CONNECTION

If the weather is good, I love driving Bell Road! This five-mile curvy route affords a clear view of Mount Hood, the town of Newberg, forestland and beautiful farm country. But along Bell are two spots where I lose cell phone reception. If I’m engaged in conversation with someone, I have to keep driving until I can regain the signal before redialing.

About 400 prophets prophesied before King Ahab of Israel and King Jehoshaphat of Judah that if they went to battle against the Aramean army they would be successful. But something about them caused King Jehoshaphat to doubt their authenticity. So he asked Ahab (22:7), “Isn’t there a prophet of Yahweh here any more?” Reluctantly, Ahab told him about Micaiah, who was prone to give unfavorable pronouncements to the king, and then he dispatched a messenger to get this unpopular exhorter.

Meditation
1 Kings 22:13—The messenger who went to call Micaiah instructed him, “Look the words of the prophets are unanimously favorable for the king. So let your words be like theirs, and speak favorably.

Micaiah was a prophet with a clear connection with God. But what the people wanted was a recording. They wanted this man of God to parrot the religious establishment—“Go and you will succeed.” But he knew that disaster awaited Ahab and he told him so. Scripture tells us Ahab died in battle exactly as Micaiah predicted.

People, who rely on their own wisdom, or whose relationship with God is a sham, speak forth words that may sound good spiritually but in truth are as disconnected from reality as a signal-less phone call. The best result of garble is confusion! Ahab’s 400 prophets had a bad, or at best, weak connection with the Lord, and were easily deceived into broadcasting a false message. Just because they were religious didn’t make them right.

So, how do we get a clear connection with the God we cannot see, so we can know His will? Certainly, we must leave any place or thing that causes sin and breaks our connection with Him. He will not abide where there is evil. Second, we must listen and obey His Spirit. Third, don’t assume the religious crowd speaks for God. Finally, if we still cannot discern His voice, it may be that He is silent for His own purposes. If this is the case, we must patiently wait on Him and not take hasty action we may later regret.

How’s your connection to your heavenly Father? Are you hearing from Him or do you feel like you are in some dead cell zone? Ask for His help in reconnecting, trusting that He has a word for you!

Inspiration
The entrance of sin means that the connection with God has gone and the disposition of self-realization, my right to myself, has come in its place.—Oswald Chambers in The Psychology of Redemption