Well, today was probably the hardest that I have had through this journey so far...at least mentally and emotionally. It has been a common occurrence to have to make an extremely important decision within a short amount of time. For example, being given two days to decide if we would stay in Croatia to have a piece of my tongue cut out and my neck cut open. And while God has constantly been leading us and taking care of us, it is difficult to not feel the pressure when another tough decision has to be made on a time crunch. Well, today was one of these kinds of situations, but this time the enemy saw my guard down. But, again, God was victorious. To explain, let's go back in time for a little bit...
Through our time in Bosnia-Herzegovina, God has taught us many things. Some of these things have been the beginning of a process of practice. We have been blessed to learn a lot about listening to the Holy Spirit from our team leader in Bihac. She is a person who is very intentional about seeking the Spirit's guidance in everything. More specifically, asking for the Spirit's guidance in a specific situation and expecting that He will speak right then. Let me give an example.
You are approached by a friend that has a desperate need that needs to be met immediately. However, you have already given to this friend numerous times and you have seen some instances where they are not learning how to help themselves. So, you immediately ask the Spirit what to do and listen. This is something I am not always intentional about. My experience has been more to ask the Spirit for guidance for something way in advance and expect to wait for awhile. I have not always had the faith that the Spirit would answer me immediately. In fact, I haven't known how to listen.
Jess and I have been working on practicing this in our lives over the past couple of years. I can certainly see how God has used it through this journey. So, let's go back to today...
I asked God to help me be able to hear the Spirit. While I still don't always listen well, God has grown my faith that the Spirit will speak to me. The Bible speaks much about waiting in the Lord, but I think that we sometimes only focus on the waiting and forget how to expect in faith. I think God gave me the faith to do this today, and I know I heard the Spirit speak to me what to do. Within a couple of hours, I moved from a place of deep fear about the future to a "peace that transcends all understanding."
Ask the Spirit and expect him to speak, maybe even immediately. He is right next to you, so listen.
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