There's something which is odd about hearing God.

But not in the way you might think.

This evening we had a bit of an open prayer time at the chapel, and prayed for certain things. I just felt God say 'do such and such' and when I did them it seemed natural and right to say certain things, much of which seemed appropriate to aspects of the situation I had no knowledge of until later.

That's not the odd thing.

The odd thing is that people sometimes look at me as if to say "wow, how did you know that" and of course the answer is, I didn't and in many ways still don't, really.

There is someone we know who is gifted prophetically who would quite often stand up in church meetings and give people accurate prophetic words. In one case a couple who he had never met nor knew anything about had come with us and he gave them first an accurate description of their jobs and relationship before giving them a word of direction. Chris and I would sometimes joke together at those times: "missed me" etc. One day I asked God 'why aren't there ever any words for me' and He said 'because I can speak to you and don't need to do that with you'. It all seems perfectly natural, but it really isn't about me being special, but about Him talking to me.

And this is why it's not like some gift or ability that I have to 'know' things about people, to peel back their masks and see their thoughts and feelings. Instead it's simply God showing me stuff for a purpose. For my part, increasingly over recent years I've tried to be faithful to speak up, rather than doing the obvious 'that couldn't be God - must be my imagination'. The result of that, I'm sure, is that He's talking to me more in a way I can hear, instead of just through feelings and wishes. I hope that increasingly I'll learn to recognise that voice and speak out.