There was once a Chinese man who thought he heard from God. The conversation went something like this:
“Go to the Min-wun Taungdan mountain* and tell the people there about Jesus.”
“But God, there is no-one living on that mountain.”
Silence. Just the echo of a strange thought that probably came from God.
Or did it? How could he be sure? There were no people there, the Government said. No-one in that part of the world, the ethnographers said. We’ve already explored that region and it’s empty, the surveyors said.
But the man was fairly sure he’d heard from God. So he packed his bag and trekked to the mountain wondering all the way if what he heard really was from God.
And the outcome of this one man’s obedience to the voice from Heaven?
His colleague retells his story… That when he arrived, he found an unknown, undiscovered people. That they spoke an unheard-of language that he found himself suddenly able to speak fluently when he met them (and can still speak today). That there is now a flourishing church in that region. That hundreds came to know God because one man heard from God and did what he said. That miracles follow those who are willing to obey God’s voice and go to places that only God sees…
My people recognise my voice… and they follow me (John 10:27).
*Not the actual mountain.