When I answer, ‘Yes!’ the next question is often, ‘How did you hear God?‘ or ‘What did God say?’

I’ll share with you not only how I heard God speak but also snippets of the conversations we had from the first panicky moments after my mum’s accident along the journey until the last full stop appeared on the completed manuscript.

What God DID NOT say

Before sharing what God said and how I heard him, I want to tell you what he did not say. To understand why, I need to take you grocery shopping with me.

I’m not too fond of shopping, so by the time I announce to my family that I’m heading out for groceries, they know the bare essentials have dried up at least two days prior, and I have depleted all sensible pantry combinations.

To avoid frequent trips, I shop the way my dad does pruning – he cuts into those shrubs with such focused determination that, when he finishes, the shrubs resemble dwarfs. So the following prune won’t be due for a loooong time!

And so I load my trolley with at least two weeks’ supply (more if it can fit!) and manoeuvre our provisions in the direction of the checkout, all the while praying that no one would test the trolley’s breaks. Next, I head to the downward escalator, where my arms can get a well-deserved break from ‘steer-fighting’ as the trolley’s wheels lock in place. As I push the trolley onto the escalator, I anticipate a clacking sound as the back wheels kick on the automatic breaks, but the sound does not come.

Instead, I feel the full force of the trolley, and its content jerks me forward, and I wonder how much heavier the trolley is than me as I have now become its breaks.

I looked like a cat breaking with all fours as it was being forced into bathwater and held on for dear life to prevent the trolley from torpedoing through the glass doors at the bottom of the escalator.

If God had asked me outright to write a memoir, the scene would have been similar. I would have hit the brakes on all fours and resisted while I recited all my shortcomings as excuses.

And this is what God did not say. I did not hear a booming voice saying, ‘Louise, I want you to write a memoir!’ Nope, God knows me well enough to come at it another way. Besides, I would make it off as a prank if God had spoken in an audible voice like with Samuel in the Bible story (1 Samuel 3). What is his voice doing outside of me anyway? (More on that in another post).

How DOES God Speak?

A Longing

Amidst the trauma, while my mum was unconscious in hospital, our friends and family showered us with text messages, calls and emails. Some expressed their disbelief in the horrific circumstances, but almost all sent messages of prayers and encouragement. Mum, of course, could not read any of these, and my heart longed for her to be comforted as we were, so I saved the messages.

That single desire in my heart for Mum to be encouraged, to have hope, that little niggle to save the messages, I believe was God, my Papa, speaking to me.

And I was okay with that. I could easily save the messages and read them to Mum later. So I did.

A Thought

As the days went on with Mum in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), we sent email updates to family and friends. Every email contained one or the other breakthrough or miracle. It was evident to us that Jesus was involved in Mum’s recovery, that everything the doctors could not explain, had a name, had a reason. I call him Papa.

And then a thought popped into my mind. ‘Why don’t I buy a journal and write it all down? The messages, the emails, the miraculous recoveries.’

I was okay with that. So I did.

A Desire to Share…

…with close family and friends

After a few days in ICU, Mum could finally speak, and her words blew us away as we heard about her experiences with Jesus. Each new day brought more encounters and events mingled through hospital procedures and never-before-heard places in heavenly realms and dimensions. So many that I felt the need to jot them down to discuss them in more detail later when Mum was out of the hospital. Not only did we have no reference for much of what she experienced, but it was also all too strange and wonderful, and besides, it was laborious for her to talk, so we only heard snippets.

With Mum discharged and back home, the events and encounters continued and became so numerous, and as each moment shared transformed us and set us free, I longed for the same freedom and joy to touch my kids, my family and close friends who were not there to experience it firsthand. My kids were too young to grasp the significance of what was happening, and I didn’t want them to lose out on any of it. Besides, there was no way I was going to rely on the accuracy of memory or retelling. I wanted no detail lost, so I felt to take notes on my laptop, lots of notes! In my mind, I could compile them into a small PDF booklet that we could share with family and close friends, and my kids could read when they were older.

I could do that. It was easy.

It was now an ever-growing list of Jesus encounters.

…with extended family and friends

While sharing the events with extended family and friends, we found ourselves having to fill in a bit of back story – explaining what Mum was like before the encounter with Jesus – so they could grasp the remarkable change, the 180-degree turnaround, her complete personality change, the incredible freedom, love and joy. All because of Jesus.

It was not practical to explain this every time, so a thought dropped into my mind, ‘Why not write the back story too?’ It made sense, and it would be handy to have for the next generation too!

I could do that. So I typed it up.

The list of Jesus encounters was now embedded in a human story.

…with those, we are yet to meet

We shared bits of the story with others and were undone as we watched them discover Jesus in a new way, experience joy and freedom. More and more people asked if we were writing a book to share so others could experience this too, and I felt the same niggle in my heart to add more to the story’s bare bones.

I did.

The Jesus encounters, embedded in a human story, now came with details and reflections, wrapped in a theme. It became a near-death experience memoir.

How can you tell it is God speaking?

I believe the little niggle, the thought that dropped into my heart, the desire to share, those were all Papa speaking to me.

How can I tell?

These moments all have one thing in common – the focus is NOT ME! If God had asked me out loud to write a memoir, the focus would be on me, what I can do, or in this case, what I believed I could NOT do. But, instead, he had me look at Mum, my kids, family, friends and friends-to-be, and he placed the longing inside my heart.

I felt the desire for others to have the same love, freedom and joy as we experienced through the encounters with Jesus and, because of that, took a single next step towards that goal.

His intent, his focus. All this time, it was never about me!

It was and always will be about others.

And this is how I can tell it is Papa – this all lines up with his character, with who he is (the way we know him now, not the way we thought he was before – read the memoir for more on that). He deeply cares about you, desires for you to live in his freedom, joy and love.

So does this mean that God speaks to everyone in the same way?

Not necessarily. Papa knows each one of us better than we know ourselves and what works for me, might not work for you. I believe the Creator of the universe is creative enough to speak to each one of us in the way that suits best.

What now?

If you’re anything like me, then the tiny accessible next step is not scary, and you can do this one thing in front of you. What is the seemingly insignificant little thing that is niggling at your heart? The one thing that is other-focused that has the character of a loving God all over it?

You might not have a clue what the big picture holds (or you might not wish to know!), and that is okay because God’s got this!

So take the one step in front of you. Show the care and love in your heart for the next person, don’t hold back the encouragement, send that kind word, do that one little thing that he entrusted to you. It could be the start of something incredible.

In a following post, I’ll answer the question ‘Is it God’s thought or mine?‘

Hint: The answer is yes and yes.

Leave a comment below or send me a message; I’d love to hear about your little niggle, the thought or the big shout and the difference it made in someone else’s life!

TAKEAWAY:

• God does speak! It could be a thought, a longing, a desire to share.
• God’s words always line up with who he is, his character.
• He speaks in different ways to different people.
• Just do that one little thing that he entrusted to you. He’s got this!