CAN'T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD? (Shultz) Ch 14-19

CAN’T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD?

Secrets to Hearing the Voice of God

Chapters 14 -19

By Steve Shultz – Destiny Image Publising, 2007

(All bullets are quotes from the book unless otherwise noted.)

SATURDAY, November 29

How Good Do I Have to Be to Hear God’s Voice?

Luke 15:4-7  MSG

Suppose one of you had a hundred sheep and lost one. Wouldn’t you leave the ninety-nine in the wilderness and go after the lost one until you found it? 

• ·       When you feel unworthy or disqualified – when you are beating yourself up – you tend not to have hearing ears.
• ·       Four part Sheep Analogy: 1. We all hear His voice because we are His sheep; 2. No one is good, not even one of us; 3. All we, just like sheep, have gone astray; 4. God goes after every single ‘lost’ sheep.

            We will NEVER be good enough or holy enough or pure enough…..for anything.  But God talks to us anyway.  God loves us anyway.   It’s how he draws us into the fold.  It’s how God finds us when we wander.  Therefore, God is talking to us long before we even realize, perhaps, that God exists!  That’s comforting!  We don’t have to earn the right to hear God.  Jesus did that for us.  We don’t have to score high on the ‘good meter’ to merit a conversation with God.  It can happen at anytime, or all the time, and it does. 

SUNDAY, November 30

How Bad Do I Have to Be for God to Stop Talking to Me?

James 3:17 MSG

Real wisdom, God’s wisdom, begins with a holy life and is characterized by getting along with others. It is gentle and reasonable, overflowing with mercy and blessings, not hot one day and cold the next, not two-faced.

• I have an answer for this often-asked question – really bad.  In fact, really, REALLY bad!

            God will always be available to talk…no matter what we do wrong.  The Bible is God speaking in written form.  We can always read.  Jesus spent most of his time with sinners, talking to them.  God desperately wants to spend that kind of time with us – just chatting, being in relationship.  The God that Jesus represents is not a God of harsh judgment, but a forgiving God….over and over again.  Like the Prodigal Son, we can come back, again and again, with humility and seeking forgiveness.  God will be there, waiting for that prayer date. May we keep the date regularly.  

May the light of God illumine the heart of my soul. 

May the flame of Christ kindle me to love. 

May the fire of the Spirit free me to live this day.

 (Celtic Benediction - Newell)

MONDAY, December 1

Dreams – A Way to Hear God’s Voice

Proverbs 3:12 MSG

But don’t, dear friend, resent God’s discipline;
    don’t sulk under his loving correction.
It’s the child he loves that God corrects;
    a father’s delight is behind all this.

            I found this a more difficult chapter.  The author writes of first hand experience in prophetic dreams, of the attempts to ruin America from the inside through soap operas destroying marriages, and the need to pray for the safety of our leaders.  Quite the collection of thoughts, no?  The Proverbs scripture is the only one mentioned in the chapter. 

            But perhaps the important point is this: God does speaks in dreams.  It didn’t just happened to Joseph or Jacob thousands of years ago.  Especially if we are in direct communication with God on a daily basis and ask God to use our dreams to speak to us, we might find it more likely to hear God.  Sometimes the timing of our dreams is the key. 

            I recently awoke early in the morning with a distinct feeling that I needed to pray for a particular individual and his family.  I did so, knowing only that he was struggling with terminal cancer.  Was this the turning point in his long fight?  Did he lapse into a coma that morning?  I don’t know.  I do know he passed away 3 days later.     

            Totally off the subject….during my walk on the beach yesterday, I came upon a series of labyrinths that had been drawn in the sand, complete with an arrow for START here!  I immediately entered.  I wound my way to the center and began to pray my way back out.  I discovered the labyrinth had no way out!  I wondered if this was a ‘Thessalonian’ Labyrinth, the ‘pray without ceasing’ kind as you couldn’t stop!!  That made me consider the Celtic Knot designs we have been using to construct prayer drawings.  The knots are an unending, continuous flow of pattern which supports the Celtic belief that life should be filled with unending prayer.    

            I’ll close with the Celtic Benediction from last night:  May the grace of heaven’s vastness be mine to renew my soul in sleep, to enlighten my dreams in the night, to open my spirit to eternity until the angels of light awaken me.   (Celtic Benediction - Newell)

TUESDAY, December 2

When They Tell You God Doesn’t Speak Today

Jeremiah 31:33-34 MSG

 I will put my law within them—write it on their hearts!—and be their God. ……They’ll know me firsthand, the dull and the bright, the smart and the slow. 

• If you believe that God speaks or even MAY speak, then maybe He will speak to you. 
• There are voices, impressions, and clues God has been giving to you, but you’ve been ignoring them.  It’s not that God is now going to start to speak for the first time….It’s that you’re going to start to listen for the first time to what God has been saying to you all along.

            Sometimes we have to shed some of our old habits in order to focus on something new.  We have to take off the gloves, change our glasses, or disregard tradition to ‘boldly go’ into the unknown realm of God.  God isn’t going to change, but we are!  That can be a little exciting, but it can also be a little scary! 

            What is holding me back?  What is limiting my ability to see and hear God  all the time and in everything around me?   Is God speaking through friends in my midst?  As I enter into the Advent Season, how might I use this time of preparation to be ready to recognize God’s voice?  

On this Giving Tuesday, I’ll close with these lines from my morning Celtic Prayer:  As I have received so free me to give.  As I have been granted, so may I give….I have know people pregnant with your spirit of generosity.  Let these be guides to me this day.  Amen.  (Celtic Benediction - Newell)

WEDNESDAY, December 3  Debugging the Prophetic

1 Corinthians 14:3 VOICE

 But a person who has the gift of prophecy teaches in a way that builds up the community, draws them near, and comforts them.

• There are many kinds of prophetic ‘downloads’; ….no one form of delivery that can be discerned as from God.
• Most prophecy is meant to build up and strengthen and encourage.
• Very few prophesy over both individuals and nations equally.
• The difference between a psychic and a prophet can be stated according to three factors: source, certainty, simple obedience.
• If you receive a bad dream…pray that the dream will not come true in the way you saw it.  Simply act on your dream in prayer.
• Sometimes when you least think you’re hearing God’s voice, you are hearing Him the most, because you are following your gut instinct, your sixth sense, or your faith, in other words.

            In many ways, author Shultz uses this chapter for the ‘nuts and bolts’ questions about prophesy and prophets, about those who hear God’s voice in an active way.  While he responds to a dozen common questions, I am going to focus on just three areas:  the goal of prophesy, acting on bad dreams, and our sixth sense.

            Shultz quotes 1 Corinthians 14:3 as the ultimate goal of prophesy: to encourage and support.  Use your gift to build up those around you, not to highlight the sins of others (remember the sin in your own eye first!!)  If I think I received a message from God that is supportive, share it!  That is probably God’s intent.  One day recently as I was walking home I decided I would seek a collection of God-texts from the ‘city’ (having already finished alphabets on the beach and in the mountains).  I only found a handful of letters, but when I got home and looked closer, I discovered I could spell Affirm Others.  That message has stuck with me.  God speaking?  I think so…in MY language. 

            Secondly, bad dreams can sometimes be God’s request to pray against a certain situation.  When we receive a message from God that seems disastrous, our best response is to pray AGAINST the event from happening.  Perhaps we aren’t the only one to experience that dream.  God listens to the collective prayers of the people.

            Our gut instinct or sixth sense just might not be OUR thoughts, but God intervening in our mind.  That is a type of prophesy that operates on faith alone.  It is common and just as valid as ‘hearing God’s voice’. 

Let me be learning to trust the darkness and to seek its subtle blessings.

Let me be learning the night’s way of seeing that in all things I may trace the mystery of your presence.  Amen.  (Celtic Benediction - Newell)

THURSDAY, December 4

When the Tree Fell – Parting Comments

            Shultz concludes his book with a personal account from a reader of a time when God spoke through actions in answer to prayers several years earlier.  It was a good reminder of ‘God-time’.  We can easily think God is absent or silent because responses or voices are not forthcoming on OUR time schedule.  Learning to trust and operate by God’s watch can free us to fully function within the Kingdom of God.

            Shultz had one final ‘tidbit’ that I gleaned from his list of resources.  He was promoting a CD set that championed the concept of grace.  Still working on my list of One Thousands graces, the word caught my eye, but the concept was even more reassuring:

            God calls us to boldly come before the Throne of Grace.  It is not called the Throne of Judgment. 

            May I recognize and receive the grace of God in the abundant measure that frees me to fully hear God speaking in my world today.  May I have the trust and strength to act upon God’s messages.  God is speaking to ALL of us in a variety of languages.  May we all learn to listen more attentively.  

CAN'T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD? (Shultz) Ch. 7-13

CAN’T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD?

Secrets to Hearing the Voice of God

Chapters 7-13

By Steve Shultz – Destiny Image Publising, 2007

(All bullets are quotes from the book unless otherwise noted.)

FRIDAY, November 21  Does God Speak Through the Bible?

Hebrews 4:7

Today, when you hear His voice, do not harden your heart.

• God wants us to take the Living Word and apply it to our personal lives.
• God often lifts a word or two or a verse or two off the page and says, ‘This is for you…now...today!’

            The Scriptures aren’t meant to be a mere history to be read and noted, ‘That’s what happened two thousands years ago! Interesting!’  God is speaking to us through those words – directly – with words that apply to our current life situations.  It just takes us a little time to work out the application apparently!  When reading the Bible, if a phrase or word pops out at us, for whatever reason, we should stop and take note.  Write it down.  Post it.  Reflect on it.  The message from God might not be clear right away.   If we remain open to receiving the rest of the message, however, chances are in the days ahead the meaning will become more apparent.  God speaks in a variety of ways...and the Bible is definitely one of them.  

SATURDAY, November 22  Pineapple Theology

Jeremiah 29:11 MSG

 I know what I’m doing. I have it all planned out—plans to take care of you, not abandon you, plans to give you the future you hope for.

• I’ve come to understand that not only what the Lord reveals, but when He reveals it often signifies something.
• Do you want the real thing? The power of God? The healthy (not cooked up) genuine – God Himself -  in your plans? Then you can’t put God into your plans, because your plans simply won’t gel.
• This wasn’t how I planned it, God. It was better than I planned!

            Pineapple Theology is based on the scientific knowledge that fresh pineapple cannot be put in Jell-O.  An enzyme prevents a gel.  The pineapple must be cooked or altered.  We cannot have a pure and true relationship with God if we alter God to fit OUR life.  Our life won’t completely ‘gel’.  The scripture from Jeremiah spells it all out: God already has it planned.  We just have to allow God to carry out his plans, rather than sabotage something that isn’t ours alone.  It is the ‘Let Go and Let God’ philosophy somewhat. 

            How do we know God’s plan?  We learn to tune in, we learn to listen more than we speak, and we learn to hear God’s voice in our lives.  I am currently reading through several books or devotions.  I find it amazing the number of times passages or phrases overlap and because I am trying to ‘tune in’ I notice it.    

SUNDAY, November 23 

What Does God’s Voice Actually Sound Like?

Acts 2:16-18 MSG

This is what the prophet Joel announced would happen:

“In the Last Days,” God says,
“I will pour out my Spirit
    on every kind of people:
Your sons will prophesy,
    also your daughters;
Your young men will see visions,
    your old men dream dreams.
When the time comes,
    I’ll pour out my Spirit
On those who serve me, men and women both,
    and they’ll prophesy.

• God sounds very much like YOU – since He speaks in your own language.
• Only a few hear an audible voice of God and that has nothing to do with worthiness. Sorry!

            Author Shultz reminds us that God doesn’t speak King James English as a rule and usually doesn’t scream and yell.  God is much more subtle than that.  The part I appreciate is the reminder than God speaks in a language we can understand…individually.  God

speaks through our personal talents and interests.  As an artist and nature-lover, I hear the voice of God in creative works, through the expression of art, through a walk in the woods, or the majesty of a mountain. Perhaps I hear God in the letters I find in my world!   Writers are going to hear a different voice, but the same God!  God may speak to a plumber through pipes and a painter through brush strokes.  God speaks our own language.  Rarely, is that voice audible, and if we’ve never HEARD God in that way, it doesn’t mean we are lower on the worthiness scale!  God didn’t send the angels with a birth announcement to the leaders, but to low-level shepherds! 

            The key to hearing God’s voice for ourselves is to recognize HOW God speaks to us….and then listening.  

TUESDAY, November 25  COMPELLING  

Luke 14:23 NRSV

 Then the master said to the slave, ‘Go out into the roads and lanes, and compel people to come in, so that my house may be filled.’

• Doesn’t compel mean to make someone come in?  To be so forceful so as to give people no choice?
• Evangelism is a process as well as an event.  According to Scripture, it is not what we have been taught!
• Evangelism is sowing and reaping.  Sowing is the hard work.  Reaping – what most people think an evangelist does – is easier, by comparison.

            This was not the chapter I expected to find in this book.  It was not so much about how we hear God’s voice as to how that hearing related to the dread word of ‘evangelism’.  How did Jesus ‘evangelize’?  He hung out with those who lived on the other side of the tracks.  He spent time with the sinners, getting to know them, telling stories with them, sharing a meal together.  It wasn’t a one time event. 

            The scripture passage of John 4:36-38 illustrates Shultz’s point – the story of sowers and reapers.  Sowing the seeds of God’s love is the hard part and we may sow many seeds that we never realize IF we spend time in the ‘field’.  The actual ‘reaping’ of the harvest may be a one-time event, but the slow growing of the seeds takes time. 

            Many more modern translations do not use the word compel.  We have a negative connotation to it, like we are forcing someone to believe.  But perhaps the one who should feel compelled is we sowers and reapers…..that when God speaks to us to scatter some seeds or that the time is ripe for reaping, we listen and we act.  ‘The harvest is plentiful and the laborers are few’ is a Luke passage from Chapter 10 (our missional group has read repeatedly!)   Perhaps the message is that many seeds have been sown (Christ scattered more than just a few!) and now it is time to gather in the harvest. 

            Am I scattering seeds with my prayer drawings?  With this blog?  We scatter seeds anytime we witness to our faith, to the power of God-love in our lives.  Scattering seeds and growing seeds is a long process. Yet how easily do I ignore God’s voice when the moment of harvest comes?  How often do I act because I feel compelled to do so?  Not all compelling may be bad…..

WEDNESDAY, November 26

 Hearing God Through the ‘Father Filter’

John 5:19 MSG

The Son can’t independently do a thing, only what he sees the Father doing. What the Father does, the Son does. 

• God is building a personal relationship with each of us…one clue at a time, one dream at a time, one impression at a time. 
• As a result of having parents who made mistakes, we tend to see God through foggy glasses and hear His voice through muffled ears.  Clogged filters are no good.
• When you are afraid of God, it affects your relationship with and worship of Him.

            This was an interesting chapter on God the Father.  We all have fathers.  We all have a well-established impression of fathers based on our relationship with our own.  We cannot help but use this ‘filter’ to affect our image of God.  For many, the image of God the Father invokes fear.  Their fathers were the disciplinarian and punishment for wrongdoing is the only vision they have.  A loving, compassionate image of Father is not conceivable.  (Perhaps those are the ones who prefer the image of Mother God!)  Regardless, our ‘father filter’ clogs our ability the hear God speak to us clearly.  The filter clouds our thoughts and blinds us to God’s guidance and leadership. 

            Even within one family, the filters can be different, the image of ‘father’ can vary.  The father is the same, but our memories may focus on positive or negative moments.  One child might remember only the good times, while another can’t see through the fog of one or two mistakes.  That fog affects the vision of God.   As parents, we KNOW we make mistakes.  It is only after parenthood ourselves, we realize how tough the job is to always be ON, to always provide love and compassion in a positive way.  

            Is my filter clogged?  Is yours?  How might we clear it to hear God speak more freely?  From my Celtic Prayer book….Show to me this day amidst life’s dark streaks of wrong and suffering, the light that endures in every person.  May that light purify and clear the dirt in our filters.  

THURSDAY, November 27  Hearing vs. Obeying God’s Voice

Matthew 7:24 MSG

These words I speak to you are not incidental additions to your life, homeowner improvements to your standard of living. They are foundational words, words to build a life on.

• It’s not what you hear, but what you do with what you hear that counts.
• Sometimes obeying God is done best by doing nothing.
• If God promises something great for your family, just love them and pray into it. 
• Remember to let God be God. He is really good at His job!

            When God affirms and encourages, take that affirmation and relish it, live and love into it.  In essence, do not ACT base on it.  God has not given you a directive, just support.  But when the directive comes, God expects us to obey.  Yes, it perhaps can be tough to know the difference, but when you know someone well, you can ‘read between the lines’ much better.  We need to have the kind of relationship with God that provides that confidence in communication. 

            Happy Thanksgiving to everyone.  Let me be attentive to the yearnings that you have planted in every human soul …..Let me be guided by your wisdom. (Celtic Benediction -Newell)

FRIDAY, November 28  Just How Busy Is God?

Joshua 1:5 GNT

 I will always be with you; I will never abandon you.

• God has all the time in the world.
• God is omnipresent, omniscient, omnipotent, omni-caring, and omni-everything else.  

            How often do we assume that God is too busy to bother with our petty little problems?  The lost keys, the sore back, the dent in the car?  Yet, at the same time, we assume God keeps track of everything wrong we do, including all those little white lies, miscommunications, and missed opportunities.  So is God too busy or not?  The answer is simple:  God has all the time in the world for you and for me.  There is nothing too petty or insignificant for God to involve the Spirit in.  Often God becomes involved before we realize we have a need!  Why?  Because God knows us inside and out, because we are crafted in the image of God, because there is a part of God inside our soul.  We can never be too busy to know the God within us;  yet so often we ignore that presence. 

            Time spent each day in conversation with our God is time well spent.  God is never too busy for that time. 

Let me be set free by love, O God.

Let me be set free to love. (Celtic Benediction -Newell)

CAN'T YOU TALK LOUDER GOD? (S.Shultz) Chapters 1-6

CAN'T YOU TALK LOUDER, GOD?
Secrets to Hearing the Voice of God
Steve Shultz  - Destiny Image Publishers, 2007
(All bullets are quotes from the book unless otherwise noted.)

SATURDAY, November 15    Ch. 1 - Did God Really Say...?

Isaiah 30:21  GNT

If you wander off the road to the right or the left, you will hear his voice behind you saying, “Here is the road. Follow it.”

• Doesn’t it make sense that God would want to communicate His will and purposes to His people? Communication is at the heart of all relationships.  How can there be a deep, personal relationship with God if there is no communication?
• Every addiction in the world is a cheap substitution for being addicted to God.
• I fervently believe that God is the voice behind us because he has our back covered. (SS)

            So….I move from God-Gifts of Grace to hearing the voice of God.  I’m not so sure the subject matter is really that different,  just the approach.  Are not each of my 350 moments of God-Grace messages from God?  Communication from God?  I think so….so God has got me listening.  Now to better interpret what I hear. 

            I also think this book will blend in beautifully with my latest artistic endeavor….the God-text cards.  The whole premise behind my photography of letters naturally occurring in my world is that God is speaking to me through them.  I just love it when everything seems to sync together! 

            How DOES God speak?  How do we avoid listening to the ‘Non-God’ voices in our face when God seems to speak in a much less confrontational manner?  God sometimes thunders, but so much more often it is a nudge, an inclination, a small voice, a dream, a vision, a piece of Scripture, an interaction with another.  I really liked the last book quote, “God is the voice behind us because he has our back covered.” God can see what is ahead even when we can’t.  He is looking out for us, whispering the right path.  May I learn to better recognize the voice.  May I learn to listen.  May I learn to act on what I hear.  

SUNDAY, November 16  - WHAT IF?

1 Corinthians 6:19 GNT

 Don't you know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit, who lives in you and who was given to you by God? You do not belong to yourselves but to God.

• What if Jesus told you he enjoyed your daily chats together?
• Your challenge is to grasp, once and for all, that since He lives IN you, you cannot help but hear him - that is, it’s simply impossible not to hear him speak.

            Sometimes we have been hearing God (as the author says, it’s hard not to HEAR a voice that is part and being of who we are) but we fail to LISTEN.  Our challenge now is to listen intentionally, to carry on the conversation on purpose, and to let Jesus/God know we want to be an active part of this conversation. 

        

    I have started reading this book at the same time I am going to take part in The 'Before Amen' Prayer Challenge (Max Lucado) to pray for 4 minutes a day: active prayer.  I guess this will be a good opportunity for that intentional conversation!  Lucado begins with a ‘pocket prayer’ – short and sweet for those moments and times when you need to converse and know not what to say: Father, you are good.  I need help.  Heal and forgive me. They need help.  Thank you. Amen.   Who doesn’t have time for these words every day? 

MONDAY, November 17   My Sheep Hear My Voice

John 10:27 GNT

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me.

• News flash! According to holy Scripture, ….you would not be serving Christ today had you not listened specifically to the Father’s voice when He taught you and showed you how to follow Jesus.  Welcome …to the School of the Spirit!”

            Author Shultz relates a story of a time as a young man he tried to prove his point with Scripture, and discovered his mind went blank for the specifics.  But his Bible fell open to a completely different passage he had never read before that opened his thinking to a more liberating, truthful viewpoint.  He credits the work of the Holy Spirit speaking to him and, in effect, forcing him to listen! 

            We hear God’s voice.  We know our Shepherd and we try to follow.  Not always faithfully, not always on a direct path.  We wander.  But the voice of our Shepherd Spirit is with us, in us, and ALWAYS speaking to us.  

TUESDAY, November 18  Today, When You Hear His Voice…

Hebrew 3:15 GNT

“If you hear God's voice today,
    do not be stubborn, as your ancestors were
    when they rebelled against God.”

• The Holy Spirit speaks in our language, often into our thoughts; so, we actually hear God speak even when we don’t realize we’re hearing Him.  ….begin to learn to distinguish which are your thoughts and which belong to God.
• What I didn’t realize… is how many whens during my todays were ahead of me.
• There is a fear factor in learning to hear God’s voice.

            Many Scripture translations word this passage as ‘If you hear…’ but the original Hebrew considers every day today, continual time.  So it should be WHEN!   The faint nudges we feel to act in a certain way?  The thought that intrudes that we need to respond?  A vision that passes before our eyes?  Often God speaking!  But we write it off as having crazy notions, or that would be embarrassing.  We let fear ‘harden our heart’ to action. 

            I would think author Shultz is making God-talk, but his anecdotes correspond to moments I have felt and can’t deny that perhaps I didn’t listen to God’s requests.  When I see someone who needs help, I know what I could do, yet I still ignore it.  And yet the God-grace that fills my life when I do act!   This is something we LEARN to recognize; we have to practice the skill of knowing when God is speaking and when our hopes and fears are interfering. 

WEDNESDAY, November 19

 You Can’t Stop God; He’s Already Speaking!

Isaiah 55:11 MSG

So will the words that come out of my mouth
    not come back empty-handed.
They’ll do the work I sent them to do,
    they’ll complete the assignment I gave them.

• God’s people can – and do – hear God’s voice.  Not just a select few, but all of us!
• I can boil an all-day course on hearing God’s voice into just three simple words: ‘Follow your impressions.’
• Normally, if God or an angel speaks or acts, we are not aware of it…until after the story is over.
• HOW we hear God’s voice – through our own filters – is another story altogether.

            What God says will happen, happens.  As The Message writes, God’s words do not come back empty-handed.  If we learn to recognize and acknowledge God’s voice in our lives and then act upon it, we will find that grace happens as well.  The point of this chapter is that God is speaking all the time and will continue to do so.  Coincidences?  No!  God at work.  Chance encounters?  No!  God at work.  Right place at the right time to help someone?  God at work.  We might not even realize (and often don’t) that God has spoken to us through an impression or ‘urge’ and we made a difference. 

            If God is already speaking, then the point is for us to do a better job of listening, active listening that helps us filters out the other noise and focus on the God voice.  Listening that produces a response.  The response is the ‘work I sent them to do’ – we will complete God’s assignments when we clearly hear His voice.  

            I’m trying to shorten the three simple words to a God-text (I don’t do words over 10 letters!)  How above ‘Heed God’s hint’?  ‘Follow your hunch?’ ‘Go with your gut’? ‘Intuition may be God’?  The possibilities could be endless…..just like God. 

THURSDAY, November 20  DIVINE APPOINTMENTS

Isaiah 55:11 GNT

So also will be the word that I speak—
    it will not fail to do what I plan for it;
    it will do everything I send it to do.

• God is in control in the affairs of man.
• We simply don’t know how many divine appointments we have had in our lives that have perhaps saved our lives.

            The author shares a great anecdotal story, but never really gives his definition of what a divine appointment looks like, other than God in control to work the hearts and actions of man to a certain, specific purpose.  This isn’t a term I use often, so I googled it!  According to the Dictionary of Christianese (sounds pretty official!),

            Divine appointments are similar in nature to Godincidences, God winks, and checks in your spirit. These Christianese terms all refer to ways that Christians feel like God is trying to steer us into a specific encounter or experience so that we can serve God or maybe play a part in the lives of other people. (http://www.dictionaryofchristianese.com/divine-appointment/)

            How are these appointments scheduled?  By God – through a series of impressions, urges,  or visions that bring together multiple circumstances to all converge on a single act of God grace.  They are scheduled by God speaking to people in such a way that they often don’t even realize they are hearing God and responding.  Improving our sensors to the voice of God will only improve our ability to serve as an agent of God.  That’s a schedule we want to keep!