"...I do nothing on my own but speak just what the Father has taught me." John 8:28, NIV

When it comes to conversations, I'm a relatively slow processor.  If you're like me, you know what it's like to engage in several interactions or discussions throughout the day and then after the fact wish you had said this or that.  Even if you're quicker on your feet than I am, you probably know what it's like to engage conversations and later wish you hadn't said this or that.  Jesus, on the other hand, always seemed to have the right thing to say at just the right time.  According to John 8:28, that in-the-moment wisdom came from His close connection with God the Father.  In His humanity, Jesus lived by faith just like we're called to do.  He modeled what it looks like to "do nothing" of Himself and to speak "just what the Father taught" Him.  Is it possible for us to experience the kind of closeness with the Father that Jesus had, a connection that enables us to speak and share with others as those who have been divinely taught?

TAUGHT TO SPEAK

It's not only possible.  It's promised:

"The Lord God has given Me the tongue of the learned, that I should know how to speak a word in season to him who is weary..." Isa. 50:4a, NKJV

Wait...isn't this a promise about Jesus?  Yes, in context, this verse is part of a larger Messianic prophecy that portrays certain aspects of Jesus' future human experience.  But as followers of Jesus who have chosen to hide our lives in Christ, we can trust that the experience of Jesus can be our experience too.  In this passage, we see that the "tongue of the learned" is a gift from the Sovereign Lord.  The capacity to speak "a word in season to him who is weary," the ability to say just what is needed at just the right time is not the result of trying really hard to think of something to say.  It's the result of God's blessing.  Speaking as one who is taught starts with an attitude of humility to recognize that a) we don't have what it takes, and b) God surely does.  

But pay attention to the rest of this promise:

"He awakens Me morning by morning, He awakens My ear to hear as the learned." Isaiah 50:4b, NKJV

From the first phrase to the last, we're supposed to connect the dots between the learned tongue and the learned ear.

Like Jesus who spoke what the Father taught Him (Jn. 8:28), we are gifted with the ability to speak as God's "spokesman" only when we "listen attentively as disciples do" (Isa. 50:4, NET).  But how does that happen?  How do we "listen attentively as disciples do"?  

MORNING BY MORNING

According to Isaiah 50:4, our experience of attentive listening happens as we allow God to awaken us "morning by morning."  That's how we see it played out in Jesus' life anyway.  In the Gospels, we have glimpses of Jesus rising "a long while before daylight" to find "a solitary place to pray" (Mk. 1:35).  According to Luke, this was not a singular occurrence but a customary habit of Christ:  "Jesus Himself frequently withdrew to the wilderness and prayed" (Lk. 5:16, NET).  This is why Isaiah's prophecy describes the Messiah's listening experience as something that happened "morning by morning," i.e. habitually and consistently.  

And the same will be true of us.  Whether it's morning by morning or evening by evening, when we follow Christ's footsteps, 

we can give God permission to awaken and arouse our souls to enjoy personal communion with Him.

These times of devotion or solitude are not just times for us to tell God all that's on our heart (although God invites us to do that too Ps. 62:8!) Our one-on-one times with God are primarily times of listening to all that's on God's heart to share with us, guarded times to open His Word and allow Him to reveal Himself, His plans, His purposes to us.  When we cultivate a consistent habit of hearing from God, and listening closely to "what God the Lord will speak" (Ps. 85:8), then we'll find that God gifts us with the consistent capacity to speak life-giving words with life-changing timeliness.  Like the healed demoniac whose personal encounter with Jesus enabled him to declare the goodness of God to his friends, our daily experience of listening to God's Word will empower us to tell with fresh fervor "what great things the Lord has done" for us and "how He has had compassion" on us (Mk. 5:19).

God longs for these moments of unhurried communion with us individually.  He desires it so much that He pledges Himself to awaken our hearts to it on a daily basis -- whether awakening us out of bed in the morning, or awakening us out of our daily grind at another time.  Will we let Him?  Will we ask Him to?  

If you want to experience one-on-one time with God for personal connection, I invite you to ask the Sovereign Lord to awaken you.  

For the next seven days, agree with God on a certain time of day that you want Him to arouse your heart to enjoy personal time with Him in prayer and opening up His Word to listen -- both for our sake and for others'.  Whether it be morning, noon, or night, let it be day by day rather than for just one day.  In the process, may God lead us to do nothing on our own, but instead find ourselves depending upon Him and speaking for Him.