Series: Dog Daze
Amos 8:11-12 ESV
I’ve written about the night I walked into Arrowhead Stadium in Kansas City when Billy Graham was set to speak.
I wasn’t sure why I felt compelled to go hear Billy Graham speak, but it was really important to me. None of my friends were going. I knew all of the people from my church who were on the bus but I did not plan to sit with them in the stadium. I was a young teenager, so that was unusual for me. All I knew is that I had to go.
When I stepped into the stadium I never expected what happened next.
I was swept away by the power of the Spirit of God. It was a power I did not know existed.
No one told me that kind of power was available.
Quite frankly, I was a little frightened. I cried (quietly) through the whole sermon. During the altar call I didn’t plan to go down to the stadium field to talk to a counselor but my feet moved to the middle of the field. I told the counselor (through my tears) what happened to me when I walked in that night.
He was wonderful and he assured me it was a good thing. He prayed for me and he asked me if there was someone I could talk to about my experience. I told him my dad was an Elder in my church and I could talk to him.
I couldn’t wait to get home.
My dad waited up and when I told him what happened he hugged me and told me it was a very good thing. He told me God had plans for me.
After that night I started having dreams and visions and the same Spirit who came to me that night helped me to understand what God was telling me.
From the instant I walked into the stadium that night to today, God has never failed to help me. I still have dreams and visions that guide me and help me understand what God has for me. Especially when things were really difficult God was guiding me.
In Amos 8:11-12 the prophet wrote, “Behold, the days are coming,” declares the Lord God,“when I will send a famine on the land—not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord. They shall wander from sea to sea, and from north to east;they shall run to and fro, to seek the word of the Lord, but they shall not find it.”
When I read the words Amos spoke to Israel, I thought about the night I walked into Arrowhead Stadium.
I thought about what it would be like and what it would feel like if I was told there would be a famine and God would not be there for me like He had always been there for me since that night.
It made me realize the agony and pain Israel went through during that time when they did NOT hear from God.
When Amos wrote about Israel wandering from sea to sea looking for God, desperately wanting to hear God how agonizing it would have been for them.
The famine from the word of God went with them when they looked to the north and the east. Israel waited and wandered, but they did not hear a word from God.
They sought God but they heard nothing.
Silence.
Everything was silent.
And the silence was deafening.
So, I fast forward to the time period when I was 50 years old. In an instant everything in my life changed. One day I was married living in a new home, going to church where my husband was the Pastor, and the next moment in an instant suddenly it was all gone.
I was not married. The home had to be sold. I didn’t have a church to go to. I couldn’t hear God. I did have a job, so every day I got dressed and drove to work (I worked for a very large mortgage lender) in my old clunker car.
It took time, but ever so gradually I could breathe again. I moved into a small old condo and I found a church. One day someone told me about a wise person who lived near me.
The first time we met I told him my story and I told him I couldn’t hear God anymore. He smiled and said, “Oh what a blessing! You have been blessed with the silence of God!” I argued that it was NOT a blessing. He laughed and he assured me I would hear God again.
He was right. When the famine of hearing God was over it was like the floodgates opened!
And so it was with Israel. When the famine of the Word of God was over something miraculous happened.
The floodgates opened and the Spirit rushed in.
And…it was wonderful!
Spiritual Practice: Feast or Famine?
Are you in a time of feast when you hear (experience) God or famine? The famine is painful but it’s for good purpose. Know when the famine is over the feast will be wonderful! Both serve good purpose.
In God, Deborah
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