What do you hear the voice of the Lord saying?

Every day we mingle with crowds of people. Instinctively we know that every person is dealing with their own set of challenges. And we are painfully aware sometimes that we are in the midst of the fight ourselves. But, how often do we forget that the Spirit of the Lord is right there with us every day?

In Matt 9:35-38, we read that Jesus was walking in the middle of the same streets and the same crowds as everyone else. But, he saw things differently. While everyone else just saw the usual things, Jesus saw the crowds in a unique way and felt deeply for them. He saw that they were lost, directionless, wandering around like sheep with no shepherd!

As his heart quickly filled up with urgency and deep compassion for the people, He turned and called his followers to open their eyes to see things from His perspective. Then He told them to pray for laborers.

He is calling us to the same mission. As we follow the Holy Spirit today our first priority is to love God by actually seeing people through His eyes. He wants to change the way we see them.

As we allow Him to get our attention, we will be overwhelmed by what is "really" going on around us. We will begin to sense that He is actually saying something and He wants us to listen. The massive heartbeat of the Father is to be up close with every person we will see today.

It reminds me of the prophet Isaiah. You can read about his encounter with God in Isaiah 6. As he was going through his daily routine of service as a priest in God's temple, the Holy Spirit grabbed his attention and Isaiah had an intense vision of the glory of the Lord.

Isaiah cried out for mercy and you can read there that God had an angel come and purify his lips so that he would be clean. Then something revolutionary happened at the core of Isaiah's being.

In Isaiah 6:8 it says; Then I heard the voice of the Lord saying, "Whom shall I send? And who will go for us?"
And I said, "Here am I. Send me!". How long had God been saying this? Was Isaiah hearing the passionate heartbeat of God in a way that he has never heard it before?

What about you? As you get up out of bed and live out that same old daily grind, God is trying to get your attention. Whatever you do, don't turn away from
Him because you feel unworthy and afraid. Isaiah felt the same way. But he stayed in God's presence. He experienced the Fathers heart for people as he heard what the Spirit was saying.

What do you hear the voice of the Lord saying? When you experience the His burning heart for all of us your own heart will be swept up in His mission. Will you pray with me as we hear His voice asking "Who will go"? Will you join with Jesus and ask the Father for laborers? Most of all, we pray, "Here we are, Father! Send us!"


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