Mission Made Possible

Right now I am in the process of finding out where I am in my relationship with God. As many of us are, I was once a Sunday Christian only. We go to church on Sunday, get enough godliness in us to make it for the week, and then venture back to church the next Sunday. No devotions, no time set aside for prayer, rarely applied the sermon to my life (sorry Pastor) but I’ve realized in my two weeks here that I’ve been lacking a lot in my relationship with God. Where was my prayer life before? How come I could never hear from God? Why can other people really worship God with all their hearts and proclaim the greatness of God? What am I missing?? All these questions are circulating in my head and I just know, right now, in my life something is missing. I can see spiritually what I don’t have, and I’m really praying for it now.

I never understood what having a relationship with God meant. Before this I really felt like going to church and believing in God was enough. But…if we don’t have a prayer life, how can we communicate with God? We need to build our relationship with God in order to know what his voice sounds like. It’s a partnership with God. Or maybe God has been talking with us the whole time but it is just not in a way that we think he would communicate. This week we have been learning about Intercession (prayer and hearing God’s voice) and Spiritual Warfare. Here is an outline to help us effectively hear from God and also when we are interceding along with bible verses that accompany them.

1.      Have a clean heart.  Matthew 5:8, Psalms 24:3-4, Psalms 66:18, 1 John 3:22

A.    Ask God to search our heart, he knows the condition of it. Jeremiah 17:9

B.     When God searches your heart and finds things not yet confessed, repent and confess to God. 1 John 1:9

2.      The Holy Spirit. Romans 8:26-27

A.    Ask the Holy Spirit to fill you and guide you. Ephesians 5:18

3.      Pray according to God’s Will. 1 John 5:14-15

A.    Surrender desires to God. Proverbs 3:5-6

B.     Ask God to put to death our own thoughts, pre-concerned ideas, and imagination. 2 Corinthians 10:5

4.      Know your authority. Luke 10:19

A.    Silence the enemy’s voice in the name of Jesus. James 4:7

5.      Have Faith. Hebrews 11:6

A.    Thanksgiving. Philippians 4:6

B.     Silence. Psalms 46:10,13:12

C.     Expecting. Psalms 123:1-2

D.    LISTEN. John 10:27

When God talks to us it can be through impressions, words, names, places, verses, ideas, mental pictures, songs, and sometimes audible words. I think a lot of people expect God to be like “Ashley, this is not a good idea” or “Maybe you should wait a couple weeks before pursuing that goal”. God speaks to us but it’s not always through an audible voice and it’s not always what WE WANT to hear. I am getting really frustrated with this outline and hearing the voice of God because I have been praying and praying for guidance and to hear God, but I am still really struggling with it. When we have our intercession we go through these steps of the outline and then take time to listen and see what God impresses on us. When we take time to listen, I have a million things going through my head, I can’t focus, and then the rest of the time I think “God, why aren’t you talking to me directly…Why can’t I hear your voice???!”  Right now I’m really struggling with silencing my own voice because I’ve been living this way for 20 years. I feel like I have been praying and praying and it’s like I’m talking to a mailbox or something. But it’s because I haven’t established that relationship yet to understand how God talks to me individually. It’s not a guarantee that once you follow that outline that you will be able to hear God every time you pray about something.  Another thing that’s hard is that you can’t set a date on it. You can’t be like “okay, let’s see… I’ve been working on my relationship with God for 3 weeks now… so he should start talking to me on Tuesday”. That’s not how it works either. I think you really have to pray and go to God with a true heart for him to speak to you. God has been continuously at work for us to know him better. He is fighting through the walls and barriers keeping us from Him and we need to reach out to him. So what’s a better way than prayer?

One of our speakers asked us to make a list of everything that has been separating us from God. So our whole class took a couple minutes to make a list individually. Our past regrets, people who have treated us unfairly, abusive parents, relatives dying, being abandoned as a child, materialistic things, your way of life before the DTS, vices, and everything else under the sun. Then we went around the room and individually said “THIS IS NOT GOD’S PLAN FOR ME”. God has bigger and better plans for us besides what we’ve been doing with our life now. Like our speaker mentioned when he was in a taxi, he asked the taxi driver “do you think God created you JUST to be a taxi driver?” No. For the people who have been through many trials and tribulations in their life, they are getting a wrong impression of WHO God our creator is. When God created humans, they were good. When God created the world, it was good. These trails are not Gods doing, so we shouldn’t settle for what the enemy has planned for us.  1 Corinthians 2:9, “No eye has seen, no ear has heard, no mind has conceived what God has prepared for those who love him”.

So this is just the second week of the lecture phase here at Youth with a Mission, Discipleship Training School and I can tell my relationship is growing. I am getting into more of the scripture and seeing that the Bible is a relatable book. Everything in there has meaning to me and it just took me this long to figure out. So far this has been a great experience and I can not wait to see where God leads me after this DTS. 

So now after my little lesson about intercession and prayer maybe you could intercede for me. My prayer requests are: 

-For Gods guidance in hearing His voice and having a better relationship with Him.

-For my physical well being.

-For healing for my classmates who are struggling with a lot more serious problems

-For the seeds that we’ve planted to grow into relationships and not just seeds.

-For the May 10 election for the new Filipino president.

-For my family and friends whom I miss dearly

Thank youuuu love you guys.