WEBVTT

00:00:10.567 --> 00:00:13.901
What I want to talk about this morning 
is remarkable phenomenon

00:00:14.031 --> 00:00:16.833
that people not only talk to God

00:00:16.853 --> 00:00:20.553
but they learn to experience
God is talking back

00:00:22.012 --> 00:00:25.862
Many many Americans are involved,
and many other people

00:00:25.884 --> 00:00:29.334
are involved, as you may call, 
in a renewalist spirituality -

00:00:29.866 --> 00:00:33.187
a kind of spirituality
which they want to experience God

00:00:33.187 --> 00:00:36.497
intimately, personally and interactive;

00:00:36.781 --> 00:00:40.151
they want to reach out, 
touch the Divine here on earth

00:00:40.566 --> 00:00:43.186
I want to find out how they did that.

00:00:44.368 --> 00:00:45.688
I am anthropologist,

00:00:46.368 --> 00:00:49.788
my job is to immerse myself in
the world I come to study,

00:00:50.168 --> 00:00:51.938
and to keep observing

00:00:52.105 --> 00:00:55.557
so that at some degree,
I got a sense of what it take to

00:00:55.557 --> 00:00:57.407
become a Native in that world.

00:00:57.937 --> 00:01:00.127
Unlike Margret Mead &
Rev. Gregory Bateson

00:01:00.127 --> 00:01:02.276
were pictured here in Papua New Guinea.

00:01:02.366 --> 00:01:03.976
I did this work in America.

00:01:03.993 --> 00:01:07.673
I spent two years 
in the renewalist church in Chicago,

00:01:07.985 --> 00:01:11.265
another two years
in one of the Bay area.

00:01:11.387 --> 00:01:13.119
I went to Sunday Morning services.

00:01:13.119 --> 00:01:16.292
I was a member of House Group.
I was in the prayer's circle.

00:01:16.292 --> 00:01:17.622
I hang out with people.

00:01:17.622 --> 00:01:18.812
I prayed with people.

00:01:18.812 --> 00:01:22.322
I really want to know how
their God became real to them.

00:01:23.472 --> 00:01:25.782
So let me begin by asking,

00:01:25.782 --> 00:01:27.972
who is the God in the church like this?

00:01:28.002 --> 00:01:31.342
God is God, God is big, 
God is mighty, and holy and beyond.

00:01:31.342 --> 00:01:34.572
God is also a person among people,

00:01:34.572 --> 00:01:38.572
The Pastor in this kind of church 
want you to experience God

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the way the earliest cycle of experience Jesus,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They walked with Jesus.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They ate with Jesus.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They talked with Jesus,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He was their friend,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
And these pastors will tell you that

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You should put out 
a cup of coffee for God,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
You should have a beer with God

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Go for a walk with God, hang out.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
Do the kind of thing with God

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that you get do with anyone who 
you want to know as a person.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
He cares about all the stuff 
in your life.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
the little stuff, where you want to go 
in your summer vacation.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
what shirt you want to wear 
tomorrow morning.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you can talk to him about that.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
So I wanted to know how people learn to 
interact with God

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and how they felt God 
speaking back to them.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
I knew they have learnt because
the newcomers came to this church,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and they would say things like:

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"God does talk to me."

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and then six or eight months later
they would say :

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
"I recognize God's voice the way I 
recognize my mum's voice on the phone . "

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
But I thought the church teach

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
think your mind is not the sort of fortress for your own generated thoughts, feelings and energies.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
it is usual you thought is for your own generated thoughts,feelings and

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
you should think your mind is the place where you will be going to meet the God.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and then some of thoughts
you might think that was yours,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
They are really God's thoughts being given to you

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and your job is to figure out
who is God.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
people did talk in the way suggested they would have

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as they had experience they are not their own.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
as a woman suggested to me when i was in the church,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
i feel my mind was a screen, the image was projected on.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
somebody else was in control that clicker.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
of course, not all the thoughts would be good candidate that God would say.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
people would look out thoughts that would be stood out.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
that was more spontaneous than another thoughts.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
thoughts would be louder and catch your attention.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
one women was explaining to me how she learnt to discern God's speaking,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
so people were praying over her one day,

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
and the phrase "go to Kansas" flashed in her mind.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
her parents was in Kansas, so she thinking about visiting them.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
this thought just captured her attention,]

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
this made her say ,what that come from.

99:59:59.999 --> 99:59:59.999
so you could imagine there will be risks for this style of discerning God's voice.