To some, the idea that humanity can hear from God is completely arrogant! To others, it is the only way they can manage to get through each day.

Those are two very dichotomous opinions about one topic, and I believe it is a topic worth discussing.

For years of being a Christian, I put myself in situations where I could experience different avenues of living out faith. I’ve sat amongst the most conservative Lutherans, as well as the most expressive Pentecostals. I was honestly freaked out by the extremes on either side, but the most frightening was the camp of believers in the Charismatic, Pentecostal, and Full Gospel churches.

Tongues, really?
Healing, really?
Miracles, really?

I mean, I “believed” that I served a God who could “do anything”, but why would He ever choose to do those things? They’re weird, right?

Yeah, they are kinda weird, but I was most afraid of how manipulative the actions were. It seemed to me that Preachers who led “Spirit filled” churches also led financial telethons, grandma guilt trips, and conferences where dollars were equivalent to spiritual blessing.

So, rather than take the time to get to know God on a spiritual level, I kept him at a logical arms reach and clung to the more conservative side of Christian expression. Well, just over a year ago, God broke through my stiff arm and dove straight into my heart with truth, freedom and experience!

This ignorance on my part kept me from a certain depth of intimacy, and the worst part is that I didn’t even know I was missing anything because!

Just over a year ago on a rooftop in Spain I sat in a white, plastic lawn chair with my elbows resting on my knees, my head resting on my palms and I was rocking back and forth. The rocking was because I was scared to death of becoming “one of them”.

A “tongue talker”
A “Carazymatic”

 “Lord, please give me strength and freedom to explore life in the spirit!”

I repeated these words over and over until the moment happened; I tried to turn off the English that circles words through my mind and I just went for it… “SHO-TO-KO-SA-TA-RRRRA”

Then I started to feel weird… because it’s kinda weird!

Due to my weird feeling, I finished praying in English and didn’t revisit the action of praying in tongues for a couple weeks… Since then, it has become a pretty common aspect to how I live out my intimate relationship with God the Father.

A few weeks after fighting with the issue of praying in tongues, I was faced with prophecy, defined as: hearing from the Lord to encourage someone’s heart.
It was explained to me this way:
As a believer in Jesus Christ, we are told that our physical existence is “full of the Holy Spirit”.
If you are full of something that means it is within you.
The major role of the Holy Spirit is to be “mediator” between God and man, which means He is the communicator!
Since the Holy Spirit lives inside of me, and He is communicating with me, He is likely to speak to me in the voice that I am most familiar with… mine!
And one thing that I didn’t believe is that God is always speaking, and wanting me to hear His voice and respond to Him.

All of this means the following… If you have ever given your heart to Jesus [this does not mean holding your hand up in church, walking down to the altar, or making a social or emotional decision for those watching] then the Holy Spirit is communicating with you, far more than you’d probably be comfortable with.

There are a few implications to keep a pure heart and not become one of those assholes who says “God told me…” or “The Lord said…” in order to be manipulative!

1. There should be a peace in your heart about what you are “hearing”.
2. The Lord is going to speak words of love and grace for you to share with someone.
3. Discernment is probably the most important thing in using the words, “The Lord said…” Please get to know the particular tone that Holy Spirit speaks to you in… He always calls me “son”, and will probably have an intimate way of making His voice known to you also.
4. He will never speak against the truth written in the Word.
5. Once you have the confidence to tell someone you heard His voice, make sure your heart is in check, so you don’t manipulate someone and blame it on Him.
6. Understand that you won’t always hear correctly, which means you’ll be wrong from time to time… and that is ok!