“And he said: “Truly I tell you, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven” - Matthew 18:3
If you want to grow in faith, go on an adventure.
An unplanned, unscheduled, unscripted Holy Spirit adventure.
This would fall into the category of “Listening to the Spirit” mostly, but can be done any day that you need to just blow off steam and go looking for God.
The best adventures of faith are the ones where you decide to go and explore out of your comfort zone. Deciding to park far from a destination like the beach and walking as far as you can to get there. Stopping at a random store, or library or beautiful building in order to explore a place you’ve always been curious about but haven’t ever had the chance to give your undivided attention to. You can go someplace random even in the grocery store or at Walmart. Walk down an aisle you assume you don’t need anything from and take in the sights, sounds and items that you’ve never noticed before.
Walk towards the sound of music just to figure out where it is coming from.
Walk away from crowds of people to a place that seems to be empty and stop to listen to what’s there in its emptiness.
No matter where you go or what random destination you choose, ask God to show up. Ask Him to highlight things to you and to send you signs of His presence. Look for things that matter to you and know that there is no such thing as coincidence.
Expect God to interact with you. Expect to see Him, hear Him or meet Him on the street.
Listen to what people say and pay attention to see if they are relaying God’s messages to you.
Don’t get discouraged if you feel like you can’t find Him… He’s there and the more you look, the more you will find Him.
Talk to Him and think of your adventure as hide and seek with your Dad. If God sees you doing this, He’s delighted in every way to engage and have you find Him.
Listen with your ears, your mind and your heart and don’t be afraid to turn left when that inner voice says so.
I have practiced what I call “Holy Spirit Adventures” for a while and as often as I can. Some of the most amazing times I’ve experienced God and great supernatural things, was when He had told me to go and “look for property.” This was when I was completely broke and had no idea what the “property” would be for. In response to my willingness to explore my city and wander about looking for “For Sale” signs and even calling and taking tours of some places, God rewarded me with wonderful and crazy visions and revelations and He even sent me McDonalds breakfast one morning via a messenger. It was pretty awesome actually.
It happened one early morning when I was walking down a residential street about a mile from my house and a man in a McDonalds uniform walked right up to me with a bag that had a sausage McMuffin in it and handed it to me like he had purposely brought it to me and knew exactly where I was going to be at that exact moment. I sat on the curb that early morning and ate that specially delivered breakfast and I cried a bunch of happy, crazy, amazed tears because I knew that my Father had just sent someone to bring me breakfast because I was hungry and He wanted to surprise and maybe even reward me a bit for listening to His Spirit and just trusting that my adventure that morning made Him happy. And it was so sweet of God and it was incredibly fun and my sandwich was delicious!!!
The faith you grow by just getting up and going to explore is beneficial in so many ways.
You learn that plans are not always necessary.
You learn that the unexpected is nothing to fear.
You learn that God is always with you and listening to you and guiding you.
You learn that joy comes in all kinds of mysteries and you learn that His surprise visits are never something you can plan or anticipate. You learn that the best freedom you can find comes from childlike faith and just letting go of everything else and going in search of Him.