This week has been amazing and challenging. I have been stretched so much already and God has been so good on carrying me through it.
When I thought about my time from the last post, pray and hearing God's voice stuck out the most. This week I have been in prayer so much and God has used it to help me hear from Him and to hear what He wants/needs me to hear. God has been leading me to pray for people and pray things that I would not expect. He has lead me to go to Him in prayer during times that I have felt helpless or lack of control. He has brought me to lay things down at His throne that I have been holding onto for so long. During times of worship, I have been lead by the Lord to pray things out to Him. To cry out his scripture and how amazing and awesome He is. It has been such a blessing. If you are confused by this, that is more then ok. I have been learning so much and growing so much through these times of prayer. So please either email me, comment here, or facebook message me for clarification.
Here are some specific times. Our first weeks topic was Hearing God's Voice. This basically means discerning if something is from God or not. This is not usually audible, but can be through peace, the Bible, teachings, words from others, dreams, a feeling (different from emotions), or any other number of ways. I had been struggling with questioning if I was hearing from God or if it was in fact my thought. During a quiet time, I was praying in the park...kind of really cold (it is winter here and was in the 40s), and I was praying to God to hear from Him in any way. I had been questioning other things I had heard if it was me or if it was from Him. I had been getting really discouraged and had just been trying to rationalize every last thought. During my time of reading scripture and praying a sense of peace and stillness just quieted my heart. The thought "I have heard God's voice and I know it" came over my mind. What? But how do I know? I prayed for confirmation from someone else. Later that night our leaders were sharing about how they hear from God. Deya (one of my leaders and who will be my mentor during these 6 months...sorry Dawn) spoke about how the way she hears God is through scripture and through a sense of peace. She shared about a time when she was questioning something and praying on it and God just washed over her with peace. She said that it does not have to be super complicated. It was the confirmation I needed.
One other way that I am growing in prayer is in Intercessory prayer. This means praying for others on their behalf. Pleading for them before God for His will to be done in their life. God has, for a while, placed the the indigenous youth on my heart. On Friday, our teaching was on Intercession. God so placed it in my heart to be a real intercessor for them. To pray for them daily, to go into the throne room of God and be their advocate and cry out for them. It is intense. I did it for the first time last night and then again this morning. So please be praying for endurance in this. I also feel that God is calling me to be an answer to these prayers to. I so desire to see them break the bonds of addiction and of generational hurt and be free from these things. I am actually getting to know a chance to go to an Indigenous church on Sunday and I will also have the option of teaching Sunday school.
I love the people here and I am learning so much about myself and God. Please be praying for us next week, especially, the topic is repentance and forgiveness and I have been told that it is an especially hard week.
When I thought about my time from the last post, pray and hearing God's voice stuck out the most. This week I have been in prayer so much and God has used it to help me hear from Him and to hear what He wants/needs me to hear. God has been leading me to pray for people and pray things that I would not expect. He has lead me to go to Him in prayer during times that I have felt helpless or lack of control. He has brought me to lay things down at His throne that I have been holding onto for so long. During times of worship, I have been lead by the Lord to pray things out to Him. To cry out his scripture and how amazing and awesome He is. It has been such a blessing. If you are confused by this, that is more then ok. I have been learning so much and growing so much through these times of prayer. So please either email me, comment here, or facebook message me for clarification.
Here are some specific times. Our first weeks topic was Hearing God's Voice. This basically means discerning if something is from God or not. This is not usually audible, but can be through peace, the Bible, teachings, words from others, dreams, a feeling (different from emotions), or any other number of ways. I had been struggling with questioning if I was hearing from God or if it was in fact my thought. During a quiet time, I was praying in the park...kind of really cold (it is winter here and was in the 40s), and I was praying to God to hear from Him in any way. I had been questioning other things I had heard if it was me or if it was from Him. I had been getting really discouraged and had just been trying to rationalize every last thought. During my time of reading scripture and praying a sense of peace and stillness just quieted my heart. The thought "I have heard God's voice and I know it" came over my mind. What? But how do I know? I prayed for confirmation from someone else. Later that night our leaders were sharing about how they hear from God. Deya (one of my leaders and who will be my mentor during these 6 months...sorry Dawn) spoke about how the way she hears God is through scripture and through a sense of peace. She shared about a time when she was questioning something and praying on it and God just washed over her with peace. She said that it does not have to be super complicated. It was the confirmation I needed.
One other way that I am growing in prayer is in Intercessory prayer. This means praying for others on their behalf. Pleading for them before God for His will to be done in their life. God has, for a while, placed the the indigenous youth on my heart. On Friday, our teaching was on Intercession. God so placed it in my heart to be a real intercessor for them. To pray for them daily, to go into the throne room of God and be their advocate and cry out for them. It is intense. I did it for the first time last night and then again this morning. So please be praying for endurance in this. I also feel that God is calling me to be an answer to these prayers to. I so desire to see them break the bonds of addiction and of generational hurt and be free from these things. I am actually getting to know a chance to go to an Indigenous church on Sunday and I will also have the option of teaching Sunday school.
I love the people here and I am learning so much about myself and God. Please be praying for us next week, especially, the topic is repentance and forgiveness and I have been told that it is an especially hard week.
2 comments:
Hi Heather. I am so happy to have your messages and blog to keep up with you.
In regards to hearing God speak, I remember a time in my life several years ago when I felt like God deserted me because I couldn't hear him. I was looking and listening for trumpets or loud, obvious signs that He was there. Sometimes, He just wants us to quiet our spirit and really listen: not with ears but hearts. You did! Love you much!
Aunt Beth
Hey Heather,
Rachel and I just go to view Beth Moore's session 7 of our book of James Study, "Mercy Triumphs" and it was so on time for the both of us, and applies to what you are saying here too. Regarding James 5:13-18 about prayer, and then Elijah praying for rain. She described how we have rainy seasons when we can feel God's presence clearly and see Him moving and speaking to us abundantly, and then there are dry seasons, when we have to apply faith in Him more. That's when our faith gets tested and grows a lot. I'm not saying it as well as she articulated but just know that I'l be praying for you. :)
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