As most of you know, a few years before going on the World Race, I went on a Passport (college age) trip with the same missions organization. One of my absolute biggest takeaways from that summer was learning to hear the voice of God. This is something that I have hinted at and maybe talked about a little bit, but I’ve decided to share with you what I’ve learned because it will change your life.
God, the God who holds the universe in the palm of his hand and calls every star by name, the God who hand paints every sunset and chooses the colors of every flower, the God who is everlasting yet never changing, that God wants to talk to you.
Most churches will acknowledge the movement of the Holy Spirit in some way. We’ve probably all heard phrases like “prayer is a conversation” and “relationship goes both ways.” Well that’s nice enough to say, but how often do you ask a question in prayer and wait until you hear an answer? Seriously think about it. You may think that you’re having conversational prayer, but when do you stop and listen, genuinely expecting God to answer?
Many times I think we limit the power of the Holy Spirit to impressions. We have “gut feelings” or ideas from the Lord. God absolutely speaks to us in those ways. He uses people and ideas and song lyrics and gut feelings to speak to us. But there is so much more.
God speaks to us through:
Scripture
Other People
Events (Genesis 50:20)
Impressions (This could also be referred to as “gut feelings.”)
Audibly (1 Samuel 3:7-11, 1 Kings 19:11)
Inwardly (Also known as the voice in your head that is not your own. 1 Samuel 23:2)
Visions (Daniel 8:1)
Dreams (gen. 37:5)
Demonstrations of Power
Special Ways (Remember that burning bush?! Exodus 3:4)
For a lot of us on the Race, God speaks to us inwardly. As weird as it may seem, we’ve learned to still our mind and listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying. We’ve practiced discernment over and over to be able to distinguish that still small voice from our own thoughts and also the thoughts of the enemy.
God also speaks through visions. We ask God (yes, you can ask God to speak to you) for pictures and words and images. We specifically do this when we have an Ask the Lord (ATL) ministry day. We pray and ask the Lord what he wants to do through us, and we listen for an answer. We see pictures of houses or hear a direction or see a certain color clothing.
Last week, my team did just that. We prayed and listened for what God had for us. I saw a picture of a woman in a wheelchair. I knew exactly who it was. (A week before, Stephanie and I passed this woman on our walk home from the beach. She waved and was very friendly.) I shared what I saw, but I did not mention that I knew who it was. To confirm what the Lord has spoken, I waited for Stephanie to put the pieces together. Alex saw a picture of the beach, so the 3 of us started waking in that direction.
After walking for several minutes, Stephanie exclaimed, “I bet who you saw was that woman from the other day! And we’re walking toward her house!” It was confirmed, so now we knew exactly where we were going.
I don’t know why I expected her to be sitting outside like she was that one day. I looked at my friends and said, “I have no game plan” as I knocked on the door. A pre-teen girl answered the door. I asked if her mom or grandmother was home. She went to a back room and wheeled the woman who was her aunt into the living room. She invited us in to sit.
We made small talk for a while. Her name is Elena. We talked about our trip, and we found out that she was Catholic. After a while, it my best Spanish, I told her that I saw her picture when I was praying and I felt like the Lord sent me to her. I then asked if she had anything we could pray for. She sat in silence for a few moments (probably thinking that she had allowed a crazy person into her house) before she spoke. She mentioned that there was a sick person in the other room who we could pray for.
I expected it to be her husband or someone who wasn’t feeling well. What we found was a 21 year old girl, Nare, who had very severe cerebral palsy. It was clear that she did not receive any physical therapy because her arms and legs were permanently curled up. We talked to her and prayed for her. Before we left, I had the idea of singing to her. The 3 of us sang a few songs, and she completely lit up. She was smiling from ear to ear and was trying to sing along.
We went back to visit them on our last day. We took Elena some cupcakes and a Gospel tract, and we sang more songs to Nare. We had an amazing opportunity to show love and bring joy to this family because we listened to what God had to say.
Hear me when I say this, friends, this is not a once in a lifetime or an only for certain people occurrence. God is ready to speak to you. He has so much to say if you are willing to listen. It helps to ask specific questions. Also a lot of people use journals. Write the question in your journal in one color, and then write what you perceive to be the Lord’s voice in a different color. This is a safe way to practice your discernment. Like any other spiritual discipline, it takes practice. The more you listen to the Lord, the easier you will be able to hear Him. We may have been quenching the Holy Spirit without even meaning to. Take a leap today and listen.
* This blog barely even skims the surface of what I’ve learned about listening prayer. If you have more questions, please reach out to me. A resource I highly reccomend is The Art of Listening Prayer by Seth Barnes.
