I’ve witnessed some pretty intense stuff since I signed up for the World Race. There was that time that I saw a girl with a broken foot dance across the stage at training camp, and the time that God healed my back by telling me to put my own hands on it…sheer madness. I gotta say, though, some of the craziest things I’ve seen have happened when God’s kids practice prophesying over each other.
It all started one night in Pretoria, South Africa. My team and the team we were with for the month got together for a night of worship and listening for God's voice on behalf of one other person in the group. Here's the spin on it, though; we didn't know who we were listening for. We each got a piece of paper with a name on it. The paper was folded up, and it was understood that we were not to look at the name until we all came back together to share what we'd heard.
I sat in the back of the room and started asking God what He wanted me to write down. He gave me a few words, and then said something that stopped my hand in its tracks. Certain I had made it up, I brushed away the thought and asked Him again. The same word came to my mind, with the conviction that He would tell me nothing else until I wrote down that word. I sighed, shook my head, and wrote it down.
When we came back together as a group, one by one we shared what we had heard with each other. I opened up the piece of paper and realized I had gotten my friend (and teammate) Lynette. I read her the first few words I'd gotten and then launched into a disclaimer. “I don't know why I heard this word, it could have just been me, but God wouldn't tell me anything else until I had written it down…”
“Unicorn?”
She stared at me for a second, and we all laughed. None of us thought anything of it until about a month later…
This time, we were in Swaziland. Lynette had been ministering to someone in particular that was really dear to her heart. One day, Lynette came to me. “You're not going to believe this. 'Unicorn' is one of [their] nicknames.”
my initial thought was, “no way.” my second thought was, “Of course.” and I was DEFINITELY not the only one who heard from God.
On both of the nights that we practiced hearing His voice in Pretoria, the people that got me heard different scriptures on my behalf…scriptures that were already recurring themes in my life. They heard words that, two months later, are only beginning to make sense. He has been faithful and so kind to encourage us through each other.
At the beginning of month two, one of my squad leaders actually told me that I hear God well (which was news to me.) It's been an adventure growing in that gift. I realized that He speaks WAY more often than we listen, and through so many different things. There is, of course, His word, against which we measure everything that we may hear from Him. But there's so much more. He speaks through songs, through “random” passages in books, through others encouragement, through ideas and nudges and images and dreams. I wonder how often we don't “hear” because we're not tuned in to the right channel.
How have you heard Him lately?
