Up to Bethel

Genesis 35:1-15

In response to God’s question, “Can You Hear Me Now?” Jacob got alone with God and listened. Once he had listened he got rid of all the foreign gods in his household.

What must you and I do if we want to hear God’s voice?

• We must get alone with God and listen. 
• We must return to the spiritual, mental, and emotional attitude when we last sensed God’s presence. Go back to Bethel, the house of God.
• We must get rid of all of the idols in our lives.
• We must get our ears unclogged so that we can hear God.
• We must make an offering of ourselves on the altar, which is Jesus Christ.
• We must invite God to come and accept our offering.
• We must wait in His Presence.
• We must listen to what God says.

What will we do once we have experienced a fresh visit from God? We will want to return to Bethel again and again. We will make a memorial of God’s visitation that we must never forget. We will depart the place transformed by God’s grace.

I remember when God asked me, “Can you hear me now?” It was a revival when I was a student at Mt. Carmel Christian High School. I was sitting next to Keith Robinson. I was a freshman and Keith was a sophomore. After the sermon, we were invited to stand for the invitation. Friends and classmates began to flood the altar. Sixteen-year-old Keith got under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and he began to pray… loudly. I was standing right next to him, so I prayed too… loudly.

One wave of seekers came forward, prayed through, and returned to their seats. Keith kept praying… loudly. I kept praying too. A second wave of seekers came forward, prayed through, and returned to their seats. Keith kept praying… loudly. I kept praying too. A third wave of seekers came forward, prayed through, and then we began to testify. Oh, what a revival! I’ll never forget it. It became a benchmark in my life of what it meant to experience God. Experiencing God that night changed me. I long for my children to experience God in that way. I long for you to experience a powerful move of God’s Holy Spirit in genuine revival. Once you do, you’ll want to experience God like that over and over again; you’ll never forget it, and you will be changed.

But if we are to experience God, we must follow God’s plan as laid out in our Scripture lesson. We must get alone with God and listen. We must return to the spiritual, mental, and emotional attitude when we last sensed God’s presence: humility and hunger. We must go back to the house of God. We must get rid of all of the idols in our lives. We must make an offering of ourselves on the altar, which is Jesus Christ. We must invite God to come and accept our offering. We must wait in His Presence. We must listen to what God says. Remember, God’s talking, but are you listening? “Can you hear me now?”

Do you want to hear God’s voice? Do you want to experience a fresh visitation of God’s presence in your life? How will you answer when God asks you the question, “Can you hear me now?”

“Then come, let us go up to Bethel” (Genesis 35:3).