God Speaks to People in Various Ways and Methods
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III speaks about how God does not leave الإنسان without a voice or guidance, but continuously speaks to him through many methods suitable to each person’s condition and spiritual nature. The Lord may speak to a person through the Holy Bible, or through a specific verse that touches the heart and becomes a personal message directed to him.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III also explains that God may speak through events, tribulations, and sufferings, as hardships sometimes become a call to repentance and returning to God. A person may hear God’s voice in sickness, failure, or sorrow more than in sermons and words.
He confirms that God uses different methods with people; He may speak to one person through love, tenderness, and blessings, while another may need warning or discipline in order to awaken spiritually. All this happens according to the need of the soul and what suits its salvation.
He also explains that the spiritual person can hear God’s voice in everything around him: in nature, flowers, the sky, and daily events, because all creation witnesses to the glory of God and His work. But the real problem is that many times man closes his ears to God’s voice and does not pay attention to His message.
His Holiness Pope Shenouda III reflects on the work of grace inside the heart, and how God sometimes awakens the conscience through inner spiritual goads that push the person toward repentance and change, as happened with Saint Paul the Apostle. But what is required is not to resist this divine voice.
Then he explains that the quick response to God’s voice is the mark of the saints and apostles, as they left everything and followed the Lord immediately upon hearing His call, without hesitation or delay. But delaying the response may cause a person to lose the opportunity of salvation and blessing.
Spiritual Message
God continuously speaks to man, but what matters is that the heart has a spiritual ear that hears, and that the soul has a quick response and true obedience to God’s voice regardless of the method through which He speaks to the person.
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