What I want to talk about this morning is remarkable phenomenon
that people not only talk to God
but they learn to experience God is talking back
Many many Americans are involved, and many other people
are involved, as you may call, in a renewalist spirituality -
a kind of spirituality which they want to experience God
intimately, personally and interactively;
they want to reach out, touch the Divine here on earth
I want to find out how they did that.
I am anthropologist,
my job is to immerse myself in the world I come to study,
and to keep observing
so that at some degree, I got a sense of what it take to
become a Native in that world.
Unlike Margret Mead & Rev. Gregory Bateson
were pictured here in Papua New Guinea.
I did this work in America.
I spent two years in the renewalist church in Chicago,
another two years in one of the Bay area.
I went to Sunday Morning services.
I was a member of House Group. I was in the prayer's circle.
I hang out with people.
I prayed with people.
I really want to know how their God became real to them.
So let me begin by asking,
who is the God in the church like this?
God is God, God is big, God is mighty, and holy and beyond,
but God is also a person among people,
The Pastor in this kind of church want you to experience God
the way the earliest cycle of experience Jesus,
They walked with Jesus.
They ate with Jesus.
They talked with Jesus,
He was their friend,
And these pastors will tell you that
You should put out a cup of coffee for God,
You should have a beer with God
Go for a walk with God, hang out.
Do the kind of thing with God
that you get do with anyone who you want to know as a person.
He cares about all the stuff in your life.
the little stuff, where you want to go in your summer vacation;
what shirt you want to wear tomorrow morning;
you can talk to him about that.
So I wanted to know how people learn to interact with God
and how they felt God speaking back.
I knew they have learnt because the newcomers came to this church,
and they would say things like:
"God does talk to me."
and then six or eight months later they would say :
"I recognize God's voice the way I recognize my mum's voice on the phone . "
But I thought the church teach
what you should think about your mind
is not a fortress full of your own self-generated
thoughts, feelings and images;
you should think your mind is the place where you will be going to meet the God.
and then some of thoughts you might think that was yours,
They were really God's thoughts being given to you
and your job is to figure out who is God.
And in fact, people did talk in the way suggested they would have
as they had experiences that weren't their own.
A woman said to me as I start to pray in this church:
"I feels like my mind is a screen that images were projected on.
Somebody else is controlling that clicker."
And of course, not all the thoughts would be good candidate
for the kind of things God would say.
People would look for thoughts that stood out,
that was more spontaneous than another thoughts;
thoughts were louder and captured your attention.
one women was explaining to me how she learnt to discern God's speaking,
so people were praying over her one day,
and the phrase "go to Kansas" flashed in her mind.
her parents was in Kansas, so she thinking about visiting them.
this thought just captured her attention,]
this made her say ,what that come from.
so you could imagine there will be risks for this style of discerning God's voice.