“He shall call upon Me, and I will answer him; I will be with him in trouble; I will deliver him and honor him.”   ~Psalm 91:15

If we call on Him, He will answer us. Yes, God will absolutely reveal all of His desires to us if we are willing to accept the truth. However, we must be open to hearing the truth, something that I’m not especially good at. God can use anyone, anything, and just about any situation to bring things to light for us. If we pray and ask Him to show us His desires—as well as showing us the error of our ways—we must be prepared to receive the answers even if it isn’t what we want to hear!

​“I will lead the blind by ways they have not known, along unfamiliar paths I will guide them; I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth. These are the things I will do; I will not forsake them.”   ~Isaiah 42:16 NIV

Turning the darkness to light is referring to His shedding some light on the truth! The darkness is the lies that we believe from the devil and the ensuing sins that we commit. This light, or enlightenment, is the truth of the infallible word of God! And, along with receiving this enlightenment, we become sanctified. The rough places suddenly become smoother than ever before—the confusion vanishes, and we finally see the light of His truth by reading His word!

​“Sanctify them by Your truth. Your word is truth.”   ~John 17:17

The whole secret to success in receiving these truths from God is honesty. We must be honest to God when we ask for guidance, and then we have to be honest with ourselves when we realize that the cause of most of our problems are the things we are doing. We must accept that God will never bless something that His word forbids. If we truly want Him to lead us in truth, we must become willing to stop lying to ourselves to avoid taking responsibility.

​“Lead me in Your truth and teach me, for You are the God of my salvation; on You I wait all the day.”   ~Psalm 25:25

​This experience can be a real eye-opener and mighty humbling as well. But if we want a resolution to our problems, we must become willing to hear the truth. I had this very thing happen to me. I was diligently praying for God to reveal what was at the root of a very troubled relationship, but I certainly wasn’t expecting the answer I received, nor the person He used to send it.

I was talking to my daughter about this problem, and halfway through the discussion she stopped me and said, “Ya know mom, I don’t want to hurt your feelings, but I really think this one’s on you.” You could have knocked me over with a feather, but I needed to hear that truth and thank God my daughter was honest enough to tell me.

I was very blind when it came to taking any responsibility in this particular matter but have since seen the light and apologized for my part. It’s always difficult to own up when we are to blame for the messy situations we find ourselves in, but necessary nevertheless. Honesty is key if we truly want to be filled with God’s truth! And honesty is the only way we are going to be able to hear Him as well.

​“If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.”   ~1 John 1:8

The point I’m trying to make here is this, if we ask God for guidance, guidance about anything, we had better be open to receive the truth! God can use anyone to send His answer, a preacher, a friend, a relative, a stranger, the grocery clerk, even something someone says in a movie or television show, the words in a song on the radio, in a book, on an email, in a devotional or, my personal favorite, through a verse in the Bible.

We know it’s the answer when we hear it because it sounds like the truth, it’s unmistakable. There is no mistaking when God is replying to us; we just instantly know it’s Him.

​“Call to Me, and I will answer you, and show you great and mighty things, which you do not know.”    ~Jeremiah 33:3

I have received answers to prayers in so many different ways. I’ve learned to be open—open to anything God wants to use to get through to me. He knows that sometimes I need a pop on the head to get it, and other times He whispers in a very inconspicuous way, but He always answers me.

First and foremost, God wants to get out attention, and then He wants to lead us to the truth—the truth about every single situation in this life!

​“And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free.”   ~John 8:32

God wants us to return to Him . . .

“Then the Lord God said, behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever— therefore the Lord God sent him out of the garden of Eden to till the ground from which he was taken. So He drove out the man; and He placed cherubim at the east of the garden of Eden, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to guard the way to the tree of life.”   ~Genesis 3:22-24

The operative word in the above verse is nearly always missed or misconstrued—it’s the word to! God is trying to guide us back to Him. The cross is the tree of life, and the only way to receive salvation is through faith in what Jesus did on that cross. He is the only way back to the Father! We must understand that Jesus’s sacrificial death on that tree is our only way to redemption— to the free gift of eternal life! Connecting to God through Jesus is the only way we are ever going to be able to hear His voice and know what His desire is for our life.

“Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”   ~John 14:6