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No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from Shawn Bolz at iCreate Productions (www.bolzministries.com) except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

I dedicate this book to my parents, who helped me grow up with God and are the inspiration for this kind of book. I also want to dedicate it to my family: Cherie, my wife, who has partnered all the way on this, and my girls, Harper and Hartley, who are the loves of my life and already have such an amazing connection to God.

Maria looked around at all of her old friends and all the new friends she’d made in the past week, and she couldn’t believe they were in the last night of Lake Christian Summer Camp. It had been so much fun, with the swimming, horseback riding, and relay races . . . but her favorite moment was when her friend Lucas had initiated an innocent s’mores fight at the campfire the night before. Everyone was so sticky, and chocolate-covered faces made for some great pictures.

Maria had also loved the spiritual side of the camp, and she had never felt so connected to music as when she was joining in during the worship times.

It wasn’t just about singing songs; it was that it made her feel so present with God. She loved the words everyone was singing, but the worship went beyond words now in her mind. It was an expression of their hearts.

She and her two close camp friends, Lucas and Harper, were standing together worshipping when their children’s pastor came up to the front to share.

“It has been a great week, and I had so much fun with you guys. I love that our spiritual focus this year is on friendship with God and hearing His voice. Lucas,” the pastor singled him out, “that was an amazing prophetic word the guest speaker gave you on the first night. Because we are in the last night of camp, I want to practice what we have been learning about hearing God’s voice. Let’s ask God to speak through each other about something specific for this upcoming school year, and we are going to break up into groups of two or three and pray together to do this.”

Everyone had felt the buildup of anticipation over the full week of inspirational meetings they had been a part of. Harper ran to pray with her sister, Hartley, which left Lucas with Maria. She liked Lucas being her partner because he took God very seriously, and he was also very enjoyable to be around.

“Have you ever heard God, Lucas? I mean, besides that amazing prophecy you got the first night?” The assignments they had been doing all week to help them hear God’s voice didn’t feel like they were working for her very well. A lot of the kids had already shared amazing personal stories of encountering God and getting prophetic revelation. Although she believed she’d soon have stories of her own to share, she just hadn’t had anything happen yet. All the camp instructors had said that friendship with God meant that you could hear His voice, and she hadn’t.

“Yeah, He speaks to me a lot,” Lucas said.

“How do you know what you are hearing is Him and not you?” Maria twirled a strand of her red hair around her finger.

“Well, He usually tells me things I wasn’t already thinking about, or invites me to do things I would never think about doing. Like the other day, when we were at dinner, I felt like I was supposed to take Harper’s place to do after-dinner KP [clean up]. I hate KP, but when I asked her if she wanted me to do it, she was so grateful—she’d been invited to be on the worship team that night and needed to be there early for practice. She had just prayed to get out of KP when I asked her if I could take her shift. Me doing a little extra KP helped her get to do something she really loves. I think that when we are always ready to hear God, He helps us do things that help the world around us, even if they’re just little things.”

Maria nodded. “I wish I heard from God that way.”

“You can and will. Let’s try now.” Lucas grabbed her hands, and they closed their eyes while he prayed.

“God, we love You and know You love us. We want to know if there’s anything You want to tell us about our school year or about our lives.”

Maria strained to hear anything. She waited and waited but only heard her stomach growl. She needed more s’mores. She opened her eyes to see Lucas smiling at her from ear to ear.

“What?” she asked him. “Did God say something to you?”

“Yep. He said He wants to show you what you were made for; He wants to show you your destiny.”

Maria had just learned that when you hear something from God for someone else, the Bible calls it prophecy, and Lucas was prophesying over her! Her heart started beating really fast.

Just then, Harper walked back up to them holding her sister’s hand. “Hey guys, did you hear God’s voice? We had an amazing time.”

Maria said excitedly, “Lucas prophesied over me that I am going to hear God’s voice about my destiny.”

“I know my destiny,” Hartley declared, pulling away from her sister’s hand. “It’s ice cream!” She ran toward the cafeteria, because it was already snack time and the meeting had been dismissed.

Lucas looked at Harper. “Harper, let’s pray for Maria that she hears God right now.”

Maria thought ice cream sounded more realistic and satisfying, but she closed her eyes anyway. Harper and Lucas prayed for a bit, but Maria was lost in thought. She was imagining the worship time from earlier and how good it felt to sing to God about her love for Him. He was so good. She could picture a gentle father’s face smiling from somewhere inside of her. She was lost in the goodness of the moment when she was shocked that somewhere inside her heart and mind she heard: “I have made you to be creative like Me. You are an actress.” She gasped.