I wanted to do a story on hearing God’s voice but I found it extremely difficulty. Every day there is a story in my life about hearing God’s voice. That is how it should be. I hope your life is the same and if it’s not it’s very easy to make it that way. I decided just to put down a couple of small examples of everyday life.
Hearing God’s voice doesn’t always have to be a serious thing. Sure I talk to God about business. I asked about every step of the youth center (at least I strived to). I talk to him when I’m frustrated and angry. I also just talk to him. God even tells me jokes. Now every time I say this, people want to know what the joke is. I don’t like telling them because it’s one of those “you had to be there” kind of things. But hey, just for you, I’ll try to tell you one. Well two things you have to know: one I love to laugh at myself whether it’s something clumsy or just something stupid. The second is that I’m ADD so that means that I don’t remember things well so God often speaks to me by bring up memories I have forgotten. So one of the jokes: he reminded me of a time when I was working at Wendy’s, it was my first day in the drive-through. I’m frantic, taking orders, putting burgers and fries in bags. I knocked over cups of coke and not only is my manager standing there watching me practically have a panic attack but so are some of my fellow coworkers. My manager grabs me by both shoulders and looks me squarely in the eyes and says, “calm down.” God is showing this to me in like a movie format. I was laughing so hard you should have seen my face! I looked like…I have no idea how to describe it … but I was hilarious. Well you asked!
During my DTS it was important to me to have devotions. I asked God “where do you want me to have my devotions” I heard God say to walk up a path heading up through campus. I just keep walking and walking and I found a tree house. I had heard some of the DTS leaders talk about a tree house and how it was a good spot because no one knew where is was. God took me to it and boy was I glad. No one could hear me, no one could see me, and no one disturbed me. It was also up higher than everything else so you could see the water. I would go up there before it got dark to start my devotions. I would read, listen to music; listen to God as I watched the sun go down. It was beautiful. I always brought a flashlight because it was dark when I would go down. I had the best quiet times up there. I don’t know why people call them quiet times because I was anything but quiet. That’s why it was so important to me to be alone. I would sing loudly with my ipod and trust me you don’t want to hear me because I can’t sing. I would dance like an idiot. It seemed the bigger fool I made out of myself the more I felt of God’s presence. If you have never experience God’s presence before it’s indescribable. It’s like you feel light, the way you feel when you’re floating. A lot of the time I got goose bumps. Sometimes I felt tingles all over my body kind of like when your foot is asleep but it doesn’t hurt and you’re full of joy. Sometimes I would just be up their dancing and laughing and laughing I couldn’t stop. God has always been there when I needed him no matter what. I have no doubt in my mind he always will be there.
Another story that also happened during my DTS: I had been having an earache. I’d been asking people to pray for it but nothing was happening. So I asked God “ why haven’t you healed me?” God said “tomorrow.” I asked, “well who do you want me to ask to pray for me?” God said “Alyssa.” I was in some pain and it was Friday and we were asking for the gift of healing so I ask God if he wanted me to go ask Alyssa to pray for me. God responded with “shhhhhhh.” So I just sat there. Next thing I knew I felt some one walking up behind me. I didn’t turn around. They put their hands on my ears and prayed. I felt the Holy Spirit come over me and I knew God was healing me. I also knew it was Alyssa that was praying for me. When she finished I turned around and watched her walk away. Later I told her the whole story and we were in awe of how amazing God is.
In DTS we have a giving day. Well I felt like God told me to give away my palm pilot. Now my palm pilot was my prize position. I had saved my money to get it and I used it for everything. So I asked God for confirmation. I said if someone gives me $500 (the cost of the palm pilot) I’ll give away the $500 to whomever you want me to and the palm pilot. Right after I said that a girl named Crystal came up and gave me $5. I had to laugh. Very funny God I thought. So I prayed and asked God whom he wanted me to give my palm pilot to, I felt he said Liz. So I gave it to her. I continued my praying and gave whatever else God told me to until the end of the giving day. The next day as I was going into my room there was a package there, on it, it said because you gave it away I’m giving it back to you. Inside the package was my palm pilot. I have no clue how many people it went through but I heard a lady name Rita ended up with it and God told her to give it back. Sometimes it really pays to listen to God.
During our outreach we did something called open ministry. It was very simple but effective. You got in a group of two or three and prayed for a couple minutes. You just asked God where he wanted you to go. Now there are tons of stories with open ministry, so many I can’t remember them all. For example when we were still in Kona on DTS praying for Cambodia, two girls got visions of the same location from different angles. One of the girls saw an older man sitting on a bench in the vision. One day during open ministry they met the man and got to witness to him. Another time it was me and two others (Katie and Ben) and I felt like God said to walk by the river. As we were walking we ran into a monk Katie and Ben had met while they were in Phnom Penh. He was in Battambang visiting a friend. He took us to the temple he was staying at. The temple was one we had not gotten the opportunity to go to yet and that opened the door. There were 13 members of the team, lots of places to go on open ministry, the monk was only visiting for a day or so, and we could have easily missed him by seconds, if that was not God then I don’t know what is.
Also during my DTS outreach God over time spoke to me about devotions. He told me different steps I should do to improve myself and help put hearing God’s voice more into every day.
Morning
- Commit the day to God
- Ask God what he wants the day to hold
- Ask God what he wants you to work on that day.
Night
- Thank God for the day
- Confess any sins
- Ask God how the day went
I did this every day and I found it lifted a weight off of me because I was confessing my sins. I was also growing because I was asking God what to work on. I found that I had more exciting things happen during the day because I was asking God for them. I would ask God what he wants the day to hold and he would tell me to do something. Sometimes they would be super random things like, for example, one time he told me to give one of my team mates a hug from him. She was one of the first people I saw that day so I just did it. She was so blessed by that. That day she was feeling God was far from her and that was just what she needed. It doesn’t take long to do this simple devotion each day and it changed a lot for me.
