Directed: Recognizing the Voice of God

Hello!

Wow, this last week has been so full! I'm learning so much about God, and living in community, and having lots of fun doing it!

Here are a few things that I've done in the past week:

Fed the dragon. (aka the wood-burning furnace/water heater)
Learned how to say "Je ne comprends pas" and other useful phrases in French.
Sang many worship songs in French (and English).
Spent time in the prayer bathtub.
Washed dishes for 40+ people. Multiple times.
Tidied up the costume closet with Anna-Elisabeth, and learned more about life in Germany. Then had a dance party afterwards, when Stephan and Billy came to help.
Had a couple great deep conversations with my amazing one-on-one, Jordan. (Who's a girl, by the way. Don't get ideas.)
Learned the basics of Hawaiian dancing.
Spontaneously broken into song with people many times.
Eaten home-made maple syrup.
Learned about different ways of worshiping (spinning, shouting, kneeling, raising hands, dancing, and more), and tried a few of them out.

It's so hard to describe all the things that have happened, and all the things we're learning in such a short blog post.

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This week our speaker is Derek, from Hawaii. He's talking about Recognizing the Voice of God. Note that it's not hearing the voice of God, but rather recognizing. God is speaking; our main problem is that we're not listening, or that we don't realize it's Him.

Derek has been talking about the character and nature of God for the last three days. Because after all, if we want to recognize someone's voice, we have to know who that person is and get to know them before we can recognize what they're saying. God is Creator. God is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness, maintaining love to thousands, and forgiving wickedness, rebellion and sin. Yet he does not leave the guilty unpunished. (Ex 34:6-7) He wants relationship with us. You can't have relationship without speaking and listening. God wants to speak to and with us.

Talking about recognizing the voice of God, or saying "God told me. . . ." to other people tends to make me uncomfortable. Mostly because I don't want people to have the idea that I'm super-spiritual, and that's why I can hear God's voice. I'm not super-spiritual. I believe that hearing the voice of God should be a normal thing, most especially for Christians. Derek said today that there is no such thing as becoming more spiritual, which I thought was a cool concept. We already have a spirit. It's like saying I'm trying to become more human. Or more female. Our spirits can be healthy or unhealthy, but you can't get more (or less) of them.

So when I say, "God told me" or "God said", I'm not trying to be better than you, or impress you with my uber-Christianness. I have a relationship with God; therefore, we talk. And that's that.

Soooo. . . . Now I'm going to tell you a story. I love the way God is concerned with the everyday details of our lives. On Sunday I had finished my quiet time, and didn't know what to do next. So asked "God, what should I do now?" and He said, "Why don't you go downstairs to the encouragement board?"

This is where we put little notes and things to make people smile.

And my response was "Pfffft, why? I bet no one has put anything in my jar." And it was like God just smiled and said, "It's up to you." But I didn't really have anything else to do. So on a whim I grabbed my pencil and some sticky notes, and headed downstairs. Sure enough, my jar was still empty. But then I had an idea for a note. And then Shaynna and Anna-Elisabeth came down the hallway. And to make a longish story shorter, we had a grand time writing notes, and soon everyone's jar held something. All because God had a cool idea, and I actually paid attention.

You might be wondering, "What does it sound like when God speaks to you?" Well, I've never heard an audible voice. Usually, it sounds a lot like my own thoughts, only better. It always lines up with the Bible and God's character (if I hear a voice telling me to hang onto bitterness, for example, it's not God). Sometimes it's a crazy idea. Sometimes it's an impression. And sometimes it's an actual sentence. And I'm still learning how to recognize Him.

I'm looking forward to tomorrow's class on recognizing God's voice, and practical steps to do that.

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PICTURES!!!