The question that we have been asking is, “How can I tune each part of me to hear God’s voice?” This week, we asked how God speaks in and through our bodies.
First, we must get a proper theology of the body:
God means for us to have bodies Our body is essential to who we are, our unique expression in place and time. We are truly fearfully and wonderfully made.
Our bodies have a future in the life that is to come Jesus was given a resurrection body and we are promised that we will be given resurrected bodies.
Our bodies have experienced corruption With our bodies we actually harm things, mar things, kill things. In our more honest moments, we find our bodies working against us. We desire to do one thing, but our bodies seem to automatically do the other. Scripture tells us the cause of the corruption in our bodies is sin. Romans 7:17-20 “As it is, it is no longer I myself who do it, but it is sin living in me. For I know that good itself does not dwell in me, that is, in my sinful nature. For I have the desire to do what is good, but I cannot carry it out. For I do not do the good I want to do, but the evil I do not want to do—this I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want to do, it is no longer I who do it, but it is sin living in me that does it.” The Bible never tells us that our bodies are themselves evil; instead, a picture emerges of how our sin affects and infects our bodies. Paul pictures a life in which we identity the habitual automatic responses to the world in our bodies, and with God’s help, we replace these broken tendencies with a new range of habits from our new nature, our true self that is alive in Christ Jesus.
Our bodies are redeemable They are to be allies in the life God is calling us to. We no longer idolize, misuse, or ignore them. Instead, we properly steward them so that they can serve us in living into God’s purposes.
We can enlist our bodies to help us hear God’s voice. First, we must learn to become present to our bodies and pay attention to them. This includes slowing down, finding silence, and entering into quiet contemplation. As we do, we find God present to our bodies in fascinating ways. As we become aware of God’s presence, we begin to hear him speak in and through our bodies. Once we become aware of God’s presence we have to want to hear God speak, ask God to speak as we position ourselves into a place of listening, and then practice hearing God speak. There are many ways that God speaks in and through our bodies, but we can build a short list:
Physical healing
Dreams and visions
An audible voice
The still small voice
A ‘sense’ of his presence
This may be a skill set we have to practice and grow in. If we do hear, we should try to do what God says, but we should expect that we may get it wrong sometimes so make sure to build some grace into the process. Finally, we must be patient when God doesn’t seem to be speaking. We are dealing with a free moral agent and there is no magic elixir, but it is his prerogative to speak.