Before I came on the World Race I would listen and hear God’s voice sometimes, but it wasn’t something I was constantly seeking.
During Training Camp I was introduced to the concept Ask The Lord and we did a few sessions where we would ask who was on God’s heart and what God was saying about some of our fellow squad mates. Our squad mum is such an inspiration when it comes to seeking who is on God’s heart and just listening to what it is that he is asking her to do and I feel extremely blessed that we were able to hear how God has used her because of her incredible obedience to him. Love you Momma K!
Ask The Lord
After being put into teams our first ministry together was to ATL. My teammate Mercy has written a blog – Treasure Hunting – about how our first team ATL experience went. I wasn’t part of the team that went to speak to the person God had put on our heart, instead Daniel, Andrew, Jay and I prayed over them whilst they were talking to him.
We have done a number of ATL’s since that time – in fact our very first ministry this week was to ATL, my team and I headed down to the river, we sat and prayed and asked God what was on his heart today. Mercy was told very directly to ‘Go to the temple’, as she looked around saw there was a temple directly behind us. I just kept seeing the Starbucks logo and Daniel saw a girl sitting alone at a table outside somewhere and a few people got the sense of someone with a cold. First of all our whole team headed to the temple to pray.
Mercy and I then headed to Starbucks, now I am going to be honest, I really didn’t expect anything, I had never experienced seeing an image and having that coming to fruition. When we walked into Starbucks I immediately saw this girl with a bandage on her hand, so I said to Mercy – shall we order something and sit close by to her. She was sitting on one of those bench tables so we were able to sit opposite her. After a few minutes Mercy engaged her in conversation and we talked about how long she had been in Chiang Mai and what she had done since she had been here and why we were in Thailand. It turned out that she was bitten by a dog on her first day in Chiang Mai and hasn’t been able to do what she wanted, she was also having to go to the hospital every day to have her bandage changed and her wound checked. As she was alone in Starbucks I asked if she was travelling alone and she said she was travelling with her boyfriend but he was back at their hostel because he had the flu. Just before we needed to leave we asked if she minded if we prayed for her and her boyfriend and she said that was fine. The feeling I felt during this time was just incredible. I felt for the first time that God was really speaking to me and using me as one of his vessels.
When God just speaks to you
Now, before coming on the race I am sure there were times when God spoke to me, but I never really registered that it was him, I would dismiss it as thoughts in my head. The first time I can really say I heard God say something to me was when we were doing team selection and we were put into our third groups. I was put into a team with Mercy, Callie, Jay, Andrew and Simeon and as we sat together ready to start the task of assembling my tent blindfolded I felt God say to me ‘this is your team and you will lead them’ but I brushed it off at first because I thought it could have just been wishful thinking on my part as it was a group of people I would be really happy to be in a team with. The next morning we had another team selection activity and the exact same group was read out for me and once again I heard God say ‘this is your team and you will lead them’, but I was still nervous with trusting that it was God’s voice and it wasn’t until that evening when teams were officially announced that I was like woah, that was God.
Team leaders were still not announced – instead our squad leaders were going to act as team leaders for the rest of our time in Thailand. I took that as they hadn’t decided who was going to be a team leader and so it was completely possible that it could be anyone in my team. So when I got pulled over by one of our squad leaders, Daniel, on Thursday and asked to pray about team leading I went into a bit of shock. I knew this was a divine appointment from God and I said I would take some time to pray about it. But I was still couldn’t quite believe it, God had told me this nearly two weeks ago and yet I had still doubted him. I pray that God will grant me the wisdom, strength, grace, patience, power, love to serve and love my team in the best possible way.
Over the last 20 days God has reminded me time and time again that I can depend on him and he is a good good father. I am so excited that he is using me as his hands and feet and feel blessed in the way I have been called to serve him this year.
Trust God from the bottom of your heart; don’t try to figure out everything on your own.
Listen for God’s voice in everything you do, everywhere you go; he’s the one who will keep you on track.
Proverbs 3:5-6 (The Message)
