Do You Hear What I Hear??

Recently, in the hustle and bustle of getting last minute things ready for the wedding of all weddings next Friday, keeping my family free of the roaming stomach bug (no Diana it really isn't a BUG persay...), and dashing around like a mad woman determined to get all my Christmas shopping finished the beginning of December instead of my usual 3 days before Christmas.....(hey Mom I said I was sorry for the spatula I gave you last year, listen that was all Kohl's had left!!) ......in the business of all of this the Lord has graciously reminded me through a sweet listener that HE is talking. God is speaking through the Holy Spirit to us. Everyday. All day. Are you hearing what I have been hearing?


The other day Hubby asked me the yearly question...."Honey, what would you like for Christmas?" And usually he has something sneaky and terrific in mind, but he asks away anyways. So I replied with something for the kitchen that I really needed.....a chef's knife. You know the one, the one that is thick and perfect for chopping veggies for soup. The one that makes you for one second feel like you are on the Food Network.....THAT one. My knives are 10 year old wedding presents and well, let's just say that my veggies groan when I try to cut them and if, perchance someone did break in my house for some really strange reason.... and I grabbed a knife to try to fend him off...the um, assailant would um, be laughing so hard at my knife he would ah probably give me time to call the authorities and have him taken away. You get the overall idea, don't you??

No one knew what I had asked him for except him. I originally thought that in the back of his mind, knowing him, that he already had something else planned and maybe he could pass my request on to my MIL for an idea, tho the more I stewed on that, the more I was uncomfortable with receiving a knife, a very sharp one from my Mother-in-law. ( teasing here!!!) So, a week or so later a special offering was taken up for a man who is a friend of our church who had extensive medical bills from a recent surgery. You know the likes.......when you squirm in your seat and try to tell yourself that you cannot "squeeze blood from a turnip," if you catch my drift. There I was, Hubby was sitting on the platform so it was just me and the chain of kids stretching endlessly into the left wing.....and then it was there. The voice. Shame on me, it had been a little while since I had heard him speaking. He told me to give that money in my wallet that someone had given us. All of it. Now. So I him-haud around and finally got it in time to put in the plate. And then a strange thing happened. I asked God to give me that money back. NO NOT RIGHT THEN, and I have done some pretty crazy things in my lifetime, but I did NOT, I repeat did NOT chase the usher, jump on his back and snag my money back. (Too many childhood adventure movies...) I asked God to give me the money back somehow, somewhere, just so I knew it was from HIM, and it was given back to me. I told the Lord it could be food on my table, health, anything. I just wanted to KNOW that it was given back to me.

Fast forward a few days to an answering machine message. I need to interject here that Hubby changed our answering machine to Spanish....we don't speak it, but this machine now does. Not our message to those calling, but every other instruction to US is in it, making it nigh impossible to change it back to English!!!!!! A cruel joke. I digress..... After the mumbo jumbo I finally heard my message. Someone wanted to give Joel and I something special at the next service. I thought that was sweet and seriously never thought of it again. Maybe the Spanish distracted me.......JOEL please switch it back!!! I get hungy for nachos everytime I hear that thing!

The next service rolled around and this person took us out for hot chocolate and french fries, a mighty good combination if I do say so myself, and then presented us with his "gift." Yep, you guessed it, a knife. Four knives to be exact. And in a nice wooden knife holder, AND not just any knives....Wolfgang Puck knives. I was just dumbstruck. I just looked at him and said, "How did you know I asked for a knife?" And he didn't. He told me that he was told to give this to me by none other than the Holy Spirit. There He is again speaking to more people. That night was such a night for me. He, the benefactor, told me how sometimes we just get too busy to hear the Holy Spirit when He speaks to us......but He is speaking. I just sat silent for a while and told him I would do better at listening for Him. I wanted to be a blessing to someone like he had been to me, meeting a need or want at just the right time. When we got home I set my new knife set on my baker's rack and went to brush my teeth. While brushing my teeth again the Holy Spirit spoke reminding me of what I had given to a man in need, and what I had asked of the Lord. Now, I am not out of my mind here, and if you haven't had the Holy Spirit speakin' you might think me so, but this is what He told me to do..... He kept telling me to go and see if God had not given me back what I had given to that man. Go! He kept telling me. "Yes you are curious. Go and satisfy your curosity about this!" So to the computer I went. A few clicks and there was the Holy Spirit again saying, "Look there. I have given you Double what you gave to help someone else. And who better to know even the slightest desire of your heart, than me?" Almost double to the "T" financially what I had given.


He is speaking. Are you listening??? Someone needs a blessing.......do you hear what I hear?