The last couple of weeks I’ve been sitting under teaching from Jeremy Caris at Abiding Glory here in Knoxville.  Jeremy’s been talking about how we can intentionally learn to listen for God’s voice, and then make use of this listening to strengthen and build into each other in love.

I’ve had the sense that I was hearing from God, and I’m passionate about the fact that all of us as believers hear from Him all the time, we just aren’t always expectant that this is the truth, or we aren’t looking for Him or really listening for Him.  At the same time, I have never had the experience of really hearing something specific for someone else, and I have been very skeptical of the abuse that I’ve seen around someone saying, “God told me this for you,” (when that’s sometimes been coming from a place of selfishness or a person’s desire to control another person).

So, last Wednesday night, Jeremy gave some teaching about how to practically ask God for insight, as he moved from the theology around the prophetic, to application in our day to day lives.  Thursday night, Jana and I had some friends over for a birthday party.  As everyone was leaving, we asked Beth to stick around so we could pray for her.  Jana started praying, and I remembered something Jeremy said.  Sometimes it’s helpful to just ask God, “give me one of the thoughts you have for this person” based on Psalm 139:17-18.  So I asked God that.

And then something crazy happened, that’s never happened for me.  As I was looking for God to speak to me for Beth, I saw a picture of a plate.  Well, wait, it’s not a plate, cause I see coffee on it, so it must be a saucer.  And then I saw a clown’s face, not a weird clown, but a pretty happy clown.  And that was it.  Hmm.  What in the world does that mean?

Jeremy had said, if you don’t understand, you might need to just talk it out, and to ask some questions.  So I asked Beth – “are you drinking a lot of caffeine?  Does a clown mean anything to you?”  We didn’t get very far, and I admit I was a little confused by it.

Then, next morning, half awake, God reminded me, “what was the question you asked me when you started praying for Beth?”  Oh that’s right, I asked you to give me one of your thoughts for her.  At that point, he showed me that a saucer generally goes with a cup, but that the cup was missing.  And the clown face, could that represent joy and rejoicing?  I believe at that point that God had given me revelation for Beth.  So I called her up and said, Beth – I think this is what God was showing me for you, that joy is missing for you right now in your walk, and that you may want to lean into that and go after the joy that He really has for you.

So – what’s this look like in your own walk?  Are you open to asking God for one of his thoughts about you, or about one of his thoughts for someone you’re praying for?  Do you have the expectancy that a conversational relationship could be a reality for you?  You may need to take some risks.  You may make some mistakes.  But as you move into it, I feel pretty confident that he’ll guide you into truth.  He said he would, and he’s pretty good at keeping his word.