Topic:Listen to Christ’s Voice– Discover the Book by Dr John Barnett 12 November 2021
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Listen to Christ’s Voice
Listen to Your Creator
His feet were like fine brass, as if refined in a furnace, and His voice as the sound of many waters.
-Revelation 1:15, emphasis added
Have you heard the almighty and powerful voice of Jesus? He is speaking every day! As the Creator, Jesus’ voice resounds throughout planet Earth! Have you heard Jesus’ voice speaking in nature?
The apostle John writes that His voice is “as the sound of many waters” (Revelation 1:15b). In that verse, John used the metaphor of a thunderous waterfall. Have you ever stood at the crest of the impressive Niagara Falls? My family and I have, and it is an incredible combination of sight and sound as the avalanche of rushing water vibrates the ground as it thunders downward and then bursts upward in mist. It is magnificent to behold!
Since most of us do not live by a mighty waterfall, Psalm 29 uses another metaphor for the voice of the Lord-the deep rumble and loud roar of thunder. I, therefore, happen to like severe thunderstorms that make our windows shake and rattle! Why? They always focus my thoughts on Psalm 29. Jesus wants us to listen for His voice in the storms. So the next time you experience a bad thunderstorm, instead of worrying about it, worship Him through it!
Also Read: Open Heaven 12 November 2021 –Topic: ASK UNTIL YOU RECEIVE
All Creation declares God’s glory! As you listen for His voice in the storms, ponder these interesting scientific facts about thunder and lightning:
Thunder is merely a byproduct of lightning which is a river of electricity careening at 100,000 miles per second, down a twisting canyon of air. About 400 people per year are killed by lightning, [normally] more than any other natural disaster. Yet, without lightning, life as we know it could not exist.
Air molecules are heated to about the temperature of the Sun’s surface by that electricity. They are white hot at 30,000 degrees Celsius when the bolt of lightning passes through them. Around the planet 100 times each second, lightning strikes the earth with its intense, hot strokes. In a very real sense, it is feeding the plants as the nitrous oxide distills in the rains and goes to the roots of plants. Almost all plants need nitrogen as their basic food. Although 22 million tons of nitrogen hangs in the air over every square mile of the planet, it is unusable without the effects of lightning.
Lightning that we see is actually traveling upward. It is the meeting of a “leader” coming down from the negatively charged base of a thundercloud, meeting a “streamer” coming up from the positively charged earth beneath that cloud. In the one second long duration of the lightning, as many as 40 pulses of energy have occurred. Heat rising so rapidly out of this super hot path breaks the sound barrier and “thunder” is produced. Each stroke contains hundreds of thousands of amperes, and hundreds of millions of volts. All told a single storm produces more electricity than all of America’s generators combined. A single stroke lasting one second could power a city. And with over 600 storms at any given moment on the earth, God’s power dwarfs all of man’s efforts!
The sound of the Lord as He shakes the earth is a call to reverence Him. God uses thunder and lightning for many things. For example, He used it in the seventh plague against the Egyptians: The Lord sent thunder and hail, and fire darted to the ground (Exodus 9:23). Another wonderful example is when Samuel cried out to God in behalf of Israel, and the Lord answered him in a miraculous way: “The Lord thundered with a loud thunder upon the Philistines that day, and so confused them that they were overcome before Israel” (1 Samuel 7:10).
Those two examples alone are enough to cause us to be awed by the Lord God Almighty’s powerful and thunderous voice! Will you listen to God’s voice today as He speaks to you through His Word?