God IS Speaking…can you hear Him? Part 2

This is Part 2 of God IS Speaking, can you hear Him? (read Part 1 here)

God is indeed speaking and He has a direct message for each of us. He is not just speaking for no reason. He has a Divine Purpose for all of us and talks to us to help direct our steps towards the Best Plan for our Lives. His plan is more than we could ever ask or imagine and is perfectly aligned with our specific gifting(s).

He can speak audibly and I’ve heard stories from immediate family who have heard Him speak that way. However, in my personal experience, He most often speaks through His Word and through Sacred Echos of His Word. That said, God will answer your direct questions, if you’re bold enough to ask them. (I am that bold and I have received direct answers from Him, many times.)

Case in point, a friend and I recently had a trip planned to California to attend a Leadership Conference at Bethel Church. We’d had the trip planned for months, but as the date approached, circumstances changed in our workplace so we no longer had coverage while we were gone.

Even though it didn’t make sense, we both felt like we were still going on our trip, as originally planned. So, we didn’t cancel any of our plans and were just waiting in faith to see what God lined up for us. The day before we were to leave on our trip, our morning devotional referenced 2 Kings 2. This is the story of Elijah (with Elisha) being taken up to Heaven. In that story in verses 1-2 Elijah says “The Lord has sent me to Bethel”. Then Elisha says he will go along and the text says, “So they went down to Bethel.”

I remember thinking, Seriously?! Did I just get a direct Word from God that He is indeed sending us to Bethel as I read “so they went down to Bethel”?? My mind was blown and I couldn’t help but laugh out loud, literally. Extra giggle provided by the fact (here is a little geography lesson) that I live in Oregon, so…California is “below” me. So, it appeared we would be going “down” to Bethel.

My friend and I shared quite the awestruck moment over that particular Scripture reference and its timing. Then, miraculously our office shortage was suddenly sorted out so we could indeed go to Bethel. Boom, Trip On!!

After that direct Word, we faithfully obeyed and “went down to Bethel”. As it turned out, by that time, the Leadership Conference we had planned to attend was sold out. So, other than a class my friend had on that Friday, we didn’t know exactly what we were up to, but we KNEW we were supposed to go, so we did. We ended up with some unplanned but wonderful relaxation time, fun “girl connection” time and amazing prayer and quiet time while we were there. It was, without a doubt, a trip planned for us by our Loving Heavenly Father.

While God had given us the message to go, I didn’t know exactly what my part was for the weekend. Alas, God revealed His purpose for that trip for me as He spoke to me repeatedly and broke off an old lie that had been keeping me sidelined for lo many years. Allow me to explain…

I have struggled with feeling worthy of the call of God on my life because of the depth of my past sin. I felt like my past sin excluded me from being able to shine for God. To be clear, I KNEW I was forgiven and I KNEW God does not hold any of my past sin against me. However, somewhere deep in my mind, I still felt unclean, dirty and disqualified. The permanent silencing of that thought pattern and resulting paradigm shift is why God had me to “go to down to Bethel”.

It started with alone time with ABBA on Friday. I worshipped as I got ready for the day, then sat outside in the California sunshine, just listening to worship music softly in my earbuds and sitting with my notebook and pen, ready for a Word from God.

I began to write a list of my “fears” about stepping up and stepping out for God. I put fears in quotes, because I KNOW they are not founded fears, in my heart, but yet my mind spins them around, and I allow them to hold me back. One of my strongest fears was that the depth of my sin disqualified me from walking with God into what His Plan is for me. With that fear particularly on my mind, I sat quietly with God, knowing He had a Word for me.

As I sat in His Presence, I felt the draw to Song of Songs and when I read Chapter 6 in TPT, the word “overcome” stood out to me with a reference note at the bottom that said this:

“The Hebrew word for “overcome” is Rahab. Like the harlot who was chosen, favored, saved from Jericho’s destruction, and included in the genealogy of Jesus, so you have “overcome” His heart. No one would have thought Rahab would be so honored, and many have said that about you. You have overcome many things, but to overcome Him is love’s delight.”

Wow! Rahab, a harlot, in the genealogy of Jesus! Talk about a life transformed. Wait, not just transformed, but filled with the ultimate honor of being in Jesus’s direct bloodline! That spoke deeply to me and my fear about my past sin. If God could take a harlot and use her to save His spies, then ultimately save her from death and make her part of the genealogy of Jesus, then surely I am worthy of being saved to be a co-heir with Jesus and worthy of saving others through what God designed me to do!

As I soaked in that truth, the thought crossed my mind that I am a New Creation in Christ, just like God says:

Now, if anyone is enfolded into Christ, he has become an entirely new creation. All that is related to the old order has vanished. Behold, everything is fresh and new.  2 Cor 5:17

My old order has vanished and I am Fresh and New. Just then a song, I’d never heard before, came on with lyrics that literally said, “I’m a New Creation”, yep, exactly that!

As I continued to soak in that revelation, I read on in Song of Songs to see a verse that says:

You must catch the troubling foxes, those sly little foxes that hinder our relationship. For they raid our budding vineyard of love to ruin what I have planted within you. Will you catch them and remove them for me? We will do it together. SOS 2:15 (TPT)

I had seen that verse before and it hit me then but it struck a deeper cord in me that day. As I read the reference note, it opened my thinking about the “foxes” God was asking me catch and remove (with His help). The note said:

“These “foxes” are the compromises that are hidden deep in our hearts. These are areas of our lives where we have not yet allowed the victory of Christ to shine into. The foxes keep the fruit of the Spirit from growing in us.” Note from TPT on SOS 2:15

Yep, that was part of the puzzle. I had areas of my heart where I had not allowed the Victory of Christ to reign and therefore they were holding me back. My unfounded fear about my past sin was exactly that. I just needed to allow Christ to shine in Victory over that part of my heart!

I immediately DECLARED the VICTORY of Christ over all of the lies and agreements I had written in my notebook. Done, pow! Then, at that exact moment, another song I’d never heard before called Breakthrough came on and the lyrics were all about Victory in Christ…well, of course they were!

As I sat in awe of all that revelation, I felt the need to confirm how God sees me by paging through Song of Songs. I asked myself, “Who does God say I am in Song of Songs?” and here is what I found:

• I am pure as a lily
• His darling companion
• His dearest
• His beautiful one
• His dove
• His love
• I am beauty to Him
• I have inner strength – so stately and strong
• I am His bride
• His beloved and His friend

This is only a partial list of what I found and the word PURE stuck out to me in that list. I guess because I had been struggling with feeling dirty, God wanted me to know I was PURE in His sight. Wow! The word PURE just kept cycling in my heart and mind.

As I met my friend for lunch I learned that she had the lie of “dirty” broken off her during prayer in her class time and it was replaced with CLEAN. It seems we were both on a journey to get rid of some old lies, I love sharing this journey with her!

That afternoon, I soaked in that word, Pure, and relaxed, then met my friend for dinner before we attended the Friday Night Service at Bethel. It soon became apparent that God wasn’t done showing me He saw me as PURE.

After the Very Holy Spirit Filled service, I was waiting in a hallway for my friend and a total stranger made eye contact with me and I smiled at her. She walked towards me on her way to the exit and when she touched my arm, it was like an electric current hit her and she immediately said “PURE – wow – PURE”, then just kept on walking past. OK, I admit, that was a bit odd, but I cannot deny the fact that a total stranger, upon touching my arm, declared the word PURE over me. Wow!

You may think that God stopped speaking at this point because certainly by now I’d received the message loud and clear, but wait, there is more! (I have found there is ALWAYS more with God!) The next day, I met with a Spirit Life Coach. (BTW – This is something I highly recommend – for more information, check out NUMA Coaching at mikemaeshiro.com) She was a sweet and knowledgeable young woman that took the time to listen to my story to see if she could help me remove any roadblocks from moving forward. We had a frank discussion and I appreciated all of her insights and advice. During our meeting, she said “I can tell you have a Pure Heart.” There it was again, no missing it…PURE! Seriously?!?!

As if that was STILL not enough, God persisted in echoing PURE in my heart and mind so I would NOT soon forget (or ever forget) this truth about me. After my meeting with the Spirit Life Coach, we grabbed a quick lunch then loaded up to catch a smaller one day leadership conference. We threw light sweaters in the car with us because hey, outside might be 80 but who knows the indoor temps, right? We had gone to lunch and were headed to the afternoon conference.

I grabbed my sweater that I had tossed in the back seat at the hotel and noticed a sticker was now on it. The sticker said “Fresh and Clean”. Whaaaaaat?!? The word “clean” spoke deeply to my friend as it was an echo of the Word God gave her to replace “dirty” the day before. It was just incredible! That sticker was NOT on the sweater in the hotel room, but somehow in a closed car after sitting in the back seat it appeared on my sweater. We just giggled with delight as we soaked in the revelation our Heavenly Father was giving us…He saw us as Fresh & Clean, not Disqualified and Dirty. Point taken!

The conference we attended was filled with Sacred Echos of our joint and individual walks with God and we enjoyed every moment of it. At the end of the conference they invited attendees to come through a prayer tunnel where you walk past the leaders and as you pass them they pray for you, often giving specific messages they hear as you walk by. Well, God spoke to me once again. As I was walking through the prayer line a woman grabbed my hand and looked directly into my eyes and said, “You have a Pure Heart of Love”. Bam, there ya go! I could not do much more than shake my head in amazement at that additional echo, once again from a total stranger.

God was still not done… I had purchased a sticker at the book store on our first day there that said “Our God is a God of VICTORY” and I had placed that sticker on my water bottle. (I am realizing now, in hindsight, that “Victory” is another echo of that weekend). Anyway – where I placed that sticker on my bottle, the word PURE presses through from behind, directly above the word Victory. That was not even in my mind when I placed the sticker, I was merely trying to align it to cover a current logo on my bottle. But, it is unmistakably there…wow, again…

This may all sound like too much or be too unbelievable to you, but every word is true. God broke off the lie I had agreed with a long time ago and He broke it off with Authority and Power. I am His PURE Child and nothing can ever take that away from me. I left “old dirty, disqualified me” in California and returned a New Creation in Christ.

I will forever be thankful for that unplanned experience with God. It is such an adventure to live with Him in Full Trust every day. I may not always see the steps ahead of me, but He knows them and He will light them up as I walk forward. All I need to do is maintain my focus on Him and allow Him to take me where He wants me to go, which will always be a place for my good and His Glory!

After all the PURE echos over our trip, I returned to my office on the following Monday and God had one more little surprise for me… As I flipped through my desk calendar and read through the dates while I was gone, I found yet another sacred echo. Check it out below:

November 8th was the day Rahab was highlighted to me and it was on my desk calendar on that exact same day back in Oregon! Really?!? I could feel God giggling over that little calendar page and reminding me to never forget the truth He had given me.

Well, I can’t forget it and will never forget it. I was forever changed that weekend. I now see myself as God sees me, Pure as a Lily, and No One or Nothing can convince me otherwise, EVER!!

So, dear one, God IS indeed speaking and all He asks of you is to listen. He doesn’t have an ulterior motive for His Love towards you. It’s just the Pure Unconditional, Overwhelming Love of a Father to His Child. If you don’t know this love, you’re missing the point of life. God created you to be in communication with Him and to lead others to Him by being the Perfect Version of you He created. If you feel disconnected and distant, start by stopping. Stop all the ways you’ve been striving to connect with Him and just BE. It is in that stillness and quietness where He will meet you. Expect to hear from Him and you will. Snuggle yourself into the arms of the Creator of Everything and get to know how He feels about you.

There is NO time like the present, don’t wait til January 1st or “make a resolution” to start pressing into God in 2020. Rather, start now and He will not disappoint you.

Blessings and Love,

Pamela