Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed
by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test
and approve what God’s will is…

— Romans 12:2

             One of my biggest concerns when I was a brand-new Christian was how to know when God was trying to tell me something… how to hear his voice. I’m still pretty new in my faith, but I’ve been earnest in my quest to discern God’s directions for my life. There is nothing I want more than to know His will for me so that I can work to fulfill it. My heart’s been hollowed out, every distraction and attachment carved away. My mother was the last link in the chain tethering me to earthly things. With her recent passing, I’m wonderfully and terrifyingly free, available for whatever works and ultimate destiny that God has in mind for me.

DIRECT MESSAGES

             Well, I’ve never heard an actual voice. Yet. But perhaps I will someday. A good friend (whose sanity I trust) told me that he did actually hear a voice once, in a time of deep distress and doubt. And stories abound of people having visions or dreams in which a Christlike figure appears and conveys a message (see “God Speaks – Visions or Dreams” post). I’ve not yet been blessed with a communication so direct. I’m still just one of the ordinary peons who must rely on faith— but not blind faith. A scientific— skeptical, testing, informed— faith. Even Paul (see above citation from Romans 12:2) recommends this approach of “testing” to discern God’s will. But despair not! God speaks in other ways…

THROUGH HIS WORD

             One of the most common responses I got when asking people or researching the question [yes, I consult “Reverend Google” occasionally] of how to hear the voice of God, was, “Get into the Word. He speaks through His Word.” I really had no idea what they meant. I was reading the Bible almost daily and was becoming frustrated with this advice.

             That is, until it happened to me. (For the full gory details, see “God Speaks — Amputation Anxiety” post). Basically, I suffered a major injury to my hand, and the possibility of amputation was on the table. I was scared. I’d been slogging through Isaiah, at what I felt was an embarrassingly slow pace. (Turns out, it was the perfect pace for God to convey his message to me)! The night after my injury, I read Isaiah, Chapter 30, and these words stunned me, “… on the day that the Lord bandages his people’s injuries and heals the wounds he inflicted.”

             Thirty chapters of wars and woes and not once had the text been so specific about God “bandaging and healing” the wounds of his people. My fingers were wrapped in a bloody bandage at the time. I was to see the orthopedic hand surgeon in two days to get his opinion on amputation (his nurse had informed me, from his assessment of the ER records, that he planned to amputate the next week). Tears sprang instantly to my eyes, as full-body chills raced up and down my spine. All the hairs on my arms stood up, and my body buzzed electric. I felt this was God’s personal promise to me that “everything would be okay”— that I wouldn’t need an amputation. Words of praise whispered from my lips, “Thank you God, thank you God, thank you God, thank you…” and my frenzied mind was washed over with a sense of calm, of peace. My fear disappeared. Four months later, no amputation. Pretty cool, no?

THROUGH SIGNS

             This one has been blowing my mind lately. I have a whole ‘nother post dedicated solely to my personal experience with this topic (see “God Speaks — My Sunflower Story” post). To summarize, I was nervous about going to Ukraine in November. Then, I started noticing sunflowers in a couple of different places. (Sunflowers are a major symbol for Ukraine— they’re the national flower and sunflower oil is a major export). I prayed, thanking God for sending me the sunflowers, and then I prayed the dangerous prayer— I asked Him to continue sending me sunflowers if it was still His will for me to go to Ukraine.

             A dangerous prayer because— I felt in my heart that I was being called to go, but what if I didn’t see any sunflowers after this? (What if I was wrong?) Well, I didn’t have to wait long. This was the most striking and immediate response to a prayer that I’ve ever received, to date. No sooner were the words out of my mouth, then a GIANT sunflower came into view as a Dollar General cargo truck passed me on the highway. It shook me up so badly that I almost had to pull off the road. Same full-body chills, same grateful tears, same bolt of otherworldly energy shot through me as when I read God’s promise to me hidden in Isaiah. I continued to see sunflowers even up to the point of arriving in Ukraine. As I consider returning to Ukraine, I recently prayed this dangerous prayer again. And again, God has shocked, amazed, and delighted me with His response.

ANSWERED PRAYERS

             Another way that God speaks is through answering prayers. After I pray for guidance about a decision I need to make, I pay attention to what people say to me, words I read or hear, or things that happen. For example, most recently I prayed for guidance on whether to take another nursing contract in January. The way God answered that prayer was by letting things become so miserable for me that even the exorbitant amount of money being offered couldn’t entice me to stay. That answer wasn’t so fun to live through— but it was clear! My decision not to renew was confirmed as the correct choice by events that conspired later— namely, my mother’s passing (see “God’s Timing” post). Had I renewed my contract, I would have missed the chance to hold her in my arms one last time. And no amount of money could have ever made up for that.

GOD-THOUGHTS

             Finally, I believe that God also speaks by putting thoughts into your head. This is a tricky one! The difficult part is discerning which thoughts are God-thoughts and which thoughts are me-thoughts. A book I read (forgot the title) gave a good guideline— ask yourself whether the thought is something that benefits only you, or whether it benefits other people. God-given thoughts are not self-serving. God-given thoughts seek the good of others.

             My latest example is the thought, “Go to Utah,” which popped into my head after I woke, a couple days after my mother’s death. I’d had a prior plan to visit a friend for a couple weeks at the end of January, but that plan got imploded on my end and on my friend’s end. This Utah thought was so strange & unbidden that I found myself arguing with it— “Utah?? In January??? But it’s cooooooold in Utah now!” But over the next several days, the more I thought about it, the more I felt in my heart that it was the right thing to do. Go to Utah. Go to Utah. Go to Utah. Okay! So, after the funeral was over, I packed up and that’s what I did. And that’s where I sit now, as I type this. Go to Utah, and finally start that blog you were supposed to start almost a year-and-a-half ago…

             To sum it up— I believe the most crucial element of learning how to hear the voice of God is to pay attention. He could be speaking to you, and you’re simply missing it. I no longer believe in coincidence. I truly believe that everything happens for a reason. So, I try to decipher the meaning in every little thing— which makes me a little bit “extra” at times! A friend recently commented to me, “Wow, it seems like you sure do get a lot of signs!” As I told her, I don’t think I’m special or that I’m necessarily getting “more signs” than anyone else. If anything, I think that maybe I’m just paying more attention.