Journal Entry Week Two: Hearing God's Voice

Let me just begin by giving SO much praise to Jesus for how much He’s blessed me. Last night I spent about an hour going through pictures on my computer with Heidi. She was asking about Scotty and we were going through some pictures and next thing you know I’m going through pictures from years and years ago of all my family and friends and as I’m talking about them I realize how much God has truly honestly blessed me beyond what I could ask for. I have an amazing man who loves me almost as much as He loves Jesus. And we know that God made us for each other. And neither one of us ever had to go through the pain of dating someone else and then losing a part of ourselves in someone that didn’t have a right to take it. God truly guarded our hearts as He has continued to do in this time apart. He’s given us an extraordinary pure love story of our own as we’ve let Him guide our relationship.

And I have this incredible amazing family with parents that ( I know it sounds lame) I couldn’t be more proud of. They are a stone pillar in our family. They raised us all with a fear of the Lord, teaching us to have personal relationships with God in a way that they had never been raised themselves. God’s so good to bring them to that point and they’re so great to listen to His voice in raising us. And then to let God take control of our lives as we’ve gotten older. If I go to them with any sort of issue or ideas or anything like they, they’ll pray, give me their opinion as to what God’s saying, and then say “you’re an adult, you have the Holy Spirit, go do what God is telling you no matter what our opinion is.” That’s a very rare thing to find in parents.

And finally, aside from all my wonderful and encouraging friends that God has given me, the next most influential person in my life was Jenny Savoy. I’m realizing more and more how much of a blessing it was getting to learn from her. If you have any sort of relationship with her, you’ve taken on a crash course in hearing God’s voice that’s anything but typical. She taught me that every decision I make, not the just big ones, need to have God’s guidance. She taught me how to recognize it and determine what’d my voice, the voice of the enemy, or the voice of my Savior. This is a big deal considering I’m the most indecisive person I know. With God, it’s easy to listen. It’s not always easy to recognize, but it easy to hand it over to Him and listen for what He has to say.

That being said, this week (Hearing the voice of God) was not so much of a stretch for me. Jason was a great speaker, and I’m not saying I didn’t get anything out of it, but there was a lot that wasn’t really new to me. That being said, even though I’ve been taught how to recognize my Father’s voice and how to listen for it, God took it to a whole new level this week.

God has always spoken to me by given me a peace. For instance, if I have a decision to make and there are two different choices, I pray about each choice and if I can picture one of them and it’s nothing, and then I picture the other and I just feel this peace in my heart, I know that it’s God. I also hear him that way in different situations where He’s telling me to do something, like pray for someone on the spot. If I picture myself leaving without doing whatever he’s telling me and I don’t have a peace, I know that I need to do it. Does that make sense? It’s kind of heard to explain.

This “strategy” so to speak has brought me to some pretty awesome people and situations this week. I got to meet Grant, a contractor from Brisbane and pray over hum and his team ( he’s was beaming afterwards. lol it was cool). I met Louie, a 90 year old man prom Portugal. I got to hear a little about his life and how he came to the Sunny Coast to “finish”. I talked to him a little about Jesus and encouraged him to think about where he goes when he “finishes” his time here. I hope I bump into him again soon so I can actually pray with him instead of just talk. I got to meet Will, this awesome old surfer who chills out at the skate park. We watched him collide with a biker and hurt his wrist that has had issues for years. After talking to him, he started to walk home and Andreas thought the same thing as me: “man I wish we could have prayed for him.” So I looked at Andreas and went… ok! And sprinted after Will until I caught him and the other guys came over and we got to pray over his wrist. He said that was the nicest thing anyone’s done for him in a long time. This morning he was back at the skate park saying he was painting last night (he’s an artist) and it didn’t give him as much trouble as it normally does. He was like, man I hope you Christians are around next time I smash my face or something. It was so awesome!!

But one of my favorite stories of seeing God come through this week was going to the skate park with Jared to just take a few pictures. I planned on being there for a couple minutes or so, not long, and ended up staying 2-3 hours just hanging out with some of the skate guys around the park. They did some of their best tricks so I could take some pictures and we got to talk and start building relationships. It was awesome, cause God really put these guys on my heart, so Ryan let me switch over to the weekly skate ministry instead of the youth group that I was working in. I’m so excited!! I’m nervous, I know it’s going to be a big stretch for me, but I know that’s where God wants me. I have that peace. =]

HOWEVER.

This is not the way God has been stretching me with hearing His voice this week. He’s brought this whole new level to it in my life. While I normally just hear him by having that peace, lately He’s been having straight up conversations with me. It’s AMAZING.

I love relationships with people. I love my team here and I love being ministered to and being able to minister to them in prayer and such. But lately when those opportunities have come up in lectures or during worship, God has been bringing me to him by myself. And it has been some of the sweetest times I’ve had with my Father. I can feel Him there and we just… sit and talk. I don’t even realize it’s happening sometimes. But I can look back in my journal and you’ll see a question or something I’m bringing before God and then His response, and then my response and then His. It’s just been this incredible time of closeness and romance that I’ve never experienced before. I’m getting to spend close time with my Dad and he’s been taking advantage of it.

Jason talked about this a little bit in lectures. While a lot of it was very basic, he really brought it back to the fact that God is relational. When Adam and Eve sinned in the garden, THEY hid. God pursued them. Community with God was meant to be a simple conversation. We can sit here and talk all day and talk talk talk talk but if we don’t shut up, how are we supposed to expect to hear him? Or quite the opposite, a lot of us just say “ok God, speak. Go ahead. Hello? Tell me something.” Like… snap our fingers and expect God to just… say something. If you tried that with a friend, you think that would work?

One thing that Jason said that stuck with me was the fact that one of the first steps in hearing God’s voice and guidance is to be willing to do what He says before we know what the answer is. We can’t just be like… “Ok God, tell me the answer and then I’ll see if I wanna do it.” We have to be willing to say “Ok. I’m going to do whatever it is that you have for me. Speak Lord, for your servant is listening.”

So that’s how the Lord has been stretching me this week through lecture.

Let’s see… what else am I supposed to include in here? Um…

Small Groups- You guys are awesome. I seriously love those times getting to share how it’s affecting each person and how the lectures are applicable when we go back. Not just here and not just classes and homework, but in real life.

Worship- AWESOME. Our spontaneous time of worship in the park Tuesday night needs to be like… weekly. It’s so great drawing closer to God like that. I love worship. Monday and Friday mornings are definitely high points in my week. God has really been showing up in our worship as we gather together and it’s cool to sometimes shut my eyes and worship and then when I open my eyes I forget where I am. =]

Intercession- still such a growth thing in me. God’s really been putting that in my heart to grow and really step out in intercession. The session that we had for the persecuted church really struck my heart, more than the others I think. God just really gave me a heart for them and to really cover them in prayer. So often we forget the trials that our brothers and sisters are going through. We think of trials as not being able to make rent this week, but so many believers are soaking up the word of God by candle light praying that no one finds them. They are being beaten and tortured and killed for their faith, all the while witnessing to their persecutors. And they pray for us. Can we just sit back and not cover them with our own prayers? We can fight that battle with them. We can enter in and cry out to God. How can we simply forget?

1-on-1 – I love you Whit! I’m so excited to be on your outreach team. Our lunches are awesome and I’m so stoked to get to spend more time with you. It’s cool to be able to like… talk things over and process everything with you. And then just relax and kinda chill out. There’s no feeling of pressure or anything to talk, you know? I love them. =]

Reading progress- Finished the Loren Cunningham book! Woohoo! I loved it. And I’m a little behind still on the Bible reading, but I think I’ll catch up really quick. It’s cool cause I’ve really loved reading. It’s like reading a novel for me, which I love. I think now that I’m done with the other book I’ll be able to get done faster.

Anyway… I think that’s everything. I did my Devo this week, so yay! That’s already done. Unless I have to put the notes and stuff up here. That would be a bugger. But I can. Lol Just let me know.

God is so good! Gosh He’s blessed me so much. I’m loving being here. I’ve been praying about where I’m supposed to be afterwards, both me and Scotty. But that’s one of the conversations God and I had. “ Be patient! I already know where I’m sending you. I already know the perfect timing to tell you. But for now, I need your attention on me. …This is a sweet time for us here, enjoy it and let me build you and grow you while we have this. I’ll tell you with enough time to prepare, don’t worry.”

Lol. That’s just a snippet of that conversation. Cool huh? Pssh. I dare anyone to try to convince me my Father doesn’t speak to me. ;-)