Annyeonghaseyo Jal Jinae

That is a phrase that I will become very familiar with. It is Korean for "Hello, how are you?" In reality, I believe that most Koreans stick with "Annyeong."

If you read my last post, you saw that I was going through a process to try to listen closely to the Lord, getting more and more confirmation of what I thought He was saying.

Well, He showed up in a big way.

Korea is a big move. Bigger than Virginia. Bigger than anything I've done. God knew that. But, it is so much easier to be obedient when it is something that we think we can do, like say.... move back to a town you used to live in, or back home. It's easy to be obedient when it's something we do all the time, like say... tithe, or giving a person a hug (although I admit that can be tough for some people).

What do you do when God says, "I want you to move to Korea for possibly a long time" ? I don't know what YOU would do, but I can tell you what I did. I tested Him. I asked for confirmation. And when I got that confirmation, I asked for more (because, in our heads we need more/bigger confirmation with bigger things....right?). And then, God was telling me patiently, "This is something I want you to do" (how much clearer does it get than that?) I told Him, "Okay, I'm gonna pray about for a month and whatever Your answer is then, that's what I'm going to go with." Except.... God already answered me.

Wednesday night at the women's group I go to, we were watching a video on being obedient once we are able to hear God's voice. We studied the story of Namaan, from 2 Kings. Namaan asked God to heal him of his leprosy. What he had in mind was the prophet waving his hand over his sores and then being healed... the answer he got was to go and wash in the Jordan river. Not as exciting.

How was I any different in what I was doing? I wanted some miraculous sign. I wanted a Korean to walk up to me and tell me God sent her to tell me to go and teach English to her people. I wanted a cloud in the shape of Korea floating over my apartment. I wanted gosh... something tangible, something all glittery and shiny.

I got something mildly glittery. Last Sunday, I was sitting at Panera and had just gotten done praying, "Lord, please make your desires for me more clear." Just a few minutes later, I heard a chime from my computer...a Facebook notification. I looked at it and it showed that someone had commented on a status update I had entered a few days earlier. This is what it said:

Me: "No longer do I frantically search for God's will; I frantically search for God." #truth
Friend: "FYI, God is in South Korea."

Wait, what? This person has NO idea that I had been praying this.

Then, Wednesday night, it was as if Priscilla Shirer was speaking right to me. She said, "Some of you that are sitting in the audience are radically obedient, and surrounding yourselves with other who are also radically obedient. You are testing God, pressing in, wondering if He's going to change His mind."

Whoa. I immediately felt conviction that I knew could only be the Holy Spirit. He was convicting me of my unbelief and my disobedience in taking small steps towards what I was hearing Him say.

That one glittery thing, Priscilla's word, confirmation in His word, prayer, and going through the Discerning the Voice of God book have led me to step into obedience and say, "Yes."

So there it is. I am moving again. Not tomorrow, as I am contracted at my job, but soon.

Stay tuned for a "I'm Moving to Asia and I Need to Sell Stuff" sale :)