Hearing the Voice of God

This week marked the 3rd week i have been in Australia. It seems like i have been here for a lot longer yet so much shorter. Anyway last Saturday we had a day off lectures and took a trip up the coast about 30 minutes to a town called Nussa. The beaches there were absolutely beautiful and some of us took a scenic hike up to a cove called "Hells Gate". This was one of the prettiest places I have seen, and I'm sorry for all yall up in the snow but I was and still am enjoying so much sun and it has still yet to rain but as I'm typing this I'm seeing rain clouds come over the horizon and it hopefully is carrying much needed rain.

Lectures this week were on the topic "Hearing Gods Voice", on Monday we had two former DTS students come and speak on how they hear God and put it into terms college age kids can understand. Then the next four days the lectures were given by Borris a 37 year old German born surfer who works here at the Sunny Coast base. Borris had an amazing teaching style, he would tell life stories that helped us grasp the idea of hearing God and communicating with him. Since there is not really a 3 step process or exact way to hear God, these stories really helped.

One of the first things that was said was, "In order to do Gods will you have to hear God". This freaked me out because I felt to hear God was a one in a million chance and i truly want to live out my calling but i didn't feel i could truly hear God in my life. As we continued through the week I kept feeling something inside of me telling me that i wasnt fully giving everything over to Christ. The next day in lectures we talked about how we have to give up our rights, and just be willing to say yes to God. So that night i made a decision while praying that whatever came to my mind i would give up. Lots of things came to my head as i prayed and i wrote them all down. While i did this i realized that During this prayer while i fully handed those things over to Christ i could hear and feel him more clearly. The next day i challenged myself to do as we had been taught in our lessons and i tried to focus on blessing others and making my own life a byproduct. This became a huge blessing to me. Throughout the week little things kept coming into my head of things i should do, and i had no idea if it was God or just me so i finally said while laying in bed, "OK God I'm just going to try and do all these things that are coming up and if they are from you then cool but if not ill just be content looking like an idiot". Once i declared this i began doing things that i thought were stupid, but in the end i was truly blessed by the actions i was making. Hearing God has been something i have made seem almost impossible but through this week i have found that it really isn't all that insane, and God actually wants to speak to us. I know that this might seem like a crazy topic for some of you but here are some lecture notes i have that might help you:

1. You must be seeking God WHOLEHEARTEDLY and have fear for the Lord.

2. You must be willing to give up your rights.

3. God will speak however he feels. Crazy or normal he will speak however.

4. You must have character.

5. Try new ways to hear God. But, don't compare yourself to others. God speaks differently to all people. Just because he doesn't speak words to you he might wanna speak a different way. Don't be discouraged.

6. Just be willing to say YES.

7. If your having trouble giving up rights, ask God why your struggling.

8. Never specify to God how to speak to you.

9. Be proactive about God coming through.

10. If your desperately seeking God, its OK to be frustrated.

11. If your sincere on asking God then you cant go wrong.

12. Matthew 7:7, ask, seek, find

13. There are three voices in our head: God, us, and the enemy. The bible is a great tool to discern with, if its not biblical its not from God

14. God speaks to available people not cool people.

15. Hindsight is a beautiful thing when hearing and following through on Gods call.

This week we will be heading to beautiful Byron Bay Australia a town south of Brisbane for a week of evangelism. We will head out on Sunday morning and return the following Saturday. Please pray for us on this trip.

I ask for continued prayer for me and our group. I pray that i continue to have strength to give up my rights and surrender fully to God and his will for my life. Pray that our group is safe from the opposition and continues to hear Gods voice. Pray for all the outreach teams as we prepare to head out onto the mission field. Pray for my outreach team as we prepare for Nepal and India. Pray for India and Nepal. And most of all just pray to pray because that's where God meets us.

in Christ,

Andrew Thetford

any questions or anything just email at thetfordaw@mail.lipscomb.edu

Father Heart of God(First week of lectures)

This past week we had a speaker named Ray McConnell who is from Florida but now lives as a missionary in Thailand. He spoke the whole week on the "Father Heart of God". When i hear this i wasn't to sure what all there is to know about the Father Heart of God. When we started getting into the lectures we began to understand just how much God truly loves us and cares for us like a father. The first verse we looked at to delve into this subject was Ephesians 1:4 "Long before he laid down the earths foundations, he had us in mind, had settled on us as the focus of his love, to be made whole and holy."

The whole week our group began to get a better grasp on Gods father heart and throughout the week words and visions came to many people. God has started speaking to some of us in crazy ways. The biggest thing for me this week was when i heard God speak to me. I was praying so hard and getting frustrated cause people were saying things about how God told them this and told them that, and I'm sitting there frustrated cause I'm not getting anything. Finally Ray gave us all versus to go for about thirty minutes and just pray about. When i got my verse i went to a corner and prayed over it. The verse i was given was Zephaniah 3:17 "The lord your God is with you, he is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, he will quiet you with his love, he will rejoice over you with singing." As soon as i read this i started praying and God began to speak to me. He began telling me how I'm trying so hard to worship and praise him and speak to him but I'm not letting him worship, praise, and speak to me. Sometimes we get so frustrated because we are trying so hard to experience God and we don't let him experience us. Sometimes its hard to believe that the King of the world can hear our voice much less that he wants to sing and dance over us in all of our sin and mess.

Another thing we were challenged to do this week was write down anything and everything that is our first love above our love for Christ. When he first said this i didn't think there was really anything above him in my life but when I started to pray a whole page of things came up and it convicted me so much, so afterward me and some guys prayed over all of our stuff and decided to put all of those things aside until God was our first love.

Outside of lectures my small group of 5 guys have begun going through the book "Wild at Heart", this book is exactly what i need in my life right now. It is really speaking to our whole group and is showing me so much.

God is moving here and our outreach team is finally starting to get our trip together, i ask that if possible i can receive some prayer for our outreach team, pray for our teamwork, visions, courage, strength, and planning skills for our upcoming trip to India/Nepal.

Thank you all so much for prayers and support. I swear there are times i can feel prayers over me from halfway around the world.

With Christs Love

Andrew Thetford

p.s.- if there are any questions or anything your curious about that's going on with me here feel free to email me anything at thetfordaw@mail.lipscomb.edu

Outreach Location

This week we were split up into 5 groups with a male and female leader to each group and given our outreach location for late march. Every student was given a sheet of paper and told to write down the top three choices of the outreach locations. The options were: india/nepal, india/bangladesh. china. bali/Philippines, and thailand/cambodia. I really had no idea which to write down but once they described each location The india trips seemed to be very out of my comfort zone. They spoke of how crowded, dirty, and smelly these trips would be. These seemed very intense and honestly i dont have a huge desire to go to india but i felt God tugging at my heart to go to India. So i ended up writing the India trips as my top two and china as my third. The next day we found out our locations and i was put in the India/Nepal trip. I was so excited/nervous. In our group we have two Norwegians, aSouthern Califonian, a Korean, a Minnesotian, and two leaders one from france and one from florida. I really feel God is going to reveal so much to us as we prepare and go on this trip.

I would really love some prayer and intercession from back home. Currently we are praying and asking God exactly what he wants us to do while we are there. We are taking these next 10 weeks and planning this trip and hoping it changes as many lives as possible.

This coming week we will be having lectures that cover the father heart of God. I pray that all of us come to find direction from God and wisdom this week. Once again myself as well as all of the students here would love some intercession and prayer from back home.

With love from Australia,

Andrew Thetford

First post from down under!

Sorry about the long wait for my first post from down under but wi-fi has been though to get ahold of.

Anyway.... I'm here now and have been for a few days. Im already making some of the best friends i have ever had. There are people here in my DTS from all over including: Norway, Sweden, Finland, England, Whales, Australia, all over america, korea, france, switzerland, and other nations. Im already being so blessed by their culture and friendship. We are all getting really close and i have honestly smiled and laughed more in the past 5 days then i have in a long time. We are from all over and we are all seeking one thing and thats the spirit of God. Already we have all giving our testimonies and where we are in our walk with the lord and when we did it was one of the most emotional times in my life and we all grew together so much. Its amazing to have all these people and all of us start anew together.

The city i am in is called Maroochydoore and its 45 min north of the big city of Brisbane. Its right on the beach and its very laid back and people are very friendly. Our daily routine is to wake up around 7 then lectures start at 8. Lectures are amazing and there are some amazing speakers lined up. Lectures usually end around noon and then we have the rest of the day to be free and do quite time, our daily chores around the base and house, or go to the beach or wakeboard park or anything else we desire. We all have been given a one on one leader to go to when we just want to chat and mine is a guy named Jay who is a real salt of the earth guy and our friendship is already getting really strong. Every week we have one night of worship and one of community outreach. Today we were given options on our outreach location that we go to in late march and tomorrow we find out which one we are on. God is really moving in our group and in my life. One thing our base is really seeking is the voice of God nd our leaders are really urging us to have as much quite time with God as possible.

I have already started to "go on dates with God" when i get a chance. What i mean by this is ever since i can remember i have spent s much time thinking and stressing and messing with girls and going on dates with them. but i feel God is telling me to take a break from girls completely now and instead i have been chatting with him instead of calling girls and going on dates with him instead of with girls.

I keeping hearing some news back home that breaks my heart like what happened in haiti and lso what happened with lane kiffin in knoxville..... Anyway i miss everyone back home but no wories because im having the time of my life here....

in christ

Andrew thetford

Takeoff!!!

So....... here we go. Today I'm off to the land down under. It's finally here and to be honest it still hasnt set in. Im wondering if i really need to even be scared or nervous because in a reality i have a very good lifelong friend going with me, you might call him the holy ghost or the spirit of God. im praying for his comfort as i go where he has called me to go. So many people are asking me why YWAM? why australia? why why why??? And my honest answer to those questions is i have no clue except that God wants me to go. I have never felt so sure about anything in my life, this is what im supposed to do! And I wish i had just a glimpse of what all God is going to do while im gone but its like christmas and hes the parent keeping all the gifts hidden until the greatest possible time to open them.

Right now in the Nashville airport it is snowing pretty hard and when i land there will be sun, beaches, and lots of heat. God is putting me in a place that is 100 percent out of my element for a purpose there is a purpose behind all of what is happening and going to occur.

These next 5 1/2 months will be the time of my life and im going to soak of every second of it. Thank you to all who are praying for me and supporting me, i truly am blessed

Bing... Now Boarding... here we go.... see ya in june

In his name,

Andrew Thetford