in an intimate, brotherly way. God isn’t wrestling with Moses as with Jacob or spiritually disintegrating him as with Elijah. He is chatting with Moses, like you and I might chat at a cozy table in a breakfast nook. This scene makes me think of Moses having coffee with God.

Don’t you long for such an experience? I do.