Spêak - Zac Pearson
Spêak
Hearing God speak to me is one of the most comforting things ever. God can speak to us in a variety of ways. In one of my first-year classes at C3 College we learnt that there are four main ways that God speaks to us, God can speak to us through Angels, through the Holy Spirit, through people and through the Bible (see Acts 8.26).
In my life God has spoken me many times through the Holy Spirit, especially when I read the Bible. I learnt that any revelation we have when reading God’s word is actually the Holy Spirit revealing Himself to us. When I realised this, I found reading the Bible a lot more exciting and easy to do. Before I found it hard, like it a chore. But after learning that it was actually the Holy Spirit revealing Himself, I found myself picking up my Bible a whole lot more.
"God can speak to us in a variety of ways."
I’ve also experienced God speak to me in my own thoughts. For example, when I’m trying to decide something or do something, I would hear a voice in my head or get an idea. Originally, I thought it was just my own brain or mind thinking things but now when I look back, it was actually God speaking to me through my thoughts.
Another example of hearing God in my thoughts was during my final year of school when I wasn’t attending Church. In this time, I would go to parties and and even though I wasn’t really into Church, I would always invite friends to come and surprisingly, most would. Funnily enough, I was really successful at getting friends to come to Church while I was intoxicated. At one party though, after I had invited two friends to come and they both said yes, I heard a voice in my head… The voice said, “If you can reach people when you’re gone, imagine what you can do for me when you’re not.”
At that point, I realised it was God’s voice and I decided to step back into the plan that God had for me. After that decision, I found that more of my friends started coming to Church, the connect group I was in grew larger. I was able to start my own connect group that is growing and flourishing. I was then asked to run a youth service at C3’s extension service in Avalon. So everything I have done after that moment has proven to me that God did speak to me through my thoughts that night.
Spêak
A big way that God has spoken to me was through people, I believe prophecies are God speaking to us through people. In my life I have had more than one very accurate prophecy. I remember when I was starting my second year at Bible College and continuing to serve at youth. I was starting to doubt if it was actually the right decision to continue what I was doing. One morning of College, all the leadership and ministry students went to a leaders summit meeting on the campus. In that meeting Pastor Phil Pringle called all the youth leaders out of their seats and to come down the front so he could pray for all of us. He laid hands on everyone and did a powerful group prayer. I remember thinking to myself how great it would be to have Pastor Phil Prophecy over myself. As soon as I thought that, I remembered what one of our lectures, Katie Haldane, had said to us, she said “We don’t actually need to hear people prophecy over us because we have the Holy Spirit.” The Holy Spirit speaks straight to us. So I felt content to not receive a prophetic word.
"The Holy Spirit speaks straight to us."
As soon as I finished that thought though Pastor Phil stopped and prophesied over me. It was one of the most encouraging prophecies I’ve ever had. In that prayer, he said “You have chosen the right path. There will be temptations to your left and to your right but stay strong because you have chosen the right course.”
This prophecy killed any doubt that I had about my call. What made me know that it was straight from God was because Pastor Phil had no idea what I was going through, he had no idea that I was doubting my decision and he didn’t even know my name. But God used him to speak to me.
Zac Pearson, a C3 College 2nd Year Leadership and Ministry student, eager for God to Spêak.