Hearing God's voice

Hearing God's voice may be something you are very familiar with or something that seems like a very strange concept. Either way, today's blog offering is all about how we feel we have heard God speak to us.

So, where are we up to with our story? Well, we are up to the middle of last year, with Tim feeling ridiculously excited and me feeling overwhelmed with the impossible. During these months, this is how we heard God's voice...

1. God speaks through examples | May 2016

I quite reluctantly went to a women's event at a church in Norwich, you know when your friends say it would be good for you, but you don't want to go, etc? Anyway, a lady called Livy Gibbs was speaking and during her preach, the examples she used from her own life were all about when she had moved to London...

2. God uses people you know to prophesy over you | May 2016

We held a Relational Mission Sunday at ACC and at one point during the morning, those who worked for Relational Mission were prayed for. One of the Elders, Marshall Schaitel, prayed for me and felt God was saying; 'I feel God wants to remind you of the example of Peter - he knew all there was to know about running a boat but Jesus asked him to do something he had never done before in stepping out onto the water. God is going to ask you to do the same - you can run an event, that's easy for you but it is time to step out of your comfort zone.'

The next three all take place at our Relational Mission Leadership Conference

3. God uses people you rarely see to encourage you | June 2016

So I have a very good friend called Kate, who now lives in New Zealand. We were in London together many moons ago and Kate was my prayer partner - someone I hung out with each week to chat and pray. Now guess what? Kate happened to be in the UK at this point and also happened to be visiting her parents who happen to be part of one of our Relational Mission churches in Dereham and they happened to be attending the Leadership Conference! So Kate came for a day to the conference - I can't tell you what an absolute joy it was, not only to catch up with Kate, but also to worship alongside each other and pray for each other again. She is very special. As we were sitting in the evening meeting, Kate turned to me and said 'Annice, I really feel that God wanted me to come here today to remind you of all that was good about London when we were there.'

4. God uses preaches to speak to you | June 2016

So, still at the Leadership Conference, one of the main session speakers was a guy called Paul Maconochie and during his preach, he talked about moving house a lot, about 'missional communities' and about taking things to the cross. I felt like God was speaking directly to me throughout a lot of that session. I was reminded of how our church plant group in London all those years ago was a missional community* before it became a 'thing' and how for years really, there has been a longing in my heart for those days, a conviction that is the way church should be expressed, but I had long since put those desires aside as disappointment crashed in. I felt God's prompting to revisit those things.

*A Missional community is a group of people, about the size of an extended family, who are united through Christian community around a common service and witness to a particular neighborhood or network of relationships.

5. God uses people who don't know you to prophesy over you | June 2016 While he was at the Leadership Conference, someone prayed for Tim and felt God was saying this; 'I see a picture of you dressed as a Roman Soldier and I feel God is saying to you that He wants you to train up younger men, ready for battle.'

The next two are at Newday - a Christian event for young people

6. God puts people in place to remind you of what He has said | August 2016

When Tim was prayed for above, another person who heard what was said was our sister-in-law's father, Dave Houghton. Whilst we were at Newday, he put his hands on Tim's shoulders and said; 'Remember the word you were given about being a Roman Soldier - you need to remember that.'

7. God uses random strangers to prophesy over you | August 2016

So, Tim had his arm in a sling whilst we were at Newday as he'd had Carpel Tunnel surgery a few weeks earlier. On one occasion he walked from the Big Top to the toilets and got stopped 3 times by different people asking him if they could pray for him! The first of those people said; 'God wants to say to you that not only will you be a builder by trade, but also a builder in a church planting setting.'

All of the above felt like God was gently speaking to us at any given opportunity! He really is kind.

Next Blog Post: Our first visit to Revelation Church