Remember the days of phone booths? You used to see people in those cubicles located in various public places—the mall, the airport, on the corner by the local gas station. Occasionally, there would even be several people waiting in line to use the phone. These days, everyone just whips out their cellular phones. Instead of looking for a phone when you need to make a call, why not just carry one with you wherever you go?

While there are some who resist the trend of cell phone ownership, the majority of people—especially young people—seem to have them. Driving down the street a while back, I saw a young man pedaling his bike and talking on a cell phone. Another time I saw an individual sitting outside an office building in animated conversation. Just when I was convinced he was talking to himself, I realized he was using a “hands-free” phone device.

The age of cell phones has added convenience to modern life. Yet, as with any modern convenience, cell phones also have their problems. “Dead spots” (areas of no signal) and “breaking up” (conversation disruptions caused by a low signal) are common complaints of cell phone users.

One service provider has tried to convey that with their service, you will always have a good connection. In a series of ads, they have featured a man in every location and situation imaginable. In each case, the man asks, “Can you hear me now?” The response is always affirmative, as he always replies, “Good!” While we may laugh at that man asking the same question over and over for quite some time, there is Someone who has been asking it even longer.

God has been asking, “Can you hear Me now?” since Creation. God created man for His pleasure (Revelation 4:11) and enjoyed walking and talking with Adam and Eve in the cool of the day while they lived in the Garden of Eden. After they sinned, God drove them out of the Garden and put cherubims and a flaming sword at the entrance to cut off access to the Tree of Life. Yet, God never cut off the line of communication. He has always wanted to communicate with man.

In Old Testament times, God communicated with man through the patriarchs, judges, prophets, and priests. He instituted the sacrificial system as a preview of His ultimate expression of love: the sacrifice of His Son, Jesus, at Calvary. In all of this, God was saying, “Can you hear Me now?”

In modern times, two common methods God uses to communicate with us are the Bible and other people. In 2 Timothy 3:16 we read that “all scripture is given by inspiration of God.” The Bible is not something man made up. It is God's message to us, written down by faithful men. God had them write it down so that we wouldn't forget. The Bible was written by inspiration of God so that we might be able to hear what He wants to communicate to each and every one of us.

God sometimes uses other people to communicate with us. A song may strike a chord in your soul, and the Spirit of God says, “Can you hear Me now?” Maybe you can personally identify when someone testifies of the conviction that was in his heart or how the Spirit felt when he was saved. God might speak to you through a sermon, a Bible teaching, or an article in a magazine like this one. Whichever way He chooses, be assured that God is speaking to you!

God's transmission is always strong. If we are not hearing Him, it is because our reception is weak. If there is a communication problem, it is on the part of the receiver, not the Transmitter.

God will go to great lengths to communicate with us. The Prophet Jonah's reception was best underwater, so God had him thrown overboard and created a great fish to swallow him. It seems seaweed made a pretty good antenna, because only when it was wrapped around Jonah's head did he finally listen to what God had to say! (See Jonah 1 and 2.)

If Jonah would have stopped and listened when he heard God's voice the first time, he could have avoided that underwater experience. But Jonah was “roaming”—trying to avoid the Voice of God. He thought that if he ran the other way, he could escape the responsibility of God's message. He was wrong, and this mistake landed him at the bottom of the ocean. If you are running from God's call, you are roaming. And the charges are building up. If you fail to answer, you will remember that call in eternity and pay a high price for it.

In most circumstances, a cell phone user can take action to find better reception. Leaving a building or walking away from an object that is creating interference can make the difference between a quality conversation and becoming disconnected. Similarly, we can take steps to improve our spiritual reception. This might mean changing our location or avoiding objects of interference.

In the case of the Prophet Elijah, fear became the interference. When wicked Queen Jezebel threatened to kill him, he ran for his life. He was running so fast he couldn't hear his “phone ringing.” It took a windstorm, an earthquake, and a raging fire for him to slow down enough to answer and listen to the still, small Voice of God. And when he listened, God's message calmed him and gave him courage once again. (See 1 Kings
19:1-18.)

We must take action to put ourselves in a position to hear God's voice. Church attendance can give us regular opportunities to shut out distractions and to concentrate on God's message to us. Regular communication with God will encourage voice-recognition. Daily habits, such as the material we read, listen to, and watch can either muffle or amplify our reception.

Our goal should be to get to the place where we can hear God constantly. In the Children of Israel's exodus from Egypt, God spoke to them through the pillar of cloud by day and the pillar of fire by night. Their reception was excellent: as it moved, they moved; as it stopped, they stopped; as it settled, they settled. That is how consistently we should be directed by the Voice of the Lord. We need to get to the place where we can always hear and feel and know that God is speaking to us.

God is asking, “Can you hear Me now?” Are you listening?

Ritchie Ho is a minister of the Apostolic Faith Church in Houston, Texas.