Hello? Is anyone home? Who will teach people how to listen to me? And to others?

Hi God. It still seems so ridiculous that I can say ‘Hi God’ and you’ll respond.

I will respond. I do. I’m vulnerable to you. There you have it. Now you know. God, the Creator, is vulnerable to you.

That’s a huge truth. When you first heard that said years ago you were aghast. The one who spoke it was just a kid, yet he opened up such an enormous truth. That God, the Creator, is actually vulnerable to you. As the words left his mouth and hit your heart; before you had a chance to argue your religious arguments, it hit you. You knew he’d heard it direct from me. That’s how it is with me. I open up huge truths to whoever I feel like doing it for. In that case, just a kid.

In this morning’s case I’m talking to you. Neither you, nor that kid, are any more special than anyone else. So who are you that I should want to talk to you? Nobody special at all.

I WANT TO REVEAL EARTH-SHATTERING TRUTHS, IN CONVERSATION, TO EVERYONE, SPECIAL OR NOT.

But there are so few who teach them to listen. I want to open up truth, in detail, to unfold wisdom and meaning to every single human being on the face of the earth. Not just the pastors, and teachers, wise men and prophets. Everyone!

Can you see the pattern? The bible is filled with stories of me talking with every day humans. People who weren't very special - the woman at the well, the man born blind, the tax collector, the roman soldier. I shared enormous truths with them. Truths which are still, thousands of years later, the stuff of books, sermons, youtube clips, and facebook posts.

I did it then and I want to keep doing it, but no one’s really listening. Does that mean they’re not interested? No. It’s much worse than that. This is a people who have persuaded themselves that God doesn’t want to talk to them.

Why? Because no one teaches them the truth. That it’s easy to hear me speak to them in whole sentences and paragraphs. Easy!

Instead I have a world filled with millions of people who want to hear from me, but who have persuaded themselves that I don’t speak very often, and who feel that somehow, it’s their doing.

God when I write down things like that, and claim that you’ve said them, the religious people tell me I’m wrong. They tell me you don’t say things like that. They say you’re very happy with Christianity in general. They say that people everywhere in ‘the Church’ know that you speak. And many of them are listening to you.

Yes of course they do. And Mark they're right to a certain extent. People really do understand, in theory, that I speak. It’s just not for most people, part of their own experience. They are not constantly aware, day in, day out, of me speaking.

You have seen it even with the religious. They preach that everyone hears me all the time, and yet when thrown into crisis, they themselves are not able to hear me explain what’s going on. They don’t know how to do it.

Which is why they are not able to teach others to do it either. They do not have a back and forward conversation with me that they can teach others how to do.

I WANT THEM TO ADMIT THAT MOST PEOPLE DO NOT KNOW HOW TO HEAR ME.

‘My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge; because you [the priestly nation] have rejected knowledge.’ HOS 4:6 AMP

The people do not know how to listen to me. They know in theory that I’m loving and prepared to speak to them. If you ask them if God will speak all day long to a human, they know the correct answer is yes. But in their hearts they know it doesn’t happen for them. Certainly not every day. Now and then sure, but not every day.

As a result they live lives of disappointment. Shame. They assume that the reason God doesn’t speak to them regularly, or face to face like a friend, is that they are somehow unacceptable. They assume God must be speaking to others, but not so often to them.

They do not realize that so many who preach do not experience it either.

You see it in human relationships Mark. When a person feels rejected, they assume it is because of something unacceptable on their part. They assume they are less than acceptable. They assume they have in some way done wrong. It hurts them. They retrench into themselves.

That’s human nature. When the people you love stop sharing their hearts with you, then you feel rejected. The reason is simple. You are designed to enjoy a conversation, back and forward, hearts shared, with those you love. First with me and then with those around you. When it doesn’t happen your heart craves it and then the enemy steps in.

He steps into every single situation with every single human being. Not just you Christians. Everyone. When the ones you love stop sharing their hearts, you withdraw into yourself, or you strike out. Depending on the personality I gave you. You withdraw from the space they leave empty, or you try to fill it.

You move away from them in hurt, or hurting you attempt to fill the space they have left empty.

It’s the same with God. When a person thinks that I am not speaking to them, they withdraw in silence, or they attempt to fill the space they think I have left empty.

THEY TRY TO FILL THAT EMPTY SILENT SPACE BY SPEAKING AT ME.

Religion builds his entire strategy around this. In the absence of the clear evidence of God speaking volubly to his people, Religion sees his opportunity and encourages them to set up a huge amount of talking AT me.

He builds on the fear that humans have. People are terrified of listening to me because their experience tells them that I don’t speak very often. They are afraid that if they listen, really listen, all they will hear is silence. A silence that will threaten their faith. So instead of listening to me they do all the talking AT me.

It’s what happens in human relationships too Mark. When one person stops sharing their heart, the other often panics and moves into the space left silent and starts to talk, AT the other. Conversation breaks down. In the absence of a two way conversation, the partner left longing for words of companionship begins to speak AT the other. Conversation becomes increasingly rare, now it is the partner trapped in a silent prison talking AT the other.

It is the same with me and my people.

BUT I HAVE NOT STOPPED SPEAKING. MY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN FED A LIE.

Although people have come to believe that I am not speaking words of companionship to them, it’s not the truth.

In the absence of those regular words spoken they have tried to fill the space. They have panicked and now they speak AT me. Everywhere you see organised systems for speaking, singing, dancing, praying, AT me. But there is not an even balance. You are all doing more of the speaking in our relationships than I am.

But it makes more sense for me to do as much of the talking as you do. At least as much. But that’s not happening.

This is a pretty dangerous conversation God. I’m going to get in a lot of trouble for this.

Mark forget what the naysayers say. I have a message I want spoken. And I have millions of people hungry for it who will not thank you for keeping it silent.

I want people prepared to put in the effort of listening to me. I want you all to listen and then tell others what you hear me say. Write it down, speak it out, whatever works. Listen to me, and tell others what I say. If you don’t, others will.

Ok. But you started this out by saying no one teaches us to listen to you or each other. What shall I tell people about that? What shall I tell them about how to listen.

Tell them to start with this. When life hurts and taunts them. When memories hurt them. When situations seem too big and cause pain and they are unsure of what to do. Listen to me.

Yes but how?

First let’s start with ‘why’. All negative is thought up by the King of Negative. All of the pain that strikes your heart, the pain that seems just ‘like life’. That’s all him. He wants to destroy you with negative.

So how can people listen to you in the midst of that?

Tell them to just listen. In the midst of the pain, concern, worry, hurt, bad memories, tell them to listen. Almost as though they were listening for a friend in the hall way of their home. Tell them to actually listen, just like that.

Some will just ‘feel’ my answer. Others will hear it in their mind. Many will find it easiest to write down what I say. They’ll find the writing draws the words out of the realm of the spirit and into the realm of the human.

I want them to work at it. I want them to understand what I say, to decipher it in human words. You are human. You hear humanly. That’s how I designed you.

As you listen with your ears, you’ll ‘hear’ it in your mind. You’ll feel my voice, and when you do, write it down. Tell people to try it, and keep trying, until it works. If they want to hear me bad enough, they’ll keep trying until they hear me. And I can promise you this. They will hear me.