How Can I Talk To God?
Talk to God? Huh?
Yes you read the title right. I talk to God.
Yes, I can see you probably shaking your head right now and saying uh-huh, here's another one of those religious fanatics that's gonna tell me how I need to act and how to get right with God.
Nope - I'm not gonna preach at you. I'm only going to share with you my own personal experience of talking to God and of how Him and I communicate. How my day is shared with Him and how my life revolves around what He tells me - or doesn't.... How I manage to connect with someone that I can't physically see, hear, smell or touch - yet we still manage to communicate - in our own personal way.
God - Jesus and the Holy Spirit
It
wasn't an easy task for me - learning how to talk to God. First I had to believe in
Him. That didn't really happen until my 20's - yet somehow I always knew
He was there and accessible. Even as a child I knew He was there even though I grew up in a "non-religious" home. I just didn't know how to have a relationship with someone I
couldn't see! I think that is probably the hardest thing
for people - believing that there is actually
someone out there that you can talk to that isn't a "physical" being. Instead it's someone that you can only relate to in a spiritual
realm...which flies against the "norms" of this world. We are so caught
up in what we can see that we sometimes miss out on the greatest gifts
of all - the "unseen" - which can only be accessed through the spirit.
This spirit I call the "Holy Spirit" (yes I am a Christian) So when I
talk to God, it is through that spirit that we communicate. He talks to me through worship, people and most importantly prayer. And of course the biggest way He talks to me is through the awesome love letter He left here for us - the Bible.
Spirits we cannot see yet
we know they are there. God's Holy Spirit came through Jesus Christ His
son, and between God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit we have what's called the "Trinity". God created the world perfectly and without blemish, Jesus came to save us once we really messed things up, and the Holy spirit comes to us through both of them (hope I got that right seminary students!)
Yes I believe In Jesus
Well I know for some the whole Jesus thing just turned some people off. Maybe you don't believe in God, Jesus or the Holy Spirit for that matter. That doesn't matter here in the context of this hub though because I am not talking about your beliefs - I am talking about my own. My own relationship with God. My way of communicating with Him. Perhaps for you you have a different method, don't believe at all or believe in something entirely different. That's OK because I'm not here to tell you who or what to believe in. I'm only relaying what my own personal experience has been, and why I believe what I do...
OK you say well enough of the preachy stuff... you want to know how I talk to God. That's why you came here - so here goes as best as I can describe it...
First off, one of the ways that God and I talk is when I drive to work. I ask Him to use me that day to be a minister of His word, to use me to help others and to put me where He wants me to be for that day. I pray at that time and also pray for my family and friends. This is something that I started doing a few months ago and it has helped my life tremendously. Prior to doing this I found myself always trying to do stuff my own way and finding myself frequently frustrated, irritated and aimless. I didn't like this "funky mode" so I decided to try Gods way by asking Him "What do you want me to do today God?"
How can I be a better person for you today?
After I started praying and asking God this every day weird things started to happen. I found myself learning to live in the present moment. Still worrying but for the most part finding joy and peace in various moments during the day. Realizing as I breezed through my day that there were people looking at me a little differently. Watching and observing me. Smiling more, cheerful to be around me...
Hmmm.... I was beginning to realize that God and I's little "chats" in the morning were producing some fruit. Encouraged, I started to make this a daily ritual. God even gave me a life mantra to live by during this time - He called me to be a "Peep" (another light bulb moment for a new ministry) The meaning of being a "Peep"?
Being a Peep means being:
P - a "Peacemaker"
E - an "Encourager"
E - an "Example"
P - a "Person of Integrity"
So yes now every day I strive to be a "Peep".... (hey maybe that will catch on like WWJD did , huh?)
Confirmation in my heart
Well OK you say: so you talked to God but what did He say back to you? How do you know you are in relationship with Him when you can't even see Him? Well see that's where the spiritual part comes in - because we can't see Him, we have to approach him differently and we have to learn how to communicate with Him in a different way. We have to become in tune to something other than an audible "voice". We have to listen to the cues of God and how and where they come from.... and these can come in various ways. Like I mentioned before - through prayer, song, dance, church.... and of course the Bible (these are just some of the ways God talks to us - He has some really interesting ones, let me tell you!!)
For myself, the way I know God is talking to me or through someone else is by a discernible "confirmation" that I get deep in the pit of my heart. There is a knowing there that I can't quite describe but I know it's not myself speaking or thinking certain things. It's a spirit that is deep within me... I know - it sounds like some pretty heavy stuff - but - to describe God and I's communication it's about the only way I can tell you. How I know that God is in me and working through me is when I find myself doing things that I would normally not think of doing myself - things like being calm when I should be flipping out. Things like staying mellow under pressure or wise under duress. You see I have lots of challenges to face every day, just like all of us do, but probably alot more than the average person. Some of them - especially some from my past - would have been my undoing unless I had had God to rely on. Without Him I would have just went absolute crazy, threw in the towel and said forget it.
But with Him I can get up every day now and look forward to knowing that I'm not alone - that He is there with me. That no matter what happens I can talk to Him at any time. Especially best is the fact that when all others let me down, or I'm all alone, He will ALWAYS be there with me - and we can always talk. I love knowing that God's cell phone always picks up. He never puts it on vibrate, ignores me and I never get His voice mail!
God talks to me in the middle of the night
One very distinct way that God talks to me is in the middle of the night. A couple of years ago I realized this when I started to awaken in the middle of the night, wide awake out of nowhere. The first few times this happened I was irritated because I could not get back to sleep.Then that knowing feeling came to me and it was almost like God was saying " If we can't talk during the day then I'm going to wake you up in the middle of the night so I can get your attention! We need to talk".
Hmmm... so OK I thought. This makes sense. Since I was so busy during the day God just decided that He would get ahold of me in the middle of the night! Made a whole lot of sense to me! So now when I wake up in the middle of the night I just say "OK God, what's up?" and I lay there waiting for what's next. This has been some of the most interesting communication we've had because these midnight talks have enabled me come to some really life defining "light-bulb" moments. These "midnight chats" have been catalysts for many of big directional changes my life has taken in the last couple of years. One of those changes has been the new job that I work at as a newborn photographer. Over a year ago God had said to me that I would have a "new beginning" (I was between jobs and feeling pretty funky about a career change- we had just closed our business and I was out of sorts) All I could think at that time was huh? What do you mean by a "new beginning??".
So what happens within the next few weeks? I get a job as a newborn baby photographer. And guess what the first thing is that I walk into into now every morning? Right into the labor and delivery wing at the hospital - where the sounds of newborn babies greet me! Pretty awesome, huh? New beginnings don't get much more new than that, do they?
So yes I talk to God. Every day and as much as possible to be honest. I do get caught up in the world because hey after all I live in it - but I also walk in a spiritual relationship with God through my obedience to Him. I see Him every day in the hands and the eyes of the newborn babies that He has entrusted me with. I hear Him in the middle of the night in the quiet darkness. I touch Him when I pick up my grandson and I see my fathers eyes and feel my own fathers spirit - and I watch Him work in the lives of others of around me. For me, He is there. We talk, He even has a good joke on me sometimes - and I feel His presence even when I'm down. No greater friend could someone have. I am grateful that I can talk to God - and He accepts me just as I am. Flaws and all.
(Dorsi Diaz is a freelance writer/publisher here on the internet)
Poll about God talk
Have you ever talked to God?
An invitation to accept Jesus Christ
Does God speak to you?
- Does God Speak to You? Adventures in Preaching
No, I am not talking about in the wacko way that many nut-jobs claim. Neither am I talking about all the preachers who claim to have a constant pipeline to God. I still remain very skeptical about that.