Before we all walked around with phones in our pockets, how did we find out what our old primary school friends had for lunch? What they thought about the weather? Our phones make everyone’s thoughts way easier to access. So now, if someone asks, ‘what does your best friend think about that news?’, we just need to tap a screen, and we know. When we ask ‘what does God want?’, the answer is closer than we think. God’s thoughts are closer than we can imagine. Ephesians 5 tells us we’re able to understand what God’s thoughts are – if we choose to be filled with the Spirit, then we can tune in. That doesn’t mean that we instantly become solo conduits of God’s truth (wisely, God’s decided that we also hear God’s thoughts as we discuss them in community and hold them against the Bible). But it does mean we’re way closer to knowing God’s thoughts than we think we are. Try it. Ask God’s thoughts on something important to you. Listen out among your thoughts for His (often subtle and small) voice. He wants you to pursue listening to Him, like a relationship, which is why He isn’t always loud and blaring. Sometimes what He says will sound just like one of your thoughts, but slightly different – like seeing a pink car drive by – so don’t reject it just because it sounds like a thought. The process of pursuing Him is what counts the most.
