An Open Letter..... Does YHWH Speak in the 21st Century?
shared by Sis YahChannah

^{YHWH, can we communicate with Him and He with us in an unquestionable, clarion voice or has the connection been closed? When folks speak of hearing His Voice, do you shuffle your feet in discomfort, lower your eyes so you do not have to look at this poor misguided soul? Do you back up, just a little, in fear? After all there is no telling what these fanatical deluded people may do. We remember some story from an old newspaper about someone who killed a number of citizens, saying God told them too.}

^{If we stop to think about it, it seems that once YHWH was ‘allowed’ to speak to mankind. Not any more, it is not politically correct and you may find your self on a couch somewhere while the man in the chair encourages you to tell him all about it so he can give you a few drugs to straighten out your life.}

^{In the very beginning, YHWH spoke to His creation. This was before someone had told them and Him, I suppose, they could not have a dialogue.}

^{Gen 3:8}

^{8 And they heard the voice of YHWH Elohim walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of YHWH Elohim amongst the trees of the garden.}

^{Now, before you tell me, I know this was before there was a Babel or tower thereof. We do not know for sure what the means of communication was exactly. What we do know is that there was conversation and understanding in whatever the process was.}

^{In the first recorded murder when Cain murdered Abel, YHWH shows us that with Him there is no limit to communication. Did the bloody ground rise and cry in an audible voice. I would have to say, of course, no. But the Almighty was very aware of what was going on among His creation.}

^{He said to Cain:}

^{Gen 4:10}

^{10 And he said, What have you done? the voice of your brother's blood cries to Me from the ground.}

^{I would guess that Cain heard nothing from the ground but we know he heard something either audible or mental for he gave response to the Creator. Perhaps, considering Cain’s sarcastic reply, there was no further communication after Cain was cast out into the unyielding, harsh land hidden from the face of his Creator.}

^{YHWH, not only told Abraham to go to the mountain and do a sacrifice. He informed him that his son was to be the sacrifice. Abraham did as YHWH said and seemed to understand exactly what was required of him. Just as Abraham heard the voice of his Father and obeyed, so also did Isaac obey the voice of his father Abraham. Isaac was a young man and Abraham was very old by today’s standards so it is doubtful he could have forced the sacrifice if the son resisted.}

^{Abraham listened to the voice of YHWH perhaps because he had heard it before when he was told to leave Ur of the Chaldees to go where ever he was led. Abraham recognized the Voice of the Almighty. Had he not, Isaac may have been slaughtered or Abraham may never have been faithful in the first place. The knife was raised, we are told, prepared to complete the sacrifice.... when he was told:}

^{Gen 22:12-13}

^{12 "Do not lay a hand on the boy," He said. "Do not do anything to him. Now I know that you fear Elohim, because you have not withheld from Me your son, your only son."}

^{13 Abraham looked up and there in a thicket he saw a ram caught by its horns. He went over and took the ram and sacrificed it as a burnt offering instead of his son.}

^{How did Abraham KNOW that YHWH was speaking to him? How was he so sure, that he would be ready to slay his son to obey the Voice?}

^{Joseph listened to the voice of YHWH that came to him in a dream. Ultimately he found himself in the proper place and position to be able to care for the children of YHWH.}

^{Moving forward, we see Moses, the same one who had been raised as a prince of Egypt. He ran, after having killed an Egyptian and finding himself to truly be a Hebrew just as much as those beaten, defeated slaves. He married and was a keeper of the flocks of his Father-in-law. Hardly one whom we would believe would recognize the Voice of YHWH if he heard it.}

^{But let us look at this account:}

^{Exod 3:1-15}

^{1 Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian, and he led the flock to the far side of the desert and came to Horeb, the mountain of Elohim.}

^{2 There the angel of YHWH appeared to him in flames of fire from within a bush. Moses saw that though the bush was on fire it did not burn up.}

^{3 So Moses thought, "I will go over and see this strange sight-- why the bush does not burn up."}

^{4 When YHWH saw that he had gone over to look, Elohim called to him from within the bush, "Moses! Moses!" And Moses said, "Here I am."}

^{5 "Do not come any closer," Elohim said. "Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground."}

^{6 Then he said, "I am the Elohim of your father, the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac and the Elohim of Jacob." At this, Moses hid his face, because he was afraid to look at Elohim.}

^{7 YHWH said, "I have indeed seen the misery of my people in Egypt. I have heard them crying out because of their slave drivers, and I am concerned about their suffering.}

^{8 So I have come down to rescue them from the hand of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land into a good and spacious land, a land flowing with milk and honey-- the home of the Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites.}

^{9 And now the cry of the Israelites has reached me, and I have seen the way the Egyptians are oppressing them.}

^{10 So now, go. I am sending you to Pharaoh to bring My people the Israelites out of Egypt."}

^{11 But Moses said to Elohim, "Who am I, that I should go to Pharaoh and bring the Israelites out of Egypt?"}

^{12 And Elohim said, "I will be with you. And this will be the sign to you that it is I who have sent you: When you have brought the people out of Egypt, you will worship Elohim on this mountain."}

^{13 Moses said to Elohim, "Suppose I go to the Israelites and say to them, 'The Elohim of your fathers has sent me to you,' and they ask me, 'What is his name?' Then what shall I tell them?"}

^{14 Elohim said to Moses, "I AM WHO I AM. This is what you are to say to the Israelites: 'I AM has sent me to you.'"}

^{15 Elohim also said to Moses, "Say to the Israelites, 'YHWH, the Elohim of your fathers-- the Elohim of Abraham, the Elohim of Isaac and the Elohim of Jacob-- has sent me to you.' This is My name forever, the name by which I am to be remembered from generation to generation.}

^{We take that story for granted most of the time because it is like the oft-told tale. Let’s look at it though. You were raised in Egypt as one of them. You knew their g-ds. You had to leave your home and go to what was strange to you. Now here you are with a bush burning before you and worse, the bush is talking to you! Whatever would you tell Zipporah?}

^{Do you notice a strange thing in this account? The burning of the bush attracted his attention so he went to look and was somewhat surprised that it was not burning up but then when a voice speaks from the bush, what does he do? Does he run? Does he think he is losing his mind, maybe, but such is not reported to us. Moses was not depicted as a mighty warrior, a brave man and yet for some reason he stood there and talked to a Voice from a burning bush almost as though it were a common occurrence.}

^{We know the miraculous feats in Egypt. We know of the instructions to Moses. Are we to believe there was no communication between Moses and YHWH. Do we really think Moses would have come up with the plan for Passover?}

^{Would he have thought of saying paint blood on your doorposts etc? He may have been frustrated so we cannot say he could not have come up with the thought of death to the firstborn but the Israelites most likely have kicked him out their door. Only YHWH would know how to take the life of the firstborn of Egypt and spare the Hebrew son. We must realize that this plan was relayed to Moses in some fashion.}

^{We know how Moses went up Mount Sinai for YHWH to speak to him and give the ordinances and directions so Israel might serve Him and be led and protected by Him. Do we not know that YHWH did in fact, speak to him?}

^{We can go to the books of the Prophets and we see how over and over they were ‘spoken’ to by either YHWH or the messenger of YHWH. David found himself in communication with YHWH. On and on, we see people being spoken to by YHWH.}

^{Who said, ‘No more communication between Elohim and man!”? Did we just get sophisticated to the point that we can no longer allow ourselves to admit that there is an Almighty One and surely not confess that He spoke or speaks to anyone? We, after all are no longer subject to the foolish superstitions and myths. Only in the mind of the mentally ill are there voices. Could these be the reasons communication has stilled between man and his Creator?}

^{There is another reason that could be presented. So many voices shout at us, from left and right demanding our attention. Cell phones, computers, e-mail, radios, stereos, televisions, our job, our homes, our children and then our spouse. When do we have time to commune with the Almighty. We have our bath, fall in bed and may think of HIM and consider how little time we have to spend in communication with Him. We decide we must save time for Him and immediately fall asleep. Morning brings nothing different. How long would a marriage last without two way communication? What happens to children who have no personal contact with their parents? We tend to think, we will spend time together as soon as my career is set, my mortgage paid, money all put away for college and retirement. By the time these happen we often have sadly grown irretrievably apart.}

^{Father did not desert His children. He calls, do we answer? Do we recognize His voice when He does speak to us?}

^{Someone said the following in an e-mail just recently:}

^{If we listen to these type messages and decide that our Creator no longer speaks to human beings who are seeking His face with all that is within them, then we may as well forget it friends. Without Him, Torah is just words. That may sound blasphemous to some but He, YHWH the Almighty Creator is the life of Torah. He is the difference between dead or living words.}

^{Do not let any convince you that YHWH does not talk to His set-apart beloved children.. Run from them Brethren, they seek to destroy your very life. When you run, run to YHWH for in Him is salvation and life.}