He Speaks My Language

If God is all-knowing, and He is, then He knows every language, every dialect, and every culture in the world.  He is also loving and desiring of intimacy.  He would never speak to me in Chinese and expect me to communicate with Him because I don't know Chinese.  He doesn't speak to me in Spanish either.  I know some Spanish and can find my way to a taco and a bathroom, but I'm not fluent in the language and God wants me to communicate with Him.  Communication, by the way, is a process of sending AND receiving understandable messages.  I cannot see His hands or His face, so I don't get His body language.   He wants me to communicate with Him.
One of the ways He speaks is through the written word.  Very few people around the globe can fluently translate that Word in its original form.  He has enabled scholars to translate His words into a language I can understand.  I don't want to debate which translation is better or worse because each translation of the Word of God loses its potency as there are words in each language that are richest in their native tongue and will not translate directly.  I am still grateful that there are many translations of God's Word available to me in the English language so that I may know God more and more by reading His messages to me.  In fact, I have several digital and printed translations of the Bible so that I can more easily understand what is written down for me to read.  I love to hear the scriptures read aloud too, especially the book of Isaiah.
Another way that God communicates to me is through music and He knows the many styles of music that I like to hear and gives me what I need through a melody often times.  I believe that others hear from God through music that I don't like.  God wants to be intimate with me and He shows me love through my language and not even my mother's.
He also speaks to me through others who love Him.  I don't always hear Him through their rehearsed messages or recitations, but through unrehearsed loving acts and words.  Jesus told His disciples not to worry about what they were to say to the people because His words would be in their mouths by the power of Holy Spirit.  That's crazy!  If I want to share the gospel with someone, I often think I must be prepared with a proper message.  Well, I get that message by studying His Word and putting it in my heart that it would be on my lips when Holy Spirit brings it back to my memory.  I once planned a whole conversation and in the end, I didn't speak a word of it to my friend.  I spoke words of love that even surprised me.  He responded to those words and I really don't think He would have responded to my original message.
Sometimes I don't hear the message that God is sending to me because I've already judged the speaker and am thinking of other things as they speak.  He speaks my language and He is patiently sending an obedient one to deliver it and yet, I shut my ears because I think I've already got the answer or I know more than the speaker or .... well I come up with many excuses.
God often speaks to me through the way I speak to my children.  He is a Father you know.  "If you do that, you'll get hurt!" or "Why can't you obey me the first time I ask you to do something!"  I've actually stopped in the midst of scolding my kids and think, "Oh that's what You've been trying to tell me!"  I've learned so much about God in the 9+ years that I've been a mother.  God is slower to anger than I am, but He still becomes angry and disciplines the ones He loves.
God also speaks to my heart in His still, small voice.  I remember a simple one when I heard, "You need to carry that [box] with 2 hands."  I still thought I'd get more done faster if I carried one box in each hand and the box that I knew He spoke of ripped at the handle and spilled its contents of tiny pieces of trash all over the carpet.  It took me longer to clean up the huge mess than it would of if I had heeded His voice.  He doesn't always just speak huge revelation about international crises, He wants to guide our steps.  He wants us to turn right when He says to do so, often to avoid turmoil.  He wants us to help the poor man trying to balance his large bag of groceries and broken bicycle when He says to do so.
Don't expect Him to speak to your heart in King James English because you don't speak that way.  He may bring a verse to your mind in the King James text, because He knows you'll understand that, but when He speaks intimately to you with direction other than passages like those, He will speak your language.  I've not heard Him tell me, "Speak thou to thine pastor about such things as these."  He said, "Respond to what Pastor ______ just said with these words... ."  I have spoken on behalf of God and inserted rehearsed lines from growing up in charismatic churches.  "The Lord would say to you."  or "Thus says the Lord."  It's not wrong, but if I let Him put each word in my mouth, it would surely be in the language that the receiver of the message would understand.  His desire is to relate with us.
I believe that God still speaks today.  I've even had Him speak to me through people whom I would consider evil.  He used a donkey to speak to Balaam, so why wouldn't he use any means necessary to get through to me.  I don't want it to take a donkey to get through to me.  It's not fun to hear things in that way.  Lord, open my ears to hear Your voice!  I want to know You more!