God Still Speaks to Us
At the end of May, I was down in Costa Rica for a health retreat. About 6 years ago, I started being more intentional about my health. It slowly and subtly became a part of my identity. I never do anything casually. I’m an all-or-nothing type of person. “Moderation” is not a word in my vocabulary. Feeling spiritually drained and burned out, my thoughts and affections that were normally directed toward Jesus began to gravitate towards my physical health. We will always replace our affections and desires for God with something else. They have to go somewhere. That’s not really the point of this story, though. I may talk more about it some other time.
Costa Rica
At this health retreat, there was a lot going on spiritually. On both sides of the aisle. Something I’ve noticed over the last few years is that a lot of New Age ideologies have crept into the health and wellness space. Namely, yoga, palm reading, astrology, crystals, breathing techniques, the collective unconscious, etc. At this event, there was a decent amount of all of that going on. Even though I was fairly burned out spiritually during that retreat, I did not participate in those practices. They weren’t the focal point of the retreat, but were occurring more in the margins. I always knew enough scripture and had just enough spiritual discernment to know these things were probably spiritual garbage.
However, while at this retreat, while all of these things were going on around me, I started to question if I was being a little “uptight” about my views on these practices. Not when it comes to the more overtly spiritual stuff like tarot, astrology, crystals, etc., but when it comes to yoga, certain types of breathwork, and the collective consciousness. Shelf that in your mind for a bit, because I’m going to come back to this in a minute.
I believe it was on day 3 of the event that a Christian (Lore), who was also in attendance, approached me because she said she felt like she had some words from God for me. As you can imagine, my interest was immediately piqued. I had vaguely remembered seeing her at the retreat last year with her brother and her son, but we didn’t really know each other because we mostly just saw each other in passing last year. I think it was the next day before we could meet up to talk, and we sat down over lunch at the resort where the retreat was hosted.
Lore shared a bit about her family. She and her husband (Fernando) live in Guatemala City and have two beautiful children. She told me her story/testimony about everything that God has done in her life and their life as a family. It was very encouraging. Then, she told me that she felt God had put 3 things on her heart to share with me. And these are not word-for-word, but are the gist of what she said.
The First One
I feel like God wants you to know that you’re not being spiritually uptight or overly cautious about yoga and collective consciousness.
Now, what’s interesting about this first one is that I never told anyone at the retreat about my wrestling over the idea of whether or not yoga and the idea of collective consciousness are spiritually harmful. I had only had this conversation with myself in my mind while there. Only God could’ve known this internal dialogue (and He does indeed know all of our thoughts, btw)!
Psalm 139:2
“You discern my thoughts from afar.”
Psalm 139:23–24
“Search me, O God, and know my heart! Try me and know my thoughts! And see if there be any grievous way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting!”
1 Chronicles 28:9
“And you, Solomon my son, know the God of your father and serve him with a whole heart and with a willing mind, for the Lord searches all hearts and understands every plan and thought.”
Hebrews 4:12
“For the word of God is living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart.”
Psalm 94:11
“The Lord knows the thoughts of man, that they are but a breath.”
In the Church, this spiritual gift, where a person is able to disclose your private thoughts via the Holy Spirit, is colloquially known as giving “a word of knowledge.” This was not foreign to me. I’ve had this happen many times over the years. However, it WAS the first time someone had given me a word of knowledge in quite a few years. It’s just like Jesus did with the woman at the well:
John 4:16
“Jesus said to her, ‘Go, call your husband, and come here.’ The woman answered him, ‘I have no husband.’ Jesus said to her, ‘You are right in saying, “I have no husband”; for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.’ The woman said to him, ‘Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet.’“
So, as you can imagine, Lore immediately had my attention for what she would be sharing with me next.
The Second One
God sees that you have a heart for Him and His Mission in the world. He wants you to come back into that endeavor with Him.
At this point, I was fighting back tears. If you know me very well, you know that I hate crying in front of people (I’m working on it…lol). I immediately felt God’s Presence rush over me as soon as she ended her sentence. She did not know that I indeed do have a heart for God’s Mission in the world. For the handful of you who actually read this blog, you know that I moved to Florida about 10 years ago to help plant a church. I’ve been a “goer,” not just a “sender” for quite a number of years now. And even despite the spiritual valley I had been in for the last however many years, I still had a desire to move to Central America to be used by God in some way.
If I’m being honest, what started as a noble desire 6-7 years ago gradually turned into a selfish one. This retreat was my fifth time in Costa Rica. I’ve been all over that country at this point. I’ve had the privilege and blessing of God to get to travel to quite a few places in the world. Costa Rica was arguably the most beautiful country I’ve visited. I’ve been to Puerto Viejo (on the southeast coast), La Fortuna (where the famous Arenal volcano is located), Quepos, Dominical, Jaco, Uvita, etc. My plan has been to move there within the next few years. But not really with a specific purpose or to do God’s work there. It started with that desire in the beginning, but then it evolved into looking at Costa Rica as a place of escape and to cope with my sadness, cynicism, and pain. In Costa Rica, they have a greeting or saying, “Pura Vida.” It means “pure life.” This is what I wanted. That’s the culture there. It really is a “Pure Life.” But apart from Jesus, there is no pure life. Truly pure life only comes from Him.
The Third One
I’m not sure why exactly, but I feel like God wants me to invite you to come to our home in Guatemala City, where we can host you for a few days.
At this point, I’m like, “Sign me up!” We talked a little bit more about our families, exchanged contact info, wrapped up, and the next day was the last day of the retreat. Whenever I feel like God is speaking to me about something, I try not to waste much time and seek to act on whatever it is as quickly as possible. I never want the “unction” to pass. Because if you let it air out too long, sometimes the sense of urgency around it wanes. So I got back home to Florida and started planning to get to Guatemala sometime within the next 4-5 weeks at most.
But in that waiting, God was doing a TON in me. His Presence during that conversation with Lore in Costa Rica didn’t stop after I got back to Florida. It actually began to build more and more. As soon as I got back, I confessed some unrepentant sin I had been holding onto and just completely dove into spending crazy amounts of time with Him in prayer, Bible reading, community with other believers, worship, etc. It felt like a 10,000-pound weight had lifted off of me. Years’ worth of cynicism, resentment, unforgiveness, or anger no longer remained in me. I felt zeal. I felt a renewal in the joy of my salvation. I felt more peace and contentment than I have for as long as I can remember.
Guatemala
So, Fourth of July weekend, I hop on a plane and fly to Guatemala City. I spent about 4 full days there with my new friends, Fernando and Lore. Fernando and I hit it off immediately. It felt like we’d known each other for years. It’s hard to explain. He’s a business owner like me, a father, and someone who is passionate about Jesus. Those three similarities gave us hours’ worth of conversational ammo. They showed me around their city and took me to Lake Atitlán, which is a mile-high massive body of water that has filled a volcanic crater. It has several Mayan towns around its shoreline, and residents and tourists travel back and forth between towns via boats or ferries. It’s about a 3-4 hour drive from Guatemala City, depending on traffic, so I was thankful that we were able to take their helicopter there. It was only about a 25-30 minute helicopter flight.
We landed in the village of Panajachel on the north side of the lake and had some delicious lunch. The flight was special to me because I was able to get a bird’s-eye view of Guatemala. We flew over numerous small towns and mountains on our way out to the lake. I could feel myself having a heart for the people of Guatemala. The country is beautiful. I honestly feel like it’s even prettier than Costa Rica. I’ve also been to Hawaii, and Guatemala gives it a run for its money. The weather in Guatemala City and Lake Atitlán is superb due to their high altitude, despite their tropical location. Even in early July, temperatures were in the high-70s with low humidity. There are tons of volcanoes, coffee farms, and agricultural areas. However, there’s also a dark side to Guatemala.
Lake Atitlán has a lot of dark, spiritual influences. Everything from witchcraft and new age hippie stuff to drugs, prostitution, and Mayan deity worship, like the worship of Maximón, who’s depicted as a wood effigy that accepts cigarettes and alcohol as offerings. In Guatemala City, you have neighborhoods that are unsafe to visit. Due to the presence of gangs like MS-13 and narco traffickers, you risk kidnapping, extortion, or even being killed. Moreover, Guatemala is a third-world country. There’s a huge gap between the upper class and the lower class. Many people in Guatemala live in extreme poverty. The physical problems in Guatemala are mostly manifestations of spiritual ones.
I spent my days with Fernando and Lore praying, worshipping, fellowshipping, and attending their church together. I was reminded of how poor my Spanish is and how badly I need to start practicing again! I got some great prayer myself while I was there, and they were so hospitable to me. I also got to meet some members of their extended family who treated me like family. It was incredible that they basically invited a complete stranger into their home and just let me live life with them for a few days. I can’t wait to return to visit them again!
The Return
After I returned from Guatemala, I started to “debrief” myself, so to speak. Asking questions like:
“What was God doing in bringing me on that trip?”
“Could God be calling me to be a missionary in Guatemala?”
“What are my biggest takeaways from my time there?”
It’s been about 3 weeks since I returned from the trip. I’ve essentially boiled everything down to about 3 takeaways (why is everything in 3’s? haha).
Takeaway #1:
God was spoiling me. Lore and Fernando were gracious to host me in their wonderful home, feed me tons of delicious meals, chauffeur me around everywhere, pray for me, and encourage me. It felt like a life-giving reprieve from the wilderness my life has felt like for a while now. God is just good like that. Sometimes, he just wants to love on us as His children.
Takeaway #2:
I’ve noticed that whenever I travel outside of the United States, there’s a palpable difference in the spiritual climate. We’re very intellectual in the West, and we like to think in terms of scientific measurement and explanation for everything. We keep everything very physical. I have a master’s degree in climate and atmospheric science, so I’m about as scientific as they come. However, we are NOT just physical bodies in a physical dimension. We have a body, a soul, and a spirit. And our God is a spiritual God. There is natural, and then there is supernatural. In the U.S., this is controversial. Outside of the U.S., it’s not controversial at all (with the exception of Western Europe). You won’t find many atheists in Latin America, Asia, or Africa. People are all too familiar with the spiritual, on both sides of the aisle.
The Church in the U.S. is generally mature when it comes to Truth, scripture, and theology. This is a wonderful thing, of course! We’re often mature in Truth, but immature in Spirit. And I would say in both uppercase Spirit and the reality of lowercase spirit. There are always exceptions like charismatic circles and the Pentecostal movement. Outside of the U.S., I find that the inverse is true. Namely, people are more mature in Spirit/spirit but more immature in Truth. Ideally, as Christians, we’re mature in both.
John 4:23-24
“But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. God is Spirit, and those who worship Him must worship in spirit and truth.”
Scripture is crucial. By reading Scripture and teaching Scripture, you cultivate an environment or lay a solid foundation for the Spirit of God to move and operate. There are two ditches we can fall into as Christians:
- All Spirit and no Truth
- All Truth and no Spirit
Although being out of balance isn’t an issue of Salvation, we should strive as Christians to cultivate maturity in both Spirit and Truth. I’ve been reading my Bible and listening to good Bible teaching for the last 20 years. I’m not a theologian or a Bible expert, but I have a fairly solid foundation of Biblical truth and theology in my life. I’d say I’m “mature” in Truth. However, something I’ve realized in my recent travels to Latin America is that I’m a bit immature in Spirit. Which is funny, because my theology on the Holy Spirit and the spiritual gifts would be considered by many to be “charismatic.” However, I don’t consider myself to be charismatic. I say all of this to say that I believe one thing God was teaching me during my time in Guatemala is to have higher expectations and more Faith for the Holy Spirit’s movement in the world. That is an area God is seeking to mature me so that I’m better-equipped to help fulfill His Mission in the world.
Takeaway #3:
God seemed to redirect my sights away from Costa Rica and placed my attention toward Guatemala. I’m not certain if I will end up in Guatemala long-term, but it’s possible that He has Work for me there. I’m definitely open to it and praying about it. Guatemala was never even on my radar until recently, as I was thinking about missionary work in Central America. It’s not one of the first countries I would’ve chosen. Therefore, I’m not really worried about it just being “my idea,” not His. However, all spiritually discerned things must be tested through Scripture, prayer, and Godly counsel. God will lead me in the Way to go.
John 10:27
“My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”
So I don’t know exactly what’s next, but what I do know is that God is speaking to me and is faithful to me, even when I am faithless. There’s nothing I would rather spend my life doing than being in service for Jesus and His Kingdom. If I get another 38 years, they will be spent on being spent for Him!