This voice knows you well. It is that tone you hear which thinks outside of the box: reaching beyond of ourselves. Wildly enough, it is this voice that cares the most about you (and others) sharing a concern for all inhabitants of this world. Our discernment is the ability to distinguish God's voice from our own. The key ingredient towards exercising discernment is our ability to listen. ...
It is hard and I am still learning. I believe this to be the most difficult exercise to refine. As the young prophet Samuel demonstrates, listening requires reaching the juncture between humility and willingness: "Speak Lord, you servant is Listening." (1 Sam. 3:9). Because modesty rarely coincides with pro-activity, listening can be lost with the wind.
But Man! What we can receive from listening is the key to godly wisdom: "Fools think their own way is right, but the wise listen to others" (Proverbs 12:15). Unlike much knowledge we all strive to keep, wisdom is communal and requires insight from external networks. The channel to those networks is the ears and heart.
Finally, we are able to maximize our ability to listen to God's voice when we pursue righteousness. When I seek to Honor God with everything I own: my mind, body, temper, time and words (not claiming perfection here..far from it), His words speak loudly through the intake of my mind and heart. This desired purity becomes a clear communication with the One who appreciates the beautiful and spotless nature of all Creation. Indeed, God's passionate voice becomes even more audible as we attune our ears, our entire self, to His frequency. And the process is reciprocal. Hearing His voice, knowing His promise and taking His Spirit enables you to realize the life we are meant to live. To hear others' pain and joy, to see the beauty and destitute, to smell the salt in the ocean air but also taste the salt from our tears. Hearing the voice of God is the first step to be in touch with our heart.
Please don't mistake God's voice for a figment of our imagination. I have friends that believe that God's voice is our own psyche trying to reason itself from the minutia of living. Please consider this: God can work (and does work) through our internal filter as He knows this familiarity compliments the comfort of His words. This is why Dallas Willard, a philosophy professor at USC, states, “All of the guidance which we are going to receive from God, no matter what the external or internal accompaniments may be, will ultimately take the form of our own thoughts and perceptions.” By contacting us through our only known medium, God is calls and meets us where we are at. Our God is convenient. Consequently, there is no work needed to reach Him.
Being still gains access to our God. If you listen, He is speaking to you right now. All you need to do is nothing (no wonder the lulls between sets is a surfer's paradise). Amen!
Listen to this: I love you all!!!
SUPPORTERS - THANK YOU!!!
I just wanted to state that I am incredibly grateful for the journey I have been on with so many of you. Some of you have helped me financially, and many of you have offered your prayers to help me continue through this phase. I cannot express how much I appreciate each one of you. And much beyond the behind the scenes support, I feel the encouragement and the support from everyone each time we see each other or talk. I am incredibly blessed with friends and family, which has always shined and continues to do so in this journey of support-raising. So thank you for believing in me and believing in what God is doing through me.
Thank you for Standing by Me! (<-- click this link! It's awesome!!!)
Prayer PRAISE! Zara!
Marcus and Collete's daughter is in remission. After a 1/2 of year in Rady's Children Hospital, Zara and family is going home. Thank you for your prayers in this. Please continue to pray that the leukemia is completely clear from her and does not return. God bless that little beauty...
Prayer NEEDED! Africa Update!
Courtney and I have a journey ahead of us. A team of six San Diegans will arrive in Malawi, Africa on July 15th. Together with some Malawian COTN interns, we will be running two camps for local orphans, ages 14 - 19, who are about to be done with their secondary education. The aim of the camps is to help the students launch into their adult lives well. Whether it's helping them determine the next step or assisting them to gain life skills and be able to support themselves, we are praying that God will do a big work in the minds and hearts of these 140 underprivileged Malawian youth. Additionally, we will be hosting health clinics at many of these orphan's homes. Please pray for this mission.
More to Come?
There is also another journey ahead for me and Courtney, but that is for another entry.
- Andy Kelly
"A complete life is the life of a child. When I am fully conscious of my awarenewss of Christ, there is something wrong. It is the sick person who really knows what health is. A child of God is not aware of the will of God because he is the will of God. When we have deviated even slightly from the will of God, we begin to ask, "Lord, what is your will?" A child of God never prays to be made aware of the fact that God answers prayer, because he is so restfully certain that God always answers prayer." ~Oswald Chambers
