Good morning and welcome to Thursday’s podcast. I hope that where ever you are and how ever you engage that God is speaking to you through this resource. Today we reach the point in the story of Stephen when he’s arrested and accused and he stands to make his defence. His speech consists of recounting the story of the nation of Israel… Acts, chapter 7 v 1-16. Here is a small section of Stephen’s defence,

‘Leave your country and your people,’ God said [to Abraham] ‘and go to the land I will show you.’ “So he left the land of the Chaldeans and settled in Harran.

And I want to focus in even further today, to this, “God said… so he left”

REFLECTION:

“God said… So he left!!”

I have a friend – just the one – and he was asked by a Christian leader how he came to be living and working in Sheffield. My friend’s response was that he and his wife heard God tell them to come to Sheffield so they came. Now for them to do this it involved them uprooting their young family and relocating… from New Zealand! The Christian leader remarked that it was so rare to hear Christians talk like this today. It’s only a sample of one, but is this ‘God said, so I left’ more rare today than 20 years ago?

We read the stories of Jackie Pullinger buying a one way boat ticket around the world, waiting for God to tell her when and where to get off, and then how God used her powerfully in the walled city in Hong Kong.  We can get to thinking that somehow this kind of crazy is reserved for special Christians with too much time on their hands!

…Or maybe this is how God wants to relate to all of us:

“God said… so we did…”

Abraham heard God say… so he left. Abraham left his family, his future – his inheritance – and his safety… and he followed God… When he set off, he didn’t have a clue where God was taking him.

A few years ago, a member of the church, Richie Wells, did a series of pictures as he and his church community completed a 100 day Bible challenge. Many of them are displayed around the church. My favourite depicts this moment in Abraham’s life. There is Abraham with his immediate family and meagre possessions and two arrows, one pointing forward which reads ‘Blessings’ and one pointing back which reads, ‘everything you’ve ever known.’

This is the truth of the matter.

God said… so he left… Abraham left everything he had ever known. But the promises and blessings of God lay in front of him.

For me, this throws up a couple of significant questions:

* Are we confident in hearing God’s voice?

* Are we ready to leave everything behind?

Are we confident in hearing God’s voice? I am leading our training year this year. In the first practical session of the year, Alannah led the team in a simple exercise to practice listening to God. She asked those in the room to write their name at the top of a sheet of paper and fold it over so it couldn’t be seen. She prayed and then we put our pieces of paper into the middle of the room. Each of us randomly took a piece of paper and wrote whatever we thought God ‘might’ be saying. When the papers had been written on and returned several times, Alannah called time and we unfolded the papers and gave them to the person with their name written at the top of the page. It was awesome to read the words that had been written on our sheets. All of them were relevant and in particular one word was highlighted, shared by someone who had no experience or confidence of doing this sort of thing. We all have the capacity to hear God speak. What we often lack is confidence and as a result we don’t try.

I have a wonderful wife, many of you know her. There are times when she asks me to do stuff… I make acknowledging sounds… and then fail to do what she has asked me to do. There are other times – when it’s really important – that she sits me down, gets me to put down my phone, or book,