Rejuvenated. Revitalized. Set Free. [Hearing God's Voice]

Wow. I'm sitting here completely in awe right now.

I've been wanting to update people on my life here at YWAM so I had planned to write a blog about the cold showers we had the entire first week and how we finally found out that we aren't supposed to have cold showers. Thanks to the word getting out to staff that the showers were cold, I now am able to take a hot shower without having to strategically plan the timing of my shower or get up at the break of dawn. (Praise the Lord!)
What I noticed was interesting is that we all had just come to accept the fact that showers were going to be cold or lukewarm at best and assumed it would stay that way since there are so many people sharing so few showers.
Thankfully that is not the case.
However, the whole situation reminded me of how we as Christians often live. We forget or are unaware of the promises God keeps and thus settle to live in situations that are not what were intended.
James 4:2 says that we do not have certain things because we do not bring our requests to God.
He is our Heavenly Father, people! He knows how to give good gifts to His children.
Let's not miss out on His best just because we are simply not paying attention.

All that was great, but I felt like there was something more God wanted me to share, so here it is:

The focus for this week's lectures has been "Hearing God's Voice." Mike Philips has done an amazing job teaching us about this and often gives us opportunities to practice the tools we learn.

The other night, he had us ask God what it is He is working on in us. When I posed this question to God, I heard instantly:

"Dignity..as a woman of God." 

That seemed really random, but as I asked Him about it and looked up the one verse listed in  my mini concordance with the word dignity in it, I was encouraged. Proverbs 31:25, in process of describing a wife of noble character, says, "She is clothed with strength and dignity; she can laugh at the days to come." Reading this was reassuring that what I heard made sense as it put it into a little bit of context, but I didn't think a whole lot more about it...until tonight.

This evening after dinner, I came back to my room to get some reading done and then decided to ask God about some things that were weighing on my heart. One of the things I've been struggling with is the fear that my conversations with Him are imaginary. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt He speaks to me certain things, but sometimes I wonder how much of what I hear is Him and how much of it I'm making up in my head.

So I asked Him to build my faith and confirm that I'm hearing from Him in the little things. I then moved on from that issue and eventually found myself just lying on my bed relaxing.
Then all of a sudden a thought popped into my head:
I remembered that the staff here had written each of us a note to welcome us. In my note were a couple words they felt God had spoken about me as they prayed for me.  I had completely forgotten about this note and even more so what it said. But out of nowhere the Lord reminded me by bringing the memory to my mind that one of the words was dignity.

I jumped up to find the note and sure enough there it was:

"God sees you as someone of dignity and strength." 

I looked back at Proverbs 31:25...strength and dignity.
I could hardly believe it.
God had spoken.
In this moment so much was confirmed for me. Although I feel that I still have more to learn about what these words mean exactly for me, it's the confirmation of God speaking that means the most to me right now.
But it didn't stop there.
After all this, some of my fellow DTS students and I met together to practice what we have been learning and to ask God what He would have us do. We felt that He wanted to encourage and strengthen us through one another so we decided to do a prophecy exercise to practice hearing God's messages for people.
And wow, more and more confirmation that God is speaking to us came through that.
I am so very encouraged and am feeling in complete awe of the way God speaks ever so gently and clearly to His children.

Hearing God's voice is invigorating and freeing.

However, just like the cold showers, so many of us have settled for living a life with far less communication with God than intended.
But we are supposed to have hot showers, people! He WANTS to speak to us!
To me.
To you.
If you ask and listen, He will answer.
He will speak.
He wants to communicate with us.
We just have to pay attention, be patient, and let Him in.

HE IS SO GOOD!

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