The Language of Love

Preface God is always speaking. Jesus Himself stated, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me” (John 10:27 KJV). God holds hidden secrets and divine mysteries that He wants to reveal to us. He has practical plans, strategies, and ideas that He desires for us to have for kingdom businesses, ministries, and our families. We need wisdom for raising our children, family relationships, finances, and building kingdom wealth. What if you could hear His voice and know practical next steps and strategies for the very problem that you are facing right now? The issue for many of us is that we do not know how to discern when God is speaking. It is one thing to understand and be able to discern the meaning of scripture, but it is quite another to know how to hear God in real time when it comes to life choices. Imagine that your boss offered you a promotion that required relocation; would you make the right choice? Would you be able to hear from God, or would your decision be based upon how you feel? What if you were in a financial bind and in a time crunch to figure it out, would you know how to hear from God in real time to discover His plan of provision? God Himself tells us in Proverbs that we are to “lean not on our own understanding.” Scripture also tells us that the “carnal mind is enmity against God” (Romans 8:7 NKJV). What does that mean? The carnal mind is a worldly perspective or “the way that seems right to men.” Over the past three years, I have seen God move in ways that at first glance did not make sense in the natural yet turned out to be amazingly orchestrated opportunities for growth and provision. By being able to hear his voice and seek His input, He was able to lead me into the path that He chose for me and my family. While editing this book, I lived in Florida and worked in a high-volume retail store. My income was mostly sales based, which meant that the busier we were, the more my commission checks grew. Even though I worked in a high-volume store and was very comfortable, God told my family that He wanted to move us back to Kansas. I was very excited for the prospect of a new beginning back home. Before moving, I asked the Lord if I was going to continue to work for the same company or if He was moving me elsewhere. The company that I worked for had just merged with another company, which opened up many opportunities. I was very excited to see what God was going to do financially. One night as I was sleeping, I had a dream that I was working for the company that my company had just merged with. I woke up knowing that God had answered my prayer. I was excited and even told my bosses that God had confirmed to me that I would be working for the other company that we merged with. In the period of a week, I found out that my district manager and regional manager were both quietly moved to other states. I had previously built relationships with them, and in the natural, it seemed that God would use them to land me in my new position. So I began to pray and thank God that He had the right place for me to work and minister. At work, shortly thereafter, a coworker told me that I needed to be more proactive about trying to find my own way into a high-traffic store. He felt that if I did not try to figure it out, I may end up without income. I felt a twinge of fear at the prospect that I could end up without a job, especially after such an expensive move across the country. After discussing things with my wife and current manager, I decided to leave the decision in God’s hands and “lean not on my own understanding.” In a short time, I was called by the recruiting office in Kansas. The only stores that needed staffing were with the company that we merged with. It happened exactly according to my dream. Again, my faith was invigorated, knowing that God had my back and was leading. So we moved to Kansas. Within a few days, I started working at my new store. The first day I entered the building, I saw a massive store with great potential. However, I found out that we were a low-traffic store. In the natural, it would seem that I had made a huge mistake. My income could potentially be dwindled to a third of what I normally made. This would have been frightening; however, I kept reminding myself that God was in control. He was leading the journey, and we could trust Him to provide for us. A week later, many of our original stores around the area closed down. My store made the cut. Suddenly, the traffic from the other stores began to funnel into our store. Looking back, I realize that while we were slow, I was given time to learn the systems that we would use for their sales. Now, with a much higher-volume store, I was able to not only sell to the customer base that I was accustomed to, but I was also able to sell products to customers of the other company. God turned the circumstances around, but it took time and trust. This is one of a multitude of testimonies that you will read in this book. My hope is that you will see that we have a faithful God who has designed a path for each one of us. He wants to lead us in “paths of righteousness” where we will grow in our understanding and grow to become more like Him. He longs to take us on journeys that at first glance may not make sense with the natural or human perspective, but as we follow, they will lead us into the best place possible. The fruits of these decisions will be amazing. However, God wants to walk with us. Doing what makes sense in the natural, trying to figure out our own way, may seem to pay off in the short term, but these both lead to disappointment. Why? Because as we face opposition, it causes us to doubt that we are in the right place. This leads to disappointment, disillusionment, and fear. But when we let God lead and follow His voice, we can rest knowing that He has every detail mapped out. This allows us to watch as God destroys our enemy beneath our feet. Mountains will crumble, and giants that stand in our way will fall. We are called, as Christians, to slay Goliaths. There are many things we are going to overcome in our lives if we partner with God. This is why we are to not lean on our own understanding or what would make sense to the logical mind. If we listen to our logic, to what makes sense to the natural way of thinking, we often miss God’s opportunities to reveal His glory and power through us, and we settle with a lesser imitation. God may bless our choice, because He loves us, but we still miss out on many of the blessings that come with patience, trust, and obedience. So if making decisions based on feelings or human knowledge does not reveal His plan, how can we know what to do? The short answer is that we must learn how to hear His voice. Since Jesus is the good shepherd and He leads us, it stands to reason that we need to allow Him to lead us. It also tells me that I need to learn how to hear His voice so that I can clearly follow His leading. How does God communicate with us? Most of us cannot see Him with our natural eyes, which makes it more challenging to be led in the natural sense. Imagine with me, for a moment, that the Lord has something important to say to you. First, He tries speaking to you in the still, small voice, but because there are so many loud voices screaming at you, His voice gets drowned out. So he tries to speak to you in dreams. However, most Christians do not recognize that He is speaking, so you forget the dream. So then He decides that He is going to get creative (i.e., speaking to Moses in a burning bush). Scripture says, “The Lord himself goes before you and will be with you.” God is outside of time. Scripture says that He has gone before us. I imagine that He walked the road that we would travel ahead of time. Because He knew what we would face, He planted treasures and messages for us to find, to help us along our journey.