She had a series of dreams, each conveying the message that her friend's impending marriage would not turn out well. Though she felt obligated to somehow share with this friend, she dreaded the reception of the message. How to proceed?
Does God send messengers? The Bible is full of instances where dreams and prophets routinely provided guidance for those who would listen. The very life purpose of John the Baptist was to message us the coming of Christ.
I believe God uses messengers to this day.
As my colleague and I pondered the way to communicate to her friend, we played out her possible responses. Past interaction predicted what suddenly became termed teenager hearing:
She won't listen to me. She'll say I'm wrong, that I'm too literal, that I couldn't possibly have been warned by God in dreams and that she certainly isn't making a mistake.Teenagers are sure they are right when they are sure we are wrong. There is no room to embrace and ponder our message. They don't want to be troubled with information that threatens their "rightness."
We, too, do not want to be troubled with messengers who speak into our lives with possible God messages:
If God has something to say, why doesn't He say it to me Himself?I don't know the ironclad answer to that. Perhaps He has and we refused to listen. Perhaps it is His pleasure to open us to the possibility of God messengers in this day and age.
I know my life is richer for listening to those messengers of God who risk speaking into my life. I know I have served that purpose from time to time in the lives of others.
Lord, help our teenager hearing not be an obstacle to Your messages from others. Help us risk speaking Your messages to another as You call us to do so.
It takes a village to help each other hear.
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