Thursday

Can you hear me now?

Since I was diagnosed with cancer I’ve believed that God was telling me having cancer is an opportunity.  It is an opportunity to do things I did not have time for when I was working.  I thought He wanted me to be the artist I never had time to be. Yes, I am supposed to do art, but more than art, He wanted me to write.  I’ve felt - over and over again - He wanted me to write some of my life experiences especially the ones where I’ve known, without a doubt, that He spoke to me.  

I know some of you are skeptical because a lot of people don’t believe God speaks to us today.  That is not true.  I know some people are very busy and desire control of their lives - to the point - they are actually afraid to really hear from God.  Maybe they are like I was when I was younger.  I was afraid to hear from Him because I thought - for sure - He would want me to go to Africa.   The funny thing is – now - I think that would have been really awesome! 
Anyway here is a link about being able to know how and if you are hearing from God: 


 So with all that being said, here are two personal experiences of hearing from God.
The first story isn’t the first time I heard from God but it was the first time I heard Him audibly.

We were renting a nice house in a nice area and I was really happy where we were living.  We had moved there from a manufactured home, that we owned, but it was small and we needed more room.  Where we lived previously was also next door to Chuck’s parents.  I love Chuck’s parents but I really think living that close to your in-laws can cause problems.  I don’t remember why we decided to sell and move but it was a good thing for us and I was very happy when we did.  We moved from the UCF/Christmas area to the Lake Mary area.

About a year after we moved, Chuck’s parents also decided to move and bought a house in Oviedo.  They purchased the house before selling their manufactured home.  If I remember correctly, they had problems trying to sell and offered to let us take over payments or they offered some sort of financial arrangement that would have been very good for us.  Chuck thought it would be a great idea but I had set in my mind that I would never live in a manufactured home (trailer) again.  At the time, the mobile home was in a nice area and right across the street from the community pool, which would have been nice, but I said no.  I was adamant.  I thought living in a trailer was going backward.  I just did not want to live there again and I would not budge.  I really don’t remember a lot of the details but I do know Chuck didn’t agree with me but he wasn’t going to force me either.  I felt pretty smug and that I’d won. 

Until….

I was sleeping one night and woke up startled to the sound of a door slamming.  I heard very clearly, “Who are you?  Who are you that you think you are too good to live in a trailer.   You will say yes.  You will move.  And you will do it now.”

I honestly do not remember how long after that we moved - but it all happened very quickly.

Moving to the manufactured home ended up being a good place for us for the time we were there.  It was financially affordable.  We had a lot of older neighbors who were very sweet.  We had access to the pool across the street.  We started going to a church that was fairly close but not the church I thought we would go to which is another story all on it’s own, for later.  It was the right move for us and I was very humbled by it.  Many stories could come from that but I think this next one is the one I’m supposed to share for now.

Story #2:

About 5 years later we were still living in the same place. 

Chuck’s grandmother was getting older and decided to move to Florida and live with his parents.  After a while Chuck's parents decided they needed a larger home if Granny was going to continue living with them.  His parents found a home, bought it, and moved in but again did not sell their current house first.  They were having difficulty selling the house so they offered to let us rent it.
We were excited about it because it was larger and I had been praying that if we ever moved that we would have a larger, eat in, family kitchen.  Our kitchen where we were living, if you were to stand and turn in a circle, you could touch the stove, sink, dishwasher, counters and cabinets – without stretching - it was extremely small.  When Chuck’s parents offered their house to us I got very excited but did not want to go against God’s will after the last experience. 
The condition to moving - we had to sell our place first.  We tried a lot of different things to sell it.  We tried listing it in the paper, we tried sell by owner, we hired a realtor, and I don’t remember what else.   When the contract with the realtor was over, we felt like giving up.  We thought maybe it just wasn’t God’s will for us to move at that time.
One morning a few days after our contract ran out, I don’t remember what I was doing, but very clearly - in my mind - I heard, “List the house in the paper and it will be done in 7 days.”  I thought, “We already tried that.  I must be imagining things.  I don’t think it will work.  It will be a waste of time and money.”  But, again, I heard, “place an ad in the paper and within 7 days it will be done.” 
I remember calling Chuck at work and telling him what happened.  He said to go ahead and list it.  He didn’t think it would hurt.  The first time we’d put an ad in the paper, we didn’t receive a single call so I really didn’t think anything would happen.  

Thursday was the cut off date for placing an ad in the paper for the weekend.   I called and gave the information to the clerk Thursday morning. 
Saturday we got the paper to check our ad.  We started getting calls that afternoon.  Sunday, we had people come and look at our home and they made a cash offer with the stipulation of us being out by the following weekend.
Long story short, we were moved into our new home by the next Saturday, exactly 7 days later.

God is amazing.  God loves us and is interested in everything we do.  God wants us to trust Him and He wants us to be open to listening to Him.  He does communicate with us either by the Holy Spirit, feeling convicted, through other people, through scripture, mentally, sometimes even audibly, and frankly any way He wants to.  Unfortunately we try to limit Him to our understanding and hearing Him whatever way we think is best. Sometimes we become so in tune with the world that God’s voice is blocked.  I think I allowed myself to get to that point and maybe that’s why he slowed me down. 

I have never spent so much time on a blog post.  I wrote this two weeks ago and kept editing it but I believe it’s time to post it ready or not.