Hearing-the-Voice-of-God

When we were preparing to go to Albania in the mid 1990's with our two children, we asked God to show us when we needed to leave if the political situation were to become dangerous. After we had been in Albania for a little over a year, we felt impressed to return home by a certain date in mid-February. We approached our leadership about this and told our fellow missionaries. No one else had received this word.

This discouraging to us but we had to follow throught with what we knew we had heard from God, or risk disobedience. When you are away from home, in a strange and dangerous place, it is all the more important to stay in a place of obedience. So, we made our plans to leave the country in mid-February.

Our leadership was, understandably, a little disappointed that we wanted to leave and told us to just go at Christmastime. We submitted to their guidance and came back to the states at the end of the year, instead of staying until the date we had received from the Lord of mid-February.

Three days after that date in February, the country of Albania was unexpectedly thrown into a state of civil disruption. Some of the missionaries we worked with had to run for the border in great haste. Others were forced to barricade themselves inside their homes and position armed guards on the rooftops.

United States military helicopters airlifted aid workers and missionaries out of the capital city under gunfire and the United Nations was forced to send troops into the country to restore order.

Everyone we worked with stayed safe, but it was months before these missionaries were able to return to Albania or to resume work.

Did our fellow missionaries miss the leading of the Lord? No! They had not received that word and were exactly where God wanted them.

Did we miss God? No! We acted in faith on what we believed was God's word to us. I believe God told us about upcoming events because we asked him.

When we hear the Lord speak to us, we have to obey, even if others disagree with us and even if those others are in leadership over us. We must always act in love, not allowing ourselves to become argumentative or disrespectful, but our first obligation for obedience is to the Lord. So what if we miss it and make a mistake? That is how we learn, after all. The chance of missing God's leading in our life is too great to take the chance of disobedience. We must learn to depend upon our own ability to hear God or we will never grow into full maturity in the things of the spirit.