Can you Hear me Now?
So I mentioned before that hearing the voice of God is a big deal for me at the ripe old age of twenty-three. It's something I never felt like I experienced, and being Christian that seemed pretty important. I grew up in a church that talked about hearing God's voice. The adults in my life talked about it, but it never happened to me. I remember when I first got to college at Biola University, I had a class where one assignment required me to sit in silence for three hours in order to hear the voice of God. My professor told us it was okay if we heard nothing, but it was not okay for me. I NEEDED to hear something! Why had I never heard anything before? Was I a bad listener? Did God have nothing to tell me? I felt like I had to get something out of this three-hour session. When I first attempted this assignment I hoped for results. What I got was a great two-hour nap, not quite how I expected to "refresh my soul," but I won't say I didn't enjoy it. I was pretty bummed though; not only could I not hear God's voice, but I couldn't stay awake! I wasn't going back to class empty handed though! I tried again, woke up early, went to the roof, sat up straight so I wouldn't have the urge to "rest my eyes." I was ready. The first hour passed, then the second hour but I didn't hear anything. I wasn't feeling good about that. It wasn't until the end of those three hours I heard someone call my name. It took me a second to realize that it was God. Finally, I'm hearing something! Here I am Lord, speak to me! He didn't say anything else though, just my name. But it was just what I needed, to know that I could hear Him and that He knew my name. I walked away from that assignment feeling good; this would be the start of more growth in my relationship with God. This wouldn't be the last time I heard from God!
Except it kind of was. I can't recall a time that I heard Him the same way as I did back then. Looking back, I probably missed it or wrote off what might have been His voice as a random thought in my head. Anyway, there wasn't another time where I thought, this is it! This is God. Fast forward to my senior year of college at ORU. My friend wanted me to go to church with her to hear a guest speaker named Dr. Mark Virkler. The message was titled "Discovering 4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice," so that peaked my interest. He gave his message from Habakkuk 2:1-2. "I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me: 'Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.'" The points were really good. To hear God's voice, you need to first quiet yourself. That makes sense, can't tell you how many times I've been praying, or even having a conversation with a friend, and I couldn't quiet down my own thoughts. I would just ride my train of thought wherever it went. The second key was to fix your attention on Him to hear. Again, it was hard to hear if God had something important to say if, in my mind, I'm trying to justify to myself why ordering a pizza is a good idea or if I'm contemplating that season finale I just watched. These tips seemed very straight forward, I was just bad at applying them in my time talking to God. The last two points I never really thought about before, and really helped me see what I was missing. The third key was on how God speaks. Dr. Virkler said that when the Lord speaks, his voice comes more often as spontaneous or flowing thought. Those random thoughts could've been God's voice and I just ignored them. I mean, thoughts like, I should re-subscribe to Netflix so I can binge Psych for free in a month, probably weren't from God, but some other ones could've been. The last point was to write down what we hear and confirm them with a peer; simple but something I almost never do. Even when I think of something and say to myself "wow, I should really write this down," I don't even take a note on my phone. I definitely don't run my thoughts past family or friends; I usually try to work out their meaning on my own. Even though this stresses me out more than it brings me peace. I realized I was missing out on a lot because I thought this way of communicating was too basic for God, and because I was too lazy to write!
As the service came to an end, he told everyone to try using the keys. We had to write one thing that we were thankful to God for. After that, we were to wait and hear what God said in response and write it down. Then we were to share what we heard from God with the person next to us. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to get much, but I was more than willing to try. I wrote about my love for God and how I was thankful for His forgiveness, comfort, and for giving me a purpose even though I'm not always sure what that is. Then I waited. Shortly thereafter I heard Him, and He wasn't just calling my name this time, He had a lot to say. "Never forget that I love you. There's nothing you can do to change that…Trust me when you're afraid…I've got you." That's a little bit of what I heard, and I needed to hear every word. I walked away from that sermon feeling renewed in my faith and pleased to finally understand how to hear God's voice. After that day, God didn't stop talking. I kept hearing little things like "Salt," "Light", and "writing your experience." I am guilty of trying to push these thoughts out as random things from my head again, mostly because they didn't sound like something I'd do. But since they kept coming up, I decided to confirm what I was hearing with my sister. Turns out, He was telling her the same things about me! So here I am, writing about my life experiences and how the Lord reveals himself from them, on a website I made named Salt & Light. I think I got everything that He told me, but I'm continually working to be more mindful of God's voice and what He wants. It might not be what I expect or how I expect to hear it, but it will definitely help me in my life. You should always be open to how the Lord can speak to you. That's easy to say, but a lot harder to do sometimes, as I found out. It's easy to get distracted by your thoughts and even frustrated when it doesn't seem like He's listening. If that's the case, try to change up how you pray and listen. Try to write down those passing thoughts, linger on that simple solution or that random impulse. This could be God pushing you in the right direction. Make sure you have discernment and confirmation on those things though because you can't spend all your money on a new TV instead of paying your bills and then try to blame it on God (or me). God's speaking, He has plans for you and me. We just need to make sure that we're properly listening.
Except it kind of was. I can't recall a time that I heard Him the same way as I did back then. Looking back, I probably missed it or wrote off what might have been His voice as a random thought in my head. Anyway, there wasn't another time where I thought, this is it! This is God. Fast forward to my senior year of college at ORU. My friend wanted me to go to church with her to hear a guest speaker named Dr. Mark Virkler. The message was titled "Discovering 4 Keys to Hearing God's Voice," so that peaked my interest. He gave his message from Habakkuk 2:1-2. "I will take my stand at my watchpost and station myself on the tower, and look out to see what he will say to me, and what I will answer concerning my complaint. And the Lord answered me: 'Write the vision; make it plain on tablets, so he may run who reads it.'" The points were really good. To hear God's voice, you need to first quiet yourself. That makes sense, can't tell you how many times I've been praying, or even having a conversation with a friend, and I couldn't quiet down my own thoughts. I would just ride my train of thought wherever it went. The second key was to fix your attention on Him to hear. Again, it was hard to hear if God had something important to say if, in my mind, I'm trying to justify to myself why ordering a pizza is a good idea or if I'm contemplating that season finale I just watched. These tips seemed very straight forward, I was just bad at applying them in my time talking to God. The last two points I never really thought about before, and really helped me see what I was missing. The third key was on how God speaks. Dr. Virkler said that when the Lord speaks, his voice comes more often as spontaneous or flowing thought. Those random thoughts could've been God's voice and I just ignored them. I mean, thoughts like, I should re-subscribe to Netflix so I can binge Psych for free in a month, probably weren't from God, but some other ones could've been. The last point was to write down what we hear and confirm them with a peer; simple but something I almost never do. Even when I think of something and say to myself "wow, I should really write this down," I don't even take a note on my phone. I definitely don't run my thoughts past family or friends; I usually try to work out their meaning on my own. Even though this stresses me out more than it brings me peace. I realized I was missing out on a lot because I thought this way of communicating was too basic for God, and because I was too lazy to write!
As the service came to an end, he told everyone to try using the keys. We had to write one thing that we were thankful to God for. After that, we were to wait and hear what God said in response and write it down. Then we were to share what we heard from God with the person next to us. I'll be honest, I wasn't expecting to get much, but I was more than willing to try. I wrote about my love for God and how I was thankful for His forgiveness, comfort, and for giving me a purpose even though I'm not always sure what that is. Then I waited. Shortly thereafter I heard Him, and He wasn't just calling my name this time, He had a lot to say. "Never forget that I love you. There's nothing you can do to change that…Trust me when you're afraid…I've got you." That's a little bit of what I heard, and I needed to hear every word. I walked away from that sermon feeling renewed in my faith and pleased to finally understand how to hear God's voice. After that day, God didn't stop talking. I kept hearing little things like "Salt," "Light", and "writing your experience." I am guilty of trying to push these thoughts out as random things from my head again, mostly because they didn't sound like something I'd do. But since they kept coming up, I decided to confirm what I was hearing with my sister. Turns out, He was telling her the same things about me! So here I am, writing about my life experiences and how the Lord reveals himself from them, on a website I made named Salt & Light. I think I got everything that He told me, but I'm continually working to be more mindful of God's voice and what He wants. It might not be what I expect or how I expect to hear it, but it will definitely help me in my life. You should always be open to how the Lord can speak to you. That's easy to say, but a lot harder to do sometimes, as I found out. It's easy to get distracted by your thoughts and even frustrated when it doesn't seem like He's listening. If that's the case, try to change up how you pray and listen. Try to write down those passing thoughts, linger on that simple solution or that random impulse. This could be God pushing you in the right direction. Make sure you have discernment and confirmation on those things though because you can't spend all your money on a new TV instead of paying your bills and then try to blame it on God (or me). God's speaking, He has plans for you and me. We just need to make sure that we're properly listening.
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