May Your wonders never cease, may Your Spirit never leave, may we ever long to see Your face. And when we turn from you again, oh how quickly we forget, may we be reminded of Your grace. May Your wonders never cease!
He's in the sunshine. He's in the wind. And the gentle crash of the waves is like hearing Him breathe - the simple comfort of knowing He's here, in it all. :D
What's really cool is how this ties in so beautifully with what I wanted to share. He is just so good!
As you know, my first week in Thailand was spent at a ministry forum where I had the blessed opportunity (again) to lead worship all week. It truly was an amazing and humbling experience that I am so grateful to have had. We also had a speaker come and share, and this is what I wanted to talk about as I'm inclined to think that this is a message that many need to hear. He, John, explained that he was basically going to be giving one long sermon throughout the week, broken up into five days. I'm going to attempt to touch on the highlights in hopefully just a few paragraphs. (Naturally, I pray that the Spirit will speak to you wherever you are as you read this, but try to also keep in mind the kind of broken place I'm coming from as I'm receiving these words.)
The crux of the message was this: Learning how to hear God speaking from a place of rest.
Notice the emphasis? ;)
Starting in the middle and going beyond just the forum, God started early with me in reminding and emphasizing to me that He is an active, living and speaking God. That means presently, right now, in this moment. He is working. It's not just a done thing that was accomplished in the past, nor is He simply a hope to hold onto for the future, but He desires for us to recognize and allow Him to work in our circumstances right now.
This caused me to step back and consider how this truth impacts my life daily. Do my prayers reflect this? Do my actions? Do my responses allow room for a living God to work or am I working on my own and giving Him the "finished product" of my work to make pretty?
From this point I was brought to the question of, "if God is speaking, why am I having such a hard time hearing Him?" God in His sovereignty had that answer already in the works.
John made a point that I hope and pray I will never forget. And that is that "God is multi-lingual". What he meant was that God does not always speak the same way to us. He uses fire to declare Himself and He whispers in the gentle, intimate moments. Some people hear Him best in nature, others through a good book, or bible study. Some hear Him best in the silence of doing nothing, others having to be active. These are all good and valid. The point though is that we sometimes tend to learn to listen for Him in those specific ways, and miss the other things He would like to say to us. We must learn to be open to hear Him speak how He chooses to speak rather than how we want Him to speak. And this requires greater training and a deeper intimacy with Him....which, go figure, actually comes in the last part: rest.
I learned that rest doesn't mean not being busy. And it doesn't even necessarily mean getting enough sleep. Rest is the point where the soul is quiet and peaceful regardless of what chaos may be ensuing outside of us. “Those who know Him, trust Him. Those who trust Him are more likely to rest, and are more likely to hear what He has to say and obey.” Finding rest comes with spending time with Him and getting to know Him.
So I come home from vacation refreshed and with a renewed hunger to know Him better and to hear Him more clearer. My moment in the kitchen was just a snapshot of the kind of peace and comfort He's been speaking into my heart. There is SO, so, so much more I would love to share, but I'm afraid I don't have the guts to write that much to you all. :) This is long enough as it is, but I pray that you are encouraged as I have been.
God is speaking to you. Can you hear Him?
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