Recognizing That Voice

In one of today's devotionals we read about how Ewes have a distinctive sound they make so that their babies know them.  The little ones know the sound of their mom's voice and are drawn to it.  Those same babies each have a distinctive bleat that only their mothers recognize.  It never ceases to amaze me how creative our God is and how much he shows up in the details of everything he has given life to, including sheep.

So of course this information got me thinking about how we recognize the voices of those we know and love easily too.  Although Joel said that during my younger years he could not really tell my voice apart from my sister Jan's at times.  Jan's husband Lanny says we still sound so much a like.  A cute story speaks of that.  When we lived in the Philippines my sister Jan and I would send cassette tape messages back and forth.  One day Jan was lonesome for me so she stuck in a tape and started playing it.....she was crying when she heard my voice until she heard "me" talk about Billy.....her oldest son.  She then realized she was listening to herself!  This still makes me smile..........

Like I was saying, we know we can recognize the voices of those we love and that is because each of us have a distinct voice and over time we tune in easily to those voices.   I believe that we can also recognize our Father's voice once we have heard it often enough.  He speaks to each of us and often in different ways.  Oh, certainly Satan likes to try to imitate God's voice and sometimes our own voice gets in the way of what we are "hearing", but most of the time we know when God is speaking.  We recognize His voice and the ways He uses for us as individuals.  For me, I often hear from Him through visual pictures or "videos" I see in my mind's eye.  Joel hears a voice in his mind.  I also know when I get the same scripture three times or more I better pay attention to what God is saying.  And Joel says God speaks strongly to him through nature.  I am sure you all have your own ways you hear from God and it helps you to recognize His voice.

Sometimes He shows up in other people to let you know He is there....that you are not alone.  I think of my sister Jo who when she was too weak to sing out loud, would sing hymns in her head to comfort herself. She told a visiting chaplain that and he offered to sing to her.  With a beautiful voice he sang hymns to her.  Janelle videoed the singing and sent it siblings......a true gift from God that comforted all of us, too.   God showing up in His people.  That is a way He speaks too!  

This is not a new topic for me to mull over.  I just feel it is so important to hear His voice.  God is all around us, in us, over us.  He speaks through the words of others, the actions of others, visions, whispers in our heads, our own gut reactions, nature, Scripture, and much much more.  He is waiting for us to "Be still and know that I am God".  Waiting for us to tune in to that radio station that gives us the clear ability to hear from Him. And when we listen for His voice over and over in our daily walk, we will be able to recognize that voice.  

The Tsunami That Is 2020

This past week, sleep has avoided me in the early hours of morning......I could write a sermon or essay, maybe even a book on the emotions, thoughts and personal opinions I have concerning what is going on in our country right now, let alone those of others out there everywhere.   I would also add the whole of 2020 has been quite a tsunami.  Not exactly how we pictured it, nor you, I expect.  But here we are in the midst of it all, trying to make sense of our world.

Instead of only listening to the voices of others and ourselves, maybe we also need to still ourselves to hear the voice of God when our hearts are breaking.  Oh, I know He can and does speak through other people, but at this point in my life, where I find myself right now, I am weary of the voices, so I turn to His Word. I ask questions.  I pray for protection for our family, and I listen for God to whisper as He does into my heart.   Yes, I listen to a few voices.  Only a few.....our sons and daughters, they have my ear. And maybe a family member or two.....and a couple of good friends we consider family.  "Framily", as my oldest would say. But God is often waiting for my ear............

It was on a December morning while we were praying that I began to see and feel something that was hard to identify. A deep heaviness came over me, weighing me down and I saw in my mind something hard to understand.  It was like everything around us, in our country, was falling in on itself.  Like walls of mud and water swirling and meeting and crashing together causing destruction.   I began to hear the word, "implode"....over and over again.  I told Joel what was happening and then I shared what I was feeling and seeing.  "Something bad is going to happen.   To our country, our government, our nation.  Whatever it is is imploding on us and causing great stress.....grief.......destruction...."  The feelings ebbed and flowed, then eventually went away  and to tell you the truth, with my mind focused on radiation I forgot about what I had experienced.  And then Covid-19 invaded our country and people were dying terrible deaths.  Two months into that it hit me.....oh, maybe this is what I was seeing and feeling......and then the death of George Floyd was played over and over again on our TV screens and our country erupted with anger, fear, and protests.  Some individual people and some instigator groups  took advantage and are causing great destruction, in our country.  And here we are..........imploding.

I don't doubt for a moment that God spoke to me in December about what is occurring now in 2020, I have learned to trust His voice, but six months ago I didn't have a clue why I had that encounter with God.  The framily couple we shared this with had good insights into what they believed the why was......and now with what has happened the last 11 days, I am beginning to understand the why even better. 

I have personally connected that encounter in December to what God also brought to mind today.  This occurred in  2017 when we went to Bethel Church in Redding CA.  We spent 10 days there and 40 hours at the church going to services, prophetic sessions, Bible Study, Healing rooms, etc. to take in all we could.  One night at a church service a young woman, named Olivia, sat next to me.  As we worshiped, she asked me if it would be okay to share what God had been saying to her for me.  I was certainly open to that and she went on to say, "God sees you as a prayer warrior who has the authority to pray over your family and see breakthrough.  You have the power to break things off in the spirit realm that the eyes cannot see."  I tried to take that to heart, but as years past and cancer came calling again, even though I always prayed for our family, I forgot those Words from God.  Words that He knew I would need to remember for our family in 2020.

Most of our family over a decade ago

This is our family, a picture taken many years ago when we all gathered as one group, but still after our son Kevin died, another left the family,  It is a difficult task to get a family photo anymore, so this is one of my favorite pictures.  In our family we have many ethnicities.......A blend of African American, Puerto Rican Black, Filipino, Korean, Native American, Chinese, Hispanic, and Caucasian that includes Norwegian, Danish, French Irish, European Jew, German, and more.  We have a factory supervisor, a teacher, a farmer, a church confirmation coordinator, piano teacher, business owner, MBA, police officer, CNA,  construction worker.  We have both Republicans and Democrats in our family and God is very important in our lives.  Our grands are now growing up with 5 graduated from High School, 4 in college, all 11 teenagers except 2.  As time continues to go by, as we age and as distance keeps us apart, we know our "job" is to keep loving and praying  for our family.  Oh how we love our family.

And we love our nation.  Our country is a mess, it is imploding on itself in many directions.  It should have us all down on both our knees praying to God and listening for His response.  He is not surprised by what is going on in government, in communities, in hospitals, in the streets of our country.  For reasons of His own He warned me (among many many others) that something was coming.  When I am afraid for our family for different reasons, when I weep over our nation for different reasons, I must remember to not only respectfully share my voice, but pray and pray some more, and listen to His voice.  When I get up at night I pray, when pain wakens me, I pray, when morning comes I pray, when fear and worry wants to rise within, I pray, when I get angry and want to point the finger, I pray.  When it feels like life as we have known it has imploded, I grab the hand of Jesus and hold on.   And I pray remembering and believing what I was told during worship in 2017 by a young woman who could have been my granddaughter.  As I have said many times before, we keep pitching our tent in the land of hope.  (Acts 2:26 in The Message), and I believe you are there too.  In the land of Hope.

Is This A Good Time?

I was in the bathroom, getting ready for the day when the thought came into my head.....The phone is going to ring, it will be Mayo Clinic, and you will still be upstairs.  A couple minutes later the phone rang and it was Mayo Clinic.The woman on the other end talked a couple of minutes and then said, "Can you talk right now? Is this a good time?  I paused for a moment and then said, "Sure, I can talk."

After last Wednesday's appointments, we went home over the weekend and prayed over what we had heard.  The radiologist had told me my case was complicated.....he suggested we go to Mayo for a second opinion.  He said it three times throughout our conversation. The oncologist mentioned it as one of our options.  Circumstances that arose during our visit with him had us contemplating the idea seriously.  So Monday we called the nurse advocate and said we would like a referral for a second opinion.  Mayo Clinic in Rochester MN is less than 2 hours from us by car.  Right "in our backyard" as one person had said to us.

Thus the phone call at 8 am. When I said I could talk, I was sitting on our bed without a stitch of clothing on.  So there I sat, spiral notebook in hand, jotting down information,thankful this was not a Facetime visit!   Joel and I had a good laugh over it later.   The appointment is 5 weeks away which makes me anxious when I think about it, but we had prayed, others had prayed and we needed to trust the process.  All my info is being sent there or carried by me and we will pray all goes well as we proceed.

Is this a good time? How often have we heard those words, or spoken them.  Do you ever wonder if God interrupts our day or night and is thinking.........."Is this a good time?"  Maybe He wakes us in the night just so He can have our full attention!  Our days can be so full that we don't set aside much time for Him......and He quietly waits for us to acknowledge His presence, sit with Him and hear what He has to say.  "Is this a good time"?

We never have to ask God "Is this a good time" when we want to talk with Him.  He is available 24/7 to listen.  What a gift.  What love He has for His children. My prayer is that we, too, find ourselves attentive to God's voice anytime of the day or night, so aware of His presence that He does not have to ask, "Is this a good time"?

She Said Don't Worry.

Matt, Bethany, Mark, Naomi

I can still see her sweet face as she sat with me on the sofa in our living room.  Our oldest girl was around five years old and we had just come home from Sunday School.  We attended an Interdenominational church with other military families on Clark Air Base in The Philippines.

Bethany turned to me and said, "Mommy, you don't have to worry about where I will go when I die."  I asked her why and she told me, "I asked Jesus into my heart today."  So simple, yet so powerful.

Sometimes we want to make the Gospel story so complex.  We add religious rituals, rules, and definitions to what it means to be a Christian and John 3:16 becomes complicated.   "For God so loved the world He gave His only Son....."   That is how much He loves us.

"Jesus loves me this I know......for the Bible tells me so."  Again, so simple, yet so powerful.  A few weeks ago a young woman was praying for me and said, "Oh I feel the love of God on you so strongly....."  She went on to share something personal from God that addressed where my heart was that morning.  Today Joel was sitting quietly with his eyes closed and God said to Him, "I want Renee to know how much I love her."  I hold those moments close.  He really does want us to know.  He really does want us to accept and be His children.

Sometimes we need to go back to the child that resides in us, remembering how much Jesus loves us.  How much He wants to be our Lord and Savior.  We need to step out in faith and receive Him, and let Him into our hearts to reign just like our Bethany did when she was a young child.

Saturday's Scribbles: Radon What?

Our world was shaken up this past week.  We found out we have high levels of radon in the house.  A safe level would be 4 and under.  The average here was 10.  Sobering.  We have lived for 14 years with high levels of radioactive gas  .  It causes cancer among other health concerns. I have had three different kind of cancers since we moved here.  Any connection?  Possibly.  We are in the process of getting a mitigater to come and vent the gas outside.  Then our air will be safe aga

The journey to this latest Dahlen drama is a story that has to be shared.  A friend was here and was thinking about all the health issues I have had.  When she was thinking about it, God impressed on here that "She needs to get out of this house!"  She did not want to tell me what she had heard, but she felt God's presence so strong she knew she needed to tell me.  So she did, and I said we would definitely pray about it.

To be truthful, we felt it could be a spiritual problem.  I called another friend and asked her to pray.  She felt God impress on her the word, radon.  Radon?  Yes, radon.  She said, "I think you need to get your house checked for radon!"  She felt so strongly about it she actually called the county health dept. before coming by to pray with us.  The next day they called and the day after they set up their equipment in our home.  Two days later we received the news.  Like I said, sobering.  The good news though is that something can be done to remove it from the house.  

I share this story for several reasons.  One:  radon is everywhere.  Have your county test for it.  If it needs attention, get it.  Life is too precious not to do all we can to make our homes and our bodies healthy.

The second reason I share it is as a testimony of God's goodness.  He used two friends to relay an important message to us.  My health is being affected by the radon here and something needed to be done about it.

The third reason I am sharing this is to keep us aware of how God speaks to us.  Sometimes is is through a word someone gets, sometimes an impression.  Sometimes a physical presence comes with the words to let us know it is from God.  Other times he uses the words of others.  For me I often have visual encounters or God sends me things in threes.   God wants to communicate with us.  All the time.  We need only open our hearts and make the way open to Him.  

We are more than grateful that our two friends were open to hear from God and share the words from God with us.  Our house will be safe for us again and since we plan to sell in the future, it will make it a safe house for anyone who buys it and lives here.  God is good.  All the time.

What About All Our Stuff?

Why are we so attached to stuff?  Yesterday we went through one of Joel's storage tubs that holds 38 years of ministry memories.  Ugh.  So difficult to let go of things, but so necessary.  Just going through one tub had both Joel and I out of sorts.  There were things in the tub we have not laid eyes on in several years........would probably not miss them if the tub was lost.........but unwrapping each plaque or knick-knack and thumbing through books and notebooks left us out of sorts.  Why are we so attached to stuff?

Some dear friends are in the final stages of stepping into a new season in their lives.  They sold their home, and have now sold nearly all their belongings.  What will go with them is only what fits in the 5th wheel.  I expect that it was not easy to part with some of their possessions, but their desire to travel full time in their 5th wheel outweighs their need to hold on to their stuff.

When we lived in The Philippines, we were unable to take much with us.  We put a lot of things in storage and managed to live 2 years without it quite easily.  In fact, when we came back to the US, and the boxes arrived from storage, it was like Christmas as we opened each box to see what was inside!  For those two years we did not miss what we did not have.

Not everyone is emotionally attached to their stuff, but I expect all of us have a few things we would not want to live without.  Our oldest son is very attached to stuff and has a story to tell with every item he holds.  Our oldest daughter gathers and holds many things dear the same way.  When we started to pare down our 9 tubs of Christmas directions, they were first in line to take things to their own homes.  Our second oldest daughter is quite the opposite.  She really is not attached to things.  People, of course, but not things.  Regardless, some "things" seem to bring forth strong emotions in our lives.

So, what if God asked us to let go of all our stuff to follow him?  The Bible gives us an example of surrendering all to do His will.  The disciples were fishermen and Jesus asked them to drop their nets and follow Him.  A big deal, really, to leave behind their livelihood for something new.  To leave behind all the familiar to follow Jesus in a new adventure.  Sometimes he calls us to do so. Our stuff cannot be more important than Him.  Our comfortable lives cannot get in the way of God's plan for us.  It is not that He does not want us to have an abundant life filled with good things, but it is important that we do not become so attached to our things that we cannot walk forward.

I think about Joel's cousin David Simonson and his wife Eunice.  When David graduated from the seminary they left everything familiar behind to go to Africa as missionaries in Tanzania.  For fifty years they served the Masai tribe.  He was so respected they gave them land to live on and David is now buried there.  Eunice and 4 of her 5 kids still call Africa home.  David's work for God and his desire to bring others to Christ changed that part of the world. 

Not all of us are called to surrender all that is familiar and literally move across the world, but I believe we are all asked to surrender in our own ways, and serve God in the best plan He has for us.  Joel and I have see God at work so often over the years where Joel was called to congregations.  And most recently we have been asked by God to step out of the familiar of our Norwegian Lutheran heritage and denomination and expand our beliefs.  We have been asked by God to redefine ourselves as people who have a Norwegian Lutheran foundation but live with incurable Pentecostal and charismatic  tendencies.  We did not ask for this.  We asked for healing and what we learned about healing led to more of Holy Spirit and more of Holy Spirit changed our lives.  We have had to let go of some of the "stuff" we held close as God opened doors for us to walk a different path.  It has not always been easy but just like our friends, the desire for something more outweighs the need to hang on to our "stuff".

Out of love, God is always reshaping us. Whether we are getting rid of the stuff that fills our storage tubs, shifting our beliefs, or letting go of the stuff of the past, we know God is with us.  And when looking forward we don't miss what we no longer have, especially once we step into something new. 

I Just Know

There are more times than I can count on my fingers that Joel has responded to my question of "when" with his own "not yet".  When making decisions we would pray about them, and Joel just knew when it was the right time to move forward with the plan, the big purchase, the move.  Whatever it was, he would just "know" when it was time.  It used to frustrate me, because across the board he was right in the majority of those situations.  I would ask him how he knew....and he would say, "I really can't explain it, I just know."

Nearly 50 years later I had a light bulb moment while listening to Havilah Cunnington teach an E- class I'm taking on how we each hear God's voice.  She listed four of what she calls prophetic personalities and the first one listed was a Knower.  When she described how a Knower hears from God and that they just know in their mind and heart what is true,  I finally understood Joel's "not yets" and his"nows" over the years.  She calls this "having a Spiritual gut".  Your intuition from God. I get it now.  We both do!

I am not a Knower.  I am more of a Feeler and Seer, as shown to me in the quiz I took at the beginning of the class.  Bi-lingual in how God and I communicate.  :)  We are just getting into this section, so I'm looking forward to what I learn.  A Feeler can walk into a new environment and just sense the spiritual atmosphere.  They can feel God speaking often through emotions and see him at work throughout their day.  A Seer sees in pictures, dreams and visions.  I really thought everyone saw in pictures.  For me, when I am talking about something or listening to someone talk, I suddenly will see a picture or video concerning the words I am hearing or seeing.  When I meditate, I close my eyes and see visions or videos from God. This has happened at church, while driving in the car, or watching an online teacher.  Pictures pop into my head whether my eyes or closed or open.  Truthfully, I just thought I was hypersensitive and a little west of weird.  I still may be described that way, but now I know why.  God.

So, how do you and God communicate?  Do you hear a still small voice?  Do you see things that others do not?  Do you just know?  Do you feel things deeply?

You see, God wants to communicate with us.  He wants a close relationship with each of us and that is only possible through intimacy and communication.  He delights in His beloved.  He is especially fond of each one of us.  That is how He rolls!  He has a super duper purpose for each of our lives in relation to His Kingdom.  We all have a part to play!

We hear God's voice through knowing, seeing, feeling, and hearing and probably a dozen other ways woven within. What we see, hear, feel, and know is not just for ourselves, but for others. God has often shown me pictures and videos for Joel.  Sometimes they are in great detail, sometimes just in passing. Joel has told me things with such a strong conviction behind them.  One of our daughters told us after canceling our move to Arizona, that she never thought we were going to move there, never thought or made plans that way, because she never believed it was going to happen.  She just knew.

I think it is amazing how much Papa God does want to communicate with His kids. And how available He is to us through the unique gifts He has given us.  If we turn in to His way of communicating and realize this is from God, we open ourselves up to so much more!  And if you were to ask Joel, "How do you know he wants to communicate with us on such intimate levels?  He would answer, "I just know!"

Showering Us With His Affection

What happens when God's way of communicating with us becomes new and somewhat mysterious?  I recall nearly three years ago when Holy Spirit made Himself known in a powerful way.  I had never experienced this kind of encounter and did not know anyone then who had, but during a time of worship in our home, He came like a heavy blanket over me.  It lasted for 4 months.   The first two weeks were intense and my body felt the Presence in such a physical manner that at times I needed Joel's support to walk.  Now, stay with me here, as I speak with honesty, because this is what I experienced.  This kind of physical and spiritual encounter continued at a lower level for over 3 more months, subsiding greatly by the end of the 4th month.  And then it was over.  It is hard to describe, but we definitely knew it was from God.  It put us on a quest to understand the experience more of course, and we have read about others with similar encounters since then.

 Saturday while watching the movie "Holy Spirit Reborn" a pastor asked this question..."Why is the church so afraid of Holy Spirit?"  With tears in his eyes he truly wondered why people are afraid to experience the Presence of God in ways where Holy Spirit is in control.  Well, I know I had little idea what I was doing when I asked God for "more" of His Presence.  I certainly was surprised when He gave me what I asked for and beyond!  I thought I had it all wrapped up tightly in a bow and I thought I knew how it would present itself.  Surprise!   BUT I would not have missed it for the world.  Not. for. the. world.  At the end of those 4 months I felt God's love for me in a way I never had before, I became good friends with Holy Spirit, and inner healing was a "side effect" of those wrap around, come on down, I desire all of you days.  I did not want it to end.

I have longed for that same season once again, but have not experienced it at that level.  I pondered why until I heard someone say that there are hundreds of ways to communicate with God and I realized I need to be open to how Jesus/Holy/God wants to communicate with me now in this new season of my life.

Through the scriptures we learn that Jesus wants a close relationship with us.  For each of us that will look differently, and we won't all experience His presence in the same way.  Still, He longs to talk with us and have us talk with Him the way friends do.  He walks with us through every minute of every day.  He is not found just inside the walls of a church, He is found in you, around you.

Abi Strumwell, a Bethel church teacher says, "A relationship with Jesus is not about rules......it is about having many different ways to bond with Him."  In nature, in music, in dance, in art, in laughter, in tears, in quietness, in loudness, in encounters that shake our world."

Holy Spirit is a gentleman and will not make Himself known in us unless we give Him permission, but He wants to draw us closer to our God and in doing so it will shake up our world.   Our God is without boundaries, limitless, and crazy about His children.  Yes.  He is crazy about us.  He wants to make Himself known in us and I believe He gave us a new Spirit to love and empower us as we welcome Him.  He wants to shower us with His affection in a variety of ways.

                           

You Can Have It All

You Can Have It All

Recently I wrote about Joel and I seeking roots during this season of our lives.  We have been living in this small city 20 years next month, so of course we have some roots here already just through experiencing 80 changes of seasons, the years of ministry, and of course the great people we have met and grown to care about.  And then there is the familiar.  There is something to be said for the familiar.

Roots are found in our families, in community, in our homes, careers/callings, in our houses of worship, those places where we feel accepted and embraced for who we are.  Even as we change. Especially as we change. There is something to be said for change, too.

Today it has re-surfaced...the seeking roots spiritually, in our faith journey.  It is another kind of season, where we find ourselves worshiping in two worlds....that of our foundational Lutheran denomination, and that "something more" which God has beckoned us into....leading us to a non-denominational church for such a time as this.

There is no doubt in our minds that God has called us into a place of the charismatic, the prophetic, and the supernatural healing.  Absolutely no doubt. Somewhere in this calling, this beckoning into more, is the place where God is leading us to put down roots.  We are not naive enough to believe we will find the perfect place to live or worship, but we know we will be led to the best for us according to God's plan.

I won't deny that there is a noticeable tension here, in this pause in our journey with God between the old and the new.  And I find I am saddened by those from our "old" world who choose to judge us by the path we have taken. On the other hand, over the past four years in our "new" world we have had to defend our mainstream denomination more times than I care to count.  We are still learning to define who we are now, so how can anyone else be allowed to define who we are or are not?  Only God.

Even with the struggle to re-define ourselves, we would never go back.  God shook our world to it's core four years ago with Joel's overnight healing and Holy Spirit shake-up, and there is no return to what was.  There is labor before birthing a baby and it feels like there is a labor we are experiencing now before birthing more of the new in our spiritual lives.  We are in this amazing, terrifying, exciting, and challenging process as we seek all God has for us.  We have told God He can have it all....every part of our world..as we ask for "more" at any cost.  We may be experiencing some of that "at any cost" tension now.  

Bonnie Gray said today in her blog post "There is a place for us:  Jesus Himself."  It is a comfort to be reminded of where our heart calls home.  In Heavenly places, this is where we have eternal roots.  It is not to stop us from seeking a place to plant our feet deep into the damp soil of the ground, a community, a church.  We are created for relationship to the land, with ourselves and people, and with our Papa God.  Above all we seek the latter.  At any cost.

Staying Tuned In

On Sunday I watched a live feed from Bethel Church in Redding CA.  Kris Vallotton was preaching the morning service to a full house.  He shared his testimony of how he became a Christian.  He came from a difficult home life.  His father drowned when he was three, his mother remarried a violent man whom she later divorced.  Kris's grandfather, who was the greatest influence on his life, was an atheist.  Kris knew next to nothing about God.

When he was a teen, they had a prowler who would come almost nightly and try to get into their house.  They lived in a tough area, and the police tried to catch the guy often.  Once his mother woke up to the prowler in her bedroom.  Another night Kris woke up to him coming in the window of his bedroom.  He even shot at him, but it did not keep him away.  The family was under great stress with his mom sleeping with a shotgun by her side and Kris a 22 rifle by his side.  His mom was covered in a skin disease from the stress and would cry herself to sleep every night. 

One night Kris could take no more and he said out loud, "IF there is a God, then if you will heal my mom I will serve you the rest of my life."  It was then he clearly heard an audible voice say, "I am Jesus Christ.  I will do as you ask." The next morning his mom came out of her room fully healed!

A week later as Kris was in bed he heard the same voice say to him, "This is Jesus Christ, and you told me you would serve Me the rest of your life."  At that point Kris began searching for God.  He visited several churches looking for what he felt when he heard that voice in the night.  His fiancé went with him.  He was 12 when he started dating his wife Kathy, and thirteen when they got engaged.  I know, crazy, right? 

One night a friend invited them to a house where people got together to worship.  The friend told them they all needed to go early so they would not have to stand outside for the worship.  It was always crowded there.  Kris describes everyone at this house as being "hippies". He did not know it then, but this group was part of the Jesus movement of that time.  When they all started singing and sharing briefly how God had saved them from heroin, or epilepsy, or death, Kris felt the same way he had that night Jesus spoke to him. He knew He had "found Jesus".  He and Kathy gave their lives to Christ that night, and were baptized in the Holy Spirit.  Kris also began to read the Bible, no small feat for someone who had graduated from high school with a 3rd grade reading level. 

Moving years ahead.......Kris is now a powerful leader in Bethel Church and their school of healing.  God has used this man in amazing ways to spread the gospel, heal the sick and broken, prophesy, and cast out demons. 

I doubt many of us have heard the audible voices  of God, I know of only one woman myself.  But Jesus does beckon us in many other ways to come to Him, believe in Him, rest in him, hear Him, trust in Him. 

We often hear a still small voice in our mind, our heart, our intuition.  Maybe we feel a strong desire for "more" in our lives, in the way of Bible study, or mission work, encounters with His presence, relationships, or purpose.  God is speaking to us all the time beckoning us into His love for us and His purpose for our lives. We just need to tune in.  Find His always-transmitting frequency, and stay tuned in.