How do you know God is speaking to you?

Lately I have been faced with a problem. I had been asking God what He would have me do, it was a long struggle, and after much prayer and begging and searching and trying to get out of it, I heard God tell me what He wanted for me. It wasn't the answer I wanted to hear, but I was so happy to know for sure, to have peace, finally, and I changed me desire to what God desires for me.

So how do you know who actually heard God? How do you know you are hearing God?

My hearing God is being questioned. Ironically, God spoke to me in a class called Discerning God's Voice (read this to see the thoughts on the exact day it happened). Not even kidding. But I tested it, and God repeatedly confirmed His will for my life. I know that I know that I know it was God.

I looked up how you know that it is God you are hearing.

What does the Bible say?

Jeremiah 29:12-13 says, "Then you will call upon Me and go and pray to Me, and I will listen to you. And you will seek Me and find Me, when you search for Me with all your heart."

"Roll your works upon the Lord [commit and trust them wholly to Him; He will cause your thoughts to become agreeable to His will, and] so shall your plans be established and succeed" (Proverbs 16:3 Amplified Bible).

"Trust in the Lord with all your heart, and lean not on your own understanding; In all your ways acknowledge Him, And He shall direct your paths" (Proverbs 3:5-6).

Jesus tells us in John 10:4b and 5, "...and the sheep follow Him, for they know His voice. Yet they will by no means follow a stranger, but will flee from him, for they do not know the voice of strangers." (interestingly, sick sheep will follow anyone)

"But solid food belongs to those who are of full age, that is, those who by reason of use have their senses exercised to discern both good and evil" (Hebrews 5:14)

Isaiah 30:21 says, "Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, "This is the way, walk in it," Whenever you turn to the right hand or whenever you turn to the left."

1 John 4:1 Don’t always believe everything you hear just because someone says it is a message from God: test it first to see if it really is.

John 7:17 Anyone who wants to do His will can test this teaching and know whether it’s from God or whether I’m making it up

7 keys ways to discern God's Voice:

• Scripture: "All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work" (II Timothy 3:16-17).
  
  
• The Holy Spirit speaking to our heart: "For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the Lord: I will put my laws into their minds, and I will write them on their hearts. and I will be their God, and they shall be my people. And they shall not teach everyone his fellow citizen, and everyone his brother, saying, 'know the Lord,' for all will know Me, from the least to the greatest of them" (Hebrews 8:10-11).
  
  
• The Prophetic (word of knowledge, word of wisdom, personal prophecy): "Do not quench the Spirit; do not despise prophetic utterances. But examine everything carefully; hold fast to that which is good" (I Thessalonians 5:19-21).
  
  
• Godly counsel: "Where no counsel is, the people fall: but in the multitude of counselors there is safety" (Proverbs 11:14).
  
  
• Confirmation: "By the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed" (Matthew 18:16).
  
  
• The peace of God: "Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body; and be thankful" (Colossians 3:15).
  
  
• Circumstances/Timing: "After these things he (Paul) left Athens and went to Corinth. And he found a certain Jew named Aquila, a native of Pontius, having recently come from Italy with his wife Priscilla, because Claudius had commanded all the Jews to leave Rome. He came to them, and because he was of the same trade, he stayed with them and they were working; for by trade they were tent-makers" (Acts 18:1-3 -- this relationship between Paul, Aquila and Priscilla -- which happened as a result of circumstances -- became one of the most important strategic partnerships in the book of Acts).

Presupposition for Discernment

Before we can say discernment is actually occurring, certain conditions must be met:

1. You must desire to do God’s will. This means that this must be your fundamental choice in life.
   
   
2. You must be open to God at the moment of discerning. This means that you must be completely open to accept any of the possible results of discerning. If you are only interested in doing what you want to do, and are not open to other possibilities, then discernment is not possible.
   
   
3. You must know what God is like.
   
   
4. You must be a person who prays.

So many of those things fit with what happened. I desired to do God's will, not mine. I was open to what God wanted when I was seeking the answer. I know what God is like, and I pray. Scripture tells me I should be serving people, but does that mean God was speaking to me? OK, are there more reasons to believe it was God? The Holy Spirit just burst in me at the moment of discernment, I was filled with the Spirit and it was an amazing moment, regardless of it not being what I wanted to hear.

How about more? The place it came from was pretty prophetic, but that could be debated if you wanted to disbelieve God speaks to people. I was seeking Godly counsel, through several avenues, I had multiple people praying with me for God's answer. How about confirmation? The moment I heard it, a person who was praying with me leaned over and said "Did you hear God just speaking to you?" It was pointed out as God's voice and answer before I even said I had heard it! I showed it to 2 other people, one was not convinced, but didn't say anything, and the other was as moved as I was, to tears.

But then I got the peace of God! It was the first time I was totally at peace with the situation in 4 years! It was peace that passed all understanding. But is that enough to convince others that it was God? How about circumstances that happened after that? Coming across training for that situation, random people emailing you that they had you on their heart and were compelled by God to buy you a book for that situation, and excitement and vision from God for the ministry........... All that, and I heard wrong?

So, what do you do when you are forced to disobey what God has clearly led you to do? How do you believe that someone else heard God right, and you were wrong, when God has repeatedly confirmed and supported the discernment you had? How do you convince them of this when they made a decision about your life without even ASKING you what you thought, and dismissing what God told you without even ASKING what it was?

I can tell you it tears you apart inside. It takes away your trust and respect. It rocks your world. It leaves you not wanting to have anything to do with "Christians" again. And serving? Who would want to do that again? It is pretty awful. But I refuse to go that route, and I plan to obey God, and not be a slug in a church somewhere. I KNOW that I know that I KNOW what God told me. I have tested it. I have confirmed it.

Another reason co-sleeping is dangerous

A while back I wrote about the dangers of co-sleeping. Now I have found a new danger.

I was sleeping quite peacefully when I started dreaming of something sprinkling on my hand. I soon started to waken and realized that my dream felt kind of real. My hand felt like it had some sprinkles on it. I woke fully and realized that my hand WAS wet. What happened?

My blanket had sprinkles all over it, too! What would cause that? The bathroom isn't directly over my room. So I set my hand on the bed to sit myself up and I discover a puddle in front of my chest. I smell it. Yep. Pee.

Sam was awake and had stood up behind me and peed over the side of the bed. Or tried. Some of it hit the bed and it sprayed all over my hand and blanket.

Seriously, I have been co-sleeping for over 20 years and I have NEVER had a kid do that. All of them have peed in my bed except Drew, but none have ever tried peeing over the side instead of going to the bathroom.

Only Sam. He constantly does things that shock me. I really didn't believe it was possible to shock us after the rest of the kids. But Sam has things planned that we could never envision.

Facial hair much?

This is a "castle" beard.

Just cool, huh?

Chore time?

Trinity and I were sitting on the couch this morning and she said to me:

Trin: The only 2 people who don't have to do chores here anymore are Drew and Sam.

Me: Drew has to do chores, just not at our house. Jannessa and Drew have to clean the WHOLE house themselves. They don't have kids to help them clean. They don't have kids to mess up the house, either. Hey, maybe I should sent YOU to their house!

Trin: (shook her head no with eyes wide)

Me: You don't want to go to their house for awhile and mess it up?

Trin: (shaking head no)

Me: Why not? You mess up MY house!

Trin: I don't want to mess up the house of someone I love very much!

Gee, thanks! What am I, chopped liver?

Funny Faces

I call this one Beauty and the Dork

Sam really made that face after overtaking and passing the flower girls!

This was the face Sam was giving Grandma and Grandpa when he first saw them before the wedding.

Gotta love Drew's beaver face! haha

Pink or Blue?

It really is true that women view the world through pink glasses and men view it through blue. Several times Donnie and I have been fighting, or I thought we were fighting and our marriage was in trouble, and he thought everything was fine.
That was apparent again today. We've been arguing a LOT lately. I know a lot of stress has been going on and that will have an effect on things, but on top of that we've been arguing. I've been dealing with frustration by going to him about it, since he doesn't want me to talk to my girlfriends about things, so all I want is a sounding board to get it OUT so I don't say something stupid. Right? Well he starts saying stuff to me that is just mean, and all I want is understanding.

So, I told him a couple of days ago that I can't talk to him anymore. He says I can, and say I can't, it goes back and forth, and I stop talking to him about things that bother me.

Today I say how sad it is that we can't go to our usual counselor right now (because of trust issues) and that we need a new counselor. He says "Why do we need a counsellor?" Well, because we aren't getting along! That's why!

His response? Oh, I thought you were finally getting the submission thing down.

Yep, we need some counselling!!!! LOL

(I'm not talking divorce court counselling, I'm talking someone to listen and point out where we are not hearing each other, lol)

Finally....................

I am free of diapers! Sam is finally potty trained! He is having about one accident a week right now, and I consider that successful.

Not only is he potty trained, day and night, he is finally wearing clothes almost all the time, at the very least he has undies on. That is HUGE! He is almost 4 and we are finally getting to be an almost normal household, lol.

This pic is of Sam playing with his "Yord" (sword) and using his undies as his sheath. I think we need to find him a sheath, lol. But we are just happy to see his is in UNDIES and not in diapers or naked.

Now to work on getting them to be a little cleaner around here. But I'm not holding my breath on that one, I haven't even accomplished that with the teens.

I need to change my blog name to Our 8 Qtpies!

Saturday, June 12, 2010 AnDrew Jaimes married Jannessa Michelle. We now have a daughter in law. This gorgeous picture was taken by the photographer, the rest were taken with my camera.

Sam was a PAIN IN THE BUTT the hour before the wedding. He didn't want to be dressed up. "I HATE hansome." He didn't want to wear a flower. "I HATE flowers." He didn't want the job of carrying the pillow. "I HATE jobs!" He did NOT want to wait in the room with the bride and flower girls for their turn to walk down the aisle. "Not in there! There are girls in there! I HATE girls! I HATE girls! I HATE girls!" Then he hid until moments before he was supposed to walk down the aisle. Then he proceeded to run past the girls.

Once up there he flopped all over, bounced on the step on his butt saying "I bored." and many other fun things.

The flower girls were hysterical! Trinity took the job of dropping flower petals seriously. She kept dropping them after getting to her position, and even got down and refilled her basket to keep going. Then her and the other flower girl got down and started blowing the petals at the bride's parents like little fairies blowing pixie dust. It was priceless!

Here is a picture of the wedding party, minus the uncooperative little three. All of them are siblings, except one groom's man who will be related after another wedding in about a year, and one flower girl.

The happy couple with the little kids. Hey, at least they all actually sat for the picture!

The bride and groom, finally married!

Drew unwrapping his car from the saran wrap coating, only to find the car filled with balloons.

Sam fell asleep at the reception within a minute of sitting down to eat. He soon gave up the table and crawled under it and slept for over an hour. He was much more cooperative and even decided he liked dancing. Finally something he didn't hate.

Here is the cake I made. My friend made the sheet cake for extras if we needed it, and for those people who don't like fondant.

Feeding each other cake. They were so nice, no cake smashing in the face.

The first dance.

The mother/son dance.

The father/daughter dance.

Going for the garter. Apparently there were two, and he grabbed the wrong one first, lol.

There was lots of dancing by everyone. I have tons of crazy dancing pics to share, but here is the next couple to get married, we think.

The weekend was just fantastic, from rehearsal to present opening. Lots of fun, laughter, and a whole new family to love! The kids on both sides decided they are now siblings, too. A whole new blended family! I cried several times, overwhelmed with the love from the weekend.

Thrill and Move!

Today Donnie and went to a conference for leaders hosted by a church in a neighboring town. The church is quite weird, as churches go, and isn't really for me. However, we have been taking the kids to some Saturday evening services because some of them work on Sundays and need church, and because our church really doesn't preach to teenager boys, where their church strikes a cord with teen boys. It has been so good for them!
I really wish I could remember it all and put it all out there for everyone, it was really that good!

So much of it was about having a vision, and everyone in the church working toward that vision. We are all told to be disciples, it isn't just the leaderships job, it is the church's job. We, the congregation, need to be out COMPELLING people to come into the church to fill God's house. The church needs to be all about the weekend, getting the lost in those seats and getting them saved, nothing else is as important.

How do you do that? You THRILL your believers with the Word of God and your mission, and MOVE them to bring seekers into the church where they will hear the Word. In order to turn a seeker into a believer who brings in seekers you need to bring them along a path of believing, to being baptised, to learning, to volunteering, to connecting to a small group, and then taking classes to deepen faith.

All believers should be volunteering. Period. Not much more than once a month, in order to not be burned out, and not less than once a month so they feel valued. But it isn't a matter of "do you want to volunteer" it is a matter of WHERE are you going to volunteer? If you aren't going to be a productive member of the congregation, you are taking up a seat that a lost person could be sitting in. (those are the pastor's words, but I agree with him when he says it, haha) We've been saying this in our church recently, but how to implement it?

Mentorship. Apprentices. The thrill of following God's vision! Be enthusiastic! Be united in the vision for your church, and know your target. Who are you trying to reach? Each church has a mission, and you should have a defined mission. Because who have have on that stage is who your church is. If it is all 50 year old people, you are not ministering to 20 year old men, you know?

One of the things that I love about The Crossing is that all the volunteers are enthusiastic. And that is because they know they have value, and their job has value. The parking attendants are the first impression, Preaching begins in the parking lot, and they jump and direct traffic into their parking lot, enthusiastically greet you in the parking lot, walk you in with umbrellas and tell you how excited they are to have you there. It is just amazing!
I'm not saying all churches need to go that far into it, but I am saying that enthusiasm and joy in every job is a huge benefit to the church.
But how do they get their volunteers to be excited and animated while directing traffic in the rain? The train them, encourage them, thank them, praise them, mentor them. It is a fantastic program.

Another major benefit I would love to see instituted in our church is a mentorship/apprentice program. All leaders should have an apprentice, then they can take a break, and we have new leaders trained! If all leaders are there after having been an apprentice, they are well trained in the church's vision and not their own!

I am so super excited about these ideas and would love to see how we can implement some of them in our church. The Crossing did an amazing job of training other churches, they never said we should be like them, they are weird enough, no need for more weirdos, but they want to share what works for them. The bigger ideas, not the exact ideas. They say that God gave us eyes so we could plagiarize, lol. They are more than willing to let you use their ideas to further the kingdom of God.

I'll try to keep posting about what I learned, but the wedding is coming fast, and hopefully the pukies will stay away so we can get the flowers and cake done.

Bloggy hiatus

This is the week of Drew's wedding! I have been quite busy lately, and will be the rest of this week.

I am struggling with some issues at church. It is consuming a LOT of my thoughts and emotional energy. I wish it had waited until after the wedding, but apparently it needed to be done IMMEDIATELY, even though there is no plan in place to take over where it is left off. Long story, and unfortunately one I can't really explain yet, especially since I can't get the real truth out of people at this point. But time, meetings, tears, anger, hurt, frustration, joy in the trial, God's voice........... it is very emotionally draining at a time I don't need it.

I'm fighting with my sister. I try to make up with her, I really need a sister right now, but she just can't move on. I've asked her to drop stuff and just be there for me right now because I really need a sister, but she just won't. It is heart breaking.

This was also Kaytlin's last days as a princess. She passed on her crown last night! It was very nice, the speech made me cry, of course. The girls were gorgeous and poised and did fantastic!














Nicole has been wearing an oral expander and finally gets her braces on tomorrow. She is very excited about it finally starting, but unfortunately I can't take her! So I am hoping my mom can take her.

My mom flew in on Friday, and after a 6 hour delay finally got to Ladies night out, where we stayed until 4am having a blast!

Then we went shopping to get supplies to make the bouquets and corsages and stuff. We went to Craft's Direct and found a sale for 25% off our entire purchase! Woot! Saved a lot of money!

Tomorrow I have an all day leadership training event. I am very excited to learn some things that have held me back from being an effective leader! Terrified I am going to end up sick.

The house has been hit by the pukies. So not cool as we need to start making the flowers and the CAKES!!!! I have to make the wedding cake AND the groom's dinner cake! Plus we have a potluck at our house on Thursday for our town's parade which passes right in front of our house!

That is all just the tip of the ice berg. Anyone wanna trade places with me for a few hours? I could use a change of scenery!