To Know God and Make Him Known

_{“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.” John 10:27-30}

Aloha McCalls on Mission Community!

God’s Voice

I have been meditating on the idea of knowing and hearing God’s voice for quite a lot of my life. The majority of my life I have practiced hearing God’s voice…typically in the mornings when my mind is still fresh and undiluted by the distractions of this world. In recent months, His still, small, quiet voice has been leading to me to meditate on the intersection of neuroscience, theology, spiritual disciplines, and creativity unto the reformation of culture. How? Through waking up the “sleeping army” of artists/creatives and legitimizing their call to bring beauty in the world, that would lead to goodness, and that would establish truth.

It seems quite appropriate then, that I would become friends with a film producer named Tyler Childs who was worked with major networks such as National Geographic Wild and that our common friend would be Dustin Tavella (America’s Got Talent winner; 2021). I was reading in Tyler’s book the other day and he was recounting a teaching we’ve all had (me, Dustin, and Tyler) on hearing God’s voice. I was reminded of the verse from John 10:27-30 which says, “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me. I give eternal life to them. They will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand. My Father who has given them to me is greater than all. No one is able to snatch them out of my Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

Jesus is our shepherd; our protector. It is so valuable for us to know His voice. I have an exercise that you could do to help cultivate hearing God’s voice:

When you wake up in the morning, while everything is fresh and new, utter this sentence and listen for a response as the very first thing you do: “Good morning Jesus. I love you.” It doesn’t have to take longer than a minute or two. The repetition of doing this will pay off because you will eventually get to the point where the still, small, quiet voice of God will come at any moment, in your day, and you’ll know instantly, “That’s my dad!” (Adapted from Tyler’s Book ‘Awake O Dreamer’)

Now, the thing is, in order to be able to discern between, your voice, the voice of others, satans voice, and God’s voice we need to be diligent students of the Bible which is the written word (logos). Study the Bible and learn how God speaks. Then learn to hear the rhema word of God (spoken word, how God speaks to us directly out of the written text). The rhema word is that ‘Holy Nudge’ we receive from the Holy Spirit. Anyway, that ‘Holy Nudge’ from the Holy Spirit has been speaking to me about writing a book among other things. Pray for me as I research and start formulating the chapters. I’ve given myself a goal of having the first draft finished by September. Life is such an adventure with God!

What has God been speaking to you recently? What are some other ways that you have practiced discerning the voice of truth in your life? I would love to hear how you spend time with God what different ways God has used to connect with you!

School of Worship

It’s been so amazing to be a part of what God is doing in Kona (and beyond) through the School of Worship. Teaching in the Bi-lingual (Korean/English) school on songwriting was definitely a highlight for me last month. From giving the why of co-creating new songs, to getting extremely practical with rhyme schemes, phrasing, counting syllables, and more; I watched (and heard) these students grow exponentially in their songwriting. What an exhilarating feeling it is to, freely, give away everything that God has taught me over the years to others who are hungry to learn and partner with God.

Nepal

Through a string of crazy events, it now looks as if I may be taking a ‘quick trip’ to Pokharah, Nepal in April. Our main leader for OMT (Oral Mother Tongue Bible Translation in YWAM), Preb (not her real name) is stationed in Nepal. She heard my heart a while back regarding scripture songs. Since then, God has moved a few other key Nepalese musicians to the same base as Preb and has begun stirring their hearts to see new scripture songs written in newly translated languages. Pray for us as we solidify dates. April is planned to be songwriting training so that, they too can also teach on songwriting. Additionally we help facilitate them writing songs, record them, and also try to capture worship songs in nearby villages. The other need that they expressed was for more recording gear. My colleague Gavin and I are going to try and gather up gear that they can use to facilitate more recording after we leave.

Then later this October, the crew in Nepal will facilitate a bigger songwriting conference/gathering and invite songwriters from that region to attend. We will bring a bigger School of Worship team to help lift them up and fill any gaps/needs they may have in order to run this scripture songwriting conference well.

Thank You 🙌🏼

Thank you for standing with us and being missionaries together with us all around the world. Seeing the Kingdom of God advance across the earth has been a journey of trusting God and much more fun with our friends and family. What an amazing privilege to partner with Jesus, as His body, to see his plans and purposes come to pass. May the Joy of the Lord be yours in abundance in the mighty name of Jesus!

Final Remarks

May the Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make his face shine upon you, and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up his countenance upon you, and may the Lord give you peace. Amen. 🙏

Grace and Peace be with you,

-Chris, Lizzi, Kai, Laila, Rhema, Moses, and Zion ♥️-