Since I started talking with God at the start of 2015, I have had life changing discussions. I felt like I'd graduated - from kindergarten to primary school. Now (2017) I've graduated from primmer one - can't wait to leave the primmers. So much is changing in my life. I thought I'd share some lessons I've learned - not to say this is the way someone else should be living - but as an example of how one very ordinary person is very slowly learning a whole new (yet old) way of life.

After creation, the Bible starts with God and Adam and Eve talking. He later talked with their son - a murderer - and basically everyone and anyone. Eventually people asked not to talk directly with God - they left it to "heavies" like Moses, religion took over. But God is still talking with people - one to one two-way discussions about everything. This is not referring to prophecy and other situations where God speaks a specific word. This is God sharing His thoughts - which can be very disturbing at first to those of us with decades to expecting God to speak through (other) special people.

So what has God been saying to me? The first big He really said was to slow down. This is not an easy thing for a Type A personality. At first I thought it was to slow down so I could hear His voice (and certainly I did need to). I clicked (eventually) that His word to me wasn't unique: "Be still and know that I am God". Later I found (are you starting to get the idea I can be really slow on the uptake) He doesn't just want me to slow down when I want to hear Him - He wants me to live as Jesus did - hearing and responding to God - not racing ahead on my own steam as I've been accustomed to.

I also had a special reminder of a book I read a year after becoming a Christian. "Your God is too small" (J B Phillips) wasn't discarded when we pruned our books - I thought it was good. But I had no idea of how great. My God really has been way too small. Just as an example - now having conversations with God is great. But God has a few billion other people in the world - and has a conversation around each one. Most don't join in - but imagine two people conversing. A third joins - and then another - and another ... How many people before we lose a real conversation? But God can handle billions of individual conversations - and still do everything else He does.

You wouldn't think of accounting as leading to a discussion with God - but I had a problem which I'd been battling with for some days. Eventually I asked God about it. He suggested a different approach - which somewhat surprisingly (to me) let me break through and complete the job. I tackled a second company for this client, using the same process. It didn't work. Man - that wasn't nice. God had given me the 'trick" - why did it not work. If you thought I was slow taking this problem to God, I was really slow thinking what worked once would work a second time. That's when I learned the really important lesson - one that's clear from the gospels (and elsewhere) - but needed to be hammered home to me.

The important thing is to hear (and do) what God says in each and every situation. Taking what worked one time and turning it into a "rule" is what religion is so good at. God wants us always - not occasionally - to hear Him and do what He wants - how He wants.

There are lots of other things that have transformed my thinking - too many to detail here. Many are more personal / trivial. And I still haven't got past primary school level. Hopefully you can do much better.