If there is one thing that has been impressed upon my mind and heart this year, through my daily devotions, World Race Leadership, through meeting Christian brothers and sisters all around the world & hearing their stories…it has to be my realization of the exciting art of hearing and obeying the voice of God. I call it an art because it has a ways to be developed and refined in my own life, but boy has it been exciting to witness and read about it in other peoples lives.
This practice of Christian commitment and faithfulness really looks and sounds like craziness in comparison to the world’s way of doing things. The world encourages the safe, totally logical and financially beneficial method of making a decision or completing a task. In contrast, Christ never said it would be easy… he actually promised we’d have to carry our own kind of cross if we choose to follow him (Lk 9:23)! That might mean not living like our investor, popular culture or even our Aunt Sandra prescribe.
At our present apartment, in eastern Ukraine (30 min from the Russian border!) I picked up a book by Loren Cunningham, entitled “Is that Really You God? An Adventure in Hearing and Obeying the Voice of God”. The book goes on to describe the humble beginnings of a boy (Loren) who had a vision of waves of young people moving across the continents announcing the Good News of Jesus Christ to the whole earth. We have partnered with this organization from Cambodia to the Ukraine and have totally come to respect their organizational vision and individualized hospitality. You might recognize the name YWAM (Youth With A Mission).
Our amazing contacts in Malawi, Jose and Naara gave up the comforts of functioning in their own culture and the security of family and a good paying job in Chile because of the simple fact that they heard God’s voice. They li
ved in a hard top trailer for the first year, trying to adjust to the extremely different culture, making scary treks to the outhouse at night (scary not just for the African wildlife everywhere but for the outhouse itself) and now they find themselves living in a beautiful, lakeside house…rent free! Heidi Baker, an average, middle-class woman from Laguna Beach, California could not ignore the tugging at her heart to care for “the one” in front of her on her first trip to Mozambique back in 1995, and now IRIS Ministries has goals of caring for 1 million of these “ones” all over the world in the next few years.
I could quote numerous examples from scripture where men and women of faith obeyed God (against all odds and at the verge of being considered very, very crazy): Noah, Abraham, Moses, Samuel, Gideon, the prophets…but the cost of these peoples obedience to God pales in comparison to Jesus Christ himself. “For just as through one man’s disobedience the many were made sinners, so also through one man’s obedience the many will be made righteous”. (Romans 5:19) But how did they hear from God?
Call it a gut instinct, a stirring in your heart or the Holy Spirit, but I’m sure you’ve all had times when some word, idea or practical thing to do just sat right with you. For other Biblical and present day believers, God spoke through visions, dreams and certain words from the Bible. Option A – ignore that beating in your heart or dream and rationalize it away as impulsive and irresponsible (yet in all likelihood, God will place a similar opportunity in your path in the future) or Option B – embrace that stirring and be amazed at the confirmations you receive (though there may be other steps of faith to take as you move in that confirmed direction). That’s obedience!
This brings me to my and Lindsay’s next step of obedience. Don’t worry friends and family, it is not some huge, life calling that’ll send us away from you indefinitely, but I’m sure it will be an important and significant launching pad for what God has for us next. As we’ve been obedient to past impressions from God to go to China to teach, to date each other and then get married, to join LBCF, etc. and as God has totally provided for all of our needs, we trust that our future is in His hands as well.
Starting this January, we will be attending a Leadership Academy in Mijas, Spain called G42. For six months we will be living in community and taking classes such as: “Character and Discipline”, “Church Planting”, “Kingdom Eschatology”, “Servanthood and 3 weeks of a Practicum where we will be putting what we’re learning into practice. It is a relatively new school directed by a wise man who happens
to be on the board of directors for AIM, has been a spiritual mentor to many Godly folks and sees this school as his fatherly finale. We encourage you to check out the G42 website carefully.many lives this year as we have without your faithful support.
