For me personally, 'hearing from God' is very complex...when it really doesn’t need to be. Whenever I think about hearing from God, I always think of someone falling to the floor through the power of God or someone having this massive vision that will change their life or someone else’s life. Which is great! Don’t get me wrong, I think that stuff like that, when it happens, is fantastic. But over the last year, after many attempts at praying and waiting on God for this massive prophetic vision for someone (prophecy is a big thing for me – something I’ve always wanted) and not actually receiving any, I started to feel very frustrated and sometimes angry with God at the fact he hadn’t spoken to me or ‘revealed’ himself to me as I would’ve liked (the distinctive word in that sentence being ‘as I would’ve liked’).
So I got to a point last year where I thought,
“Hang on a minute, this God that I say I believe in and put all my trust in, created the universe. If he wants to speak to me or if he wants to give me prophecy, he’s gonna do it! So relax Luke!”From there I started to rethink what I thought the phrase ‘hearing from God’ actually meant – does it mean being struck down? Does it mean having a massive vision that will change lives? For you, it still might mean that. But when I started to really think about it, it made me see how blind I was being.
Jez told me a story once, and you may have heard it. I may have twisted it a bit, but that might be because I can’t completely remember it all! But luckily, I remember the point it’s trying to make. One day, there was a man out at sea sailing, and cut a long story short...the waves got really big and the man’s boat capsized, leaving him stranded on a rock. So the man started praying to God and had complete faith in him... “God please give me a miracle. Save me!” A few hours later, another sailing boat came along, and saw the man stranded on the rock. So the boat went over, and one of the men onboard said, “Come on! Jump on! We’ll save you.
”
But the man on the rock replied, “No thank you! God is going to save me!” So the boat carried on. A few hours later, a helicopter was flying over and happened to see the man on the rock. The helicopter lowered and one of the men onboard said, “Come on! We’ll save you!” But again, the man said “No thank you, God will save me!” So the helicopter flew away. A few hours later though...the man drowned. The man found himself in heaven before God and complained 'why didn't you save me?!' to which God replied 'I sent you a boat and a helicopter - what more do you want?'
This, for me, was such a wakeup call, and the story has stuck with me ever since I first heard it. The man on the rock was praying to God for a miracle, and without even realising it he missed two miracles! Normally, I reckon, if you’re that far out at sea stranded then you haven’t got much chance of survival.
So, if I’m relating this to my life...I was praying and waiting for about a year for this big miracle. Instead of actually opening my eyes and seeing, I was looking too deep into it and missed everything that was right in front me. And sure enough, once I realised all of this, a couple of weeks later, at a prayer meeting at Kings God spoke to me. It wasn’t a huge vision and I wasn't struck down, but at that point in my life I might as well have been, it was amazing! And that’s not the only time I’ve heard God speak to me since then.
That’s another thing too...I always imagined me getting these massive revelations at a place of real ‘importance’ – like Newday, for example, where there’s seven thousand people. But I didn’t – it happened at a place of real importance to me personally. A prayer meeting with about sixty people! Fantastic!
So I really want to encourage anyone who reads this, don’t miss things that are right in front of your eyes...like I did. Don’t wait for this huge, ‘life changing’ thing to happen. Because sometimes, the things that matter most to you and to God are right in front of you. God is capable of so much and knows how best to speak to each one of you. He won’t start you off with things you might not be able to handle. So be patient. First see the things that matter most at that moment in time. Be patient with God...(like I wasn’t!)...and be as faithful as possible and God, as usual, will show you just how amazing He is, and just how amazing He can make you feel – just by giving you a small taster of what He has in store.
And finally, never forget the most important thing of all...God’s love remains. It never fails, it never gives up, and it most certainly never runs out.
LB
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