ATL is a commonly used phrase for the World Race. It literally means: Ask The Lord. John 10:3-5 states, “The gatekeeper opens it for him, and the sheep hear his [God’s] voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. When he has brought all his own outside, he goes ahead of them. The sheep follow him because they know his voice. They will never follow a stranger; instead they will run away from him, because they don’t know the voice of strangers.” Ask the Lord indeed is based off of both John 10:3-5, but also the passage of ‘The Good Shepard’ in Psalms 23. Ask the Lord is a time of acknowledging that the Lord speaks to us, but also seeking, practicing, listening, and discerning what the Lord puts on our hearts.
I’ve had ups and downs with ATL. Sometimes I have pretty good days where nothing that extraordinary happens, but I get to simply love other people. While I’ve also had other times where I feel as if the Lord might have put something on my heart and it doesn’t work out as I’d imagined; leaving me discouraged or disappointed. Even though I have good and not so good days of ATL, the Lord is teaching me a lot about what hearing His voice means and the impact of acting on His words has to those around me. I wanted to write this blog to not only encourage and challenge you to seek the Lord’s voice in your life, but to also write what I’m learning about it from my experience to help future races. Here are just a few things that I’m learning about it:
- We all hear the Lord’s voice in different ways. God can speak to us through scripture, songs, people, writing, ideas, creativity, nature, words, visions, and so on. There’s so many avenues that the Lord can speak to us through! The Lord speaks to me through writing, ideas, words, visions, and creativity. I’ve had encounters where the Lord has spoken to me in other ways too, but for the most part that’s how the Lord speaks to me. In this process of learning how the Lord speaks to me I’ve also realized that the way the Lord speaks to me is almost always different than the way that the Lord speaks to my teammates. God is a God of intentionality, intimacy, and relationship. Therefore, He speaks to us in ways we would best understand Him and that we could relate to. So if the Lord speaks to you in a different way than others or even in ways that I haven’t mentioned above praise the Lord! He’s speaking and using you to be His hands and feet in the world in a completely different way!
- ATL isn’t always about the big stuff. The Lord loves to work in the small things as much as He likes to work in the big things. Hearing the Lord’s voice and doing His work isn’t complicated. It’s just the simple act of loving someone the way the Father so dearly loves us. One of the sweetest memories from ATL that I have is when my team and I decided to do flower ministry. I love flower ministry! Basically, we just bought a bouquet of flowers and hand out individual flowers to people on the street in downtown San Jose. You should have seen people’s faces! Both men and women alike were delighted to receive a flower. Even at the end of the day, I still saw a few of those same people with the flower that we gave them still in their hands. It’s the sweetest and simplest thing! It amazes me that a simple flower can make someone’s day. It just goes to show that God likes to work in the small things just as much as the big things. Sometimes even in the little things, like a flower, it can be a big thing for someone else and we may never know it.
- Expect the Lord to speak or show up, but don’t expect the Lord to work in the way that we want Him to work. That is definitely easier said than done! Although, I’ve learned that when I expect the Lord to work in the way I want Him to I’m not only limiting Him, but I’m also limiting my spirit and myself (since my identity is found in Him). Yes, the Lord wants us to expect Him to show up and dare to get our hopes up, but at the same time not having an expectation of how and when He will work. That isn’t our job. Our job is to simply come to Him with ourselves and have faith that He will show up sometime someway. That’s it! Now that the Lord has revealed this to me I’ve also realized that when I expect Him to work the way I want Him to I put a pressure on myself that is not my burden to carry, I get disappointed, and I’m distracted from what the Lord is really doing.
- ATL is an everyday life ordeal. I don’t have to go out of my way necessarily and plan times of doing ATL. Instead, I can be apart of God’s work wherever I’m at. Usually, the day and time of ATL on the race is planned out for us so that we can practice listening to the Lord as well as act upon what He put on our hearts. Although I’m so thankful that I have that time on the race, I’ve also realized that the reality is that we aren’t going to have that set time to practice listening to the Lord nor are we going to have groups of people to do ATL with us after the race. So, I’ve been trying to practice ATL on my own with the Lord and listening to what the Lord puts on my heart to do so that I can bless those around me. One prime example of that is when I was working in the front office in Malaysia. (I did write about this more in detail in a previous blog called ‘Our Heart for Refugees’, but I also want to explain how it pertains to ATL). When my team and I were in Malaysia we all had different jobs. One half of the month I was in a little room keying information into the database in the front office. While I was in there the Lord put it on my heart to play Christian music out loud and sing even though it was a closed country. So, I did! Then He went a step further and asked me to move furniture, write down Bible verses and prayers, and stick it behind the furniture. Soon enough I had so many sticky notes all over the wall behind the filing cabinet right next to me! God taught me that part of my month in Malaysia that this is what it looks like to fight for these people in love and how to do the Lord’s work in everyday life in a closed country. My friends, we don’t always have to go out of our way to do the Lord’s work. Many times, the Lord’s work can be done right where we are in everyday life.
- ATL is about God and not about me. It requires complete reliance, trust, boldness, and belief in what the Father puts on our hearts. Not going to lie, but sometimes ATL can being embarrassing or scary, especially going up to someone who doesn’t speak the same language as you. It’s uncomfortable, but then again how can we be comforted by the comforter (The Holy Spirit) if we aren’t stepping out into the uncomfortable? In the uncomfortable I’ve been able to grow my relationship with the Lord more and more. Then because of our reliance on the Lord, He is able to shine through us and show His glory to others because we are relying on His strength alone. Friends, it’s the sweetest thing to let go and let God do His thing. It’s the sweetest thing to rely, trust, believe, and step out in boldness for the sake of Christ. It’s the sweetest thing to make it about Him and not me because in the end the Lord doesn’t need us to do His work, but He so graciously chooses to do so anyways! What an honor that is!
- ATL is a process that involves the whole body of Christ, not just one part. One of the coolest experience that I have ever had in ATL was just recently. My team and I went to downtown Tres Rios, Costa Rica to do ATL. When we got there we decided to sit on one of the stone park benches and see where the Lord leads us from there. As I sat there, one of the girls on my team saw a lady, named Mia, that she had met from the week before. My teammate, the translator, and I talked to her. As we talked to her the Lord gave me an idea to invite her to be apart of our ATL. So, I asked her if she had any ideas of how we can bless her community. She mentioned that she had a friend, named Lela, from Honduras that has two kids. Lela’s husband works on a coffee farm and lately someone has been stealing their coffee. Therefore, he has been losing his pay (since the workers get payed by the kilogram or pound). She also mentioned that not only does her friend Lela need prayers, but so does that community of people who are working in the coffee plantations because most of them are refugees and outcasts in this community. After telling us all about her friend, Mia decided to call Lela right then and there to see if she could met with us next week in order for us to pray over and met her. Not long after she got off the phone we had to leave. Even though we had to leave I was still excited that we now have a contact with a Costa Rican local who knows where the need is in her country. I told our base host everything that happened and she mentioned that she will try to see if we can do ministry there. Next thing I knew, my base host went with the next group of people from my squad to do ATL. You know what happened? The next group met Mia at the park! Guess who was right there sitting next to her? Yep you guessed it, Lela! Apparently, after we left Lela came to met Mia at the park and Mia told her what happened. Well my squadmates who went to the park after us got to pray over Lela, meet her, get more information about doing ministry there, and even buy some of the crafts that Lela makes in order to make some extra money for her family. It meant so much to Lela and Mia that they got to be prayed over, involved in the Lord’s work, encouraged, loved, etc. It was the coolest thing! It also reminded me that doing the Lord’s work isn’t just an individual thing, it includes and needs the whole body. One person plants, the other harvests, the other removes rocks, and God does the growing! It was an honor to be apart of the process, see how God used all of us in the body to impact these two ladies, and to now have an opportunity to impact their community as well.
- ATL does make a difference even when we don’t see it. A couple of weeks ago the Lord put on my heart to bring chalk to Tres Rios during our time of ATL. For the longest time I’ve been wanting to share my artistic abilities to advance the gospel and show love to others. Specifically, I’ve had it on my heart and mind to paint or draw a mural of some sort. Once we got to Tres Rios I saw these grand brick steps leading up to the center of the park. Before you can walk up the steps there was this big vacant brick area just for walking and hanging out. That’s when I had this idea. My teammate and I grabbed the chalk and started to create a mural on the ground right below the steps! The mural was based off of the vision that our base host had from the Lord. He saw a picture of a red cross with the sun coming up behind it. So, that’s what we drew. We drew a giant red cross with the sun coming up behind it, a water fall, and mountains. It had some encouraging phrases in Spanish right above it and even though it wasn’t perfect, it was beautiful! As some people walked by they made comments of how beautiful it was and how much they loved it, but I didn’t actually get to see how it impacted them. Then the next week when we visited that same park it was still there just how we left it. I don’t know if it actually touched someone’s soul, if it was an encouragement to others, or how the Lord used that. Although, I do know that is what the Lord put on my heart so I’m trusting that even though I didn’t see the impact it had I know that the Lord will be true to His promises and use what He puts on my heart to advance the gospel.
- We practice listening to the Lord’s voice and act upon it because we love the Lord and His people. My first encounter with ATL was when I was in Thailand. Every Thursday we would walk the streets of the red light district. As we walked we would pray and if we felt led to, we would go into the bars and talk to these women. It was scary, intimidating, and nerve wrecking for sure. Yet for me, I loved it. At first, I didn’t think we were making that big of an impact in that area. That is until the Lord showed me a new perspective. He reminded me that the reason why I walk down those streets every week and pray for the women, men, bar owners, etc was because I love the Lord so much to practice listening to Him. Then because of my love for him I’m also able to love His people too by praying over them. I learned a lot from the simple act of being a prayer warrior in love.
The Lord is still teaching me what ATL is and how to hear His voice, but I just wanted to share some of these things with you all! I wanted to celebrate with you in the things that the Lord has done, but also encourage all of you to seek the Lord’s voice as well. I know we can all hear Him in new ways. I know God wants to use all of us in different ways to do His work and it all starts with the simple act of praying and listening!
