In the Old Testament of the bible, you always read about God speaking to the “man of God” who is sent to tell the king about the futuristic events (usually the fall) of his kingdom etc. etc. I’ve always thought prophecy was a spiritual gift for specific individuals, usually those quite high up in leadership roles, to share about things that will happen in the future. It wasn’t for everyone and I was cool with that, but hearing on training camp that prophecy was about comforting and encouraging another believer in his/her walk with the Lord, and that anyone could do it, umm…I didn’t buy it.
My spiritual gifts are faith, administration and hospitality, not the gift of prophecy, so when our squad mentor asked us to trial it out by standing in two lines, closing our eyes, allowing someone to stand in front of us and put their hand on our shoulder and then asking God to reveal something to us to share with the person whom was standing in front of us that we did not know…umm, this was not going to happen.
To add to that, I hear from God through the bible so closing my eyes and asking God to speak to me verbally or visually…this was impossible! But everyone started to do it and I didn’t want to be the odd one out so I closed my eyes and waited. After a few minutes, someone put their hand on my shoulder and I tried to guess who it was. My guess was that it was a guy, but I started the process, asking God to speak to me so that I may share what He wanted to say to the person in front of me. I got nothing. 3 minutes and still nothing and people around me started to share with the person in front of them what God may have revealed to them. I was nervous and kept getting distracted but tried to focus on God. After 5 minutes, I shared with the person that I wasn’t getting anything so I was just going to pray. So I started praying aloud. “Father God, I don’t know what you want me to say this person but I’m not hearing anything.”
I suddenly stopped because something inside of me wanted to hear from God and I pleaded with him to reveal something to me. I cleared my mind and drowned out the voices around me and just keep asking God what he wanted to say to me to this person. After what felt like a good 5 minutes, an image started forming in my mind. I tried to drown it out because any bets, it was just my thoughts, trying to make something up so I didn’t feel embarrassed about having nothing. However, the picture didn’t go away. It was still there so I decided to look deeper. What was it? What did it mean?
One thing we learnt about this session was to trust the Lord (Holy Spirit) inside of us, rather than ourselves and challenging ourselves to speak out what God may be telling us. It was a safe space so we should just give it a go and if it means something to the person, praise the Lord but if not, oh well, the person will show grace.
So…even though I wasn’t convinced this was from God, I shared it. I said something like “so I’m seeing a picture of a rope (I don’t know why I said that back then because thinking back, I actually saw a chain), and there was a cross hanging in the centre of the rope which was dangling down. The rope is in the distance and I feel like the cross represents that God is a part of your life but you need to jump to take hold of it or reach out for it or…I don’t know.”
This was crazy and I was a tad embarrassed of what I revealed to him. I timidly asked whether this meant anything to him and strangely enough, he said it did, but I still didn’t believe it. Anyway, I prayed that God will reveal whatever this image was to him and then that was it.
When we opened our eyes, my squad mate gave me a hug and told me that he would tell me what the message was later and I was shocked but a tad excited. God couldn’t have really spoken to me through an image, could he?
After having a few people share about what God had spoken to them through other people, the session ended. I was still in disbelief and wanted to hear what my squad mate had to say. After a few moments, he called me over and told me what the image was. It was insane but so accurately detailed at the same time. He told me that a month ago, his friend gave him a card that displayed a rope with the word ‘jump’ on it and it was telling him to leap out and take hold of what God had in store for him. Anyway, this was crazy. I was in shock. I’m still in shock. A part of me still doesn’t believe it actually happened but I believe that God does speak in different ways and if you are hungry for it and are willing to take a leap of faith and speak out for him, he can use you in crazy and powerful ways!
So I guess my question I was challenged with and continue to be challenged with is whether we are willing to speak out what God has spoken to us? Taking out the fear and selfishness, are we hungry to hear the voice of God and willing to join in His work to comfort and encourage each other and those who have yet to know him?
I’m definitely still learning but I’m excited to see how God can use me.
