God Speaks Our Language

Is there anything harder than learning a new language? Of course there is, but learning to speak a different language is pretty hard. We're trying to learn Spanish right now using apps like DuoLingo, and one of the things I recently discovered is the idea of "false friends." When learning a new language, "false friends" are two words that sound the same, but have different meanings. For example, in Spanish the word libreria sounds like the English word library, but in Spanish it means bookstore, not library. They both refer to places with books, but one is a for profit operation, and another is non-profit organization.

These words are called "false friends" because at first, they seem like an ally in our quest to communicate with someone who speaks a different language, but in reality, those words are not an ally to us because they do not mean what we think they mean.

The amazing thing about God is that he never uses "false friends" when speaking to us. For example, look at the day

of Pentecost. There was a large group of people who came from different nations to celebrate the festivals of passover, unleavened bread, firstfruits, and weeks. Each one of those different nations spoke a different kind of language. But God spoke to each one of them in their own language so they could each experience God in their own unique way.

That's not to say the meaning of the phrases, pictures, or promptings that God uses to communicate with us are always immediately obvious to us. Like Jesus speaking in parables, sometimes revelation comes to us in ways that require us to draw closer to God for more interaction and insight. In other words, God wants to do more than just give us a download - he wants to deepen our relationship with him. And that can only happen through more interactions with him. Think about like this: revelation is for relationship.

The good news is that we do not have to learn how to speak God's "language" to communicate with him. God is intimately familiar with us and knows exactly what we need to hear, how much we need to hear, and the way we need to hear it.

If you would like to learn how to hear God for yourself, we walk with people through a Spirit led pathway of learning how to recognize his voice and respond in life giving ways. Contact us if you are interested in exploring what that could look like for you.