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As my closer walk with God through Jesus in 1995 had just begun, one of the first books He nudged me to read was the Book of Job, again and again. It was not ‘fun’ to read but important for me to know beforehand about these years of suffering and pain that were still ahead of me back then. I decided to copy and paste a longer Scripture that deals with the WHY and HOW God speaks to ALL people in this world through dreams, visions, and more often than not through adverse circumstances. To Job who would think he was a righteous man Elihu said,

13 Why do you contend against him, saying, ‘He will answer none of man’s words’?

14 For God speaks in one way, and in two, though man does not perceive it.

15 In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on men, while they slumber on their beds,

16 then he opens the ears of men and terrifies them with warnings,

17 that he may turn man aside from his deed and conceal pride from a man;

18 he keeps back his soul from the pit, his life from perishing by the sword.

19 Man is also rebuked with pain on his bed and with continual strife in his bones,

20 so that his life loathes bread, and his appetite the choicest food.

21 His flesh is so wasted away that it cannot be seen, and his bones that were not seen stick out.

22 His soul draws near the pit, and his life to those who bring death.

23 If there be for him an angel, a mediator, one of the thousand, to declare to man what is right for him,

24 and he is merciful to him, and says, ‘Deliver him from going down into the pit; I have found a ransom;

25 let his flesh become fresh with youth; let him return to the days of his youthful vigor’;

26 then man prays to God, and he accepts him; he sees his face with a shout of joy, and he restores to man his righteousness.

27 He sings before men and says: ‘I sinned and perverted what was right, and it was not repaid to me.

28 He has redeemed my soul from going down into the pit, and my life shall look upon the light.’

29 Behold, God does all these things, twice, three times, with a man,

30 to bring back his soul from the pit, that he may be lighted with the light of life.

(Job 33:13 – 30 ESV – Emphasis added)

It does not depend on whether people have known God before or not because He warns everyone through dreams, visions, and/or difficult circumstances to draw them closer to Him. The perfect ransom that will deliver us in every case is, as we might know, our Lord Jesus Christ. No one is excluded from God’s heart since “God our Savior […] desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave himself as a ransom for all, which is the testimony given at the proper time.” (1 Tim 2:3-6 ESV)

Isn’t that good news?  🙂

All images by Susanne Schuberth 2018