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What I want to talk about this morning 
is remarkable phenomenon

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that people not only talk to God

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but they learn to experience
God is talking back

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Many many Americans are involved,
and many other people

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are involved, as you may call, 
in a renewalist spirituality -

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a kind of spirituality
which they want to experience God

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intimately, personally and interactive;

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they want to reach out, 
touch the Divine here on earth

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I want to find out how they did that.

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I am anthropologist,

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my job is to immerse myself in
the world I come to study,

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and to keep observing

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so that at some degree,
I got a sense of what it take to

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become a Native in that world.

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Unlike Margret Mead &
Rev. Gregory Bateson

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were pictured here in Papua New Guinea.

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I did this work in America.

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I spent two years 
in the renewalist church in Chicago,

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another two years
in one of the Bay area.

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I went to Sunday Morning services.

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I was a member of House Group.
I was in the prayer's circle.

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I hang out with people.

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I prayed with people.

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I really want to know how
their God became real to them.

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So let me begin by asking,

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who is the God in the church like this?

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God is God, God is big, 
God is mighty, and holy and beyond.

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God is also a person among people,

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The Pastor in this kind of church 
want you to experience God

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the way the earliest cycle of experience Jesus,

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They walked with Jesus.

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They ate with Jesus.

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They talked with Jesus,

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He was their friend,

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And these pastors will tell you that

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You should put out 
a cup of coffee for God,

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You should have a beer with God

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Go for a walk with God, hang out.

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Do the kind of thing with God

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that you get do with anyone who 
you want to know as a person.

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He cares about all the stuff 
in your life.

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the little stuff, where you want to go 
in your summer vacation.

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what shirt you want to wear 
tomorrow morning.

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you can talk to him about that.

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So I wanted to know how people learn to 
interact with God

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and how they felt God 
speaking back to them.

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I knew they have learnt because
the newcomers came to this church,

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and they would say things like:

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"God does talk to me."

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and then six or eight months later
they would say :

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"I recognize God's voice the way I 
recognize my mum's voice on the phone . "

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But I thought the church teach

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think your mind is not the sort of fortress for your own generated thoughts, feelings and energies.

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it is usual you thought is for your own generated thoughts,feelings and

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you should think your mind is the place where you will be going to meet the God.

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and then some of thoughts
you might think that was yours,

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They are really God's thoughts being given to you

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and your job is to figure out
who is God.

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people did talk in the way suggested they would have

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as they had experience they are not their own.

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as a woman suggested to me when i was in the church,

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i feel my mind was a screen, the image was projected on.

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somebody else was in control that clicker.

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of course, not all the thoughts would be good candidate that God would say.

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people would look out thoughts that would be stood out.

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that was more spontaneous than another thoughts.

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thoughts would be louder and catch your attention.

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one women was explaining to me how she learnt to discern God's speaking,

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so people were praying over her one day,

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and the phrase "go to Kansas" flashed in her mind.

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her parents was in Kansas, so she thinking about visiting them.

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this thought just captured her attention,]

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this made her say ,what that come from.

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so you could imagine there will be risks for this style of discerning God's voice.