I love standing the middle of traffic. It’s fun. It’s exhilarating. It makes me feel like I can do whatever I want. But, it’s not always the smartest (or safest) place to be. .
Why do we choose to stand in the middle of the road where we are unsafe, not truly in control, at the risk of others, and unable to hear any other voices coming from the sidewalk?
I like to be busy ALL the time. If I’m not busy, I feel like there is something wrong. That, for me, is what it means to be standing in the middle of traffic: always something going on, always on my toes, but not always keeping my ears open to what I truly NEED to hear.
The first two weeks in Thailand were focused primarily on being part of a Prayer and Intercession team. AKA: lots of time to simply sit in silence, pray……..
AND
The truth is, God is constantly trying to speak to us. A lot of us have trouble hearing His voice, or maybe have never heard His voice. But, my goodness, He IS SPEAKING!
Here’s a fun story to prove my point:
Before going on our prayer walks, our team always takes a brief period of time for “listening prayer”: popping on some soft instrumental music and asking the Holy Spirit to put whatever it is He wants us to know or pray into on our hearts.
One afternoon, our team was sitting outside in a park and I felt like God was trying to show me something. As I was sitting there in prayer, listening, God showed me a picture. He first showed me:
An older white gentleman, bald, wearing shorts, with tattoos
Second, I saw two dragons
Then I saw a Thai gentleman with a yellow shirt and a tan baseball cap.
……………………….
What the heck does all that mean?!
Maybe God was telling me to go and find these people?
Furthermore, my teammate, Lydia, felt like God was showing her a picture of butterflies as she was praying…
We winged it and started prayer walking up and down bar street, where our teams would go out later to ministry to the women (and men) involved in the sex trafficking that goes on here.
Then….out of nowhere…it happens…
I look across the street and see:
A TATTOO SHOP WITH TWO DRAGONS IN FRONT OF THE DOOR…
So, we walk inside and what do we find?
There is an older white gentleman standing inside…
And he’s wearing shorts, and he is bald!
AND AS THE ICING ON THE CAKE:
There’s a tattoo art book sitting wide open on the counter and what was all over the pages?
NOTHING BUT BUTTERFLIES!
Person #1 found! Exactly how I saw it in our prayer time!
We stayed and chatted with this man for about 25 minutes and found out a few other squad mates had met this man several days before too! And then they went back to the shop later and followed up with him again!
On our way back to our ministry site, I was sharing about how we didn’t find the other man I saw.
Not even 2 seconds later after mentioning that, Kelsey says:
“You mean THAT guy?”
Person #2 found! Exactly how he looked in my prayer time!
Due to language barrier (and admittedly shock), I began to wonder what on earth to do. The man was already on his way to his car with his family and so we simply prayed for him nearby at a table, trusting God would still hear us and show love on this man somehow.
So what did all this show me?
Did He show me so that we would pray for them? I don’t know
Did He show me so that we could simply encourage them? I don’t know
Or was it so that He could show me “HEY, I AM SPEAKING AND I WANT TO SHOW YOU THAT I AM SPEAKING!”? Quite possibly.
But I don’t know.
And that’s OK.
I learned #1 that it’s smart pray for specifics. Pray for what you are actually seeking after. I asked God to show me somebody and He showed me two very real people. Which leads me to:
Lesson #2: After praying for “said” person, ask God “why” that person. The beauty of it is that Holy Spirit will give you the right words to say and direct you in the way to go. I was so shocked that God had spoken, that I panicked when we actually saw these two men. But God did do something insanely significant that day, in my heart.
He reminded me that He is speaking if I simply get myself out of the middle of the street, away from all my distractions, and go to a higher place, where it’s just me and Him, and His voice is the only one I’m hearing.
Are you in a place where it’s easy to hear God’s voice or difficult?
James 4:8 clearly states “Draw near to God and He WILL draw near to YOU”.
I want to make every effort to get away from the street level distractions and climb onto the rooftops where I can hear the whisper of God, which is exactly where I wrote this as God put it on my heart: sitting on the rooftop in Chiang Mai Thailand.
(Read it out loud because IT IS spoken-word after all)
Chiang Mai City (Change My City)
Turn down the volume!
There’s no room for your mushroom clouds
Of supersonic phonics
Clinking and clanking of gin and tonics
Open bars to get the fix
Whatever does the trick
Perpetuating people lost in static
Horn induced mind-numbing traffic
IT ticks off my clock
When I can’t walk without your
Incessant gossip talk
The media feedin’ ya
Ins and outs
I wanna scream and shout
This news about a Kardashian
What latest fashion she in
Nobody wins!
But one’s selfish pride
The industry can never hide
We got it circulating
Meanwhile our blood’s coagulating
Waiting to feel some real deal of substance
You want this?
Come with me
Up off your feet
Step away from the street
Away from the hustle and bustle
“hey you need more muscle”
“Come with me on this shuttle”
“Find a honey you can cuddle”
“Sorry sweetie you need more make up”
“Child wake up!
Step through this door and ascend
Leaving the noise of pretend
I’ll lend you a lesson
Once you stop messing with the illusion of trickery
You’ll be living the true fantasy
All this time lost in confusion
So make way the intrusion!
To set flame the fusion
The collision of you and division
Is no task for His incision
Keep climbing the stairs
Leaving cares on ground floor
You never heard before
The entrance of silence
Removal of violence
Simplicity is innocence
Crescendos turn to a lifeless hum
No banging drum
Guitar strums
As the climbing increases
You’ll have your thesis
My extraction from my removal of distraction
Is you gotta take action!
You make the choice of who’s the louder voice
Above the windy roads and worry workloads
I’ve found it’s all the background
My walls have weakened
To the whisper of the wind
It’s occurred I’ve never heard
The bird whose purred on his perch
He lurched from the nest
Crying out “rest!”
For he knew what as best
And now I know
Which way to go
Up here I feel the sun glisten
Gotta be slow to speak
Quick to listen
Tell those taunting tempters
It’s tie to cease!
Cuz way up high
I find my peace
You gotta discover your role
With the lover of your soul
Keep dining higher and higher
Don’t settle for the first cheap buyer
Don’t dine with the devil
Bound at street level
Freedom’s found up on the roof
With the one and only living proof
Where you going to positioning YOURself?
