God Speaks... to me

Matthew 27:46, “About the ninth hour Jesus cried out with a loud voice, saying, ‘Eli, Eli, Lama, Sabachthani?’ that is, ‘My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?’”

At my men’s meeting, Iwo Jima, this week I was sharing how God has a focused dealing with me trying to teach me financial responsibility. I talked about how the Holy Spirit will ask me a hypothetical questions, and how God’s response to my answer is so often, ‘wrong answer.’ And so T (identity hidden to spare the innocent) asked me, “How do you hear God speaking to you?”

To which I replied, “It is not a voice speaking so much as it is a visualization of God bowing His head in disappointment… that I interpret as ‘wrong answer.’”

And to that T added further comment. He began with, “I say this in love…” and the rest I heard as ‘I find that people often infer their own voices/feelings/images into what they think is God speaking. But I don’t think God would do that, so consider whether you are really hearing God.’

This did give me pause, and I did give it considerable thought. And as I prayed, “God, did I miss you?” The Holy Spirit quoted today’s scripture. “My God, My God, why have you forsaken Me?” Followed by the question, “Why did My Son feel forsaken?”

That is the easiest question of all as Christian doctrine teaches that is the moment our sins were put on Christ the Father turned His head from Christ as the scripture says, “God cannot look upon sin.” And so too I believe what I hear God speak to me is in fact Him, in spite of others' experiences. Christ experienced the Father turn His head, and so did I. So I continue down this path of learning godly financial responsibility knowing that God speaks to me.

And knowing that God is speaking to you.

If you do not hear the voice of God daily I encourage to pick up my book available top right of this page. It is designed front to back to help all Christians hear God Speak. 

Let it Rain

Isaiah 30:23, "Then He will give you rain for the seed which you will sow in the ground, and bread from the yield of the ground, and it will be rich and plenteous; on that day your livestock will graze in a roomy pasture."

On the way to church this Sunday I was noticing just how dry everything is. How my neighbors' yard have dead spots even though they are all mostly irrigated. On the roadsides the grass is brown. Stock tanks in the pastures are drying up. So I prayed. I said, "God, I don't know if this drought is your plan or not. But I do know that what you have intrusted me with needs rain. If you will not bring rain to the whole area, will you please bring a thunderstorm to my land?" Pretty simple, heart felt prayer.

As I drove on something triggered a super cool way for churches to raise money, and I spent a lot of time thinking and planing on that over the rest of the afternoon. But as I walked to my barn to put the horses up for the evening I looked up and noticed a rather small dark cloud. I remembered my prayer that morning, and I started praying again. I prayed, "Father, in the name of Jesus I command that cloud to give it's water to my land." Crack, the thunder started. So I prayed some more. I began to pray that the land, the livestock, my family, and my children needed the rain. I prayed for the cloud to not move until it had blessed my land. Over and over different things, different needs, were coming out in the prayer. All done while I cleaned stalls.

In my heart I knew the prayer was dual purpose. After all, in the Bible rain is representative of the Holy Spirit  and God's presence. So as I was praying for physical rain, I knew that I was simultaneously praying for spiritual rain. I concluded with telling the clouds, "bless my land in the name of Jesus. Bless it with all the water in you." Crazy I know... but guess what? It started raining.

So I stood on my front porch in awe, wondering how many people's prayers were being answered. I continued watching the rain and began mouthing a song. Jamie came out and asked what I was saying. I told her, "yes Lord, yes Lord, yes yes Lord."

Say what you want, but those rain drops brought reassurance from heaven for me. Reassurance that He does hear my prayers. That those prayers do have an impact on my life. At the same time they brought a longing for more opportunities to pray. They made me miss the hundreds, perhaps thousands, of times I've gotten to pray for others and see God work in their lives. I missed praying for the sick and seeing God make them well. So if you would like to scratch this itch of mine to pray for others. Feel free to send your prayer request to jeffyuna@gmail.com. In the meantime enjoy the professional version of what I was singing on my porch in the middle of the rain.