Learning to Listen to God

11 Jan 2010

It can be difficult trying to hear and understand what God wants for your life - to figure out what he is calling you to and to clearly discern his voice.

Lieutenant Pati Leqa, newly commissioned as a Salvation Army officer (ordained minister), and Cadet Geoffrey Miller (commencing his second year of officer training), both from Fiji, discuss their experiences of learning to listen to God and tell how God made it clear that his plan was for them to be Salvation Army officers. The following is adapted for the web - a full version appears in the 16 January edition of War Cry magazine.

How did you begin to understand and hear God’s voice?

Pati: I think it started in our family devotions, as simple as they were, with Scripture and prayer. I grew up watching my mum’s mum spending hours reading her Bible and praying. She and her brother, a Methodist pastor, were some of the main influences on my life in discerning the will of God. In those family times I began to make that connection with God, to yearn for something more, something deeper. From this God started to speak to my heart. I felt there was a call to do God’s work.

Geoffrey: When I was younger I was healed from a rare sickness that was related to a spiritual curse. An Assembly of God (AOG) pastor prayed over me and he became the first person to help me along my spiritual journey as my pastor and mentor. I became involved with that church, but when its college suggested that I become a full-time ordained AOG pastor I told them I didn’t want to as I was already involved in ministry within The Salvation Army. The principal suggested that I needed time to pray and seek God about it. So I sought God and after one month of praying and fasting I came to conclusion that God didn’t really have a ministry for me in the AOG.

How did you hear God calling you to Salvation Army Officership?

Geoffrey: He came to me in a voice. I had been praying and fasting over a month. I couldn’t sleep at all and would be awake all night. All that came to me was to pray, pray, pray. One night when I was about to go to bed I had an urging to go into my Salvation Army corps and pray. I was sitting up praying and suddenly heard a voice that said, ‘I am calling you to The Salvation Army for ministry.’ There was a real peace throughout the rest of that week for me and I could sleep well. I thought to myself that this must be the call of God and I was thrilled about it.

Pati: While I was working at Telecom I began to feel God wanting me to leave there. Though I was getting good pay and had the promise of a promotion I knew that this was God’s voice urging me to leave. So I left. My boss really supported me and told me he admired me for making this choice.

The searching then began as I said to God, ‘Where to now?’ God laid out before me his call on my life. He gave me clear words: ‘I will make my words in your mouth a fire and these people the wood it consumes.’ I had been fasting and praying, just seeking God. I was reading the Scripture a lot and found that same verse in Jeremiah 5:14. That confirmed to me that this was God’s call.

I met Lusi and we got married in 2001. I had completed studies at the South Pacific Missionary Training College where I did theology studies and missionary training and was doing an internship at the Nadi Gospel Brethren Assembly. Lusi was working as a writer for Pacific Islands Business Magazine in its Suva office. We had to work around our schedules and there were times when we wouldn’t meet for weeks. We knew that if we didn’t do something immediately we would have problems in our marriage, so Lusi decided to leave writing and come and support me in the ministry in Nadi.

How do you feel knowing you have obeyed God’s call and are doing what he planned for your life?

Pati: Real excitement and at the same time a sense of huge responsibility. But there’s still that sense that it’s divine. Even with my preparation, I can’t do this on my own. I can’t describe the feeling, but Lusi and I are really excited to see what God has in store for us.

Geoffrey: I feel so peaceful about it because I know that when God calls, he provides; that’s what I have experienced. When I went to Bible College I had nothing. But I went through all three years of study. The College Bursar told me that someone paid my fees. And I know that if I have to venture out to do something that concerns God’s calling on my life for me to do, whether it’s hard or means to be another country or means adapting to life or concerns over money or whatever, I don’t have any worries at all in stepping out because I know God will provide.

What advice can you give to others who are trying to figure out God’s call on their life?

Geoffrey: The best and only way to hear God’s call is to seek him—that’s the first thing you should do. Seek God, pray, ask the Lord to reveal himself—reveal his plan—in whatever way what he is wanting. God can use other people as instruments who give confirmation, but it is most important to seek the Lord about it: fasting, praying, spending time with him, reading his Word and having that real deep desire to just seek him.

Pati: One thing that I have learned, and that Lusi and I have learned as a couple, is just to be obedient, hard as it may seem sometimes. Learn to say, ‘Yes, Lord, you know what is best.’ Learn to trust God.

I’m not perfect; I’ve failed a lot. There are times that I am tempted, and I have succumbed; I have relied on my experience and my knowledge instead of truly just waiting on God. But I don’t care how many times Satan gets me down, I get up and continue to fight. God is so on target; he knows what he is doing. Trust him!

By Sarah Healey (from War Cry magazine)