“Come together, all of you, and listen...Come near me and listen to this…”

”Deep calls to deep…” (Ps.42:7)

If you hear the call of God to come close (closer) to Him, don’t refuse Him. As we will see, to fail to ”listen” to God is to rob ourselves of much spiritual good.

Many years ago I was given a biography of a South African preacher, William Duma. (You can still read about him online). He had a powerful ministry in evangelism, healing and deliverance. But the thing I most remember from his story is that he had, what he called, his ‘trysting place’ up in the hills, and he would disappear for days at a time to just be alone with God. That’s where the power of his ministry lay. He knew it. So when there came a time in his life where, through over-busyness, he began to neglect his prayer life, he experienced a loss of power and knew why.

In his own words:

”Through the years, at 4.00 a.m., by appointment with my Lord, I had been fed by the Hand of God. The busyness of preparation ate into my early morning appointment with God. Less and less time was spent in deep communion with God. I told myself I was praying earnestly for the campaigns. Vaguely at first, I realized […] [it] had tailed off…

…I grieved for the spiritual capital which had drained away because my first eager communion with God at daybreak had been shortened, if not replaced, by campaign planning. Those recollections broke my heart and I wept into the pillows.”

Thankfully, that was not the end of the story. It is one well-worth reading. But it underlines how precious God’s invitation is to ”Come near…”Him.