Questions

Posted On January 28, 2024

“Keep asking, and it will be given to you.
Keep searching, and you will find.
Keep knocking, and the door will be opened for you.”

Matthew 7:7 ISV

“If you are seeking God and have a heart to do His will, you can know with absolute certainty that He will show you what to do…. The Lord takes responsibility for directing you through the fog.”

Charles F. Stanley

The doctrine of God the Father teaches us that God chooses to make Himself and His will known to us. Still, there are times we will struggle with knowing God’s will for our lives. We will have questions. God invites us to bring all our questions to Him, but we should remember that the answers are His to communicate as He desires. We can trust Him to do so. As long as we are seeking Him with an obedient heart, we can rest assured that He will give us the answers we need at just the right time.

Our plan for 2024 is a new format that blends an ongoing fiction story with a devotional each week. Our current story is a science fiction tale I’ve named Awakening. It’s a story about faith, with a focus on the core beliefs of Christianity. This week, our adventure continues with Chapter 3. The doctrinal focus is God the Father. (Click here for Quick Links to previous chapters.) As a reminder, I am using colored boxes to set the story apart from the rest of the post. So, any text that has a colored background is part of the fictional story. And any text that does not, is not. The video below gives a short recap of the story so far. I hope you enjoy Awakening!

Awakening
Chapter 3: Questions

Notes from Christian Doctrines Course
ICMC Training – Week 3
22 January 2318

“… it is God’s nature to be self-revealing. Logic says that the divine would be hidden and inaccessible, but Scripture shows that God desires to be known. It well may be that the hiddenness of God has more to do with the tentativeness of our search than with divine reluctance.”
-J. Ellsworth Kalas

Revelation is a difficult concept in that it requires both searching and faith. The means of revelation may vary, but one of the most significant ways God communicates is through His Word. God sent His Word to teach us, so we would be wise to fervently embrace its instruction. We must continually search for God with all our heart and soul (Deuteronomy 4:29), but we must also trust God to reveal Himself as He chooses …

Faith still stood frozen in place as the light returned to its original luminosity and the words of Michael’s prayer hung in the air: “I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. Not just because of who she is to me, but because I know that You have called her to speak for You. I don’t know if they will listen — these people are obstinate, stubborn, and rebellious. But whether they do or not, they will know that a prophet has been among them …” Ezekiel 2:4-5. The same words that God had spoken to her in a dream long ago.

God had used those words to prepare her for this. I was in an unfamiliar place and I was hiding — in a cave, maybe? I can’t recall much of it, but I remember a bright light and a voice saying these words… The journal entry she had written long before ever coming here described this place. It described this vision. They will know that a prophet has been among them. The words still echoed in her mind. Temporarily chased away by the vision that had appeared before her, Faith’s questions suddenly returned with a vengeance: Who was she? Who was Michael? Who was he to her?

Just then Michael turned around and saw her there. “Faith?” Caught off guard, he seemed unsure what to say. “I, uh, I was just … I haven’t forgotten about my promise to explain things to you. I was just clearing my head.”

Suddenly feeling awkward about overhearing such a personal prayer, and still trying to process what she had just experienced, Faith was equally uncertain about how to respond. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to sneak up on you. I wasn’t trying to listen …” Oh, brother! Now, she felt even more awkward. “Sorry. I couldn’t sleep, and I was going a little stir crazy, so I came out here. And then I saw …” How was she supposed to describe what had just happened? She thought for a moment but came up with nothing. So she just stood there trying to figure out what to say next.

Michael considered her for a moment and then his face relaxed. “Walk with me,” he said. And he led her out of the cave into the forest beyond.

For a moment Faith forgot about everything else on her mind and just basked in the beauty that surrounded her. She was on a brand new world! It was absolutely glorious. She knew that the planet had been terraformed — many of her notes on the history of Helios Prime 3 had survived — so the trees and plants here on Nova were not unlike what grew on Earth. But there was a freshness to everything, a newness that inspired hope and optimism. Even the air felt young. She now understood why the planet had earned the nickname Nova. It was indeed new in every way.

Michael glanced over at her as they walked and smiled. “Beautiful, isn’t it?”

“It’s breathtaking!” She knew her face was glowing with delight. “It’s even more incredible than I imagined. I can’t believe the planet was transformed this much in such a short time.”

“I know. It is amazing. It’s as though the planet was designed specifically to become a new Earth.” He paused before adding, “Actually, I believe it was. It truly is a gift from God. I pray we’ll all learn to treat it that way.” This last statement seemed to hint at something, but Michael didn’t elaborate. Instead, he stopped walking and turned to face her. “But right now, I know you have questions for me, and I promised you some answers. So, what do you want to know? If I can tell you, I will.”

Faith walked over to a large rock nearby and sat down. There was so much she wanted to ask. But her vision and her dream were still fresh on her mind, so she decided to begin there. “What can you tell me about the dream I had? What more do you know? You said there was an explosion at the ICMC shortly before we came here, but you also said I was already in cryostasis when it happened. Was this a memory or was it just a dream?”

Michael took a deep breath and let it out slowly before answering. “It was both,” he finally said. He walked over and sat down next to her. She turned to face him, wondering what he would say next. “Faith, the dream you described to me last night matches the details of a terrorist attack that occurred in an ICMC hangar in Florida a few months before the ships were scheduled to launch. You had just been put into cryostasis two days earlier. There is no way you could have witnessed what happened in person. But …” He paused. “This wasn’t the first time you described this dream to me. The dream you had last night is a memory of one you had before. You first told me about it … twelve weeks before it actually happened.”

She took a moment to process what he was saying. She dreamed about this before it happened? She recalled the journal entry which described another dream she had had long ago and the words of Scripture that kept replaying in her mind. “They will know that a prophet has been among them,” she said softly.

“What did you say?” Michael asked.

She ignored his question and let her own questions spill out of her. “Michael, who am I? Am I some kind of prophet? Why do I have to stay hidden? What else are you not telling me?” Then, remembering the words of the prayer she had overheard, she added, “And who am I to you?”

Michael spoke gently. “Faith, I’m not going to be able to tell you everything you want to know right now. There are some things you must discover on your own. But I’ll tell you what I can. You do have a gift and a calling. That makes you dangerous in the eyes of some, so you still need to stay hidden for now. But your time will come. Just be patient. I’ve known you for a long time, and I will protect you with my life. I promise that you can trust me.” He paused for a moment and then added, “I suspect you’ve been given confirmation of that.”

She had. She thought of her vision of Michael surrounded by Heavenly light and the words she had heard him pray on her behalf: I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe. She believed him. He was a good man. She felt it in her soul.

Michael and Faith stood up and continued walking through the forest. She still had questions. She had prayed for answers, so she decided to let some of them go for now. But there were still a couple of things on her mind. First of all, who was Peter, the man she had overheard Michael talking to? Should she know him? And second, had she left someone behind back on Earth? She still couldn’t let go of the feeling that she had been married. If so, what had happened to her husband? Was he alive? Was he searching for her right now? She was about to muster the courage to ask Michael about it when they heard footsteps.

Instinctively, she started to look for a place to hide, but Michael, unconcerned, kept walking. “It’s okay,” he said. “I’m expecting someone.”

Just then, a man came into view, approaching from up ahead. He was dressed in casual clothing and moved at a relaxed pace. When he saw them, he smiled and raised his hand in greeting.

“Hello, my friend,” Michael called as they closed the distance between them.

“Michael, so good to see you,” the man replied, taking Michael’s hand and shaking it affectionately. “And this must be Faith,” he added with a warm smile. “I trust you are both well.” The man’s friendly manner instantly put Faith at ease. He must be a good friend if Michael trusted him enough to tell him about her.

“We are. Thank you,” Michael answered. Then turning to her, he said, “Faith, this is Peter.”

“Call to me and I will answer you
and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.”

Jeremiah 33:3 NIV

This week’s Scripture passages remind us to keep seeking God and bringing our questions to Him. We may not always find the answers we are looking for, but as we search, we may find that what we are really seeking is Him. Our job is to continually pursue Him and to be ready when He reveals something amazing!

“If necessary, God will move heaven and earth to show us His will.”

Charles F. Stanley

References:

• Kalas, J. Ellsworth. Christian Believer: Knowing God with Heart and Mind — Study Manual. Abingdon Press, 1999.
• Stanley, Charles F. God’s Purpose for Your Life: 365 Devotions. Thomas Nelson, 2020.
• Stanley, Charles F. 30 Life Principles Study Guide: A Study for Growing in Knowledge and Understanding of God. Thomas Nelson, 2008.

Images & Audio:

• Images created using Midjourney Bot AI image generator, midjourney.com
• Audio clips from mixkit.co