Bjcorbin's Blog

At a time when I was laboring to hear the voice of my heavenly Father, the Lord showed me an image of my (then) young son Andrew.  Within the vision I had told him to go clean up his room, but I somehow realized that I’d given that direction in French.  As my little boy blinked at me in confusion, the Lord said, “Whose fault is it that Andrew’s not cleaning up his room?”  To which I responded, “It’s my fault because I spoke to him in French.”  To which the Lord replied, “That’s right, it is a father’s responsibility to speak in a way that his children can understand.”  I understood that this was God’s way of telling me to stop worrying about whether I would hear Him, and to trust that He knew how to get through to me.  Later, the Lord brought some balance to this picture by reminding me that it is not a father’s job to chase down his children in order to give them direction; and that a wise son looks to his father for guidance.

While I’ve most often heard the passage from James (4:2) “you have not because you ask not” used in the context of asking for what we want, I believe that it more rightly applies to asking for His guidance. Generally speaking, our desire for the former tends to keep us from seeking the latter.