Page 24 - Evidence of Things Unseen

Prophetic Utterances

Isaiah 42:18-20
Hear, you deaf! And look, you blind, that you may see. Who is blind but My servant,
or so deaf as My messenger whom I send? Who is so blind as he that is at peace with
Me, or so blind as the servant of Yahweh? You have seen many things, but you do not
observe them; your ears are open, but none hears.

I think perhaps the saddest person in the world is the one who does not discern the
presence of God in his or her life. To think that God would create us and then leave us to
ourselves is a tragic thought. How hurtful it would be to think that God cared so little for
His creation that He would simply choose to ignore what He has created and take a hands
off approach to our lives. Such a mindset is not supported by the testimony of Scripture.

Luke 12:6-7
“Are not five sparrows sold for two cents? Yet not one of them is forgotten before
God. Indeed, the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear; you are more
valuable than many sparrows.”

Jonah 4:10-11
Then Yahweh said, "You had compassion on the plant for which you did not work
and which you did not cause to grow, which came up overnight and perished
overnight. Should I not have compassion on Nineveh, the great city in which there
are more than 120,000 persons who do not know the difference between their right
and left hand, as well as many animals?"

God does have compassion upon the works of His hands. He cares for men and
women, as well as cattle and birds. Yahshua’s words concerning the sparrows make a great
study. He said of the sparrows “Not one of them is forgotten before God.” Do you know how
many sparrows are in the world? The word sparrow originally meant “any small bird.”
There must be billions of small birds in the world, and God has not forgotten a single one.
Why then would anyone imagine that God’s eye is not upon the people he has created, who
are of much greater value in God’s sight?
I remember an occasion years ago when I had my first encounter with someone who
had the gift of prophecy. I was at the same Southern Baptist church where I first heard the
message of grace. The exercise of the gifts of the Spirit, including words of prophecy, were
rare among this body. One Sunday a man named Jeff Burke was invited to come and share
with the congregation about the gift of prophecy. There was nothing extraordinary about
this man’s appearance. In fact, he and I could have passed for brothers. Yet as he began to
share his testimony it was evident that his experience was vastly different from most of the
Christians I had grown up around. Jeff spoke of hearing God’s voice, and sharing the things
God spoke to him with others. He gave example after example, and I was amazed as I heard
of the precision with which God had spoken to people through him.
We had been told that there would be a time at the end of the service where Jeff would
ask the Lord if He had a word to be shared with any of the members of the congregation.
As I sat listening an intense yearning grew in my heart to hear a word of prophecy from