Transforming Lives by Hearing God’s Voice
Shawn Bolz
I was with a group of investors, having a spiritual consultation time with them, which is common in my life. I am brought in to help people get in touch with their God-given purpose and then support it with healthy decisions around values and character.
The special part of why I am usually invited, though, is because I believe God talks to us and wants to interact with us in a way that can transform normal human effort into an empowered opportunity that realizes God’s plan on the earth through us. I actually believe we hear from God, and at times, I not only bring prophetic words about what God says, but I also help people to understand where God is already speaking to them and how to translate what he is saying.
This was one of those times. As I sat down and talked to my clients, they explained some of their projects. They told me what was working and what wasn’t working. It was fascinating because they were very self-aware and project aware; the problem was that most of what they wanted to do wasn’t lining up with what was available to be done. I was dealing with a group that believed they were supposed to option some silver mines and invest in a mining company in the northwest Idaho (as well as invest more into the south). As we talked, I had a phenomenal experience where I could feel what these men were about. I could tell what their values were, and how they wanted to change the world with resources. Although they had been “wounded” at times by their great financial risks in investing, they were willing and hungry to try again.
In this moment of feeling their hunger and understanding their values, I felt like I heard God’s voice. It was like a download of information; almost as a smart device gets updated, my spiritual processor got updated with some information. I heard God say some letters, a name of a company, and some numbers. They were astounded because they said the company name was the name of an obscure mining company that no one knew about, but one they had decided to invest into. The letters were the equipment identification number for a type of drill that was needed to drill deeper, which that particular company owns, and the numbers were the margin of financial risk that they had just agreed to take on for this project. This was an amazing concept to try to wrap our minds and hearts around; God speaks specifically, not just generically.
After they confirmed what I had heard, I explained to them that God cares about our businesses more than we do and isn’t just guiding us by intuition but actually wants to befriend us and speak to us. He wants many of the things that are in our hearts, even more than we do, because he put those desires there in the first place.
GOD IMAGINED AND HAD A PLAN FOR HUMANITY ALL ALONG
We can never minimize the way that our relationship with God gives substance to God’s purpose and love to the world around us. God had an original plan long before he ever created humanity. It was a plan that involved all the things we care about: our families, our businesses, our political structures, how we are educated, science, art, creativity—these encompass all that we dream about and are, in fact, bigger than our dreams.
As we learn who God is and we connect to his very real, active, and living heart, we start to see the thread of what was originally supposed to be. In this sense, we see the world around us not as it is but as he desires it to be. Imagine yourself and the world around you at its full created and intended capacity. This is what we need to train ourselves to see.
As people on a spiritual journey, we wrestle with the fact that we are supposed to see God’s heart and then have faith in what we see—even when the opposite sometimes looks true. The Bible is filled with stories of God speaking and man responding while heaven moves on behalf of those who love God and whom he loves. Jesus, of course, was the ultimate picture of someone who saw miracles and the communion or connection with God in a way that was both mystical and practical. In John 17:24, he actually prayed that all of us would know God this way as well.
THE BUSINESS WOMAN LYDIA
Paul, the apostle in the Bible, while was on his way to a destination he had picked, had a vision of a man from Macedonia saying, “We need your help, please come here.” He was so moved by this vision that he changed his plans and went there. After a long journey, they arrived on the Sabbath and went down to the river to find a place to pray. In Acts 16:13, we find that Paul met a group of women there. We don’t know why they were there, but one of them, named Lydia, owned a high-end business selling purple silk. When Paul met with them, they had such an amazing encounter with God through him that everything changed. As a matter of fact, this region was one of the most transformed by what Christianity can bring; in just a few short years, the economy, the government, and the people were known to be some of the most developed of their day, and many attribute it to the fact that the Gospel spread through Lydia and her female businesswomen friends.
CONNECTING WITH GOD BRINGS TRANSFORMATION
I am conveying the idea here that as you hear from God about what is in His heart, it affects the world around you. Faith is not really just a personal thing, because our spirituality bridges God’s plan and resources to our industries, families, and purposes. This isn’t always a quiet process, because God himself speaks. Jesus promised that God would speak more after his resurrection (not less). He promised the Holy Spirit to the believers of his day (John 16), who would tell them everything that was in the Father’s heart. This means our lives are radically impacted by what is in God’s loving nature as we interact with him.
Just like Lydia, there are many people that, as God gives us the connection to them, bring about change in an entire industry, region, or culture.
THE HONEY FARM
I have seen this happen in Fortune 500 companies, but one of the most wonderful times of watching this work on a small, local level was with a couple I was able to prophesy over with no pre-knowledge of or connection to them. I shared with them that I saw them as busy as bees and that God was going to bless their Honey Home. It ended up that they had just started a business with beekeeping with a special process of getting honey. I even named their business, but I had no idea of anything about them. Now it has been a year later, and they have produced their first successful financial season out of their startup business. When it normally takes years to be in the black, it took them only a 14-month period. They just sent us a jar of honey to celebrate. What I love about this is that it shows that God wants to interact with us to accelerate and multiply what we are doing. As we believe that God loves us and wants to move on behalf of the world through us; we see that he wants to accelerate what we are working on, so us + him = way different results than us without him.
This beekeeping couple has been able to speak to so many other entrepreneurs and has especially impacted other young families by modeling a healthy relationship while undertaking such a huge project.
HEARING GOD CREATES AND FURTHERS (MULTIPLIES) OPPORTUNITIES
My good friend, Kelly Clark, is one of the best female snowboarders in history. She has been to the Olympics twice, winning gold and bronze, won the XP games repeatedly, and even has her own line of snowboards and clothing.
She was getting older for her sport, and I remember a group of us began to pray with her and I gave her a prophetic message from God; I shared that she was going back to the Olympics to be a voice and a picture. She felt led to try again for the Olympics.
I remember going to her Olympic qualification round last time in Mammoth Lakes, California. As she came down the hill, it looked like the most effortless run I had ever seen, as if she was on the bunny hill. Her tricks were perfect, and her sportsmanship was flawless. When she got to the bottom, she shared that she was listening to worship music and was just in a moment when her life was totally surrendered to God. Of course she made it.
When we do what we are called to do, it becomes one of the easiest things imaginable. Another way to say it is the old saying: whatever is easiest for you to do is probably what you are a genius in and what you should be paid the most for.
As she has been connecting to God in this season, she has felt led to train once again for the Olympics. It would be almost impossible for someone her age to even come close to the younger competitors, but she lives in the impossible made manifest. She is in great shape to be the only woman to ever compete three times in the Olympics in her sport. This would not have been possible if she had not heard God, if this hadn’t become worship as much as singing a song in a spiritual place.
WHEN WE HEAR FROM GOD, WE CAN SEE GOD ON EARTH AS HE IS IN HEAVEN
Hearing from God creates a blueprint and a roadmap for what to do with our skills, talents, and influence. As we connect more and more to God’s heart, he begins to show us the how and where but, even more importantly, the who. The who is the people he loves that we are called to reach. We are God’s who as well; he wants us to benefit from everything he does through us in some way, especially, at times, monetarily or in areas of influence, but we are not his only who. He has people that your success will affect.
The prophetic was made to touch very real economic and world issues. When America went into Korea during the war, a group of Christians went in having a vision for that generation of children to one-day lead the country. They began a non-profit called Compassion International, which paired up people from the Western world with children of Korea to spiritually give care to them by sending a certain amount of money a month to a child all the way through their schooling. The first group of kids to graduate all the way through college was in South Korea, and many of these Compassion kids took places of influence in culture and helped South Korea become a reformed nation politically, economically, and socially over the past 50+ years. There might never have been a country with such a vast turnaround from an occupied third world nation to one of the competitors in several world markets.
Hearing God’s voice can set a framework for a whole nation to change. If we can hear his heart about our companies, our relationships, and ourselves, we can begin see the big picture, and the world that was once overpoweringly vast becomes very connected and pliable to work with. As we journey through more and more trusted prophetic words and fulfillment, we will start to multiply our efforts to believe for impossible things by taking astronomic risks—but the rewards will be crazy as well!