God Speaking, 2 Corinthians 8:16-17

"But thanks be to God, which put the same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you. For indeed he accepted the exhortation; but being more forward, of his own accord he went unto you."

     There are many ways God will speak to us throughout our lives. Typically He speaks to us in a still, small voice in our hearts versus an audible voice. This is not to say God does not speak to us audibly or that He cannot, but that this is not the norm but more the exception. But how does one hear that "still, small voice"? How does it come to us?
     I have often wondered this myself. Is it through prayerful meditation only that I can hear this voice? Do I have to sit still enough and quiet enough or else miss it? Or is it through His bringing to light a Bible verse? God speaks to some people in dreams, and to others in journaling their meditations onto paper. God can also speak to through something someone else says to you; God touches our hearts and prompts us to action through something that someone has said, such as in a sermon or a Bible study.
     It is not necessarily true that God will always speak to us in such a way that it only involves us (i.e., Bible study, prayer, meditation on the word, journaling, dreams, etc.). He also is not limited to speaking to us through sermons or lectures of sorts. Sometimes the call of God can come in the form of a suggestion from another believer.

     I have always tended to think that God would put ideas for service to Him upon my own heart only, and that I was somehow missing all sorts of opportunities because God had not laid them upon my heart. It's not that I didn't think what other people were doing was a bad idea, in fact, I rather thought them good ideas, but I just didn't feel particularly "called of God" to go into such service. So I didn't, and I remained, to my dismay, a rarely used vessel of God.
     When reading 2 Corinthians 8:16-17 though, I was amazed because it seemed that Titus thought that the ministry that Paul and perhaps others were involved in to be a good idea. An amber, a little spark may have been created in his heart for such an opportunity. Then when he was exhorted to go into such a ministry he did not wait for anyone to tell him with whom or when, but picked up and went out of his own accord. It was as if the exhortation of others fanned into flame the spark in his heart.

     This particularly ministered to me because sometimes I think that if some sort of service was someone else's idea, somehow it doesn't count or I am not a good servant, or something to that effect. It seems to me that in order for me to truly have a servant's heart, one must come up with ideas for service on one's own. But when I read this verse I got a different idea.
     Perhaps there is a desire on your part to serve the Lord, you're just not sure exactly how to go about it. I believe that the first step is to be obedient in the small things. The Bible teaches that he who is obedient with little will be given more. And so by doing things when other people suggest them, and by being obedient to smaller responsiblities, I believe that the Lord is faithful to then give us greater responsibilities and put desires in our hearts as to what sort of calling He has planned for us.
     It is therefore not a bad thing to go along with another's ideas for ministry, as long as you go into them prayerfully. If someone else came up with the idea to say, help out at a shelter for victims of a fire, and others agreed that it was a good idea and then went of their own accord, would those who went be serving God any less or have any less of a servant's heart just because they did not come up with the idea to go into such a ministry? Hardly. It may be through the suggestions of others that God puts desires in our hearts. We are all one body in Christ, a unit, a family of believers. We are not called to be separate or individual, and are not condemned if we don't come up with ideas to serve on our own. It is the Lord who puts those notions in our hearts anyhow. It is important that we be faithful in the days of the little things, the smaller things. God will then grant us larger things and greater things.