I seriously RAN into her last Friday night at Bethel's Christmas concert (which was SO awesome -- both the concert and running into her), and then yesterday practically attacked her again when I saw her after chapel. Laura, her brother and sister (Jamie and Matt Metzger -- I finally got to meet them and their new son, Dom!), along with a few others all went to the DC for lunch. After lunch Laura and I just went on over to spend some time in my room. While there, we had an awesome conversation, listened to powerful music and prayed together. Oh how I love her! As she was praying for me I started to cry, and told her that God's Spirit is so on her. After she left, I just stared at the door for a moment and then instantly turned around, got on my knees, and seriously wept. In the best way possible. It was so refreshing. I cannot explain it. Beautiful. God has seriously blessed me in allowing our paths to intersect, and I am forever grateful.
Part of our "awesome conversation" included talking about hearing and listening to the voice of God, which brought up the perspective: What if as He starts trusting you more, He speaks less? Laura related it to parenting. I thought about it. When I was little my grandma gave me so much instruction. Do this, don't do that, go there, etc. But then as I started to grow up, she started trusting me more, and "spoke less". That was so interesting to me, and then as we read in a section of Oswald Chambers My Utmost for His Highest, we started to talk about the gift of God's silence, out of His trust toward us. I had never thought of it like that before. I thought, "Hmm, if God's silence can be a good thing, then it makes sense that Satan would try and twist that good for bad. I mean, there are several times I have felt guilty because I wasn't 'hearing God's voice' in a certain situation. Maybe it's because He trusts me to the point of allowing me to wrestle for a while."
Check it out.
God's Silence -- Then What? (Oswald Chambers)
"When He heard that he was sick, He stayed two more days in the place where He was" (John 11:6).
Has God trusted you with His silence - a silence that has great meaning? God's silences are actually His answers. Just think of those days of absolute silence in the home at Bethany! Is there anything comparable to those days in your life? Can God trust you like that, or are you still asking Him for a visible answer? God will give you the very blessings you ask for if you refuse to go any further without them, but His silence is the sign that He is bringing you into an even more wonderful understanding of Himself. Are you mourning before God because you have not had an audible response? When you cannot hear God, you will find that He has trusted you in the most intimate way possible - with absolute silence, not a silence of despair, but one of pleasure, because He saw that you could withstand an even bigger revelation. If God has given you a silence, then praise Him - He is bringing you into the mainstream of His purposes. The actual evidence of the answer in time is simply a matter of God's sovereignty. Time is nothing to God. For a while you may have said, "I asked God to give me bread, but He gave me a stone, and today you find that He gave you the "bread of life" (John 6:35).
A wonderful thing about God's silence is that His stillness is contagious - it gets into you, causing you to become perfectly confident so that you can honestly say, "I know that God has heard me." His silence is the very prod that He has. As long as yo have the idea that God will do it, but He will never give you the grace of His silence. If Jesus Christ is bringing you into the understanding that prayer is for the glorifying of His Father, then He will give you the first sign of His intimacy - silence.
Wow! What a time of blessing you experienced. You sound like a young woman who's listening for His voice. How refreshing that is to hear.
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