One thing that God keeps bringing up to me is the importance of being able to hear His voice and know what it sounds like. My squad mentor gave an example the other day that was very helpful for me. She said that when your mom calls from a phone that doesn’t have caller I.D., you would still know her voice because you have spent your whole life listening to her and learning from her. This is how our relationship with God should be; we should know exactly what the voice of our Father sounds like. We should be able to know when it’s God speaking and when it is the devil speaking all because we have made it a goal of ours to spend time with our Father.
That example spoke so much to me because I was reminded the prime reason why I didn’t think I was hearing the voice of God. God may have been speaking to me all my life, and yes of course I have heard Him at times because how else would I be on the World Race Gap Year. However, I always get frustrated because when I sit down to intentionally hear His voice, I get my thoughts confused with His voice and sometimes it is never really clear to me.
However, the race has already been a whirlwind for me! I love the intentionally that Adventures in Missions puts on hearing the voice of God. We have spent lots of time learning about hearing God’s voice and putting it into practice in different ways. I have been prayed over with strong prayers about breaking off any doubt and shame from thinking I wasn’t hearing God’s voice and everyone else was. Also, we have sat in silence as a team to hear the voice of God and we have worshipped together and praised God for speaking to us. It has been a week full of learning and some of frustration on my side, but is has been so rewarding as well. When you continue to work toward something with God, He will continue to reveal things to you that you have been waiting to hear for a long time.
One way that I have really heard the voice of God this week is through reading Job. In Job, I read about a lot of things that I have been working with this week with God. These things are:
-Patience (Job 4:2, Job 4:5, Job 21:4b)
-My first reaction being worship instead of my last resort (Job 1:20)
-Fearing Him — “Respect or reverence” (Job 1:1, Job 1:8, Job 1:9, Job 2:3, Job 4:6, Job 28:28, Job 30:26)
–Having integrity — “Being whole and undivided, honest and having strong moral principles” (Job 2:3, Job 2:9, Job 4:6, Job 31:6)
–Speaking when He tells me to (Job 4:2, Job 32:20, Job 36:2b)
–Seeking Him (Job 5:8, Job 7:21b, Job 11:7 — LOVE THIS ONE — “Can you find out the deep things of God? Can you find out the limit of the Almighty?”)
–Realizing that God is not going to break anything without the intention of restoring it (Job 5:18, Job 6:9, Job 10:8)
–Not going astray (Job 6:24, Job 15:11-13 — “Are the comforts of God too small for you, or the word that deals gently with you? Why does your heart carry you away, and why do your eyes flash, that you turn your spirit against God and bring such words out of your mouth?”, Job 23:11-12)
-Preparing my heart for hard times and not thinking I am entitled (Job 11:13)
-Praising God more than the creatures of the earth. I have so much more inside of me than they do, so why can I not worship my creator much more? (Job 12:7-9 — “But ask the bests, and they will teach you (HOW TO WORSHIP)” — Why should the beasts teach us how to worship OUR creator?, Job 37:1-18)
–Giving God silence in order to speak and teach me (Listening) (Job 5:27, Job 13:13, Job 15:8, Job 33:31-33, Job 34:2, Job 34:10, Job 34:16, Job 34:34, Job 36:10-12, Job 42:4)
–Cultivating an overwhelming amount of hope (Job 14:7, Job 17:15)
–Letting the words of God be my comfort and not everything that I usually lean into (Job 21:2)
–Keep listening (Job 13:17, Job 21:2)
–Knowing that God adores us way more than He adores the power that He has (Job 23:6).
–Being hungry (Job 23:12)
Along with all of these lessons from Job, God has kept bringing up the word reconciliation to me. At training camp, my team leader, Taylor, gave me a piece of paper with the word reconciliation on it and the verse 2 Corinthians 5:16-21. Before she even knew me, she prayed for me and God gave her this word for me. The verse says,
“From now on, therefore, we regard no one according to the flesh. Even though we once regarded Christ according to the flesh, we regard him thus no longer. Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. All this is from God, who through Christ reconciled us to himself and gave us the ministry of reconciliation; that is, in Christ God was reconciling the world to himself, not counting their trespasses against them, and entrusting to us the message of reconciliation. Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. For our sake he made him to be sin who knew no sin, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”
The way that I have defined this word in my life so far is the reconciliation that God is calling me to between Him and I. I have been living my Christian life according to the ways of the world for too long and He wants all of me. He wants me to know His voice and to know my value because I know Him.
Last thing I want to mention is the progress that I am having with hearing God’s voice and the excitement that I have gotten from hearing Him even just a little bit. Today, our leader Luis led a devotion on hearing God’s voice through things that He has spoken to us previously. We were supposed to ask God what part of the Bible He wanted us to look back on and restudy the things we have highlighted. When I asked God what He wanted me to look through, the chapter Job kept running through my head. So, I turned to Job which I just studied this past week and highlighted a ton of stuff. I looked through and God opened my eyes to deeper revelations of things that I highlighted before. The one thing that really spoke to me was Job 6:24 which says, “Teach me, and I will be silent; make me understand how I have gone astray.” I immediately thought, I should ask God how I have gone astray. So, I asked Him and I was expectant. I asked Him, “What did I do to go astray? What can I do to come back? He said, “You let the ways fo the world envelop you. To come back, spend time with me. Be intentional; seek me out and sit with me.” Then, He wasn’t done. Luis asked if anyone wanted to share what they heard. My heart started beating really fast. I told God, “Okay, Okay, I will share. Just please calm my heart so I can focus and not be nervous.” He immediately started to calm my heart beat. I waited a little bit and then I shared. This moment was really encouraging to me because God was working with me on obedience and He knew what I needed.
I am learning so much about my relationship with God already. He is really working with me and making sure that I know that all that He wants is for me to be patient and stick with Him.
