I am discovering much about what it means to listen to the Lord. So often I would come before Him in prayer; asking things of Him or telling things to Him, yet not much of my time was spent listening to the Holy Spirit. God is constantly speaking, yet we do not always listen to His voice or even know how to listen to Him speaking. As His follower, I am learning the utmost importance of taking in what the Lord is saying. The Holy Spirit guides if we seek Him and listen to Him. He answers us when we cry out if our ears are tuned to His words. He is speaking and we must be listening.
In John 10:27, it says that “My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.” Here, Jesus first says that His sheep listen to Him and that, after listening, they follow. I am learning that this is how we must approach everything in our lives. We must first listen to our God-who knows all things (even all things about us)- and then we must take what we have heard from His speaking and follow Him.
This practice of listening and following has played a major role in this past week. I will share with you one example where the importance of this was very evident:
On Friday, we were supposed to meet with a woman whom we had met 3 days prior. We arrived at the church at 10:00am as planned and waited, but she did not show. After waiting about 2 hours, many on the team felt led to go into the town and evangelize and pray over people. For some reason that I did not know at the time, I felt as though the Lord was pleading with me to stay at the church and wait. So I did. Little did I know that God had a plan for my afternoon that I would have never predicted. I remained at the church until it was 2:00pm (the time for the HIV/AIDS support group). I sat alone in the back for a while and prayed, asking God to reveal Himself to me and to speak in clarity what He wanted me to do with the rest of my day. He then brought to me Winnie. Winnie is a 13 year old girl. She pulled her chair up next to mine and we began a conversation. I asked her what level she is at in school and she replied, saying that she cannot afford to be a student. I proceeded to ask where her home is. Winnie has no home. She lives on the street by herself. Her father and her many brothers and sisters were all killed in the war and her mother died of HIV. Now, Winnie must take care of herself and struggle through life (and HIV) alone. This precious child of God has nothing and yet her smile lit up the room. She was ecstatic to teach me more Luo (the language spoken here) and laugh with me as we shared stories. At the end of our conversation, she asked for my empty disposable plastic water bottle, that she might be able to have something to collect water in. Her needs are so great and yet her joy is so much greater. Time came that I had to return back home and she said to me in her african accent and broken english, “Kayla, I just love you so much.” Tears welled up in my eyes.
God used my willingness to listen to Him to encourage and love one of His beautiful children, and in return, I felt so blessed by my encounter with Winnie. Just as sheep listen to their shephard and know and recongnize the shephard’s voice, we must know the voice of the Lord and listen attentively to when He speaks to us.
He is always speaking. May we learn to listen.
By His Grace,
Kayla
