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As you read this, you will hopefully see clearly that there have been a few times now that I believe God has clearly spoken to me. How you ask, well let me tell you by way of the accounts.

The first time that I clearly recall hearing God, freaked me out. This to date is the only time that I believe I audibly heard Him. I was showering and praying about what the heck the day would bring when, as clear as can be, I heard a voice tell me that I was going to pray at the firehouse and over the fire fighters. I seriously looked around to see who was in the bathroom. I was a bit freaked at first, and spent most of the day then wrestling with God on if He really wanted me to do this. Really, I spent most of a day bantering back and forth over something so small. I finally said You got it, picked up the phone book, found the number for one of the stations in town and called. I headed over around dinner time and had a chance to sit around and find out a few of their stories. Before leaving I had took the opportunity to pray over the firehouse and the men that were their. It was humbling to hear the voice of God asking me to do something so simple yet so powerful.

Like I said above, that is to date the only time that I have heard the voice of God audibly speak to me. The other two encounters I am going to share came differently.

Messiah believed that we were being called, and still do believe, to take journeys out of our current building and to bring it to Main Street to create a coffeehouse ministry venue. Early in the process of imagining what this could be, I had been seriously praying over where God wanted us to place the coffeehouse. We had found a location right on Main Street in Midland and really felt like it was the place. Several of us had prayed over the location, but there were other offers starting to come in all at once on a building that had been sitting empty for over a year… So one night after a long day of working numbers for the new venue and endless hours working on other portions of the technology issues around Messiah, finally I made it home. Family time is always a wonderful thing to come home to after a long day, and as on every other normal night, Erin and I did the standard family routines and then Erin and I dropped into bed. I was exhausted off my feet… but I could not fall asleep. After tossing and turning, I found myself praying and asking what was on my heart that I had not confessed or didn’t understand. God and I had a great talk that night and then I drifted off to sleep. A few hours later, I had the most vivid dream I can recall having. As simple as the dream was, I clearly heard God tell me that the He was giving us the building and to not worry.

Okay, so first I tell you that I audibly hear the voice of God while I am showering and now I tell you that while I am sleeping one night He comes to me in a dream and tells me that He will give Messiah a building for launching a Main Street coffeehouse ministry venue… if you are still with me, that is right. It was an amazing and powerful dream that woke me up and I knew that it was truly God that had given me the dream and spoken to me.

Now to the present where I have been wrestling in pray for months with God over something and not knowing which way to go, what side is up or down, and really at a loss for the direction on how to proceed. While Erin and I were recently on a small vacation I had lots of time to do nothing. Nothing except spend some amazing time in prayer as I continued to wrestle with God over this. After several days of this and being deep in His Word, I was awoken by another amazing dream that laid out the answer. I know above I said the dream about the coffeehouse building was vivid, but this tops it. The details of this dream are captured and will be shared in time, but I am humbled to have been awoken by this dream and to know it was God clearly speaking to my heart on the matter. Simple and humble amazement washed over me for my Creator.

So there is it. I don’t know how or why God has chosen to speak to me in these ways but I am blessed to have listened and acted as He has called.

That is an interesting title I think.  I have been working on writing this one post for over a week now.  I have been trying to ensure that I don’t write in anger, haste or to harm.

Last week while working with a colleague who I am still trying to understand our working relationship, I was totally caught off guard by a comment that was made.  The comment was in reference to a rumor that was in the mix about something I had possible stated.  I was very quick to quelsh the rumor and ensure this person that I no way made the statements referred to in said rumor and assured the person of where I stood on their role in an specific area of service. Later that day in a working meeting I mentioned to a couple other staff members the said rumor to assure them that if they heard it to stop it in it’s tracks.  Rumors are a vile communication and can tear teams apart if not dealt with head on.  Well the fun keeps right on rolling at this point.  I was then informed in the that there are more that this first colleague whom I supposedly was spreading rumors about feels that I am arrogant. At this point I was floored.

I have never thought of myself as arrogant and to hear that someone perseves me that way was almost crushing.  I went through lots of emotions from being sad, crushed, hurt, pissed, pity…  I have spent some time away from the situation in prayer and with very close advisers and have resolved this in my heart and I am now to the place where I can write it.

I am a confident person who attempts to walk humbly.  I am not afraid to make mistakes while at the same time fear failure.  For place of responsibility, I have to make well informed but sometime on the spot decisions and I don’t fear this.  If the decision turns out to be the wrong one we correct the issue and learn from the mistake.  I am not one that will sit for hours with a committee to make a decision that I feel confident in making under my areas of responsibility.  In all of this I attempt to do it with humility.  I know there are times in which I have failed and will fail in the future.  So that is who I am.

If you are perceiving someone to be arrogant, close the loop with them personally and directly… you might be dealing with a confident person and if so ensure they are serving humbly and for the right reasons. I am still working to cycle back and close the loop with my colleague, they are an amazing person whom I know I still have some things to learn from.

God Bless,
dl