flaticon.comPanama Missions | Hearing God’s Voice?
Table of Contents
INTRO
It has been some time since I wrote a Christian post. I go through cycles where I want to just focus on IT and then I burnout for a bit then God pours into me and I get new revelations, thoughts, and ideas, then I get a feeling to write about them and so I do.
I recently got back from a mission trip in Panama. I have gone there several times before with my Church and every time it’s a blessing. In this post I am going to be all over the place, but my hope is that you will learn more about on how to hear God’s voice!
Here is the Church, the construction team (including me) built in around 2 to 3 days. Although the picture is not of the complete build, you get the general idea. It may not look like much at all compared Church buildings in the U.S. or elsewhere, but for the people that live there it’s very nice for them.
That’s just how poor the conditions are for the people there. We can go walking, and you will see houses made of tin with a straw roof and dirt floors. What we have in the U.S. is luxury, even that of a rundown motel would be luxury compared to what they have. Many of us including myself need to remember to be more thankful and grateful for the conditions we get to live in.
If you really think about it, none of us should be complaining whether, low, middle, or high class, what you have is much more than these villages in remote Panama.
I don’t like to share much about my trips because of what’s said in scripture below.
“Be careful not to practice your righteousness in front of others to be seen by them. If you do, you will have no reward from your Father in heaven. 2 “So when you give to the needy, do not announce it with trumpets, as the hypocrites do in the synagogues and on the streets, to be honored by others. Truly I tell you, they have received their reward in full. 3 But when you give to the needy, do not let your left hand know what your right hand is doing, 4 so that your giving may be in secret. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.
The Lord does not enjoy good deeds done out of impure motives. It’s one reason I am glad I kicked Facebook out of my life and why I don’t really take pictures anymore on my trips. I feel sharing the pictures online via social media could be included in the above scriptures. You see many people’s motivation for attending mission trips are to gain attention and virtue signal they they’re a “great and worthy” Chistian. The social media attention can be the main motivation of doing a trip rather that of doing the Lord’s work in secret. If this has resonated with you, ask for forgiveness and remove the media on your social media profiles if the Lord is prompting you.
Funny enough I don’t like how I look in pictures anyway, so it’s pretty easy for me to forgo posting them. See, a positive from a negative, that’s how you do it. It’s one of the areas the enemy has locked in for me about how I feel about my frame, but with the above scripture it kind of backfires on the enemy, I guess.
GOD SPEAKING ON THE TRIP
On these trips I tend to hear God more than normal. This was the first trip that I was sick on and out for a day with a fever. While I was sick in my tent resting, while the others went up to Church, the one we had just built, to have service with the locals, God was speaking to me. For one, the years of reading Clare’s messages have instilled in me more wisdom than any Church has. One of those things that were taught to me is that my sickness was not just a sickness, but an offering. Knowing this, I was not too disappointed and able to patiently endure. I was able to pray and offer my suffering for graces to be expended to those that needed it.
29 For it has been granted to you that for the sake of Christ you should not only believe in him but also suffer for his sake,
The Lord also gave me some words for a younger woman on the trip that I asked for which I shared later after the trip. There were some other things, but not all things should be revealed. The Lord also had me read the book of Malachi. The one thing though the Lord shared with me that I really enjoyed was that He said that I am one of His “secret weapons”.
HEARING GOD?
I want to take an aside here and address what many people will be wondering. What do you mean hearing God? Well, it’s not an audible voice you hear with your ears, although that’s possible but rare. It’s a voice in your head, your inner thoughts that sound like you, but are not from you. For all of you, God has already been speaking to you in your life, believer or not, it’s just you have not distinguished yet God’s voice over your own, or even the enemy’s voice. If a random thought comes into your head, was it just random? When you’re in the shower or doing other mundane things, and you get an epiphany about something, was that your own mind or God?
If you get a bad vide or feeling in your intuition, and you avoid something dangerous, was that you or God? If you keep getting coincidences that point to a certain outcome or direction is that just life or God? You can see where I am going with this, but that’s how God speaks, in a still small voice.
12 And after the earthquake a fire; but the Lord was not in the fire: and after the fire a still small voice.
For me, it’s been a learning process, like tuning one’s ears to certain notes in music I imagine. There are three voices, your voice, God’s voice, and the enemy’s voice. The world’s voice and influence would be included into the enemy category. For me, the enemy’s voice is a bit harsh and erratic, and includes use of words that are improper, and also may aim to deceive by masquerading sometimes as good but with red flags. It might sound like God at first but there will be little clues that let you know it’s not God.
When it’s God, it’s usually re-affirming, positive, life giving, gentle, and peaceful. For me the hard part is filtering out my own thoughts. So, what works for me is analyzing thought patterns. For example, if I am asking to hear God and I think of a boat and then think of fishing, or something else that’s just my mind wandering in regard to fishing because I thought of a boat.
When my head is clear and I have nothing in my mind and something appears whether words or a picture and it doesn’t make sense for me to be getting that, I take that as not coming from me but either God or the enemy, then I need to analyze it further to filter it out for one of those two voices. Make sure to test everything against God’s word, you will also feel in your spirit when something is off or right.
21 but test everything; hold fast what is good.
MORE THAN INNER THOUGHTS
God doesn’t just speak through your inner thoughts though. I will share some other ways God has spoken to me. God has also spoken to me through dreams, although I feel God is revealing more things about dreams these days to me and if true, they’re far more complicated than we make them out to be. There was a time during a high amount of stress, anxiety, and worry where I would keep finding random paperclips and pennies.
It got to the point where I knew something was up. So, what does an IT guy do when he has a question? Take a gander in Google University. Sure enough, I found other Christians reporting the same thing. The pennies being little nudges from God that He is with us in our suffering, letting us know He is around. The paperclips mean God is holding things together, have faith, and persevere.
GOD SPEAKING THROUGH NUMBERS
God also speaks with numbers. My favorite number to see is 777. For the longest time I wondered what that number meant when I saw it. I know God speaks through numbers because Satan has created a New Age counterfeit for it called Angel Numbers to mislead people away from God’s mysteries and revelations. Satan creates counterfeits for everything God does and the more you research in the world the more you will notice that.
Anyway, every time I see 777 it means an everlasting reward has been earned. It’s funny too because in the physical, 777 is the lottery number, a funny parallel. So, I discovered the number 777 refers to:
77 You have a treasure of works stored up with the Most High, but it won’t be shown to you until the last times.
Recently the Lord has been showing me the number 222 lately so here are two verses that I think point to that number.
22 Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib he had taken out of the man, and he brought her to the man.
22 Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, along with those who call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
So, in the case of seeing the number 222, I think of these two verses immediately. I need to check my spirit to distinguish what God is speaking. Maybe God is bringing a woman into my life soon that could be the One, and if so, I need to be on-guard and alert. Or maybe my thoughts and desires are out of place, and I need submit them back to God. Another source for numbers would be Troy Brewer who refers to these instances as Prophetic Number signs. Here is a video on his revelations of seeing the number 222.
BIRTH AND HEALTH
Another great example is for months I was seeing the number 311 constantly. It was again so apparent that I noticed it. All of the sudden I heard in my spirit, “Dexter, what day of the year is day number 311? I look it up, sure enough to my astonishment, it was my birthday! So when I see 311 or even 711, God is reminding me that He is glad that I exist and was born and that He loves me.
Additionally, in my spirit I kept hearing the term CoQ10 in my mind, I knew that was a vitamin. I researched it and bought a bottle and I notice when I take it, I have energy again and can get more work done. God knows every intricate detail about our lives, and that includes our health.
7 But the very hairs of your head are all numbered. Do not fear therefore; you are of more value than many sparrows.
God is always speaking to us, we just need to tune our thoughts to be able to hear Him. Once you do, everything becomes new.
17 Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, the new creation has come: The old has gone, the new is here.
CONCLUSION
Hearing God’s voice is very important to helping you walk into your calling and destiny as well as reaching others. God can give you something about someone only He would know and when you tell them, it could cause them to breakdown in tears (in a good way) and reveal to the person that God does indeed exist. It’s important as well in growing in your relationship with the Lord.
It’s so you can become the best version of yourself so you can help others the best that you can. Hearing God’s voice makes you a weapon of God against the enemy, and training yourself to hear and walk into what God is speaking will transform you.
Then you too can be one of God’s secret weapons. Here is the ending music.
Hey folks, my name is Dex and you’ve landed on my website. Ponder this; was it by coincidence or did God bring you here? Either way, I hope you find something of value. We may not agree on everything, but that’s just part of the fun here!
It’s my hope here that you also become inspired to join the good fight against evil. There are no ads here, just truth bombs. So change your tune because the best is yet to come, and nothing can stop what’s coming!
John 3:16: For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life.
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