From Holy Spirit you are welcome here; to set a fire down in my soul describes training camp for me in the best way possible. The whole week there was a lot of talk about the Holy Spirit and hearing words and seeing vision from God. Yes, I am talking about prophecy. If you were to ask me a few weeks ago if I have ever heard God’s voice or seen someone be healed I would have said no and thought you had a little bit of crazy in you. That is all starting to change for me.
One of the first nights at training camp they were talking about letting yourself be filled with the Holy Spirit. I was standing there worshiping with chills from being cold, in a matter of seconds the chills stopped and I just started crying. I didn’t know where the tears were coming from but I couldn’t stop them. At the end of this night I was still confused about this whole prophecy thing and wondering if the world race was right for me since I didn’t understand how to make it all click.
A couple days later a world race alumni spoke on prophecy and was telling us that if we let it happen and truly listen to God any words of encouragement are from him to share with others. It was starting to make sense but I was still nervous about it. Next she had us practice the use of prophecy. This was an “oh crap” moment for me. I was frustrated with God and myself for not understanding why I wasn’t getting these words to give to people from the Lord. I had voiced these frustrations with a fellow squad-mate during this exercise and she had been going through the same thing, along with a few other squad-mates. It was a sign of relief that I wasn’t the only one feeling this way.
The next day I told God that I was going to lay my frustrations aside and trust in His timing. That night it started to click. I allowed myself to trust that any positive words that came to my mind about my fellow squad-mates were from the Holy Spirit. I started to share these words with prayer over them. The whole night it was like a light switch that couldn’t be turned off. I would say this was my favorite night at training camp. I danced, laughed, cried, and worshiped. I learned to listen for God to speak and to trust the Holy Spirit within me.
Now that I have been home for a couple of weeks, I am still trying to figure out what prophecy looks like in daily living. While I still have more questions than I do answers I am beginning to understand. Just last week, I was reading “Love Does” by Bob Goff and got to the chapter titled Hearing Aids. It was about learning to listen to what people; more specifically God has to tell you. As I was reading, it was like the Holy Spirit began speaking to my heart. I realized that I need to spend more time actively listening and not as much time talking. Reading what Bob had to say about being a better listener gave me a sense of encouragement about prophecy and just understanding the way God works all together.
I know that the world race is what I am supposed to do. I also know that I will continue to learn about my God and to not doubt my relationship with him as not enough. Not only am I learning to listen but also I am learning to follow!
