By: Tania Harris
What language does God speak? Hebrew? English? ‘Australian’?! Or perhaps, the one we best understand…
Leigh’s God Conversation
Leigh had a high-profile career in the recruitment industry. In his role as National Accounts director, he was responsible for overseeing 2000 staff across multiple client accounts. It was a face-paced and high pressure position that involved strategic meetings, contract negotiations and frequent travel around the world. Though it was demanding and often stressful, Leigh thrived – at first. But after 13 years, Leigh began to experience a deep sense of un-fulfilment. Life was still good, but something was missing.
In the midst of his growing dissatisfaction, Leigh had a vivid dream. This was unusual since Leigh rarely remembered his dreams. In the dream, Leigh saw himself at the office, standing in front of his treasured whiteboard. Leigh was a big fan of whiteboards. He used them all the time to train and manage his staff and had multiple boards installed in his office. He even had a portable board for his travels.
In the dream, there was writing on the whiteboard. Written in the centre was Leigh’s job title: “national account director.” Then in a circle around his job title were written other areas of his life… “family”, “friends”, “God” and “church.” These were all written in non-permanent marker that was easily erased, but for some reason his job title was written in permanent ink. No matter how hard Leigh tried, it couldn’t be erased.
When Leigh woke up, he knew what God was saying. His job had become the most important area of his life and everything else had been relegated to second place.
After a heartfelt conversation with his wife, Leigh began to reorder his priorities. Later they began to explore a new path for his career—one that would eventually lead to full-time ministry.
God Speaks “Whiteboard”
Leigh’s God conversation shows us what language God speaks. The Holy Spirit spoke in a language Leigh was familiar with. In order to get the message across, God spoke “whiteboard!” The language God used communicated specifically to Leigh’s situation.
This is the beauty of hearing from the Holy Spirit. Remember, the Holy Spirit speaks to remind us of Jesus and then to apply his teachings to our unique situations (John 14:26, 16:13). On earth, Jesus had already spoken to the disciples about how to order their life priorities. God’s kingdom was to be sought first and then all the other areas would be provided for (Matthew 6:33).
Back then of course, Jesus spoke the language of Aramaic using the idioms and metaphors of first century Jews, but in Leigh’s life, the Holy Spirit took those truths and applied them using the language of a 21st century executive! In other words, the Holy Spirit acted as a kind of translator for Jesus.
Perhaps now we can see why Jesus said it was to our advantage that he left! (John 16:7)
The same Holy Spirit that spoke to Leigh has been given to each one of us. As in Leigh’s life, the Spirit takes the universal truths of Jesus and translates it to our personal situations so that we can respond to it. What language does God speak? The one we best understand.
Article supplied with thanks to God Conversations.
About the Author: Tania Harris is a pastor, speaker, author and the founder of God Conversations.