Hearing His Voice

I am sharing this in the hope that someone will be encouraged and hear God, maybe for the first time. I am not highlighting my holiness. To the contrary, I am sharing some ways God graciously dusts me off time and again and gives me direction for life's often-arduous journey. If He does it for me, He’ll do it for you. I’m nothing special. I’ve just learned that if I am to hear God, I have to decide pay attention in these ways.

Holy habits. A holy habit is something I choose to do regularly that restores and transforms my thinking. Romans 12:2a says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind…”. I am writing these notes as an expression of a holy habit. I feel the need to spend time in Bible reading, devotional reading, and prayer in the morning. I need this time for God to shape my soul and strengthen me for life in the flesh suit. I need more than this, but I definitely need this. It helps my soul to write some of it down. It also helps me to have a ‘prayer of examen’ at the end of my day (I have a blog entry on how to do this exercise). There are lots of holy habits, sometimes called spiritual disciplines. Here is a list of some examples.

The Holy Spirit. The Spirit of God speaks to me when I am most willing to do what He says. The result of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead me to some action ALWAYS fills my soul with what the Bible describes as the ‘fullness of God’ (Ephesians 3:19). Following the Spirit’s leading involves me becoming spiritually lighter…as in lightweight. Naturally, I am like an anvil, heavy, set in my ways. The Holy Spirit leads like a gentle wind. The anvil is unaffected. To be led by the Spirit, I have to become more like a balloon. The Spirit led me in this manner recently. I was feeling heavy. I would say that I was having a pity party, but ‘party’ implies enjoyment and there was none. I asked God for an opportunity to be led out of the morass by the Holy Spirit. It came later that day at an unexpected time and way. I went to a river to collect some rocks for an art project I am working on. I noticed a man in the parking lot who had a bicycle and small cart overloaded with bags of aluminum cans. I took my rock bag from the back of the truck and gave him a slight wave of acknowledgment as I walked past him to the river trail. He looked haggard and dirty. Deep lines were etched in his face. It was really hot out. I collected my stones, walked past him to the truck, and headed on down the road. Then it happened. I felt the Wind. “What do you want me to do Lord?” As a matter of clarity, I don’t hear the words of the Holy Spirit, I feel them, but they are specific. “Go back,” He said, “offer him something to drink and eat in My name.” “What should I say Lord?” “Tell him I have not forgotten him," So I did. It was a bit awkward at first. But I went back, rolled down my window and said, “Hey friend, can I offer you some water and snack?” He smiled a toothless grin and said, “Of course!” I told him that I was doing my best to follow Jesus and I wanted to give this to him in Jesus’ name. I told him that the Lord wanted me to tell him He had not forgotten him. I expected…I don’t know what I expected. I didn’t expect what happened. He simply looked at me calmly and spoke like he was counseling me. He said, “I know the Lord and I know He never forgets me.” You see, the message was not for Buddy (that was his name). It was for me! Buddy said, “He (God) reminds every day that He is with me. This is one of those reminders. I pick up aluminum cans (he couldn’t pronounce aluminum, it sounded like alumeeum). I will go down a road sometimes and see nothing, then something tells me to turn down another road and there are cans everywhere! That’s God. He blesses me!” I gave him what I had, a couple of bottles of water and some granola bars. He said, “This will refresh me! Thank you.” I got in my truck and drove away. Through this encounter with this simple man, God lifted me out of a pit and spoke to me. I felt my soul fill up and run over the top as tears spilled down my cheeks. The Spirit whispered to me, “You are not forgotten. You are mine and I love you. Buddy is working hard doing what he knows to do and I am taking care of him. He is grateful. You go and be more like Buddy.” God help me to be more like Buddy.

Hard experiences. Life in this world is not easy and not as it should be. Jesus said, “In this world you will have tribulations…”(John 16:32). Trials and sorrows are the rough-grit sandpaper, or maybe even a chisel that knocks off my soul imperfections. I don’t like trials. I do like what I have seen God bring out of them by His grace. I have experienced no-fault trials. I have experienced trials directly connected to my sin and foolishness. God brings healing and grace, regardless, when I seek it with humility. I feel the Christ-like shaping of my soul in this continual ‘going to God’ in hardship. This is not a ‘one and done’ situation. It is a continual process. I have hurts, habits, and hang-ups that need changing. My pastor said recently, “If people say they don’t have these things they’ll lie about other things too!” Every human has hurts, habits, and hang-ups. That’s why I think we need to develop holy habits, make our soul light enough to be led by the Spirit, and yield our trials continually to God. God always uses hard experiences, yielded to Him, to produce a Christ-like spirit of compassion. Staying in this process keeps me from being a judgmental, condemning person. I hope this helps you along the way and gives some encouragement that a good God hasn’t forgotten you. He speaks and He cares.