SCRIPTURE: "Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King, and my God: for unto thee will I pray." Psa 5:2 (KJV)

If ever a verse shook me to my very core, it is this one. It wasn't what David did or his plight that brought him to the place of crying out to God... it was the passage that reads "Hearken unto the Voice of my cry,".

Crying always takes on a voice of it's own, and if you're a daddy or a grandpa or a mama or grandma, you can hear the distinct "voice" of your child or granchild above all of the rest, and that voice tells you something about them that words are not needed to express.

Case in point, I have been in a doctor's office when mama would take one of our children for a visit and the doctor decides it's time for their immunization shots. All of a sudden I hear a wailing coming from his office and I smile because I know distinctively that the doctor has given them a shot. No big deal... well, not for me at least; and you can bet daddy will give them all the sympathy they need when they come out of the doctor's office - sporting their little Batman Band-aid. But I knew all the while by "the voice" of their cry that they received a shot long before I ever seen the band-aid. Smart dad? No... I just know "the voice" of their cry.

Case in point 2. In the parsonage we were living, in one of our appointments as Pastors in the Assemblies of God Church... our youngest was heading up the stairs to her room... (she shared a room with her two sisters who were 9, 7, and she was just 3... and all of a sudden I heard a scream of a cry that sent chills up and down my spine because I knew it was our baby and I knew she was really hurt. To make a long story short... she busted off her four front teeth and there was blood everywhere as those teeth had to have someplace to go, and they decided her lip would be the target. Remember I said it was an old parsonage with steps that were at an almost 70 degree angle and they weren't carpeted. We were just lucky she didn't fall down the steps and make things even worse.

Through the years, I have heard many things in "the voices" of my children. They weren't always crying out (although they seem to call dad first whenever they needed to cry), but it's those times when they don't cry out and I "hear it" in "their  voices" that hit me like that scream of our little Carrie as she busted off those teeth. in those instances, the pain in my heart, for them, is more than I can describe.

That's why I said that this verse shook me to the very core of my being when I came to that place of remembering the many times my children as adults would call and need a comforting and often a helping hand from dad, as well as those times they would call and say nothing, yet I would hear that SCREAM for help in their voice that only a Father could hear.

Why did I go there? What brought me to this place in my quest for seeking God's guidance for Wayne D. Clabaugh the Ist? Because in my study, I found that that phrase "the voice of my cry" was the same as that which described Jesus pain and agony in the Garden when He cried out,

"O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me: nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." Matthew 26:39 (KJV)

But it didn't end there? Jesus never heard from The Father, but the Bible tells us He was forsaken. We know that because Jesus Himself says so in Mat 27:46 where we read,

"And about the ninth hour Jesus cried with a loud voice, saying, Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? that is to say, My God, my God, why hast thou forsaken me?" (Also read Hebrews 5:7,8)

What Father could stand and watch as His very own Son hung there on that Cruel cross in such agony? Why would He not "do" something and do away with those that persecuted Him and now were murdering Him on that Old Rugged tree? The answer to that question of course is followed up with an answer shortly following when Jesus said, "It Is Finished". We find that there in John 19:30 where it says, "When Jesus therefore had received the vinegar, he said, It is finished: and he bowed his head, and gave up the ghost".

Are you hearing what I'm saying here this morning? In my worst day, I have never suffered like my Lord. Oh how He needed a sign from the Father that would encourage Him and lead Him on to VICTORY. But there was NOTHING! NOTHING!

I don't know, precious missionary, where you are that you are that you have tuned in here this morning listening to this message somewhere around the WORLD, but God is speaking to you today to NOT GIVE UP! TO NOT DOUBT THAT WHAT YOU ARE DOING IS THE RIGHT THING! TO NEVER THINK THAT YOUR LIFE AND YOUR MINISTRY COUNT FOR NOTHING! YOU ARE THE APPLE OF HIS EYE AND HE HAS YOU RIGHT WHERE HE WANTS YOU. NO ONE ELSE COULD DO THE JOB YOU ARE DOING IN HIS NAME LIKE YOU ARE DOING IT! HE NEEDS YOU!

I want to speak now to you preachers and teachers out there on the internet. This is such a fickle medium to get across the WORD OF GOD to people.. but your "VOICE" is being heard by Thousands - possibly even millions all around the world. You may have come to the place that I have come to "on occasion" where you just wonder if you are reaching anyone in  such a way that you're making a difference. Well, I want to give you the best advice I have received throughout this ordeal and it comes from a good ol' active duty CAREER SOLDIER who told me, "Brother Wayne, After 30+ years on active duty with the Army, something that was drilled into all of us and stays with me even to this day is this: "In the absence of guidance, follow the last order". Well friend, maybe "you" feel you're not hearing from God anymore. Well, of course you need to PRAY. Get off by yourself and pray. But listen soldier of the cross... "In the absence of guidance, follow the last order"!

We've only just begun my friend. Make sure you tune in gain tomorrow for the continuation of this message. All FREE and from the heart. That was one of those orders He gave me Years ago. For now, let's pray.

Father, I have been in the place of deepest despair, In my flesh - needing to hear from you. I have known the silence that even your Son Jesus felt... In The Garden... when He prayed and sought your guidance, even though He already knew what He must do. Well Father, I am not worthy to put in the same sentence with my Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, yet, I know that what He did to fulfill the Scriptures and to save the souls of all who would believe in Him... He had to be more than just the SON of God... He too, had to become like a soldier - and submit to the cross. I thank you this day for the example that He set for all of us, but mostly for me, as I "set my face like flint" and carry out that last order that was placed on my heart so many years ago. Unto THEE will I pray, and Unto THEE will I trust as I "continue" in the Name of Jesus and for the sake of the Cross. In Jesus' Name I Pray, Amen.