HEARING GOD WORKSHOP (FWC retreat 2010)
(Introduction, Veranne Graham:)
The Bible is full of examples of people who heard God. All kinds of people heard and hear God.
Looking at the examples and testimonies in scripture, we can see that God didn’t always speak to special
people, but the people who accepted that God was speaking to them, and let that fellowship change their
lives, became special people. It’s disconcerting when we confront some of the very unattractive people
that heard God; not only heard him but were called by him. My all time un-favorite person is Balaam
(Numbers 22, 23, 24. This is the one whose donkey spoke to him and saved his life).
According to the record, God spoke to ‘pagan’ kings and Pharaohs, who heard and obeyed him. So, if we
look at the evidence, I am compelled to say that we have to raise barriers to keep from hearing God. For
instance a lot of people tell me they aren’t good enough. I know of one person who says it’s too much
trouble. Hearing God is the birthright of every human being. It helps to expect him to speak to us and be
open to all the ways he uses in order to take advantage of all the opportunities we have to listen. We
recognize that God speaks through the scripture, through nature, through other people, through
circumstances, through dreams and in countless ways directly to our hearts and minds. Taking the time to
listen and the baptism in the Holy Spirit are among several disciplines and blessings available to us to
enrich our personal, walking, two-way talking relationship with God.
We are all unique. Each of us has a unique relationship with God. Each of the people who know me has
a unique relationship with me. No one can have the same relationship, no matter what our connection. I
have a totally different relationship with each of my daughters. Anyone can tell stories about their
interaction with me. But even the same story will reflect the view of the storyteller. It is the same with
God. It’s a lot of fun to share stories and see him through other people’s eyes, but we must never expect
to have the same relationship or see him in just the same way that other people do. In this workshop,
Linda Wiltse and I want to add to the information, encouragement and testimony that others of you have
presented in past retreats about hearing God.
Linda and I took a workshop on time management from Linda Alvarez this past May which opened us up
to hearing God in new “how to” ways. In her Flourishment workshop, Linda A. applied the scientific
research that has been done on the right brain and the left brain to her lifestyle in the area of time
management. In the process, she applied these scientific findings to life itself.
I have presented art workshops for 13 years teaching artists to get into their creative center, which is a part
of the right brain. It took my daughter’s workshop to galvanize me into realizing that what science calls
the right brain is what I have always thought of as my ‘heart’ and what science calls the left brain is what
I have always called my ‘mind’.
Linda W. and I were profoundly affected by the exercises Linda A. gave us in her workshop and we have
been pursuing these exercises in our spiritual walk. We want to share what has been happening with us.
Specifically, we both realized we had been blocking or resisting or hiding behind barriers of our own
making in our personal relationship with God. Indeed, to borrow Harold’s phrase, we now want to give
ourselves in “full abandonment” to God. We seek to pursue and maintain a relationship with God, having
a new understanding of the words “with all our heart and with all our mind.”
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I intend to give you a brief summary of the right brain and left brain functions gleaned, extracted and
extrapolated from scientific studies and Linda will discuss the barriers we cling to instead of abandoning
ourselves to God. Then we will invite you to sit down at tables and go to work on exercises that are
designed to help you experience your right brain; exercises that show you the warfare between your right
and left brain; exercises to encourage cooperation between both hemispheres and hopefully, exercises that
will entice you into letting God heal you and make you ‘whole’, fully surrendered to him in heart and
mind and body. These are asking, seeking, and knocking methods. This is not an introduction to a fairy
godmother or to Santa Claus or to a genie wanting to grant you 3 wishes.
(Right Brain, Left Brain)
Now, about your right brain and left brain: the most comprehensive source I am familiar with is the book,
The Right Brain by Thomas Blakeslee. What I describe in the next few minutes is of necessity an oversimplification describing the mythical “average person”, but basically, it is an accurate representation,
with the caveat that every individual is just that, individual, and no one size fits all.
The brain contains two equal hemispheres with connections or bridges. Both sides are good and
wonderful. One side should dominate according to the task at hand; neither side should be predominate
all the time. We are designed to be well balanced in our use of these hemispheres; but, in fact, entire
civilizations or cultures are usually right or left brain dominant. In the U.S., our social and educational
system is heavily left brain dominant. Western ‘civilizations’ tend to call right brain cultures ‘primitive’.
(How would we do dropped suddenly in a jungle with no training? ‘Primitive’ cultures have lived there
for centuries and survived, using highly developed skills from the right brain.)
(Incidentally: some left handed people have ‘reversed’ brain configurations. That is, what I call my right
brain is physically placed on the left side of their brain and vice versa. Two thirds of left-handed people
have the same configuration as right-handers. One third of left-handers have their brain hemispheres
physically reversed from the rest of the population. If yours is reversed, just accept that we’re talking
about your brain, too, only your ‘right’ brain is situated on the left side of your head.)
The left brain is our verbal center. We learn language, writing, and math via our left brain. Symbols and
formulas are stored there. The left brain is the logic center; it compares, classifies, makes lists, prioritizes,
and sets goals. The left brain considers itself practical, it rejoices in linear thinking, it wants evidence.
Two attributes of the left brain that are tremendously valuable also cause us great pain if they are not well
balanced by right brain input. So beware, the left brain is critical and judgmental.
The right brain does not verbalize after age five. If a young child’s left brain is damaged, the right brain
will develop the ability to use language and related duties. Older children and adults lose the ability to
speak and write if that area of the left brain is damaged. Interestingly, the right brain remains the
repository of swear words and words to songs. Singing, and what we call ‘the arts’ originate in the right
brain. Music, dance, mime, painting from memory or imagination, making up stories, fantasy etc., are all
right brain functions. The left brain can draw, but it is a slow and agonizing process, comparing back and
forth between the object being painted and the painting in progress. The right brain draws easily, quickly
and without trauma.
The right brain stores our repetitive skills. We learn to walk in our left brain, carefully, sometimes
painfully, until that act becomes a repetitive skill and we “do it without thinking”. The conscious act of
walking has crossed into the right brain. The right hemisphere is spatial; it is global i.e. the ability to
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recognize instantly a familiar face in a crowd. In our culture, two great assets of the right brain are
usually undervalued, if not ridiculed: intuition and instinct.
Our emotional make-up is not as clear-cut in its source. Blakeslee says there is a tendency for the right
brain to specialize in emotional matters; the undamaged right brain is more inclined to have strong
emotional reactions, particularly negative ones. He indicates that the left hemisphere is the source of
joking. He writes: ‘the right brain reacts to sensory information in a more primitive and direct way, so the
feelings retain their immediateness and power. In the left brain the sensory inputs tend to be interpreted
in words and thus lose much of their emotional value. The dichotomy is thus between a cold intellectual
approach and a “gut level” approach.’ p 143. I guess counting to ten when we feel anger is a way to
approach balance and learn good social behavior? In any case, in my opinion, one of the great benefits of
discipline is the trained interaction between both hemispheres to keep us balanced, controlled and able to
function and walk in favor with God and man.
The right brain is visionary. It is the source of ideas. Every object in this room began with an idea from
the right brain that was brought to fruition because someone could take the idea from the right brain and
put it into practice by making a prototype using left brain skills. This is an illustration of how important it
is to strengthen and use the connections between our right and left brains, rather than focusing and
developing one to the neglect of the other.
I would suggest that we know about a person in the left brain but in the right brain we know that person;
we get acquainted on an emotional, interactive, intuitive level. We exchange ideas and ideals and feelings
from our right brain most often by using left brain words. It seems a co-operative exercise to me.
I couldn’t find any material where researchers had studied faith relative to brain damage. When I look at
what I know about the right brain, I conclude that this hemisphere seems to be what I have always called
“heart”, and that the explanation of the left brain is what I think of the mind. I, therefore, conclude that I
believe with my left brain or mind and have faith in my right brain or heart. In short, in my right brain I
know God; in my left brain, I know about God. I’m saying that the left brain wants proof and logic; the
right brain knows that faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. One of
the awesome things about God is that every human being makes up his own mind and his own heart about
God. My experience is that God cannot be proved to anyone; he cannot be disproved by anyone; we each
decide for ourselves. A man can say in his heart, “there is no God”; likewise a man can know in his heart,
not only that there is a God, he can know God as friend and companion. It is our ultimate free will
choice.
Exercise:
Think about an animal, any animal—tame or wild. How does that animal move? Does it make a noise?
Now, think of a quiet place. Somewhere you can relax and feel peaceful and calm.
Now, think of a large expanse of grass. Is it mowed or not?
Now, put up a ‘keep off the grass’ sign.
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How did you feel about that keep off the grass sign?
You have just experienced your right brain. You do this all the time. The sign was a left brain addition,
but you still ‘saw’ it in your right brain; just as you store the words of a song in the right brain. One of
the principle languages of the right brain is pictures. “One picture is worth a thousand words”.
We must exercise judgment in our left brain communication and we must exercise discernment in our
right brain communication. Everything we say and hear in our left brain is not necessarily from God;
everything we see and imagine in our right brain is not necessarily from God, either. We need to take
what we hear and what we see to God for his input and cleansing.
The heart feels, but following feelings is not God any more than obeying doctrinal commands (mind) is
from God. (Matt. 7:21-23.) Our desire for any relationship is based on many things. The most
unsatisfactory for all concerned is a relationship to use someone to fill a need. This includes a
relationship with God. God is sick at heart at our obsession with our needs, our pursuit of happiness
instead of joy in him, and he is moving in judgment on our using his power to our own ends.
Test: Do we believe he has our best interests at heart? Can we give up our own way to him in everything?
Do we trust that whatever happens, he loves us and wants only good for us? If we think giving up to God
means he is just using us to his own ends, we demonstrate that we have not understood or appreciated the
great sacrifice of Jesus on the cross. He came in order to restore the way to a direct relationship with
God; to save us from the sin and defilement and evil and estrangement that were accepted in the Garden
of Eden. If we cannot abandon ourselves to our Creator, we reveal that we want to use God for our own
ends, however good we may believe those ends to be. Knowing and interacting with God teaches us what
an unselfish love relationship really is.
We need both sides of our brain totally open and committed to God. We need to consciously train
ourselves to take advantage of the connectors between the two hemispheres. We have to make a choice to
open our minds; to hearing God in our minds just as we have to open our hearts to hearing God in our
hearts. We have to make a choice to become trained in discernment about what is God, what is Satan and
what is us wanting our own way. We have the daily opportunity to surrender ourselves with our entire
mind and all our heart.
( See also info on Dr. Jill Bolte My Stroke of Insight on the web.)
(Barriers: Linda Wiltse):
As Veranne and I started preparing for this workshop, the Lord kept giving me the word “barriers”. Then
He added the word “boundaries”. Before I talk about how these words fit into this workshop I want you to
think about the two words and see what comes to your mind.
You may have thought of physical barriers and boundaries such as dams, rivers, mountains, railroad
barriers, jail bars, moats, borders of countries, shields, cages, physical handicaps, etc. Or you may have
thought of more intangible things. On this list would be the many things that separate us from other
people and from God. Here is a partial list:
sin
prejudice
fear. . .
of rejection
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closed-mindedness
misunderstandings
unforgiveness
ignorance
laziness
cultural differences
doctrines and beliefs
self-consciousness
self centeredness
pride
addictions
distractions
“little foxes”
pain
rebellion
the “logs” in our eyes
of inadequacy
of being hurt
of being exposed
of doing it wrong
of hurting somebody
of being let down by God
My first thought was that barriers are bad. But as the Lord added the word “boundaries”, I saw that
barriers and boundaries can be bad, good, or neutral. In creating the world, God separated light from
darkness, land from water. He keeps under His wings and in the palm of His hand. He is our shield and
mighty tower. There is a time we need to be separated from people or circumstances or evil for our
protection. But as the preparation for this workshop progressed, God emphasized a category of bad
barriers—those that separate us from Him. The barriers are different for each of us. In addition some are
strong and sturdy and keep us captive; some are flimsy and can cause distortion and confusion. Some may
appear to be good. Some of your particular barriers may have been mentioned in the list above. God wants
no barriers coming between Him and us. If there are barriers it is because we have built them or have
allowed them to be built. In Romans 8:35-39, we’re told that nothing has the power to separate us from
God and His love for us--not trouble and suffering, not sin, not angels or demons, not even death. We can,
however, choose to be separated; we can choose to be rebellious and go our own way; we can choose
death.
God uses parables and pictures to talk to us to help us understand what He’s saying to us. Veranne and I
are each going to give you an example God has given to us about barriers.
Veranne: chain link fence
Linda: One particular barrier that the Lord has shown me that keeps some of us from entering fully into
hearing him with both our mind and our heart is that of defining ourselves as either a “head” person or
“heart” person. He gave me the example of His talking to us all the time, much like radio waves are
constantly surrounding us. We’ve talked about this before. But this time he said that some of us claim to
be either AM or FM people, and automatically tune out the other one. He is saying that hearing Him in
both our head and in our heart is possible (and good). This particular barrier of defining ourselves in a
certain way and then being closed to hearing anything else causes us to become set in our ways in many
areas—to say, “That’s just the way I am”. We refuse to change. Sometimes we see ourselves accurately
and sometimes we are believing a lie.
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God wants to talk to us about our particular barriers. He may want to use one or more of the pictures of
the boundaries and barriers you see around the room. Take a look. This particular picture of the little boy
and the tall white wall, the Lord says applies to at least one of us; that is all I know about it.
I believe God has us all here today to continue on our journey of hearing Him better and of going on to a
deeper, fuller relationship with Him. Many barriers have already been broken down or at least recognized.
This workshop is an opportunity for us all to grow and to help each other to grow. We each have our
individual journey with the Lord, and we also have many shared experiences in hearing Him better.
There have been many, but two important shared experiences which come to mind are retreat
presentations: Sally Bennett’s meditation on Romans and Elaine Mustain’s presentation on Brad Jersak’s
book Can You Hear Me? What God has been doing with Veranne and me the last few months is more
exciting to me that I can begin to tell you. It is my prayer for this workshop today that it be a vehicle for
God touching you and bringing glory to Himself. May we all go away with some tools for hearing Him
better both in our hearts and in our minds.
(At this point we divided into groups and sat around tables so each person could make a notebook that
included sections for right brain “hearing God” techniques and left brain “hearing God” exercises. There
is a ‘merge’ section and other helps. If you would like to take the time and pay the cost of pursuing
making this notebook for yourself, please contact Veranne).
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