Panning for Gold

By Brooke Momblow

Alaska is beautiful. It holds a special place in my heart because I was born there. Summer in Alaska is my favorite. Tourists pour in from every country on earth. They want to hike mountains, look for moose and bear, watch a whale spout, fish for salmon, eat beer battered halibut, cruise past a calving glacier, buy a piece of traditional native artwork, and pan for gold. Such excitement occurs with the possibility of discovering gold.

Panning for gold is both easy and challenging. Learning from someone who has practiced the different techniques will save you from throwing your pan in the river in frustration. It can help you to see that there is gold to be found, you just need a little help discovering how to find it.

You have to learn to look at how the water flows to know where to place your pan. How much dirt and gravel do you scoop? Rocking the pan to create a swirl isn’t rocket science, yet it seems so difficult when you first try. Swirling the water separates dirt and rocks from gold. Separating takes patience to develop a rhythm so the murky water begins to clear, the dirt washes away, the gold emerges. You may have to repeat this several times to see gold in your pan, you may have to find a new position in the flow of water. But oh, the thrill! That first small glitter in your pan ignites such hopes and triumph!

For me, learning to hear God’s voice was a lot like learning to pan for gold. I was skeptical that there was really any gold to be found. That unfamiliar thought in my head sure sounded like my voice. A gut feeling of needing to do something for someone else felt like superstition, or acidic tomato sauce. People I respected shared with me their own stories of how they experienced God communicating with them. They also shared that they too sometimes still wrestled with knowing if it was God or not.

Again and again I see God speaking and revealing himself to those in scripture who seek him. ”I did not speak in secret, in a land of darkness; I did not say to the offspring of Jacob, ‘seek me in vain.’ I the Lord speak the truth; I declare what is right.” Isaiah 45:19 As believers in Christ, we are the offspring of Jacob. We do not seek the Lord in vain.

Fourteen years ago my brother entered a faith based recovery program because he believed God had saved his life in answer to his own desperate unbelieving prayer during an attempt at suicide. In the woods where he slept during the first stage of his recovery, he cried to God because he had never heard the voice of God speaking to him, but so many around him claimed to act based on hearing God. Without anyone around to help my brother understand, the Holy Spirit began to communicate with him by allowing him to see small answers to the prayers he prayed, and through those answers the Spirit began to teach my brother to recognize the very often inaudible voice of God.

“He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize his voice.” John 10:4-5

Recognizing our shepherd’s voice requires spending time with him. Knowing the words he has spoken in scripture, learning his character in scripture, understanding who he says he is comes from reading scripture. This is what helps us discern if something is originating from us or if it is the Holy Spirit’s leading. We all learn his voice differently, we all hear him in various ways, but we must learn it. We all battle inward doubts that we can actually recognize the Spirit’s leading, we act in faith trying to discover what it looks like. When we do think we’ve caught a glimpse of it for the first time, more doubts rush in to question what we know. Is that gold? Or is it only fool’s gold? It requires patience, a rhythm of seeking God and asking for confirmation, so that we can wash away the clutter to reveal what our soul longs for – communion with Christ.

Often we look for outward signs, but Jesus says that believing without seeing is blessed and even those who see outward signs still doubt what they see. Not sure about you, but an angel would get my full attention. However, since it hasn’t happened to me, I guess I have to wonder if I would act like Gideon in Judges 6.  “When the angel of the Lord appeared to Gideon, he said, ‘The Lord is with you’ and Gideon replied, ‘Pardon me, my Lord, but if the Lord is with us, why…?’” Later the Lord tells him ‘go, I’m sending you’ and again Gideon says ‘Pardon me, my Lord, but…’ It’s almost like he doesn’t want to believe. He brings up all the supernatural things God has done for Israel in the past like an accusation but refuses to believe God wants to do something supernatural for Israel now. His attitude really isn’t an attitude you would have if you thought you were really talking to God himself. Gideon wants to be convinced, but he is arrogant instead of humble in his search. Finally he says, ‘If I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign it is really you.’ When Gideon is convinced that it’s really God talking to him, he is shocked and then terrified.  

Gideon responds with fervor for God, builds an altar to God, and tears down the altars of other gods. And yet, when God gave him further direction, he asked for two more signs from God. God is so patient. Is a lack of faith the reason Gideon asked for confirmation? Or was he just making sure it was from God? For me it can be both. Also, if I’m being honest, having an encounter with God like that, where you are completely convinced it is God, that is thrilling and addictive. You want him to keep showing up that way. Gideon may have felt the same. It’s like finding gold in the bottom of your pan.

God desires relationship with us. He sent Jesus to make that possible. The Holy Spirit is here. Emmanuel.

“Flesh and blood may be the author of this: one man may give another an affecting view of divine things with but common assistance, but God alone can give a spiritual discovery of them.” ~ Jonathan Edwards