After the first month or so, the group began to grow. About three months into the group, there were about 10 or 12 people attending. It was around this time that God gave me a 'faithfulness test.' While I was hurrying to get ready to go to the group, I felt that God showed me a picture in my mind's eye of what He wanted to do during the ministry prayer time at the end of the meeting. In this little vision, I saw and heard what God was doing with the others and I saw myself leading this prayer time. It was very vivid. It was also one of the first times that I had ever received a word picture from God like this. I got to the group a couple of minutes early and 'interrupted' the prayer preparation that I had seen and what I thought it meant. I left out the part about me leading the ministry time. The leaders of the group encouraged this kind of participation from the group members so they weren't put off by what I shared.
At the end of the teaching time, the leader of the group shared a part of the word picture that I had shared with him and asked us to respond to God. We all tried to respond to God and waited for God to release the Holy Spirit's power. Nothing happened. Around this time, I snuck a quick glance at the leader, who was looking right at me. Inside I thought, well so much for that idea. I felt a little embarrassed. Just at that point, I heard a voice inside my head say, 'I asked you to lead this time, not the leader of the group.' I knew at that point that I had to respond to this voice. I broke the silence of the group and shared what I thought I had just heard. I shared that I felt a little unsure and insecure about what I was doing but I felt that I needed to take a risk and go for it. I lead the group in prayer and waited. God responded. Exactly what I had seen in the word picture happened. I was a little overwhelmed.
That's an interesting "faithfulness test." I'm sure that the author has experienced more tests that have stretched him even further.
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I guess God has spoken to me through alot of different mediums (I know, not a real great word to use when talking about this). He's spoken to me through dreams several times. Honestly, that's the one I miss! I haven't felt that as much recently. He's spoken to me through other people - prophecy, that sort of thing. Scripture of course, you wouldn't believe what verses can pop up that you didn't know were there before! I'm sure most everyone can attest to that, it's been a little of everything.
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