There are times in life when I’m sure we would all really love God to speak in such a way that there is absolutely no mistaking the fact that He has spoken. So as you read todays passage enjoy the wonderful way that God works.

Hezekiah had received a letter from Sennacherib the King of Assyria who had been terrorising Israel and he took it to the temple and spread it out before God. The temple was seen as God’s dwelling place so Hezekiah wanted God to read the terrible things that had been written about him. Then as all good believers do he prayed.

Now at that point I would have been waiting for God to speak, to give me some profound word of knowledge, a picture or something to let me know that He had heard my prayer (You’ll notice that I write that as if that’s what God always does!). But God didn’t speak to Hezekiah directly He sent the prophet Isaiah to say, “I have heard your prayer concerning Sennacherib king of Assyria,” and there follows a long and powerful account of the things that God is going to do to him. It finishes with a humiliating statement about God putting a hook in his nose and a bit in his mouth so that he can be forced to go back home the way he came. The statement is designed to reduce Sennacherib to little more than the status of an ox.

The same thing happens in the early part of chapter 20 when Hezekiah is taken ill and about to die. After a rather curt word from Isaiah that Hezekiah needed to get his affairs in order God heard his prayer and spoke once again through Isaiah telling him that his life would be extended by another 15 years.

There such power in having our prayers answered as Hezekiah’s were. By that I mean we pray and God answers unequivocally through someone else with such accuracy that there is no denying that it was God who spoke. The confirmation given to him of a shadow moving against the direction of the sun must have blown his socks off!

Having ears to hear God speak as Isaiah did might seem like a gift given only to a special few but remember that Paul wrote to the Corinthians, “Eagerly desire the gifts of the Spirit especially the gift of prophecy.” (1 Corinthians 14:1). That gift is available for all who are filled with the Holy Spirit!

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Heavenly Father, help us to open our hearts to you in complete surrender. Anoint our ears to hear your every word and bless us with the strength to be obedient to your word. Amen.