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Thursday May 8, 2008

Category: Inner Wisdom with Renita Weems

The Inner Wisdom of Listening

How do you know when God is speaking? It’s one of those questions posed to ministers such as myself all the time. People expect us to know the answer. We expect ourselves to know the answer to that question also, but we don’t. Not really. We do know the answer perhaps, but not well enough that it makes sense to anyone other than ourselves.

One thing I do know is that listening for God is no ordinary listening. It involves what the writer Maria Harris refers to as “thick listening,” the capacity to identify the important, life-giving sounds that signal to us that we’d be wise to sit up and pay attention.

I recall the first time I felt my daughter kicking and stirring inside my womb, around the second trimester of pregnancy. I was in my study at home, typing on my computer. I stopped typing in mid-sentence and lost that thought. I was mystified and petrified, fascinated and horrified, by the sensation of a human knocking around inside me. The sensation of new life stirring in the womb is called quickening. But that morning was not the first time my daughter quickened inside me. She’d been thumping and knocking about inside me for weeks before, since conception I’m told. But I didn’t know it. By the time she made her presence felt that morning, around the fifth or sixth month, she’d grown large enough inside to become an undeniable force. It’s a similar sort of feeling when you feel twinges of something yet unnamed knocking about within you, evolving and stretching into being, causing you to feel restless. Voices within you have been knocking about for sometime trying to get your attention. It’s just taken some time for you to notice. And now that you have noticed, listen carefully. It may just be the divine reaching out to you saying: sit up and pay attention.

Describe experiences in your life when you’ve felt “this just has to be God.”

--Renita Weems

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"BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD" has become my calming mantra when I feel that the world is spinning out of control...that is "my world" is spinning out of control. Repeating this verse slowly and with reverence over and over until I feel my heart filled with THE HOLY SPIRIT...I become one with GOD...I become grounded in who I am...a child of God who is listening. Most often I hear His forgiveness for tasks unfinished, actions not taken and self-serving actions. When I feel this forgiveness I move forward until I start spinning AGAIN.
"BE STILL AND KNOW THAT I AM GOD" is wood-burned on 2"x18" board that is placed in my view(a window sill) that I look out numerous times a day. The view is a grassy lawn, then a field, tree line and mountains...the western view perfect for sunsets...Perfect to put closure to a day that may or maynot have been pleasing me. PERFECT TO BE STILL AT THE END OF THE DAY AND KNOW THAT HE IS GOD.

Posted by: Dottiebell | February 21, 2008 12:12 AM

To the Pastor I too have felt that songs when I really listen have messages more then what the song writer has intended. And they would be heard at the most appropriate times. Or when I read a quote on a plaque or my day planner. It is true that so often we are rushed so much that we forget that we are hear for a reason and not just to survive from day to day.
I hear or know God is close when something unexpected happens that I didnt see coming. When everything or every one seems to be against us God reaches out his loving arm and reminds us we will be ok.
I as well have had that quickening feeling recently since I began soul searching and getting in touch with who I am and who Im supposed to be. To just feel that "life" inside makes me feel its the real me trying to make her presents known. The true self that God created. At that moment if I cant stop and enjoy the moment, I make note, but if I can stop, I try and reflect on what I've been doing and what my inner self is trying to say. Then I ask God to show me what He wants me to do.

Posted by: Dj | May 10, 2008 7:25 AM

I am very happy to be here ocasionally this night .and i know who Jehovah is and i bliev in him. i am a Chinese person.i am in Japan now. i think i need some help from my lord.
so my dear sisters and brothers ,when you see my message .i hope you would help me to pray for our father.now i am standing in the crossing of life and i wonder where to go . God is road and truth and pray him guide me .thanks my lord.thanks all of you .

Posted by: ping | May 10, 2008 3:13 PM

Thank you one and all for your posts. i enjoyed all of them. I asked for God to tell me what to do as i am ill but hubby has lost job and we have two children. i prayed for discenment I even put it on a prayer chain i visit and appreciate so very much, I got the strongest feeling much like something as concrete as a beautiful young life making his or her prescence known in utero, The answer was do not work keep writing when you can keep praying for God's children. I talked to hubby he agreed I should put work idea to bed. I get very very tired and confused and have pain this comes and goes. Anyway this is the strange part I was SO sure that this was the answer but reality is trying to make me doubt this very strong feeling I had that
God had spoken. Interesting .

Posted by: Lisa | May 10, 2008 11:28 PM

Please help me to know when God is speaking to me,I am new at this and I really desire to learn what it is like to here God speak to me.

Posted by: Neal Varrette | May 11, 2008 6:52 AM

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Thursday May 8, 2008

The Inner Wisdom of Listening

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Thursday May 8, 2008

The Inner Wisdom of Listening

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