Blessed Days

"The boy Samuel ministered before the Lord under Eli. In those days, the word of the Lord was rare; There were not many visions."
1 Samuel 3:1

We live in the most blessed days of all history. As Christians, we are able to hear the word of God all the time. First, we have the Bible. We can learn from the Old Testament, all that God did for the nation of Israel as he raised them up to truly be his people. In the New Testament, we learn about a new way to live that was made possible through the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ. We also learn that Jesus gave us the Holy Spirit, who now lives within us and empowers us to be ambassadors of Jesus.
    Lest we ever forget or become less thankful for the incredible blessings we have, we should pay attention to the scripture referenced above. In the Old Testament, they depended on the prophets of God to bring his word to them. They had no written documents, so the history regarding God was passed down by word of mouth from generation to generations. Fortunately, the Israelites were very adept at this, and the accounts of God's interventions were accurately kept. But they had no direct communication with God. If there were no prophets available, there was no word from God. In fact, between the Old Testament times and the coming of Christ, there was 400 years when there was no prophets in the land. There was silence.
    I know that I talk about this a lot, but I want us to realize just how blessed we are. Jesus changed everything. He was no prophet, he was much greater than that. He spoke the words of God because he was God. Everything he said was right and true. Through his death and resurrection, he ushered in the days of the Holy Spirit. From that time on, all believing Christians have had God resident within them in the person of the Holy Spirit. He is not a representation of God, he is not a piece of God, he is God. Therefore, the fullness of God lives in us. We can communicate with God anytime we want. And we can be assured that he will talk to us.
    I cannot imagine what it would be like to believe in God and follow him, yet never hear anything directly from him. Thankfully, those days are over. You and I live in such a glorious time that we need not fear silence from God. My point is this; be thankful for the days in which we live. There may be things we would like to complain about, but we live in a time in history that the people of old would have loved to experience. We don't have to wait for the prophet, we don't have to fear silence. God is with us...and he is speaking.