knowing his footsteps

 Last night, as I lay in bed, I heard my daughter come in from her evening. When I heard the door, I listened. I knew the sound of the key on the door and her footsteps on the hardwood as she walked down the hall. I recognized it was her moving through the house.  As a parent, it allowed me to rest easy knowing she was home safe, but it also pricked my spirit. Do I recognize the Spirit of God as he speaks and moves in my house?

 What? know ye not that your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost which is in you, which ye have of God, and ye are not your own?

1 Corinthians 6:19 KJV

Our body is the house or temple of the Lord. He lives in us. Do we attend to his stirring and listen to his voice? In my physical home, I know the voices of my family.  I am familiar with those who live here, move through my home, and recognize their voices when they speak. Their voices and their movements evoke responses from me. Those in my home are familiar to me because we are close together, we spend time together daily. I know them. Do we do the same with God? He is with us in our dwelling place. Do we recognize him and respond?

 My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:

John 10:27 KJV

We know his voice when we listen and become familiar with him. We will know when he speaks because we recognize his voice by spending time with him. He is in our dwelling place. He is right here with us. We should become familiar because of his closeness. We need to know him by attending to his presence.

Draw nigh to God, and he will draw nigh to you. Cleanse your hands, ye sinners; and purify your hearts, ye double minded.

James 4:8 KJV

We draw closer to him through experiencing his presence, being sensitive to his presence and reading and obeying his word. We become familiar to the presence of God.  

There is a line in in a song that says, "we wait for You, to walk into the room."  We wait on God, and listen for his footsteps. We recognize when his presence is moving and stirring  about just like we do with our family in the natural. Are we aware of his presence stirring and moving in us? Do we respond to that presence? Our response can be to shake off the stirring, ignore the stirring, or to listen and move when he says move. We can be overwhelmed in the presence of God and be refreshed by the presence of His Spirit. We can be stirred to prayer or to act on a prompting of the Spirit on someone's behalf. God's  Spirit moving in us should evoke a response with us. What joy and peace we miss out on when we do not take the time to listen for the footsteps God moving in our dwelling. He may need to speak encouragement,  or give us direction. He may need to give us a word to speak, or just want to speak his love toward us. We get so busy and caught up at times,  we may be missing out on his presence right in our own dwelling place. 

Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.

Isaiah 26:3 KJV

We need to keep our minds upon Christ and ready to respond to the voice of God. Like Samuel learned from Eli, he did not recognize God calling at first, but when he said, Yes, I am listening, God spoke many things to him. It was the beginning of a great ministry for Samuel. May we become sensitive to the stirring and voice of God in our dwelling.  May we know his footsteps coming into the room.