Gen Z Speaks: The Language of the Spirit
Welcome to Peniel CrossRoads, where we embrace Jesus’s heart and together live out the call to biblical unity!
My name is Nadia, and I am a junior this year at Olivet Nazarene University. I grew up in a Christian home but started taking my relationship with God more seriously in the seventh grade. That relationship grew very rocky through the years, but this year it has proved to be the most transformational for me!
Lately, I have been trying to learn Spanish. Very quickly, I learned that it is a lot harder than I first thought. In order to learn the language, I actually have to put in a lot of effort. I have to spend intentional time dedicated to learning the language. In that time, something I realized is that Spanish has a certain dialect that even if you don’t know the language fully you are able to discern and know when someone isn’t speaking Spanish. Spanish has a certain sound to it. When someone speaks Swahili, you would be able to recognize it and say, “hey, that doesn’t sound like Spanish.”
The Holy Spirit gave me a revelation about how this is the same with God. Once you learn His dialect and start to learn His language, you will be able to discern and tell when a voice is or isn’t from God, because when God speaks, it matches His language which is in and IS His word. His voice has a certain sound.
It’s one thing to say you want to learn God’s language and another to actually do it. I talk about this in my podcast “Let’s Talk About It” in the episode “I can and I will stay pure.” I’ve always said I wanted to learn Spanish, but I was not determined to do so. How, then, will I ever learn Spanish?
A lot of people in Gen Z want to learn God’s language but are not determined, it’s an “I want” not an “I will.”
Well, how do you learn any other language? You have to dedicate time to learn it, immersing yourself with language-practicing conversations so it can become a part of your everyday vocabulary. God’s Word is His language, so the best way to learn His language is by reading His Word, and to ask the Holy Spirit (the best teacher) for help in understanding the language.
I was taught when I was younger that a person’s first language is what they think in their head. When someone tells them something, their first response in their head is their first language, and if they have to speak a different language, they will translate that out of their mouth into the other language. Personally, I’m striving for God’s Language to become my first language, so that my first response will be the Word of God. But for now, I will continue to translate and speak Jesus even if it’s not my first thought. I will learn God’s language. I want to encourage everyone reading this to dedicate time to learn God’s language as well.
~by Nadia Brown
“What we have received is not the spirit of the world, but the Spirit who is from God, so that we may understand what God has freely given us. This is what we speak, not in words taught us by human wisdom but in words taught by the Spirit, explaining spiritual realities with Spirit-taught words.” 1 Corinthians 2:12-13
Holy Spirit, we invite You to teach us to know, hear, and speak the words that come from God. Help us to rise above the world’s speech and instead, to share Your words of life. In Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.