Heart Tracks - Voice Of Fire

      Not long ago, I wrote down this question in my prayer journal; "When we leave our 'worship services,' do we go talking about what a 'good sermon' we've just heard, or do we leave having truly heard and received His Word, His Voice?  Has His Truth really penetrated our being, and in so doing, transformed us?"  I think too often, we leave agreeing that we've heard a good word, but have been totally unaffected by it.  
    Exodus 5 relates how the Lord called Moses to Himself and spoke to him while the people lingered at a distance.  Twice we're told that the Father spoke with "a voice of fire," for His Presence was literally blazing before them all.  The people feared that voice and held back, while Moses alone came into His presence, into the power of His voice of fire.  Today, maybe more than ever before, we in the western church need to hear, receive, and be transformed by His voice of fire.  We've kept our distance long enough.  Like the people did with Moses, we've been satisfied to allow others, pastors, teachers, those who speak with prophetic voices, be the ones who hear what God has said and is saying now, and then bring to us His words.  Few of us truly know what it is to hear Him speak directly to us.  We've never developed such an intimacy with Him in our "devotional time," and so it's no surprise that when we come together in worship, we hear so little.  Our emotions may be moved, but too often, our hearts never are.  Our spiritual senses are dulled, and so, as Jesus said, "we hear, but don't hear."  We hear the words that the Father, that Jesus, that the Holy Spirit is saying, but we have little or no understanding of what He means in those words.  They touch our ears, but not our hearts, and so, we remain unchanged.
    We need today to hear and heed His voice of fire, and we need it at every level in the church.  We know well how to come together to plan, to talk, to come up with new methods and means, and to discuss the needs of the culture and how to meet them, but it's not more analysis that we need, it is the hearing and receiving of His voice of fire.  A voice that doesn't just resonate in our spirits, but literally takes hold of us in the center of our being.  As long as we seek to keep our distance from Him, fearing the fire, we will never have the life, individually or corporately that only the voice of fire can bring.
   Today, this week, as we come before Him, what do you want, expect to hear?  Good words?  A "nice" sermon?  Something that may strike a note, but transform nothing, or, do you, I, come yearning for the voice of fire?  A voice that will release the symphony of His Life to and into us?
Haven't we held back long enough?

Blessings,Pastor O