Seven Dialects
From the Series—Spirit
June 23, 2003This evotional concludes our Spirit series.
Job 33:14 says, “God does speak—now one way, now another—though man may not perceive it.” The Spirit speaks in lots of different dialects. This evotional focuses on seven dialects: circumstances, signs, dreams, doors, desires, whispers, and people.
The Language of Circumstances
The Spirit speaks via circumstances. Ephesians 2:10 says, “We are God’s workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works prepared for us in advance.” In other words, God is engineering circumstances. He is setting you up for success.
A few years ago I took my son, Parker, fishing for the first time at the Tidal Basin. Parker had no idea how to fish so I basically did everything for him. I put the leader on the line. I put the hook on the leader. And I put the worm on the hook. I did the casting and reeling. I watched the bobber and when the bobber finally went under I hooked the fish. I did everything. I engineered that experience. I reeled in the fish until it was right offshore and then, like any good dad, I handed Parker the pole and grabbed my camera so I could videotape Parker catching “his” first fish!
That is how God works in our lives. He is setting us up to do good works prepared for us in advance. What we need to learn to do is recognize how God is working and what the Spirit is saying through our circumstances. I think Fredrick Buechner is right. “There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hidden, always leaving room for you to recognize him or not to recognize him.”
The Language of Signs
The Spirit speaks via signs. In Judges 6:17, Gideon asks for a sign. “If I have found favor in your eyes, give me a sign that it is really you talking to me.” Gideon wanted some kind of confirmation.
A month ago our staff had an all-day meeting to plan for our upcoming launch of our next location. By the end of the day it became apparent that the movie theaters @ Ballston Common Mall should be our next location. We closed that meeting praying for favor.
It was a prayer not unlike the prayer that Gideon prayed.
The next day I called Regal Cinema’s corporate office. I had ongoing negotiations with them for three months and frankly, we kept hitting a wall. They only wanted to give us access till 11:30 AM and additional time was cost prohibitive. After months of going nowhere in negotiations, the day after we prayed for favor, I called Regal and they had just changed their corporate pricing structure. I think it’s pretty safe to say that in the world of leasing if you want more time you pay more money and if want to pay less money you get less time. Here’s what happened the day after we prayed for favor: we got more time for less money.
Mark 16:20 says, “They went forth and preached everything, the Lord working with them, and confirming the word with signs following.” There is a pattern established in this passage. When we step out in faith and do what God has called us to do we can expect signs to follow. In other words, God confirms what we’re doing via supernatural signs.
Let me tell you the rest of the story because it gets even better than more time for less money. The day announcing to NCC that our next location would be the regal cinemas @ Ballston Common Mall I got a phone call from Tom Doyle who works with Regal Cinemas. I’d never met or talked with Tom before. He happened to read an article that was in the Washington Post two weeks ago about cinema churches and NCC was cited in that article. He came right out and said, “Have you guys ever thought about leasing a Regal?” When you get an “out of the blue” phone call like that you begin to suspect that God is up to something.
To make a long story short, Tom intervened in the negotiations. We received permission to install light and sound equipment, and Regal offered to pay for it via rent credit. Tom offered use of their digital projector --a savings in the tens of thousands of dollars. And we received an additional discount on pricing by virtue of our affiliation with the Willowcreek Association. The amazing thing is that we didn’t ask for any of those things. They were a gift, but they were more than a gift. They were a sign. Too often we fail to make the connection between our prayers and God’s answers.
Jeremiah 31:21 says, “Set up road signs; put up guideposts. Take not of the highway, the road that you take.” In other words, connect the dots.
The Language of Dreams
In his book, Is That Really You, God? Loren Cunningham writes about a vision that changed his life. As a teenager he saw a map of the world and waves were crashing into the continents. Eventually those waves covered each continent and then those waves changed forms and became young people. In 1960, Loren Cunningham established YWAM --Youth With A Mission.
Lots of missionaries found lots of problems with young people doing missions. And there weren’t exactly waves of young people at first--only six volunteers went on their first trip. But forty years later, YWAM now has 12,000 volunteer staff and 250 training centers in 135 countries . Every year tens of thousands of young people--waves--invest weeks or months of their lives in missions via YWAM, including several NCCers this past year. But here is what you need to see: it started with a vision.
Joel 2:28 says, “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams , your young men will see visions.” Dreams and visions are the supernatural byproduct of being filled and led by the Spirit of God.
The Language of Doors
Sometimes God opens doors and sometimes God closes doors. One of my favorite passages and one of my favorite prayers is Revelation 3:7. It says, “These are the words of him who is holy and true, who holds the key of David. What he opens no one can shut , and what he shuts no one can open. I know your deeds. See, I have placed before you an open door that no one can shut.”
This passage in the book of Revelation is an allusion back to Isaiah 22:22 where Isaiah talks about Eliakim, the mayor of David’s palace. Eliakim wore the key to the house of David around his shoulder. The key was a symbol of authority because Eliakim was the only person in the palace that had access to every room. There was no room that he could not open or close . Eliakim is a type of Christ who now holds the key of David. There is no door that God cannot lock or unlock, open or close.
The Lord closes doors for two reasons. Sometimes the Lord closes a door to get us to consider other possibilities. And sometimes the Lord closes a door to get us to transition from one place or one thing to another place or another thing.
A few weeks ago I did a prayer walk and ended up at Results Gym which used to be Giddings School. That is where NCC held services seven years ago. I spent some time praying there thanking the Lord for closing that door. At the time it was scary and confusing. The school was closing because of fire code violations and we were about to become a “homeless” church. But if God had not closed that door we would have kept doing what we were doing. We would have never thought about checking out the movie theaters @ Union Station.
So here we are meeting in a movie theater at a metro stop. In September we’ll launch another location in a movie theater at a metro stop. But I trace it back to a closed door. God used that closed door to get us to consider other options.
Acts 16:6 says, “Paul and his companions traveled through the region of Phrygia and Galatia, having been kept by the Holy Spirit from preaching the word in the province of Asia. When they came to the border of Mysia, they tried to enter Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus would not allow them to. So they passed by Mysia and went down to Troas. During the night Paul had a vision of a man of Macedonia standing and begging him, ‘Come over to Macedonia and help us.’ After Paul had seen the vision, we got ready at once to leave for Macedonia, concluding that God had called us to preach the gospel to them.”
Twice God closed a door. And that forced them to consider other possibilities. Then God gave Paul a vision of the man of Macedonia and opened a door of opportunity.
There is a saying in the Quaker tradition that I love: way will open. In other words, God will open a door before you and make it clear which path you should follow. Parker Palmer talks about it in his book Let Your Life Speak . He describes a frustrating season in his life when he just couldn’t seem to figure out where God wanted him to go. He approached an older Quaker woman and said, “People keep telling me, ‘way will open.’ Well, I sit in silence, I pray, I listen for my calling, but way is not opening. I’ve been trying to find my vocation for a long time, but I still don’t have the foggiest idea of what I’m meant to do. Way may open for other people, but it’s sure not opening for me.” This old Quaker woman said, “In sixty-plus years of living, way has never opened in front of me. But a lot of way has closed behind me, and that’s had the same guiding effect.”
Palmer says, “When way closes behind me, it is tempting to regard it simply as the result of some strategic error : had I been smarter or stronger, that door would not have slammed shut, so if I redouble my efforts, I may be able to batter it down. But that is a dangerous temptation. When I resist way closing rather than taking guidance from it, I may be ignoring the limitations inherent in my nature.”
The Language of Desire
Two weeks ago we asked every NCCer to begin a three-week season of prayer about the launch. We’re asking everybody to pray about whether God wants them to commit to the launch @ Ballston or redouble their commitment @ Union Station. I’ve been praying for you and here is what I’m praying. I’m praying that God would put a supernatural desire in your hearts for one place or the other. I’m praying that you’d have a growing excitement about the launch or a renewed excitement about what God is going to do at Union Station.
Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” When we are walking in right relationship with the Lord, God gives us the desires of our hearts. The word “give” means “to conceive.” In other words, when we’re living for God’s glory, new desires are conceived in us. God literally downloads new desires!
And I believe that when God calls you to something He’ll put a burning desire in your heart to do it. Margaret Silf says, “God will inevitably foster the desire in us to become the person he is dreaming us to be.” You can’t not do it.
Fredrick Buechner said, “The voice we should listen to most as we choose a vocation is the voice that we might think we should listen to least, and that is the voice of our own gladness. What can we do that makes us the gladdest? I believe that if it is a thing that makes us truly glad, then it is a good thing and it is our thing.” Buechner said you need to find that place where “your deep gladness meets the world’s deep need.”
The Language of Whispers
I Kings 19:11 says, “Then a great and powerful wind tore the mountains apart and shattered the rocks before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the wind. After the wind there was an earthquake, but the Lord was not in the earthquake. After the earthquake came a fire, but the Lord was not in the fire. And after the fire came a gentle whisper.”
I love Margaret Feinberg’s explanation of why God whispers. Lighting and thunder are more impressive, but Feinberg says, “To hear someone’s whisper you need to be near him or her. Whispering doesn’t work very well if the person you are speaking to is on the other side of the room. God isn’t content with a long-distance relationship.”
Let me tell you about the first time I heard the still small voice. I was in Junior High School and some people from a church we visited came to visit us. At the end of their visit they asked if there was anything they could pray for. I’ve had asthma since I was four-years-old and we prayed that the Lord would heal me. I went to bed that night and woke up the next morning and something amazing happened. I still had asthma, but every wart on my foot was gone! At first I thought, “Is this some kind of joke?” Is prayer like the game of telephone? Somehow, between here and heaven asthma turned into warts. But I’ll never forget hearing a gentle whisper. The Spirit whispered to my spirit , “I just want you to know that I’m able.”
Margaret Feinberg says, “The internal voice is like an audible voice, except you do not heart it with your ears. Instead, you hear it with you spirit. The internal audible voice is a thought, phrase, or concept that rings clear within your being.” It’s spirit speaking with spirit.
The Language of People
A few weeks ago I was having lunch with a church planter from Boston and he was talking about how Boston is a church planter’s graveyard. I felt such a strong impression in my spirit that I interrupted him. I said, “I really feel impressed to tell you that you should never say that again.” And I felt like the Lord gave me a passage of Scripture for him--Ezekiel 37. It’s about the valley of dry bones. The Spirit breathes into these dead bones and they come to life.
I had a choice when I felt prompted to interrupt: speak up or remain silent. I believe the Spirit of God was speaking through me via a word of knowledge. Speaking that boldly or plainly is outside my normal personality, but I felt prompted.
We need to allow the Spirit to speak through us. And we need to allow the Spirit to speak through others. A few weeks ago someone said something to me that addressed a blindspot in my life. I had developed a spirit of pride in an area of my life and this person had the courage to confront me on it. And I’m so glad they did. At first I tried to rationalize it and defend it. But I did some soul-searching and realized that I needed to repent of pride in this area of my life. I really feel like the Spirit used this person to speak the truth in love.