{post written by Arabah Joy}
Hello friends! If you’ve been with us for the past few weeks for the Hearing God series, you know there has been a great emphasis on one thing: God’s word!
Jesus said in John 6:36, “The words I speak to you are spirit and life..” If we are to live at the spirit level, we must be immersed in God’s word.
Today, I’d like to share a personal example on how God’s Word shaped one of my days and led me to act in a very specific way. I share this to let you “see” these concepts in a real life example.
There’s 20 minutes before service starts and I’m rushing to shower before leaving out the door with wet hair…and I hear His voice speaking to me.
“Take her a gift.”
I’ve never met “her” before, the young woman from Guatemala who is going to be sharing at services tonight. I hardly know anything about her.
“Take her a gift to show how beautiful she is to Me.”
I’m scurrying around pulling my towel-dried hair back in a pony tail and searching for my missing sandal and this is what He whispers to me.
I pause.
The only thing I have worthy of giving a beautiful woman is the “H” pendant I received at Christmas. And I don’t know if her name starts with “H” or not.
“Lord, what about the pendant?” I ask Him. “Is that what You want me to give her?”
And then He reminds me of the passage I read that very morning, the one from Isaiah 62:
“You will be called by a new name that the mouth of the Lord will bestow.
You will be a crown of beauty in the hand of the Lord, a royal diadem in the hand of your God. No longer will they call you Deserted, or name your land Desolate.
But you will be called Hephzibah, for the Lord will take delight in you.”H for Hephzibah. The new name. The new identity.
“Okay, Lord,” I say as I scratch out a note card explaining why she is receiving an “H” pendant on a string from a stranger. “This is a *little* crazy, but okay.”
I arrive at church and we listen to testimonies and finally it is time for the girl from Guatemala.
She is 22 and she’s never been out of her country before and she is scared to be speaking in front of us.
She grew up hungry. Her parent’s were alcoholics and the 11 kids they gave birth to didn’t have food to eat. She became the surrogate parent to her younger brothers, always scrounging for food, collecting old coffee grounds or gathering plaster from old buildings. Anything they could fill their stomachs with.
She grew up a castaway. At 8, she was raped by 2 of her older brothers, while her younger brothers were forced to look on. When she told her mom about it, her mom slandered her and shamed her and disowned her.
Then, family members filed complaints about the children not being cared for and the judge ordered her to the orphanage and life changed for little Velma.She heard about Jesus. Slowly, she began to trust. Slowly, she began to believe.
After the service, Pastor asks me to come forward and pray for Velma with a “V” and I pray Isaiah 62 over her and when everyone is dismissed, I slip her the gift.She looks at me like I’m crazy but I’m grinning because I know why He told me to give a girl named Velma a pendant with the letter “H” on it.
And isn’t it glorious?
She is renamed. Our loving God Himself wants her to know she is no longer forsaken.
No longer desolate.
She has been given a new name. A new identity.She is a crown of beauty in the hand of her God.
In this example, God planted the seed of His word into my heart in the morning and it wasn’t until the evening that He brought it back to mind in order for me to act upon. There are a thousand different ways the Lord will use His word to prompt us into action and it truly is a daily adventure!
Jennifer shared a quote from Henry Blackaby that is very helpful and bears repeating:
“As I pray about a particular matter, the Spirit of God takes the Word of God and applies it to my heart and mind to reveal the truth. I immediately stop praying and open God’s Word to the passage I believe the Spirit brought to my mind. I assume God wants to give me specific direction through the Scripture He led me to. Sometimes as I pray, the Spirit places a particular person on my heart. I assume God is alerting me, through prayer, to someone He wants to minister to through me. After I pray, I look for ways God leads me to minister to that person.”
As we go through our days and a scripture comes to mind, we can assume that is God speaking!! I missed out on really hearing God in this way for a long time in my Christian life because I thought maybe it was me talking to myself or just a “coincidence.” The truth is stated in John 14:26, “But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you.”
When scripture comes to your mind, it is the Holy Spirit speaking to you.
That is really awesome, because if you stop to think about this, you are likely to realize this happens multiple times each and every day in your life as a believer. So here is your assignment this week: PAUSE whenever a scripture comes to your mind. Jot it down if possible. Ask the Lord to show you how He is wanting you to apply it to your life. Then obey anything He is telling you to do.
Now it’s your turn! We invite you to share your personal examples of hearing God here and join Jennifer and myself next week for the series wrap-up.
~Arabah~
Hey Jennifer,
What a great reminder… to constantly be listening for God through His Word. I read your post yesterday and thought about that through the day.
God reminded me of the verse in Psalm 29:11 – “The Lord will give strength to his people; the Lord will give his people the blessing of peace.”
It was as if all day He was saying to me – “I am the One who blesses you with strength and with peace. Look to me for these things!”
Thanks for faithfully posting a good word!
Appreciate you…
Melanie
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