Have you ever been praying about a particular matter, or
asked God a direct question, and then been stunned when the answer He gives
seems to be way out in left field?Of course, not all voices we hear come from God, and
sometimes we can erroneously convince ourselves that the desires of our flesh
or the temptings of the devil are divine in origin. Any prompting we hear that
does not align with God’s Word cannot be from Him (Psalm 119:105).
But if we have prepared our heart to communicate with Him (Proverbs
2:2), asked for Holy Spirit guidance to discern His true voice, and
allowed time in our prayer room to be still and know that He is God (Psalm
46:10) rather than just rattling off our shopping list of requests, we
can look forward to hearing His true will (John 10:4,27; Isaiah 30:21).
Shortly after I was saved in the year 2000, my husband Richard
and I took a flight to another city for a dance competition. Shortly before landing,
the pilot announced that we were honored to be transporting a young soldier
deployed to Afghanistan, on the first leg of his long journey. I silently prayed for his safety, when I was shocked to hear God telling me to give him
the Bible I had in my carry-on bag.
But he was seated toward the front of the plane and we were
at the back, so he disembarked long before we did. However, once we were in the
terminal, I spotted him a considerable distance away, and without so much as a
word to Richard, I took off running until I caught up with him. He looked as
surprised as I was when I offered him the Bible, told him I was praying for him,
and hoped that the Bible would be a blessing to him and those he met overseas.
He took the Bible, thanked me, and we went our separate
ways. I had a lot of explaining to do when I finally met up with Richard, but
he seemed to understand even though he was not yet saved by trusting in the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ (1 Corinthians 15:1-4) as the only Way to Heaven (John 14:6). Now I look forward to
meeting the soldier in Heaven and hearing what transpired from my gift, for God’s
Word will not return to Him empty! (Isaiah 55:11)
Very recently, I had a similar, quite unexpected, answer to
prayer. A ministry that Richard and I had undertaken several months previously
had been unfruitful and confronted by spiritual warfare from many of those in
leadership. My question to God was, “Why did You bring us here for things to
turn out like this?”
“To prepare you for something else,” was His answer. My
natural response was, “For what?” To which He replied, “To start a new church!”
This was not at all what I had expected, and when I told Richard
about it, he seemed skeptical, given our age and lack of formal training in
ministry. But God is not the author of confusion, but of peace (1
Corinthians 14:33), which came when we had multiple confirmations from
reading His Word, hearing it taught and preached, and from Godly counsel.
Our daily Scripture reading, devotionals, and Bible studies all pointed us in the direction of following what initially seemed to be a surprising request from God. When cleaning out an old file drawer, I found a devotional I had printed out 25 years ago, shortly after being saved. It was an encouragement to follow God’s will for your life without fear (1 John 4:18), even when it takes you in an unexpected direction and requires stepping out of your comfort zone.
In our own strength we can do nothing (John 15:5),
but with God, all things are possible (Matthew 19:26), for His
strength is made perfect in our weakness (2 Corinthians 12:9).
We then had lunch with a dear, Godly friend who is a
missionary. After catching up a bit, but not mentioning our new direction, we
were shocked to hear him say, “You two need to open a new church!”
In a Thanksgiving sermon we heard shortly thereafter, the
preacher suddenly went off script and started talking about how God can lead
people to start a church. Even if that church is small and meets in someone’s
home, he said, it’s still a church, for where two or three are gathered in His
Name, He is in the midst (Matthew 18:20).
Praise God that He makes His will known (Numbers 12:6;
Ephesians 1:9), speaking to His children through His Word, Godly
counsel, and other ways! Faced with so many confirmations, it was clear that we
needed to follow His directive or suffer the consequences of disobedience.
Several months have passed since I first received this
unexpected answer from God. Despite many challenges, setbacks, and obstacles, He
has blessed us by providing an interim pastor, giving us a space to meet
rent-free, and getting the paperwork approved for nonprofit incorporation!
Our first service at New Life Bible Church Tampa is
scheduled for March 22! We truly covet your prayers for God’s continued
guidance and leadership, that this ministry would be fruitful in reaching souls
for Him. If any of you are in the Tampa area and looking for a church home, we would be honored and blessed by your visit. May we honor Jesus Christ in all that is said and done and work
together in unity and harmony to share His Word and His love with one another,
in the local community, and globally through missions!
Copyright 2026 Laurie Collett
