It was about 25 years ago when I heard God’s voice audibly
speaking to me while I was with a Christian Counselor. The counselor had told
me to envision God. I saw a dramatic robed man in flowing blue gowns seated on
a throne of clouds surrounded by bright sunlight. There was no face that was
discernable. But, a voice spoke, saying, 'This is the way, walk in it!' It was loud and audible to me. I was stunned
and asked the counselor if he had heard the voice. He said that he had quite
clearly, but not the words spoken. I did
not know that this was directly from Scripture at the time, but later I looked
it up.
“Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a
voice behind you saying, This is the way, walk in it.” (Isaiah
30:21). God had spoken actual words of
Scripture to me directly. There had not been any before or since. However, at
that moment my life changed. I began a new walk with the Lord that had begun
only several months before when I had knelt in the deep snow beside my car in a
blizzard near Lake Superior. Let me set the stage.
It was 1990 and I had been serving as a hospital Interim
CEO, charged with turning around a struggling hospital in the U.P. of Michigan.
After two years of travail with 16-hour days and only getting home every second
or third weekend, I was exhausted. Physically, mentally and spiritually I was
spent. My work had left me bereft of even judgment. I was drinking too much and
my moral compass was spinning. Now, it
was midnight in January and I was driving back to Wisconsin in a snowstorm
along Lake Superior. I had on the only radio station I seemed to be able to
get, Chuck Swindoll, a renowned Pastor/Teacher preaching on Insight For Living. He was speaking, it
seemed, directly to me about a life off course and worn out with trying. He said to repent of my own efforts and
failures and to give them to God, receiving the gift of forgiveness and grace
from Jesus Christ, who had lived and died on the cross for me. It was then that God’s voice spoken through
someone else pierced my hard heart. I stopped the car and knelt in the
headlights, snow swirling around me. I received salvation from the living God
in Christ Jesus.
As I got back in the car, a warm feeling surged through my
body. I drove in a seeming trance. I had been changed, transformed, although I
did not fully understand what had just happened. I had begun my walk as a child
of God.
Now I was sitting in a counselor’s office, having heard God
speak to me directly. He was pointing me in his path of righteousness. He was
saying, seek my Word in the Bible and follow me. It was as clear a calling as the original
disciples had received from Jesus himself along Lake Galilee. The remainder of
the Isaiah passage tells the people of Zion, His chosen people, to throw away
their idols and walk in His way. For me that was money, alcohol, women and
work. It was realizing that I had been walking on the wrong path. I was now
turning around, like the hospital I had served. Both the hospital and me were
being made new, not any longer bankrupt.
Isaiah’s words were ringing in my heart. Jeremiah also said,
“Stand
at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way
is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls” (Jeremiah
6:16). I had come to a crossroads in my life, and I would now take the “path
less travelled” as Robert Frost wrote in his famous poem. I would follow God.
It has been a winding and uphill trail full of rocks and
full of light. But God has said, “The
Lord is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not
grow weary, and his understanding no one can fathom. He gives strength to the
weary and increases the power of the weak. Even youths grow tired and weary,
and young men stumble and fall; but those who hope in the Lord will renew their
strength. They will soar on wings like
eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.” (Isaiah 40:28-31). Many readers are familiar with this powerful
promise of scripture. It is the theme verse for many on this arduous walk of
life in this world. But God will direct
our paths.
Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own
understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will make your paths
straight” (Proverbs 3:5-6).
This is the answer to walking in His way, trust God, hope in Him and He
will do it.