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 interactively; 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. 00:01:04.383 --> 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 --> 00:01:22.272 I really want to know how their God became real to them. 00:01:23.472 --> 00:01:25.502 So let me begin by asking, 00:01:25.502 --> 00:01:27.812 who is the God in the church like this? 00:01:27.832 --> 00:01:31.332 God is God, God is big, God is mighty, and holy and beyond, 00:01:32.532 --> 00:01:34.572 but God is also a person among people, 00:01:35.252 --> 00:01:39.222 The Pastor in this kind of church want you to experience God 00:01:39.222 --> 00:01:42.072 the way the earliest cycle of experience Jesus, 00:01:42.154 --> 00:01:43.454 They walked with Jesus. 00:01:43.454 --> 00:01:44.644 They ate with Jesus. 00:01:44.644 --> 00:01:46.024 They talked with Jesus, 00:01:46.024 --> 00:01:47.104 He was their friend, 00:01:47.766 --> 00:01:50.296 And these pastors will tell you that 00:01:51.456 --> 00:01:53.816 You should put out a cup of coffee for God, 00:01:53.967 --> 00:01:55.787 You should have a beer with God 00:01:55.787 --> 00:01:57.697 Go for a walk with God, hang out. 00:01:57.697 --> 00:01:59.397 Do the kind of thing with God 00:01:59.397 --> 00:02:03.207 that you get do with anyone who you want to know as a person. 00:02:03.226 --> 00:02:05.746 He cares about all the stuff in your life. 00:02:06.113 --> 00:02:08.953 the little stuff, where you want to go in your summer vacation; 00:02:08.953 --> 00:02:11.067 what shirt you want to wear tomorrow morning; 00:02:11.067 --> 00:02:12.907 you can talk to him about that. 00:02:14.573 --> 00:02:18.403 So I wanted to know how people learn to interact with God 00:02:18.403 --> 00:02:20.223 and how they felt God speaking back. 00:02:20.223 --> 00:02:23.803 I knew they have learnt because the newcomers came to this church, 00:02:23.803 --> 00:02:25.653 and they would say things like: 00:02:25.653 --> 00:02:27.133 "God does talk to me." 00:02:27.193 --> 00:02:29.723 and then six or eight months later they would say : 00:02:29.793 --> 00:02:34.393 "I recognize God's voice the way I recognize my mum's voice on the phone . " 00:02:36.078 --> 00:02:37.918 But I thought the church teach 00:02:38.368 --> 00:02:40.523 what you should think about your mind 00:02:40.523 --> 00:02:42.933 is not a fortress full of your own self-generated 00:02:42.933 --> 00:02:45.341 thoughts, feelings and images; 00:02:45.361 --> 00:02:49.001 you should think your mind is the place where you will be going to meet the God. 00:02:49.001 --> 00:02:52.681 and then some of thoughts you might think that was yours, 00:02:52.690 --> 00:02:56.280 They were really God's thoughts being given to you 00:02:56.280 --> 00:02:59.760 and your job is to figure out who is God. 00:02:59.782 --> 00:03:04.722 And in fact, people did talk in the way suggested they would have 00:03:06.276 --> 00:03:09.766 as they had experiences that weren't their own. 00:03:09.766 --> 00:03:12.736 A woman said to me as I start to pray in this church: 00:03:12.789 --> 00:03:17.569 "I feels like my mind is a screen that images were projected on. 00:03:18.079 --> 00:03:20.859 Somebody else is controlling that clicker." 00:03:20.972 --> 00:03:25.661 And of course, not all the thoughts would be good candidate 00:03:25.661 --> 00:03:27.501 for the kind of things God would say. 00:03:28.381 --> 00:03:30.840 People would look for thoughts that stood out, 00:03:30.970 --> 00:03:33.370 that was more spontaneous than another thoughts; 00:03:33.370 --> 00:03:36.270 thoughts were louder and captured your attention. 00:03:37.470 --> 00:03:42.380 one women was explaining to me how she learnt to discern God's speaking, 00:03:42.816 --> 00:03:46.816 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.