In a previous post entitled Feed Your Ears, I address the issue of how terrified I would be if God audibly spoke to me; however, over the past 10 months, He has definitely tapped others to speak into my life. If you are not a Christ follower, you may view these experiences as coincidence, but I do not. Repeatedly using an exact Scripture or concept at a specific time, God has honestly freaked me out creating chills and tears in the process. Divinely inspired timing has also been one of God’s methods to harvest ideas and to cultivate learning on topics, specifically those shared in this blog. Listening for His speaking is a challenge but a necessary component to live a flourishing life personally and professionally.

This past Wednesday the day started as a usual one for me with an early alarm clock, breakfast, and devotional. Located on a table in my bedroom is a box of prayers, and each day I remove an index card and pray specifically for that person, situation, or Scripture that day. On this particular morning, the verse was from Luke 17:5 and the card read, “Lord, increase my faith.” Your experiences may vary from mine, but I did NOT want to pray this prayer! For me, asking God to increase my faith means there is going to be some type of struggle and I don’t personally welcome struggle into my life.

My preferred operating mode is calm and peaceful, smooth sailing where life unfolds the way you expected and there are no surprises. God is asking that I lean into Him for some reason and not my own understanding. Realizing that it is through struggling that we typically grow, and life is not meant to be easy, I still found it difficult to pray those words. As the day began to progress as expected, what I could not forsee is how God would use those words in a conversation with a friend.

Arriving for my hair appointment with Carla, she and I could not have imagined what our conversation would reveal. Carla, excitedly shared that a friend of hers had given her this beautiful journal which contained the verse “Walk by faith, not by sight” in embossed calligraphy on the front which was the same verse the Lord had brought to her mind as she struggled with an issue. Chills arose on my arms as I shared with her the verse the Lord has asked me to pray that very morning and how difficult it was. God used three women to speak into each other the same prayer and concept. How mystifying is that?

As if those commonalities were not enough and God wanted to make sure that Carla and I were clear on the message of having faith in what we cannot see, in chapel on Friday, these lyrics were in one of the hymns we sang, “We’ll walk by faith and not by sight.” Following that hymn, our president, Dr. Dub, spoke on the virtue of faith. I’m listening, Lord!

There have been other moments in the last few months where occurrences could not be explained except by divine direction. From a phone call in January from Laci where she held a key that unlocked an idea in my brain that had been in holding for a while, to the repetition of a word almost daily (more to come on One Word later) that has led to fascinating research and the creation of this blog. I told my mom the other day, “God is weird! He really mystifies me sometimes.” And it’s true, but I will respect that He is doing works that I cannot see, and I will obey to walk in faith until he chooses (or not) to reveal the mysterious shenanigans He is up to.

My hope is that you have had some transformational experiences, as I have mentioned in this post, where God has mystified you with how He works through other people and moments. Please feel free to share in the comments below how you are Respectfully Mystified by this amazing God we serve.