13 Ways God Has Spoken

Okay, I feel like I'm wading into deep waters here, but I'm going to share anyway.

One of my big reasons for keeping this blog, for investing my time in it, is because I hope it will someday, when the time is right, minister to my children.

There are many, many aspects of faith that my children are too young to digest right now. And the details around the concept of God speaking to them, like I shared in this post a couple days ago, definitely falls into that category of something I want to convey to them when they are older, but my diagnosis with cancer 5 years ago taught me (among many other things) that we have no guarantees about how long our stay here on earth will be.

I used to teach a Bible study for middle school kids, and I think that is just about the right age to delve into this topic in a very practical, real-life way.

So, to expound on my "God speaks" topic from earlier this week and record it for the day when my children are ready to hear it, here are 13 ways I feel God has "spoken" in my life:

1. His Word - this means the Bible. Open it, read it, study it. Over and over again. It is the biggest, guaranteed way God can speak to you. You will always learn something new! Use it to test all the other ways listed below to determine if God is really speaking. God will never "tell" you anything that contradicts what He has said in the Bible.

2. Daily Prayer Time - and not just once a day, but often throughout the day "talk" to God. Praising Him for good things and asking for help and wisdom for the hard things.

3. Nature - covered here on Tuesday, but nature reveals God in tons of ways.

4. Sermons - God has gifted and inspired many amazing Bible teachers. You can even download and listen to sermons from the Internet these days! ** Remember always test that what you are hearing is Biblical. The Bible warns that there will be false teachers (2 Peter 2:1-3)!

5. Circumstances - I prayed for my entire pregnancy with my 1st child about if I should go back to work after the baby was born. God showed me many subtle signs along the way, but spoke really clearly when at the end of my maternity leave it was pretty clear that if I returned to work as a consultant for the company I was working for, that I'd be staffed on an out of town project 2 time zones away from my home and my 12 week old baby. Those circumstances made it very clear that I was not going back to work!

6. Problems - As hard as they are, God does use problems to teach us.

7. Music - I cannot even count the number of Christian songs that have ministered to me!

8. Other people sharing what they have learned from God - again, be careful that you check everything against God's word, but God really can show you a whole lot through other people's wisdom. Seek out Bible discussion groups, blogs, Christian books, etc. that discuss the Bible and living as a Christian in today's world.

9. Answered prayer

10. Unanswered prayer

11. The Holy Spirit - some people refer to this as that "little voice inside" that tells you to do or not do something

12. "Coincidences" - strange things that happen, like praying about something and getting in your car and hearing a song that so perfectly relates, or sitting in church and realizing the sermon is on just exactly the topic you are struggling with.

13. Husbands - Girls, don't bark at me about this one, but I really believe, if you are married, that God is going to speak big things through your husband. 1 Cor. 11:3, "I want you to understand that Christ is the head of every man, and the man is the head of a woman, and God is the head of Christ." God has ordained men as the head of the household. This means when He wants to lead your family down a certain path, He will guide your husband, so you as the wife are to follow rather than trying to take the reigns yourself!

That last point is really a hard one to understand and accept, but so important. Just read Genesis ch. 16 for proof of how bad things can go when we wives try to take control of a situation that God has worked out between Him and your husband!

I know in my family I lead on daily things like what the children will wear to school, what we'll eat for dinner, and what kid birthday parties we'll attend. So it may appear that I "wear the pants", but for decisions that really affect the future of our family, I really try to just support my husband without voicing a strong opinion myself, so he is guiding the decision for our family.

A few years ago we faced a big decision about moving to a new home. We were happy with our old home, but it was not zoned to an elementary school we wanted to send our kids to. Instead of telling my husband that we should move, where we should move and just exactly what kind of house I wanted, I researched our options.

I looked into the magnet programs at other local public elementary schools that we could apply for our children to get into without moving. I looked into the costs of private school. As my husband and I talked over our 3 options of taking our chances getting into a magnet program, paying for private school, or moving to an area where we'd be zoned to a good school, I truly was willing to go with any of the options. I didn't have, nor express a strong opinion about any 1 of the options, and felt sure God would work everything out no matter which option we went with. And I prayed for clarity for my husband to ultimately make the decision.

My husband went to the computer, plugged in the odds of our getting into certain magnet programs, the cost of private school tuition times 3 kids, and emerged from the spreadsheet about 10 minutes later declaring, "We've gotta move!"

I am so thankful he lead with that decision and many others in our 10 year marriage!

My husband needed a new car (as in his wouldn't even pass inspection) a few months ago and I said, "Go, get whatever you want." The salesperson was incredulous that my husband was able to buy a car without his wife so much as seeing it!

And now as God is steering our family down a particular road for our future. I am confident that it is God speaking because He is speaking through my husband. And do you know what? It is louder than I've ever heard Him speak directly to me!

Find more Thankful Thursday here and Thursday Thirteen here.