The other day I realized how I talk to God and how each person has a similar but different way of talking to God. I never thought telling other people how I talked to Papa would help anyone else, until it did. I used to struggle to hear the voice of God or even know what it sounded like or if you could actually hear Him speak clearly. I thought it had to be some divine, insane, bold, neon sign for it to be the Lord. As I grew in the Lord, I started to realize it’s not about how much you “pray” but more importantly how much you listen because if you didn’t already know this, the Lord is always speaking and it’s just weather or not we’re listening or not. I also went through this stage in my walk with the Lord where I thought I only heard from the Lord in a church setting, in worship, or something super “spiritual” had to be happening around me for me to hear His voice but the truth is, that’s bull crap. You can hear from the Lord anytime you shut up and listen. The reason I was only hearing Him in a “spiritual” setting was because that was the only time in my week I was actually listening.
I went through another faze in my walk with the Lord where I showed up to church every time expecting the pastor to deliver Gods word to me and tell me what Jesus has been saying and believe it or not that’s not the pastors job. I was trying to live out my relationship with the Lord through my pastor and my youth pastor. The Lord wants to do His own work in YOU and give you your own word. The pastor has His own walk with Jesus and you have yours. Walk in yours, daily. You have to seek out time with the Father daily. I had to learn to pick up my heavy cross daily and die to myself. Reminding myself every second that this life, this thing we do everyday is actually not about me. It’s not about what I want. It’s not my money, It’s not my stuff, and guess what, it’s not even my breath, it’s all His and it all came from Him. Once I started to realize that my relationship with the Lord sky rocketed.
Growing closer to the Lord, spending more one on one time with Him, I started to hear Him other times but it was still a struggle and it was still hard for me to trust that voice I “thought” I was hearing. Also, sadly I didn’t have anyone guiding me through the processes of hearing the voice of God. I went to a Christian school from 5th grade till I graduated high school but they didn’t teach us about hearing our Fathers voice. Critical to your relationship to with the Lord by the way. Another reason why Papa told me to write this blog because He wants to talk to us all the time. He wants to hear about your day. He wants to remind you who you are in Him and how much He loves you daily. He pursues us every second of every minute and He just asks us to listen. The God if the universe wants to talk to YOU. He wants to love YOU. He just asks for us to let Him do it.
Maybe around a year ago, I connected the fact that I love to write and the fact that Jesus loves to speak to me when I write. So I started writing down what He was saying because there is a night and day difference when you hear what the Father is saying to you and when you write down what He is saying. It allows you to look back on it when it comes to pass or when Papa uses other people to affirm it. I understand the feelings and expressions behind His words better. I write out His punctuation, which is wayyyy better then mine. He’s a much better speller then me. He’s a poet. The way He articulates His sentences, the way He addresses me, and how He responds to exactly what I ask. Maybe not how I want Him too or maybe not what I wanted to hear and definitely hard stuff sometimes. Maybe asking me to do things I don’t want to do but it definitely makes it harder to dismiss what He’s asking you to do if your staring at it on a piece of paper instead of just hearing it and then forgetting later that day. I started to recognize what He sounds like. Sometimes I get a sassy, sarcastic response, sometimes a loving, caring, warming response, and then I get a stern, bold, direct response like when your mom’s said it the second time but hasn’t gone to the third yet. When you hear your earthly fathers voice you recognize it because you’ve heard it a majority of your life. If your dad calls you from a random phone number and you pick up it’s not going to take long until you to recognize his voice and mannerisms. That’s the same way with your heavenly Father but for some of you it’s been a long time since you’ve heard His voice if you’ve ever heard it before. “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow Me.” (John 10:27) Well good news, your Father is waiting on you and He’s speaking, He’s been speaking and it is time to listen. “Call to me and I will answer you. I’ll tell you marvelous and wondrous things that you could never figure out on your own.” (Jeremiah 33:3)
After doing this for the past couple of months, I started writing and talking less and less and He started talking more and more. Taking up pages and pages when I only said 2 sentences. Hearing His voice is the best thing about being a daughter of the King. Knowing He cares and actively pursues me daily every second. It doesn’t matter what it is, He cares, He’ll speak into it, and give you direction when you literally have no clue what you’re doing. (That would be me 90% of the time.) My Papa blows my mind daily and it never gets old. His voice never gets monotone, His humor never goes dry, His eloquent words are never boring. His mercy is new every morning and His pursuit of you and I never ends. “What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived—the things God has prepared for those who love Him.” (1 Corinthians 2:9)
