“In the past God spoke to our forefathers through the prophets at many times and in various ways, but in these last days he has spoken to us by his Son, whom he appointed heir of all things, and through whom he made the universe.” (Heb 1:1-2 NIV)

Last week, in God Speaks, Part 1, we discovered that though God used prophets to speak to us in the past, He now speaks directly to us through His Holy Spirit, and He does so in many different ways. In “The Beginning”, I told the story of how God led me to homeschool my boys by impressing ideas upon my mind, closing doors, giving me general uneasiness and then peace of mind, and then confirming His will with signs and wonders.

But God isn’t limited to these many ways. The beautiful thing about God is that He’ll do WHATEVER it takes to get our attention!

And that’s what I would learn as I was led through the rest of the story of my boys’ education…

At the end of our first homeschooling year, I asked God if homeschooling for the following year was still His will. The answer was “yes”, and we proceeded. I did this at the end of year two and three as well, but then I got so comfortable being a homeschool mom that I quit asking!

Six years went by before God started trying to get my attention again. He initially used my husband who suddenly started talking about sending our boys to school for high school. I wasn’t happy. I didn’t understand his reasons, and I didn’t agree. After all, God had told us to homeschool, and that is what we were going to do!

But God was just preparing me in advance for His next move. Because He knows that listening has never been my strong point, He began sending me the same message through other people, and only when I had heard it from several different sources did it finally occurred to me that perhaps God was trying to get my attention! That’s when I did what I should have done in the first place: I began to pray.

I’m ashamed to say that my initial prayers went something like this: “Lord, change my husband’s heart! Help him to see Your true will for my boys: Homeschooling!”

My prayer was partially answered. God did some “changing of heart”, but it wasn’t my husband’s heart that was changed. It was mine! Over the course of the next two years, God began sending numerous sermons, Bible messages, Bible studies, etc., on the topic of learning to be submissive to Him and to my husband; and through it all, He helped me to be able to think about the idea of school without getting mad.

The next thing God did was He allowed me to pass through some stressful times with homeschooling. He opened my eyes to see how I didn’t have the time to provide the level of intellectual support my boys needed and still maintain a part-time job.

In my mind, there was only one solution: Quit work! And I started praying that God would take away my job.

But here He spoke to me through His Word. He clearly told me time and time again that He had placed me in that job as a witness for Him, and quitting was not His will.

God was again shaping my thinking, forming it to be in line with His, and He used His Word to do so. But God knew I would need lots of confirmation, and it was around this time that our local homeschool support group began to fall apart. First there was a major split in the group. Initially we put our feet in both camps, but when one group began doing activities that my boys and I weren’t comfortable with, we moved our loyalties to the other. Then, one by one, that group began to shrink. Some families made the decision to send their kids to school earlier than anticipated, and others simply moved away! I realized that if I didn’t send my kids to school for high school, I would be homeschooling completely on my own!

But God wanted me to be certain, and He did one more thing: He opened up a window of opportunity at work. In the 17 years I had been employed there, I had seen a department of 7 full-time positions dwindle down to 3.5. Then, suddenly, a new half-time position became available! Yet another indication that it was time to stop homeschooling and start working full-time.

But I was still uneasy and as I began to pray for confirmation, God began working the biggest miracle of all. I’m really not quite sure how He did it, but one morning, I woke up completely at peace about sending my boys to school.

During this stage of the story, God spoke to my intellect, He spoke to me through others, He spoke to me through His word, He confirmed everything through circumstance, and finally, He gave me peace of mind! There is one important thing to remember, however. God can only speak to an open heart. He’ll do everything in His power to open that heart, but you must also be willing to do your part. You must be willing to actively pray, not only to KNOW His will, but also to be prepared to ACCEPT His will. You can’t just write off the impressions you are getting. You need to ask God to confirm them, and you need to pray through every step of the process that God will work that miracle in your heart that He worked in mine.

But this is still only part of the story. God may have convinced me that school was the right choice, but He still had some work to do. Why? Because “school” meant the local Christian high school down the road!

Or so I thought…

Lyn Chaffart

(To access the entire “God Speaks” devotional series, please click here.“