It feels impossible to encapsulate such a full, complex, exhausting, fulfilling, exciting, life-changing week in a blog post typed on my phone.
I’ll try nonetheless.
Imagine that all your life, you’ve wanted to play the piano, and not just play it, but play it well. You’ve taken lessons and gone to workshops. You’ve practiced and labored and cried in frustration and felt the joy of success when you hit the right keys. You‘ve made progress, but you feel like something must be missing; there must be a faster way to improve.
And then one day an experienced pianist invites you to play with them and as you sit at the piano bench and cinch the metal around your wrists, they stare blankly at you and ask,
‘Why… Why are you putting handcuffs on?’
You stare back, confused.
‘Doesn’t… everyone? That’s how you play, with handcuffs,’ you said semi-confidently, although your certainty is quickly dissolving at the look of disbelief on the pianists face. You think back on all your lessons and experiences with piano. Everyone else wore handcuffs. It was how you were taught; you never questioned it.
The pianist sits unblinking and bewildered for a moment, unable to immediately process what you are saying. Then they gently take the key from you and help you take the handcuffs off. They sit back down, clearly struggling for control, trying to contain their confusion.
‘Try without.’
And suddenly, your fingers glide over the keys and the melody becomes richer and more intricate and you don’t feel stuck like you always had before. Some of the notes are wrong, but you barley notice. The ecstasy of playing unhindered is magical.
‘How… Why did I play with handcuffs on for all those years?!’ You exclaim, wide-eyed.
The pianist chuckles and sits back.
‘Amazing how much easier it is when you stop making it so complicated, huh?’
All right, stick with me. This analogy is the best way I can describe this week and the way my mind and heart were transformed.
Since I came to know Jesus at the age of fourteen, I’ve deeply desired to know, to hear, to understand and obey the voice of God. And yet, it has been a constant struggle. So much fear, doubt, uncertainty, confusion, plenty of disobedience when I DID hear…
I did hear the voice of God sometimes, but it was nearly always a difficult and exhausting ordeal.
The theme of our classes this week was Hearing the Voice of God.
And God took off my handcuffs (or perhaps more accurately, my earmuffs.)
We were given so many opportunities to practice hearing the voice of God, times of personal reflection and times of corporate prayer and listening. We heard stories that made our jaws drop and then saw the exact same things happen in our classroom as the Holy Spirit moved and we opened our ears, our eyes, our hearts to hear what God was saying.
Because He is *always* speaking. It’s we who fail to listen.
The combination of hearing powerful testimonies and then getting the chance to test the waters myself and see and hear God prove Himself faithful and trustworthy was the most faith-expanding, impactful thing. The Holy Spirit gave me words and pictures for specific people and I got to watch how they were impacted by God speaking so clearly to them through me. Prophetic words were spoken to me and I was wowed yet again by how personal our God is.
It would take me hours to describe everything that happened this week in and through class and several hours more to cover all the many things that happened OUTSIDE of class. It was an amazing week, and one that wore me out *completely*. But I can summarize by saying that I understand what it means and what it looks like to hear Gods voice so much better than I did seven days ago.
The other thing I will add is that this last week we were surprised with the confirmation of our two Outreach locations!! One team will go to Colombia, and the other will travel to different parts of Mexico for outreach in July. We were given the chance to pray and seek Gods voice on which one He is calling us to. This doesn’t guarantee that we will be going there, but the desire is that God would be the one to decide the teams, and our leadership is currently working to confirm the final teams. Please pray for them as they make these decisions and begin to strategize plans for outreach; it is a Herculean effort!
I absolutely cannot believe it’s already been three weeks. The first quarter of lecture phase is already over!! I am continually so grateful for your support, your prayers, your encouragement and love.
Praises:
So far, besides a few sniffles here and there, our team has been healthy!
God confirmed our outreach locations for our leadership which is awesome!!
As exhausting as this week was, it was overflowing with so many delights and blessings! Especially in finding a few friends who I’ve connected with and been uplifted by SO MUCH.
I’m learning. Like, A LOT.
Mazatlán is so stupidly beautiful I don’t even know how it’s possible. And I’m so grateful.
Requests:
Prayer for continued health! For me specifically, that I would maintain my health in all the areas (and not lose too much weight 😬) as I adjust to the food and all the many different aspects of living here.
Continued capacity to be able to learn and grow as we have another awesome topic this week (The Father-heart of God) and I want to continue to soak in as much as I can!
Spiritual, emotional, mental, and physical protection, energy, strength… the spiritual battle is real and it’s really tiring.
That God would clearly create the outreach teams, give us supernatural unity and that He would give us peace as we anticipate the enormity of preparing for that.
Peace and comfort as it’s starting to be a little harder being away from home.
So many thanks, big hugs, big love!!
-Em
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