Thoughts on Today’s Verse…
The Lord Jesus’ words show us the practical path to know God and welcome the Lord’s return: being able to recognize God’s voice. When the Lord Jesus came to work, people like Peter, John, the Samaritan woman, and Nathanael, from the Lord Jesus’ words and deeds, recognized that He was the One who has authority and power and that the Lord Jesus was the coming Messiah, and so followed Him and received His salvation. Even though those religious Pharisees and scribes knew that Jesus’ words have authority and power, they defined God according to their own conceptions and imaginations, believing that man whose name was not Messiah was not Christ. What was worse, they resisted the Lord Jesus and nailed Him to the cross, which offended God’s disposition and led to the destruction of Israel. The lesson of history tells us that the key to welcoming the Lord’s return is to pay attention to listening to God’s voice. The Bible says, “He that has an ear, let him hear what the Spirit says to the churches; To him that overcomes will I give to eat of the tree of life, which is in the middle of the paradise of God” (Revelation 2:7). “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear My voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with Me” (Revelation 3:20). From these words in the Bible, we can see that when the Lord comes again, He will knock at our door with His words. Therefore, if we can seek the words the Spirit says to the churches and hear God’s voice, we will welcome the appearance of God and follow the footprints of the Lamb. Just as God says, “Since we are searching for the footprints of God, it behooves us to search for God’s will, for the words of God, for His utterances—because wherever there are new words spoken by God, the voice of God is there, and wherever there are the footsteps of God, God’s deeds are there. Wherever there is the expression of God, there God appears, and wherever God appears, there the truth, the way, and the life exist. In seeking God’s footprints, you have ignored the words that ‘God is the truth, the way, and the life.’ And so, many people, even when they receive the truth, do not believe that they have found God’s footprints, and still less do they acknowledge the appearance of God. What a grave mistake!”
