Hearing God
God wants you to hear Him.
Santhea loves God. She hears Him. He named her Lydia. It is her calling and one of her Spiritual Gifts to teach others to hear Him - and she obeys God to the letter with what He tells her to do: showing us, through Him, to hear Him. She listens and guides us. He knows who will be present in her class that day. It is a revelation to witness and experience how God works through her. It is a safe place for us. And you can go again and again if you want. Whether it is for general or specific purpose. God wants you to hear Him. And you will. By the Grace of God.
When I attended one of Santhea’s classes, amazing things happened. And I heard God! I knew it was Him and not me.
Reliving that day as it happened……
I know there will be people I don’t know. God knows I don’t like to talk about private stuff in front of others, unless I willingly testify. So, I am a little apprehensive. “Just go there and learn how to hear God”, I tell myself. Forget about the people. Little do I know what I’m about to experience.
I walk in. I sense Peace. People are already there. Not realising it yet, God is preparing me. I observe, take a seat and greet the people one by one. God is using my instinct (received by His Grace alone) to sense everyone. It doesn’t even cross my mind why this is happening. I have compassion towards them. I want to protect them. He reveals more detail during the early part of our session: a need to be counselled, a need to hear more, loneliness and a battle with illness, distractions combined with desperation in a household, need for spiritual healing, further spiritual growth (in this person, I have never sensed a more sinless human being).
There is Godly ointment in laughter. So, this particular day God makes us laugh! Everyone pitches in with quirks and we all laugh spontaneously. Santhea laughs the loudest. She says she doesn’t know why. She just cannot stop laughing! That makes us laugh even more! Tissues are handed out to those crying with laughter! God has created a bond between us, giving us something in common. He is establishing openness amongst us. We have quiet times with Him, after which we share what we have heard from Him. It becomes a wonderful counselling revelation, as we not only hear what He is showing or telling us individually, but about one another. We receive spontaneous support from one another. Camaraderie. God is speaking to everyone here.
In my quiet time, I hear God through a thought: I am directed to an idea that came about a while ago. My mouth drops open whilst searching through my file to find the written down idea. Santhea laughs. She knows! I try to explain to the group, then I stop after a while. Trivial information.
Our session ends with creating something with our hands. There are different mediums to choose from. Today it is sculpting clay or paint. As I am so pleased that I heard God today, I told everyone: “I heard what God wanted to tell me, so I am just going to be child again and play with paint.”
I take the little canvass cloth….. and nothing….. I don’t understand, because I know I can paint. Embarrassing. I select colours. I squeeze the tubes and make horizontal lines with the paint, one beneath the other. Now what? Still nothing. Time is limited. I can’t stand here producing nothing. I look at some of my new friends in Jesus, who also selected to paint, and they are well on their way. Then I hear, it was like a clear thought: Dip your fingers in it as you planned all along”. I do, and my fingers start moving, whilst nothing comes to mind. I keep on moving the paint. I sense a little disgust from my new friends in Jesus opposite me. It is messy. My friends pass on wet wipes. I see a butterfly forming and I carry on until completion. A childlike picture, quite colourful with strong lines and definition with nature around it. I take it outside to dry and with a little disappointment re-iterate in my mind: “You said you wanted to play.” “I am not taking this home”, I whisper to my daughter. The others said they are going to frame theirs. It was fun though. Dirty hands and all!
We have a great gathering afterwards around a dining table and Santhea leads us with Holy Communion and a lovely bite to eat. We leave as new found friends in Jesus. God is great. We all heard Him. Santhea is a gifted messenger of God.
Arriving at home, I threw the little painting down on some of my cook books. I can’t even remember the colours I picked, there was a bit of gold somewhere. I like gold. The next day, my daughter, (who insisted that I take the little painting home because she liked it) said to me: “Look at your little picture!” God spoke through her, pointing out a butterfly effect. “Huh?” I looked at it then, and the next day and the next.
The little painting was the key to hearing God.
1. He did the painting. Colour specific. (Painter, Sculpturer, and Creator of everything.) His painting created different emotions in the 4 people who looked at it after I brought it home. (God speaks to each person differently.)
2. That is exactly what I asked God for a few weeks ago – to show me how to do paintings that create emotions through Him. (Do it WITH ME and not just for Me.)
3. He stripped me to nothing, once again, to show me HE is in control. And I am in a safe place.
4. God wants to be heard. (He speaks to believers and non-believers through all of His creations.)
5. God used the little butterfly painting AND the people He let me sense that day as reference to hear what He wants me to do and what He wants me to tell you:
Hear Him, He is speaking to you.
You are His creation and however small you may think you are, He wants you to know you matter hugely to Him.
A little butterfly can flap its wings a certain way in India and that tiny change in the air pressure could eventually cause a tornado in Iowa. So, a tiny change in a complex system can have large effects elsewhere.
This means everything in existence (which God alone created) is connected. One little part of it cannot help but to affect the entirety of the other parts. For the good or the bad.
For the bad: Two country leaders disagree. One leader doesn’t get his way and starts a war with the other. The whole world is affected by it in a negative way.
For the good: Nobody is too tiny in God’s complex system, His Kingdom, not to make a positive change with large effects elsewhere. His Plan, His Will. Just hear Him. The more you live in Him and Him in you, the more you will be hearing God. He will tell you exactly what to do or need to know. Listen and obey.
Santhea glorifies God by her teachings to those who want to hear Him. He named her Lydia.
Imagine the large positive effect it has elsewhere because more and more people hear Him and the larger positive effect it has elsewhere because they listen to what God tells them and an even larger positive effect it has elsewhere because they obeyed?
Grace (my new name in Christ)
