Panning for God. [Typo intended]

God when I ask you a question and you give me the answer it’s not the whole answer is it?

Not normally no. You’re supposed to keep digging. Keep opening up the next layer of my answer. ‘It is the glory of God to conceal a matter, it is the glory of Kings (and Queens) to uncover a matter.’ ‘Ask and keep on asking, seek and keep on seeking.’

Alright then; God how come you hardly ever correct me?

Mark you know that’s not right. I’m correcting you all the time, but only about what I want to correct you about.

God really? It doesn’t seem like it.

Yes. One of the ways I correct you is through things that people say to you.

Really?? God did you honestly just say that?

Yes. That’s part of the way I speak to you. The things that people say to you have bits of me hidden in them. It’s your job to ask me which bits are my words and which bits aren’t.

So when I’m talking to people should I listen harder for what you’re saying?  Should I ask you to help me sift out what’s you and what’s not?

Yes. It’s like panning for Gold. Most of what’s in the pan is nothing much, but that’s not the issue, the issue is the tiny spec of Gold. I want you listening hard to what people say so that you don’t miss the tiny spec of God.

But I thought this whole journey you’re taking me on was to learn to listen to you direct.

It is. But if you only listen to me direct it makes you an island. You need to listen to me direct AND listen to me through others. ALL OTHERS. Everyone you speak to. Not just the Christians.

Oh good one God! Do you really have to talk like that?? Reading that will just upset churchy people.

Why? Haven’t you noticed that I said Nicodemus was saying things that indicated he was very close to the kingdom, and how excited I got about what the Roman Centurion said? 

Mark no one else has authority to decide what God is saying to you. That’s your role and only your role.  You have the authority to look for what I’m saying in EVERY conversation you have with others. It’ll stop you elevating one person above another, and it means you’ll need to ask me which bits are me.

So you mean business meetings, discussions with team members, friends, my kids, the lady at the checkout, all of that?? I should listen hard to what they’re saying so I pick up the bits that are you?

Yes. I have told you not to put any rules on the way I speak. It suits me to speak to you through others. It’s one of the many ways I speak. A VERY important way. But not everything they say will be from me. It’s your job to ask me which bits are me.

The difficult part of listening to me speak through others is that it’s easy to fluctuate between the two extremes – you’ll find yourself wanting to block out what they say one moment, and then the next you’ll want to please them and allow them to make up your mind for you. What I actually want is for you to be autonomous, to make up your own mind about what I’m saying, and yet be willing to listen to what they’re saying to see if God is speaking through it.

This is pretty crazy God. I can feel it’s you, but it’s certainly not what I expected. I thought now that I can hear you speak so clearly, I was meant to just focus on what you’re saying and not worry too much about what others say.

No. This is one more facet of life as it’s meant to be Mark. I’m speaking through everything and everyone. ‘The whole earth declares the glory of the Lord’.

Everyone you speak to, EVERYONE, is communicating parts of what I’m saying. They can’t help it. They hear things I say without realising.  It would be better for them to do so by choice, to listen, hear and pass it on. Choice adds value to the process. But nothing can stop me speaking, and because I am in everything and everything is in me, ‘in him we live and move and have our being’, then what I say is articulated by those who oppose me just as often as those who are for me. The world belongs to me, not to those who believe in me.

This is an important way to listen to me. It will change your life Mark. It really will. Try it, test it. See it happen.

PRAISE FOR THE FREEDOM DIARIES

“I thoroughly recommend Mark Holloway's book The Freedom Diaries –it asks challenging questions about our own spiritual journey and encourages us into a deeper, more intimate conversation and relationship with God….” ANDREW URQUHART - RHEMA ANNOUNCER

“You will read this book and know what a conversation with the real, living God sounds like. What makes Mark’s conversations with God unique is the pure, genuine, sane nature of what God says. And you will know exactly how to have a conversation yourself with this very real, very talkative God.” BILL KASPER. COMPUTER SCIENTIST. AUSTIN TEXAS

CAN YOU HELP WITH THE VISION OF THE FREEDOM ASSIGNMENT?
The goal is to get The Freedom Diaries Book into the hands of more and more people.

Reading the book seems to give people the courage to try their own back and forward conversation with God. And when they do they tell me it changes their lives and sets them free!

Thanks. Mark Holloway