Have you ever wondered why God doesn’t speak to you like He speaks to me?
Or like He speaks to your friend, or spouse, or that famous speaker?
I’ve had many conversations about this, since I feel like God has spoken to me in somewhat more “mystical” ways than people generally hear his voice. When I bring up these experiences, others often end up wondering why God hasn’t spoken to them in the same way
So why is your experience so different from mine?
Do you long to connect with God but feel like he’s ignoring you?
Do you try to do your prescribed 30 minute devotions every day, only to fall asleep or have your mind wander for 29.5 of those minutes?
Do you struggle to concentrate during sermons, or find zero connection God via singing?
I have good news for you, right from the pages of the early church!
At that time there were devout Jews from every nation living in Jerusalem. When they heard the loud noise, everyone came running, and they were bewildered to hear their own languages being spoken by the believers. They were completely amazed. “How can this be?” they exclaimed. “These people are all from Galilee, and yet we hear them speaking in our own native languages! Here we are—Parthians, Medes, Elamites, people from Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, the province of Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, and the areas of Libya around Cyrene, visitors from Rome (both Jews and converts to Judaism), Cretans, and Arabs. And we all hear these people speaking in our own languages about the wonderful things God has done!”
Acts 2:5-11
Did ya catch that? God’s first point of order after giving the believers the Holy Spirit was to make sure everyone heard the good news IN THEIR OWN LANGUAGE.
In their own language.
What’s your language?
I believe that God longs to share his heart with you in your own language.
Maybe you haven’t figured out your language, or maybe your language has changed and you haven’t noticed yet.
There are many different languages we can talk about.
We could be talking about love languages. I believe that part of how we feel loved by God has to do with how he has created us to feel loved by humans.
Or we could have a conversation about your spiritual pathway language.
God has created all of us to connect with him in different ways, but if we don’t understand what language he’s speaking, it will feel like existing in a ‘cone of silence’.
Or rather than languages, think of it this way.
“My daddy’s favourite thing is to play tea party.”
If you asked his son the same question, his answer would likely be different, perhaps “my daddy’s favourite thing to do is wrestle on the trampoline.”
Is this the same dad we’re talking about? Absolutely.
But he intentionally connects with each child in the way that he knows they’ll love.
Our Heavenly Daddy is the same way – he longs to touch your life in a meaningful way. But how he does it in your life will be different than how he does it in my life.
What follows are links to all the types of ways that God might possibly have wired you to connect with Him. We’ll talk about how God wired you, how he wired me, and hopefully along the way, you’ll find him speaking the same language that you’re hearing.
They follow Gary Thomas’ Sacred Pathways: each post will detail ways to determine if this is your pathway, as well as some suggestions for how to do this as a mom. If you’re interested in helping your children connect with God in these ways, please see the “child” posts.
The Intellectual: experiencing God with your mind
The Traditionalist: experiencing God through rituals and symbols
The Caregiver: experiencing God through caring for others
The Activist: experiencing God through standing up for others
The Sensate: experiencing God through the senses
The Naturalist: experiencing God through nature
The Enthusiast: experiencing God through emotions
The Enthusiast Child (available only in my e-book)
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