There is so much we can never understand about God. And, like a child with her father, we get to be under His wings of protection, asking him question after question. And even then, when our questions run out, will our hearts and minds be satisfied with the answers we receive? 

More than answers, isn’t what we need most an ever-deeper faith in God’s character and love? Will this deepening faith He gives us make what we don’t understand matter increasingly less–and what we believe about God’s ultimate love for us matter increasingly more?

For this week’s Encounter,  I am sharing a conversation I experienced between me and God, typed up straight from my journal. I invite you to use the transcript as a tool, hoping it might provide a fun jumpstart to your own listening to God’s whispers to you. 

So, perhaps, do this:

Find a quiet, secluded place where you can be undisturbed for at least 20 minutes. Then, consecrate your heart and mind to the One who loves and knows you most.

Lord, I consecrate my heart and mind. I give my heart and attention to You. I trust You and desire You. I bring myself under your authority. You are my King and my Guide, my Shepherd and Father. Help me to hear your voice in my heart now.

Do you wonder what I call you–what my love sounds like when I speak your name? For I have named you–your identity is hidden in me. To find yourself, you must see me first within you.. How else will you know what is love and what is true?

Your characteristics are my own. I have shaped you. You are mine. Let my breath be your breath. Let my love for you fill your heart and fuel you to go deeper in your love for me. 

Everything you need resides in my heart. You don’t need to look anywhere else. Nothing is lacking in you–just be filled with me.

Go to a quiet place where you can be undisturbed. Let all else fall away: there is much to do–to enjoy, receive, and appreciate–as we remember how beautifully desperate we are to encounter God’s love.

Come to me with all of your questions, and I will come to you with stories. I will fill your heart.

Retreat to a quiet place. Let your own heart be the quiet place. Let your Father quiet you.

Breathe deeply for a few minutes, letting every inhale become a prayer (Jesus) and every exhale become a prayer (Jesus).

Give Me your impatience. Bask in Me. Relax in Me.

Swim and move in my love, for you are delightful to Me.

See the multicolored tent above you, a sky with no ceiling. Live expansively with Me. Be open to cleaning out all notions you hold that make Me small.

Where are my limits? Why do you attest to seeing them? Who are you to decide what I will do and what I won’t? What comfort do you find in doubting my love and strength? Let Me show you my love. I want to release it now.

“But there they are, overwhelmed with dread,
 where there was nothing to dread” (Psalm 53:5a).

Will you allow Me to move through you? Will you trust that I am not stationary but active within you? Can you believe that my presence with you is not your holding onto Me but a letting go of everything that is not of Me? Do you know that allowing Me to move through you frees you to feel my movement in you in every situation? May I show you what I mean?

“But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26).

“Do you not know that you are God’s temple and that God’s Spirit dwells in you? (1 Corinthians 3:16). 

“And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever” (John 14:16).

What if you are always fine despite the worries and the unknown outcomes ahead, even when you feel the complete opposite of that?

“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul” (3 John 1:2).

What if you are always fine despite the worries and the unknown outcomes ahead, even when you feel the complete opposite of that?

“Beloved, I pray that all may go well with you and that you may be in good health, as it goes well with your soul” (3 John 1:2).

In what ways do you regularly experience love? And in what ways do you feel like you’ve been forgotten? What are your emotional and physical responses when (1) you feel loved and (2) when you feel like no one is around, nobody cares?

“‘For the mountains may depart and the hills be removed but my steadfast love shall not depart from you, and my covenant of peace shall not be removed,’ says the Lord, who has compassion on you’” (Isaiah 54:10).

Be hungry for healing.
Be expectant for hope.
Do not despair.
Do not be afraid.
I am here.

It is important to be hungry for healing and expectant of hope. This isn’t always easy. Our hearts ache so often. We feel our humanness, our vulnerability and our weakness. We may feel our brokenness and yet not know the first thing to do.

Do not deny the source of your being. Return to the source of your creation, the source of love that holds you together. To deny by what and by whom you were made is to live untethered and alone. Despite what the world teaches you, you are whole, strong, and free–you are on solid ground–when you live inside of me.

“For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him” (John 3:17, ESV).

Let me show you a picture–a timeline–of you and your life. Do you believe, with me, your life doesn’t end when you die? Do you know, in my kingdom, you never die? Do you know you can live brand new and live this starting now? Do you know?

What does your life show for this, if you do know this? How do you act on this confidence? How do you indicate you believe my words are true?

Let me show you your fear. Let me give you peace in its stead. New life awaits you. New birth is here. This world aches for it. Your heart aches for it. I know. Tell me everything now. I’m listening.

You need not go somewhere else to find me. You don’t have to run away, your mind conjuring images of the two of us together. For I am here. Right here. And my love for you is the foundation for your love for me. Let it come in. Let me come in.

Consider the steps toward quieting your heart now: Breathe deeply, breathe easily, and breathe slowly.

Slow, slow, slow.

The following words I heard for us in prayer. They form the invitation for this Encounter.

xo,

Jennifer

It is challenging to live unafraid and present to both the memories of the past and the dreams of the future while also fully awake to the present moment. Let Me explain.

Play this music in a quiet room to be comfortable and completely relaxed for a good period. I find that Airpods or headphones work well, helping me draw inward, block out possible distractions, and be attentive to my heart as the music plays.

To begin, spend some moments consecrating your heart to God, surrendering all your worries and concerns, and asking him to guide you and help you hear his voice.

Lord, I give you (name each worry and concern)...

I consecrate my heart to you. I bring myself under your authority. I am under your cover. I trust my whole heart to you.

Lead me in this encounter with you. Help me to experience your love for me. Help me feel your closeness and hear you if you want to say anything.

Come with Me. When I invite you on an adventure, you are never alone; you are always with Me.

* * *

The word “adventure” carries many complicated ideas and images–and how you feel about the idea of adventure will be necessary for this encounter with Jesus. Are you willing to go on an adventure with Him?

“You are not your own. Yet you want, desperately, be be your own. To stand, with authority, in my name, you must bend low. If you do this, all you do in my love will be blessed and you will be blessed.”

Fall into love now. Let it cover you, let it overwhelm you, let it flow through you, let it sing through you.

“O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water. I have seen you in the sanctuary and beheld your power and your glory. Because your love is better than life, my lips will glorify You” (Psalm 63:1-3).

"We look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal" (2 Corinthians 4:18).

What comes to mind when you think of the word “home”? A building with walls, a ceiling, and rooms? Do you think of people? Of things you touch and smell? Is home a place? Is home a feeling? Is home an attitude–a mindset to adopt?