HEARING FROM GOD
Journal – June 28, 2007
Yesterday I was reading about Hearing God’s Voice on the MB Forum, which led me to a blog of Brad Huebert where he picked up on the topic from John Eldredge of an “advanced word.” This is where the Lord gives some direction or warning for the day or season ahead.
(Here begins a dialogue in which I (“Me”) prayed and then listened for a response and wrote down what I “heard.” Here I type exactly what I wrote in my journal.)
Me: Lord, do you have any such word for me?
- Yes I do, every day, all the time. My sheep hear my voice and follow me. I go before them. I am the eternal one. Before Abraham was I am. I lay out your path before you.
Me: Lord, this is a more all-encompassing response than I expected.
- I know; but I want you to learn that your future is not some unknown thing. Your human senses do not perceive it. You are a creature of time but I am not. I give dreams and visions of things which shall be. I do not “predict” the future as a meteorologist predicts the weather or a pundit predicts the outcome of a sports event or an election.
The Spirit is not bounded by time and space. You have been made alive in the spirit. My Spirit dwells in your spirit. Walk in the spirit and I will show you how to choose and how to move.
Me: Lord, can this really be?
- Yes. It is my way. When I as on earth in bodily form, I told you, “I do nothing except what I see the Father doing.” I was in a human body but I could and did see in the spirit. I now dwell in you and you in Me and we in the Father. You have the capacity to see what the Father is doing and, by the Spirit, to do those things – to participate in them – to walk in them.
Me; This seems “way out here” for me.
- But, Lorne, it is not supposed to be way out there. As one of mine, it is supposed to be your “normal.”
Me: Lord, you know I am going “But…but…” in my head.
- Yes, I know it. I see you brain scrambling for relevant scriptures to see “whether these things be so.” Go ahead. You’ll find I am right. I always am!
And I just saw some anxious thoughts arise about what you should already be doing at work today. Lorne, listen to me and what I am saying to you today, and work will never be the same again.
Me: Anything specific about my day You want to tell me?
- What I want to tell you is that your need for control, your need to have things all figured out and understood will interfere with what I have just described to you about walking in the Spirit. I know all things. You do not. In order to really enjoy walking in the Spirit you must listen and obey. That is your calling. It is not your place to understand, agree, or control.
Me: Lord, this is hard for me.
- I know. It makes you feel kind of panicky, as if you are on a cliff face hanging by a thin root and someone below is saying, “Let go. I’ll catch you.” Lorne, I’ve been at this point with you before. Remember 1975. You were desperate for meaning and direction in your life. You said you were giving Me control, moving out of the driver’s seat. You have a pattern of getting back behind the wheel, of trying to be in control. You must give that up. You must trust Me. I am telling you the truth.
Me: But what about today?
- Today, as always, I am with you. Whatever you encounter I already know about. I have made provision already. I am there already. In every moment, seek me and I will show you. I am not showing you everything beforehand. I want you to trust Me and not lean on your own understanding to pre-plan your responses.
*************************************************************************
That is what I wrote. It took place over about two hours. Of course, there were many more thoughts which were racing through my brain during that period – mostly of me struggling to analyze what I was “hearing” and cope with the “what ifs” of anticipating loss of (the illusion of) control.
What is your experience of hearing from God? Do you also fear the loss of (the illusion of) control? Do you hear from God, and with joy do the ridiculous, foolish, stupid things He asks? Things like going up against a nine foot armed giant warrior with a little slingshot? Or sending your nation’s most precious object on the shoulders of men into the raging flood waters of Jordan, expecting the flood waters to open up? How about thinking you will capture a great walled city with a bunch of yokels, women and children by marching around it until it falls just because you think you heard God say so? Or sending singers out in front of your army to face an enemy army way bigger than yours? Ridiculous! How about believing God told you to talk to a rock to get water for a couple million parched people at risk of death in the desert? Ludicrous! Oh, I know. How about believing a story that some guy who died 2000 years ago is actually alive and that trusting in him and surrendering control of your life to him will let you live forever in harmony with a pure God? Just because some little inner voice told you, “It’s true.” Idiotic, no?
Yesterday I was reading about Hearing God’s Voice on the MB Forum, which led me to a blog of Brad Huebert where he picked up on the topic from John Eldredge of an “advanced word.” This is where the Lord gives some direction or warning for the day or season ahead.
(Here begins a dialogue in which I (“Me”) prayed and then listened for a response and wrote down what I “heard.” Here I type exactly what I wrote in my journal.)
Me: Lord, do you have any such word for me?
- Yes I do, every day, all the time. My sheep hear my voice and follow me. I go before them. I am the eternal one. Before Abraham was I am. I lay out your path before you.
Me: Lord, this is a more all-encompassing response than I expected.
- I know; but I want you to learn that your future is not some unknown thing. Your human senses do not perceive it. You are a creature of time but I am not. I give dreams and visions of things which shall be. I do not “predict” the future as a meteorologist predicts the weather or a pundit predicts the outcome of a sports event or an election.
The Spirit is not bounded by time and space. You have been made alive in the spirit. My Spirit dwells in your spirit. Walk in the spirit and I will show you how to choose and how to move.
Me: Lord, can this really be?
- Yes. It is my way. When I as on earth in bodily form, I told you, “I do nothing except what I see the Father doing.” I was in a human body but I could and did see in the spirit. I now dwell in you and you in Me and we in the Father. You have the capacity to see what the Father is doing and, by the Spirit, to do those things – to participate in them – to walk in them.
Me; This seems “way out here” for me.
- But, Lorne, it is not supposed to be way out there. As one of mine, it is supposed to be your “normal.”
Me: Lord, you know I am going “But…but…” in my head.
- Yes, I know it. I see you brain scrambling for relevant scriptures to see “whether these things be so.” Go ahead. You’ll find I am right. I always am!
And I just saw some anxious thoughts arise about what you should already be doing at work today. Lorne, listen to me and what I am saying to you today, and work will never be the same again.
Me: Anything specific about my day You want to tell me?
- What I want to tell you is that your need for control, your need to have things all figured out and understood will interfere with what I have just described to you about walking in the Spirit. I know all things. You do not. In order to really enjoy walking in the Spirit you must listen and obey. That is your calling. It is not your place to understand, agree, or control.
Me: Lord, this is hard for me.
- I know. It makes you feel kind of panicky, as if you are on a cliff face hanging by a thin root and someone below is saying, “Let go. I’ll catch you.” Lorne, I’ve been at this point with you before. Remember 1975. You were desperate for meaning and direction in your life. You said you were giving Me control, moving out of the driver’s seat. You have a pattern of getting back behind the wheel, of trying to be in control. You must give that up. You must trust Me. I am telling you the truth.
Me: But what about today?
- Today, as always, I am with you. Whatever you encounter I already know about. I have made provision already. I am there already. In every moment, seek me and I will show you. I am not showing you everything beforehand. I want you to trust Me and not lean on your own understanding to pre-plan your responses.
*************************************************************************
That is what I wrote. It took place over about two hours. Of course, there were many more thoughts which were racing through my brain during that period – mostly of me struggling to analyze what I was “hearing” and cope with the “what ifs” of anticipating loss of (the illusion of) control.
What is your experience of hearing from God? Do you also fear the loss of (the illusion of) control? Do you hear from God, and with joy do the ridiculous, foolish, stupid things He asks? Things like going up against a nine foot armed giant warrior with a little slingshot? Or sending your nation’s most precious object on the shoulders of men into the raging flood waters of Jordan, expecting the flood waters to open up? How about thinking you will capture a great walled city with a bunch of yokels, women and children by marching around it until it falls just because you think you heard God say so? Or sending singers out in front of your army to face an enemy army way bigger than yours? Ridiculous! How about believing God told you to talk to a rock to get water for a couple million parched people at risk of death in the desert? Ludicrous! Oh, I know. How about believing a story that some guy who died 2000 years ago is actually alive and that trusting in him and surrendering control of your life to him will let you live forever in harmony with a pure God? Just because some little inner voice told you, “It’s true.” Idiotic, no?
posted by lornewel at
8:52 a.m.
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