Hearing Gods Voice

The voice of God is that secret voice unheard by any other ear,

which our own ear, opened by the Spirit of God recognizes with joy.

Charles Spurgeon

One of the things that I often have people ask me is how do I know if God is speaking to me? How do we know God’s voice?

Good question!

Hearing Gods voice is one of the things that I was so unsure of – what if it’s not God its just me? What if I get it wrong? How do I know its Him?

To be honest I don’t think there’s an easy one-stop-shop easy answer, but it all comes down to relationship. As I have grown closer to God and developed my relationship with Him I have come to learn how He speaks to me. Each of us are created uniquely so it makes sense that the way God speaks to us may be different to the away he speaks to someone else.

"My sheep listen to my voice;

I know them, and they follow me."

-- John 10:27

God knows the best way to speak to me. I am a visual person – images and pictures speak to me far greater than reading the Bible or listening to a preacher. But for others, reading the Bible can really speak to them. Neither are more right than the other – they are both just as valid.

When our kids were born, even as babies they recognized mine and Rays voices. They'd spent the whole time in the womb listening to us talk to them. They knew who we were and it would comfort them. When they were upset we could settle them just by our voice because they knew it was us.

As we get to know God more we learn to recognize His voice. I realize this sounds all too simplistic but its true.

There are many different ways in which God can speak to us. I would love it if God would just use massive sky-writing or a big booming voice from heaven like he did when Jesus was baptized but unfortunately it never seems to happen!! I know people who God speaks to them through impressions, a whisper, feelings, numbers - I even have one friend who God uses Physics equations! How crazy is that?

Benny Johnson from Bethel Church said recently at Manifest Presence Conference in Auckland that "God's not English, but English is one of the ways He can speak to us. God's not Russian but Russian is one of the ways He can speak to us." The same applies to pictures, numbers, feelings, impressions etc. They are all just a tool that God can use to communicate with us.

How awesome it is to know that God can to speak to us in a way that works for us - regardless of language!

I want to encourage you, as you spend time developing your relationship with God - it will become easier to recognise His voice. Take some time and chill with Him today.

Shan

SNOW!!!

We've been turned into a winter wonderland! Things are a little crazy at the moment - this is the 3rd day in a row I have been holed up at home due to the crazy weather! Snow in September - its a first for me after 8 and a half years living in Invercargill.

But what an amazing thing it is. I absolutely love snow and have always felt ripped off in winter here because we don't normally get anything decent here. I grew up with snow days from school, power cuts cooking on the fire in the dark and a tonne of afternoons in the freezing cold skidding round on the motorbike and sledging. But now we have it!! Wahoo!

Church has been cancelled all over the city because the roads are too treacherous for travel, the Stadium in town - our provinces pride and joy, had its roof collapse under the weight of the snow and more rough weather is yet to come in. With all this crazy happenings not only here but throughout our nation - flooding in the north island, crazy winds in Auckland, tornadoes and the massive earthquake in Christchurch many peopleit is encouraging to know that we do not have to be afraid or live in fear because we have Jesus.

It says in the Bible (yes I am actually going to mention scripture!) that God is our refuge and so we should not be afraid.

"God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging" Psalm 46:1-3
"He who dwells in the shelter of the Most High, will rest in the shadow of the Almighty I will say of the Lord, "He is my refuge and my fortress, My God in whom I trust" Psalm 91:1-2

Even when the world around us is falling down and unpredictable we can rely on God. Place our faith and our trust in Him and we do not have to worry - we are in Gods hands. I'm not sure about you, but I would rather place my faith in the One who is unfailing than anything else!

"Lets do this thing..............."

So today is the first day of my big adventure. Sounds exciting huh? It is - and its pretty scarey!
So whats the haps I hear you ask? Well.............

You may have seen from the previous post I have recently been in Tonga on a missions trip. It was an incredibly impacting time for me - and not just from what I saw and experienced, but in the way that God spoke to me so clearly and challenged me.

My heart has always been to live a life of reckless abandonment for God. A life that is glorifying to God and impacts those around me. Well to be honest that wasn't really happening. It was more like a life of coasting through on a treadmill - repeating the steps and going nowhere. I had gotten comfortable. There was nothing wrong with my life - in fact I liked it. I was doing my thing, loving God, family and church. BUT God has more than that for me. He knows the potential within me - and YOU. He wants the best for us.

My dream for as long as I can remember has to be a photographer - to take amazing images that inspire people, challenge their worldview and change the world. I wanted to reach a generation of young people and see them become the person that God created them and designed them to be. To preach the gospel and see lives, cities and nations changed. As a young (yes I consider myself young!) mum with 2 small children that was kind of put in the "one day" basket. The place where I'll return to when its the right time, when the kids are grown and I have the resources to fund that kind of ministry. So in the meantime I opened a photography studio and started doing weddings and portraits as a way to "keep the dream alive" until I figured out how to make it work.

Well I have not been designed as an administrative type person in anyway! So the day to day stuff of running business did not come naturally to me in any way shape or form and was more stressful in ways I cannot express. Dont get me wrong, I love taking photographs of people, letting them express the beauty and uniqueness in the way God created them and capturing special occasions - it was a privilege and a fantastic creative outlet. But it wasn't the best that God has designed me for.

When in Tonga God breathed life into those dreams that I had put aside, that I didn't know how to make happen or how it would work with the family and stuff. And He just said to me "Come on Shannon, lets do this thing................................."

Come on lets do this thing. Crap.

"This thing" was to close down my photography studio and to come and volunteer at my church full time doing the creative design stuff - graphics, web, photography etc and build the young adults ministry, Resonate - which is you guys! God was calling me, giving me permission to step into the things that He has for me, to live the BEST life designed by Him and just saying "its now. Don't put it off, lets just do this together. Lets make it happen and change your world."

So here I am. Recklessly abandoning the path I have known in favour of one where I can only see a few steps ahead. Its scarey because my safety net is gone. I can no longer tell people I am "a photographer and have my own studio". The worlds idea of success and identity can no longer matter because I am living a life on the edge for Jesus, standing in the place He has designed for me. And to be honest, theres nowhere else I would rather be.

Come on lets do this thing.................

Revival Weekend

Wow what an amazing weekend we just had with the amazing Roy andMelanie Fields. If you ever doubted Revival was in the air then those doubts should be well and truely gone now!!!

For those of you who aren't aware, Roy and Melanie led the worship at the Lakeland Outpouring and are a phenomenal couple who carry an incredible passion to see God move in miraculous ways transforming lives and seeing Revival break out across the globe. These are just a couple of pics from the weekend and we will have testimonies and stuff coming soone:)

Shan

Team Hoyt

My cousin sent this to me - it is a moving story of a father's love for his son. As far as I know, my cousin isn't a Christian. I shared the Gospel with him when he was a teenager and am praying for him to this day. I don't know why he sent this video to me out of the blue, but I believe that he too has been touched by its message.

I am both humbled and grateful that God our Father loves us enough to fight our battles and win our races every day, however big or small. It is something that I haven't reflected on quite enough from day to day - I hope that that will change.

May you be moved by His love today.

For more information about this father and son, visit www.teamhoyt.com.

Its all in the attitude

Pray without ceasing. Have you ever thought about the implications and impracticalities of this scripture? (1 Thessalonians 5:17) I mean lets be honest - does God really expect us to pray every second of the day? how does that affect our lives ? Can it actually be done?

There is actually more to that scripture than is often looked into - 1 Thessalonians 5: 16 -18 says "Be joyful always, pray continually, give thanks in all circumstances, for this is Gods will for you in Christ Jesus." (NLT)

God is not asking us to spend every moment of our day on our knees in prayer, but He encourages us to have a prayerful attitude. This attitude affects our reactions to the stuff, good and bad, that occurs in our lives. It determines whether we will be atmosphere takers or atmosphere makers. A prayerful attitude recognises and acknowledges our need for God, our dependence on Him, and takes the focus off ourselves. It means that even in the crap times , in the darkness when we think no one cares, we can have an assurance that God is there, He cares and we can turn our focus to Him.

Over the past few months I have had an illness that had the potential to take over every part of mine and my family's lives. Everything turned to crap (am I allowed to say crap on the blog? Oops crap I did it again!) and I felt I was in a downward spiral there was no escape from.. Now I don't share this to gain your sympathy or to shock, but out of this experience ( and I still have a long way to go) I have learned a very important God perspective that keeps me going.

John 10:10 "The thief comes to steal, kill and destroy, but I have come that they may have life in abundance." This is a scripture I have heard countless times but whenever I have considered abundant life I have looked at it from a vantage point of Gods provision - paying my bills, meeting my physical needs etc.. What I didn't consider was (and God gave me revelation of this) abundant life is more than this.

Abundance of life includes the experiences we go through and the lessons we learn. This changed me in my situation completely. I know that God is with me in my situation, and while He did not cause it, He is allowing me to go through it because the lessons I learn and the reward I gain on the other side are far greater than if I did not walk this journey.

Even though my situation sucks, knowing God is there and walking with me makes the pain easier to endure, and dare I say it, I am even thankful. Not that I am sick, but thankful that God has a plan greater than I can currently see, thankful that God is bigger than my situation and thankful for this experience because its enriching and strengthening me- as a person, as a wife and mother and as a woman walking a journey with Christ.

By developing a prayerful attitude ( and believe me I'm a work in progress!) when things get tough I can turn to God and take the focus off myself. This a conscious decision, a choice I have to make continually, and some days the choice is far easier than others and sometimes I don't succeed at all. But thats the amazing thing about Grace - God still reaches out His hand to pick us up and set us on our feet time after time, day after day. (and thats a whole new post on its own)

Be joyful always, pray continually and give thanks in all circumstances - I might not succeed in this all the time, but I am going to make a go at it. I want to encourage you - embrace God no matter what your circumstances are and be enriched and amazed by what you learn and the experiences you gain.

Letting Go of Our Sins

Some days, I just feel so unholy. (I know, great first entry on the Resonate blog. :P I am sure I will soon hear from Ray if this is not theologically sound!)

And I feel far away from God. I am a Christian who has experienced enough of God to know that life without God would be meaningless for me. Yet, at times I just feel totally unworthy and that makes me pull away from Him. Read on if you can identify with this, because at times like that, I cling on to the things that I know deep down, and that helps me through. I hope it helps you too.

It is a vicious cycle - in moments of weakness I sin (judge others, gossip, act self-centred, lose patience, rage, you name it...), then I feel guilty about it and avoid God (as if He didn't already read my mind as I thought all those terrible things!), then I miss out on my quiet time with Him, then it's all a bit awkward from then on, and I gradually just drift farther and farther away from Him. And without Him, you see, I am weak. And moments of weakness become the norm.

Times like that, I think... God, if You have really forgiven me, why aren't You talking to me? Why won't You just tell me that everything's okay?

Usually, after moping for a while, I pause for long enough to hear His answer: You already know that I have forgiven you. You just haven't soaked it all up yet. You are losing sight of what you know to be true because of the guilt that you feel. I'm telling you that everything is okay - you just aren't listening. It is you that won't spare me the time of day to listen to what I have to say to you. Get over it!

Which reminds me of a story I heard in my old church in Auckland... (If you've heard a slightly different version of this elsewhere, it's because this is my version, recreated from the bits that I remember.)

There was a bunch of sinners registering for kind of an... absolution conference, where they would pay their dues for all the things they had done wrong. At the registration booth, they were given one of those stick-on name tags where they had to write not only their names, but also why they were there. After that, they went round the room introducing themselves.

"I'm John, I'm a murderer." John bowed his head in shame.

"I'm Lucy, I'm a thief." Lucy looked glad she was after John.

"Sally... an adultress." Sally could barely say the words.

And so this went on. Eventually a man without a name tag stood up and said, "My name is Jesus, I have not sinned."

"What do you mean you haven't sinned?" asked the organisers in a rage, "What is your name and what have you done? Where is your name tag? You need to register and you need to say what you've done wrong."

Jesus walked around the room and took the name tags off all the sinners there. He stuck them on His chest, one by one. And He said, "My name is Jesus, I have not sinned. Here are my name tags. My name is John. My name is Lucy. My name is Sally..."

Fundamentally, we sin and fall short of His glory. So try not to sin. But when we do, we need to get up, get right and move on. We need to see that it isn't enough just handing over our name tags to Him - we also have to stop calling ourselves names.

Sin separates us from God because He is holy. That is the whole reason for the Cross! But a sin committed, and left on its own to grow into a festering wound of guilt, really has the potential to damage our relationship with Him. Once we repent, that's it - we really have to let God deal with it - we really have to let God.

Grace!!

Hey guys!
Thought now that Im actually a guest blogger, that I should write/blog to yalls!!
So yeah, here I go!
One thing I have been thinking a fair bit about recently, is God's grace. Honestly, it seems like I've been surrounded by grace in name form (my full name Joanna, means grace, I have a friend Grace, and I know several people with the middle name Grace!). A part from that its just been a real thinking point, that its by God's grace that I can study in Dunedin, and by God's grace I'm in an awesome hall, and by God's grace that I have awesome friends........I could keep going on but Im sure you get the point. Our God is soooo gracious. He is God, and He does judge, but first He offers us grace, in all its fullness, to all who will take it and accept Him.
It's just so awesome it blows my mind.
Blessings!
Jo

: )