You heard from who?!?

I have always been fascinated hearing stories of people who say they have "heard from God." There have been times when I have desperately called out for God to speak to me, yet I "heard" nothing. Over the past few years, I realized that God rarely speaks audibly to us. Which makes this phenomenon even harder to comprehend.

I believe God "speaks" to us through a song on the radio, a smile from a stranger or an odd coincidence but that still doesn't answer the question regarding hearing from God. I am going to do my best to explain my experiences of hearing from God.

I can count on one hand the times in my life when I feel like God spoke to me. None of these came in the form of a James Earl Jones voice booming through my head but they were profound. I always wondered how I would tell the difference between God's voice and my own inner voice. I talk to myself ALL the time because I am a woman and my mind never rests. But through my experiences, I am starting to tell the difference.

The messages I have received have been short and to the point but they really fall into these 3 categories.

The Messenger
God uses others to relay a message to us. This one is always a complete surprise and usually shakes me up. Here are a few examples...more than once in my life God has told someone else in my life to bless me. A few times it was a co-worker who said that during their prayer time, God told them to do something. Sometimes it was a gift of money and another time I showed up to 5 bags of groceries outside of my office door when my husband and I were struggling financially. One of the most shocking stories to me was when a girl that I went to summer camp with, a million years ago, said that during her prayer time God told her to send me some money. Her financial situation was in worse shape than ours but she was faithful and I received a beautiful surprise from someone I had not seen in 10 years. I carry the envelope she sent in my purse to always remind me of God's faithfulness and how he uses other people to "speak to me."

The Feeling
I believe we all have "gut" feelings that help us make choices in our lives. When you are in a close relationship with God, those "gut" feelings can be a way for him to guide our lives. There have been days when I am filled with anxiety but without reason I will feel a sudden rush of peace. That has to be God. I also get feelings to call my cousin, or an old friend out the blue. When I call them, it is confirmed to me that they really needed someone to talk to and I am thankful that God can use me in that way. This one really only works when you are striving to know God more...these feelings tend to fade the more we drift from the Holy Spirit.

The Words 
Finally....the big one. Actual words from God are something that is hard to explain. Only a few times in life do I feel like I have "heard" words from God. There are a few ways I know that it is Him. I realize at this point in reading you might think that I am a little crazy but guess what....Faith is crazy. It will make you think, feel and do things that will never make sense in this world. Once you admit that loving Jesus is crazy...the ride gets more interesting.

Like I mentioned before, I talk to myself almost nonstop but when I am trying to hear from God...I try to stop talking. You can't listen if you don't stop speaking.  One time I was confessing to God how worried I was about someone I love. I was reading God my list of "what ifs" (like he didn't already know them) and it was clear as day in my head...God said, "I will take care of him." That was definitely not something that I would say and the words just sounded different in my mind. That day was a huge turning point during my life and was the beginning of the healing of my issues with anxiety. And guess what...God DID take care of him and a million times better than I ever could have.

More recently I was standing in the shower, singing at the top of my lungs to "Your Great Name" by Natalie Grant. Music is a big form of worship for me (probably the reason I cry through all the songs during church) but it is hard to hear anything when I am singing. So I stopped singing and just listened...I heard (in my head) "Michelle, everything WILL be ok." Now, I have said a phrase like that to myself maybe a million times over the past 5 months but this time it was a statement of truth...not an optimistic prediction. There is a huge difference. At that moment I believed that statement of truth and I just knew it didn't come from me.

I know this topic can come across as a little "off the wall" but I want you to know that God does speak to His children but in different ways. I also know that most people will not believe until they experience it themselves which is just fine. The thing is, you have to believe a little bit before you can start to see (and hear) what God has in store for you.