Prescription
13 And for this cause we also thank God without ceasing, that, when ye received from us the word of the message, even the word of God, ye accepted it not as the word of men, but, as it is in truth, the word of God, which also worketh in you that believe.
1 Thess 2:13 (ASV)
“If only God would speak to me.” “I’m going to get off by myself so I can maybe hear from God about my life.” “It’s been so long since I’ve heard God speak to me.”
There is such a need to hear directly from the source of life, from the one with the prescription for the healing, the direction, and the wisdom for life. When it comes to issues in the body, a doctor’s visit can be arranged, where someone with a degree can spend a few seconds poking on this and shining a light on that to come up with the ‘answer’ for what ails you. What good would it do, however, to go to the doctor’s appointment, get a written prescription with detailed instructions and somehow disregard the doctor’s words as irrelevant to your condition, still longing somehow to ‘get’ the answer from someone who ‘really’ knows? Or what good would it do to hear the solution and yet feel that the remedy is just as readily discoverable on one’s own. Until truth is received as such no solution or direction will make the least difference. Until there is confidence in the source as if it were totally legitimate, it’s truth can never work its work, make a change, and bring an answer to a life situation.
I believe it is possible to hear directly from God every time there is an encounter with one of His servants. Whether or not His words make any difference, however, has everything to do with the degree to which they are received as truth. So often there are those who are yet longing for the answer to their predicament right after the prescription has been given to them directly from God through one of His children. Maybe because it isn’t written on the wall, spoken with a mysterious audible voice, or delivered from someone with an impressive reputation, the ‘answer’ is disregarded and rendered ineffective. Maybe there is an insistence that the ‘real’ answer must come independent from any other member of the body- you know, directly from God.
Paul was unceasingly grateful for the reception that was given to his words by the Thessalonians. The truth he proclaimed wasn’t restricted by disregard and disrespect for the vessel that was speaking it, but his words were rather taken for what they actually were, the heart and the voice of God, providing the exact words of life that they desired and required. They weren’t still wondering if God was ever going to speak to them, and they weren’t hoping to still somehow have a ‘real’ encounter with God. Every time they heard the voice of the servant they received it as the voice and the solution of their God. Whether from an established ministry or from that child of God next door, there is a word being spoken from the heart of God that, if received as from Him, will bring the prescription for life that is just what is needed.