Obedience to God thru listening prayer

Learning to listen to the Lord’s voice and then obey him is the most important thing we’ll ever do in life.  We derive everything of any long-term value from that – identity, the ability to love, and direction for starters.  Yet it can be such a struggle for us!  I know it is for me.  So we need to encourage one another with stories that show that it is possible.

Meredith Dinsdale, a missionary-in-training who’s going around the world in a year wrote a great blog about it. She sets an example of obedience for all of us to follow:

Ever since training camp I have been trying to do the listening prayer exercises that we practiced at camp. It is all too easy, though, to push things one may hear or see from one’s mind while praying and just think of it as “my” voice and not God’s. This morning, though, I prayed for my voice to be quiet and Satan’s even more so and for God’s voice to come through clearly. Then I sat and waited.

After waiting and having to quiet my own voice multiple times, I saw this girl I work with walking, well not walking but more gliding (she didn’t have the bounce in her step like she was walking), then I saw her fall really hard on her right hip. I asked God to really hit this home with me if it was indeed Him; but then I thought, “Why would I think of that on my own?” and, “Okay, God. I’ll ask her about it.”

I thought maybe she had an injury and that I would pray for her.

So, she stops by every afternoon to pick up our deposits and I timidly asked her, “So, um, I was just wondering, have you ever had a hip injury?”

“Um, yes I have.” She replied.

“Was it your right hip?”

“Yeah, I hurt it pretty badly. How did you know that?”

“It’s not hurting you is it?” I skirted her question.

“No… I had a really bad fall skiing two years ago. Man, was that ever painful. I thought for sure I was broken somewhere. But, why do you ask?”

“Well, this morning I was praying and God gave me an image of you falling on your right hip. So I just wanted to make sure it wasn’t hurting you.”

“Really…?” She was smiling now and looking at me, yet gazing through me, almost wondering, “huh.” She said with her mouth closed. “That’s really… a vision, huh?”

“Yep, I wasn’t sure but I wanted to make sure and ask you about it in case it was hurting you.”

“Well, thanks for asking. And thinking of me.” She was smiling rather largely now.

So, no miraculous healings today, but definitely an increasing of my faith. It may seem inconsequential to have a vision like that, but let’s face the facts here: God gave me a vision! Woo hoo! And it was true and it raised a curiosity in the girl. I made sure to tell God this morning, too, that I was ready to make a fool of myself for Him; thankfully, though, I am pretty sure I’m in that learning to hear stage so He’s making sure I get a few successes under my belt! Pretty exciting stuff!

Continued tomorrow…