Noah: Walking faithfully with God

Many of us know the storybook version of Noah’s story well—the ark, the animals and the rainbow. But Noah’s story is also one of risk, vulnerability and trust. He spent years building a boat for rain that had never fallen, trusting God despite how irrational it must have seemed. And even after the ark was built, Noah and his family waited inside while the people around them mocked what they could not yet see.

In this episode, Tamika Spaulding joins us to explore how we can learn to hear and recognise God’s voice. Together, we unpack what to do when God’s leading clashes with common sense and why faith often requires us to trust God before we see the outcome.

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What is Living Covenant?

The characters and stories of the Old Testament form a rich tapestry, revealing both the best and worst of the human condition—and, most importantly, how God relates to us.

Based on the Living Covenant book series, this podcast explores the sometimes messy lives of those who lived under God’s first covenant, asking what these blessedly unsanitised saints can teach us about living out our faith in relationship with a God who promises never to leave us or forsake us.

Welcome to the Living Covenant Podcast, where we journey through the messy human stories of the Old Testament explore what it means to live in covenant with a promise keeping God. I'm your host, Zanita. Let's dive in.     We are back with another episode, and today I have with me Tamika, all the way from Tasmania. Welcome to the show.

Thanks, Zanita. I'm actually pretty excited to be able to come and chat today.

Yeah, absolutely. Now, from what I've experienced from Tasmania, it is quite a common experience for you to have all four seasons in one day.

So as we are recording this, what is happening in Tasmania at the moment? Is it snowing? Is it sunny?

Well it started pretty cold actually, and then it got a bit sunny and it has rained today and, I'm at the moment deciding whether I wanted to have a jacket or whether I didn't, so I went with not. But yeah, today's a good example of probably four seasons in a day.

Okay, love it. Well, weather aside, can you paint a bit of a picture for us as to who you are for those who don't know you and what your life looks like?

Yeah, sure. So I grew up in South Australia, but I've been in Tassie for the last, bit over 20 years, and I have an awesome husband and we live on a property of about five acres, which is awesome, with wallabies and possums and potus and.

I should mention probably before the animals that live on our PR property, um, my children, I have four children. Uh, well, one's actually an adult now. He is a about to turn 19. And then I've got, a three girls. And yeah, a few years ago I went into music teaching and then I studied some psychology and sociology. And took an interest in chaplaincy. So at the moment I work as a hospital chaplain and I'm about to go further into study with, pastoral supervision. 'cause I have a real heart for, yeah, just the spiritual and emotional wellbeing of pastors and their families and I just love being able to pray with people and care about where they're going. And, uh, yeah, I do, a bit of faith FM work, in Tassie with Tassie Encounters, which I really enjoy. And, I'm a lay pastor, so, I've been preaching quite a bit this year and love that.

And, um. I have a ministry called His Herd, so I've started to do some podcasting there. I love hearing other people's stories and so that's kind of a space that I'm going to be moving more into this year.

Awesome. So many different things. A lot of variety there. I think for anyone who's listening to this and is not from Australia, that will probably just confirm their picture of people's backyards with Wallabies Road.

So that's so good. It's not like that where I live for those listening, but it's some parts of Australia. It does look like that. But yeah. That's awesome. Now you chose to tackle Noah for this series. And what I love about your article is that you take the story of Noah and you relate it to our everyday lives.

And I think sometimes when we read these biblical stories like Noah's, they can seem quite unrelatable or unrealistic. And it's like, yeah, is God ever gonna ask us to do something? You know, as weighty as building an arc. Does he really talk to us and instruct us in our mundane everyday lives like he did with Noah?

for example,

yeah.

And you start this article with that question, have you ever heard God speak to you? And I think this is one of those things that we as humans, whether we believe in God or we're curious about God, we find ourselves asking.

And since you've started this article with this question, have you ever heard God speak to you? I'm guessing that either you've had experiences of God speaking to you or it's been a struggle. So do you wanna talk to us about your experience when it comes to hearing God's voice and going to him for answers?

Yeah, well I would say, I do hear from God. I do hear him speak. And it is a struggle, and there's lots of times I don't hear him speak, which is also a struggle. And I think as a Christian we go through seasons of all of that. And in terms of hearing him there are times that I've felt that I've heard him as a thought, something that's outside of my own thinking that often doesn't make sense, which is what I touch on in the article, that I felt that God was speaking to me in a way that was outside my own common sense.

And I really stopped and questioned that because it's good to be discerning and wise and do things that do make sense a lot of the time. And sometimes I think God asks us to do things that really are outside of that. And yeah, so I've heard in that way and you know, and sometimes, I might have an image or a thought, a picture.

And then also there's a lot of times that I would love to hear from God and I can't always hear from God. But I will say in terms of my relationship with God, there's a verse in First Thessalonians that talks about praying continuously, and I think that probably sums up my relationship with God the best.

Because whether he speaks to me or he's seems quiet. I'm in a relationship with him and I think that we can really believe that he's going to speak to us and we should be expecting to hear from him because he says, to us, um, you know, he's made a covenant with us, a relationship with us, and he wants to know us.

And when we are in a relationship with someone, it's not, it can't be one way. And so for me, I know that he, he can speak to us because he's a relational God and he wants for us to speak to him. And he will, he will speak to us.

Hmm. It reminds me of that verse in the Bible.

Oh yeah.

 In Matthew seven, if you look at that verse ask, seek and knock, and you translate it, it actually says, keep on asking, and you receive, keep on knocking. So it's actually asking you to continuously do this. Where I think when we read it, we sometimes think it says ask and you receive as if it's just a once off thing.

Once off. But it's actually saying keep on doing that, keep on doing that. And I think when you read it in that it's a bit more encouraging. 'cause sometimes it's like, oh, I've called out to God and I've asked, but I haven't heard anything. But sometimes it requires you to just keep going back to his feet and keep going back to his word.

And,

I like you've said that because in terms of going back to his word that's so important, that is our foundational, um, you know, information about God. And there's so many places in the Bible that Yeah. That, that does talk about the fact that he loves us, the fact that he wants to be with us, the fact that we are his children, and so we can take comfort in knowing that he will, he will speak to us even when, or he is speaking with us or he's working in our lives, I should say. He's right there present with us even when we can't see, and we can hold onto that just as a fact rather than something we need to wrestle with as much, I guess.

Hmm. Yeah, that's a good point. Now take us back to this moment, that you wrote about, you share this moment that really draws us in at the start of the article where you are with a doctor and you were talking about a tumor that you had on your spine, but then you leave the doctor's office straight away and you're taking your daughter to swimming lessons.

Tell us the story that unfolded after that doctor's appointment. What happened on that day? Yeah.

Well, you know, leading up to that doctor's appointment, I wasn't sure if it was going to be cancerous or not, and that was a lot. That was pretty scary. I mean, the good news is it was benign, but, you know, there was tests that I had before that and different things.

So when I went to that appointment, I was actually pretty stressed because I wasn't sure what was going to happen. And when I went to the doctor's office they said to me it's okay. It's benign. It'll keep growing, but it's safe. You don't need to do anything for now. And so I had this relief. Oh, okay.

I was relieved that we don't need to do anything right now and I could just concentrate on getting my child to swimming lessons, which I hadn't managed to do for quite some, some time. 'cause I'd had to go into state and so we'd missed some. And so my focus immediately after that was, I suppose, less about a tumor because I was relieved it was going to be okay and more about getting my daughter to swimming lessons. And I realized that I had to get fuel straight away and I was already on empty. I knew I wouldn't have much in the tank. It's a bit of a bad habit of mine. And I've been here a few times, so I almost knew exactly how far I'd get down the road before I would conk out and not work.

And I was like, then I'll be late for swimming lessons. Which was interesting to me because when I got to the end of the road and, you know, metaphorically, I think this happens a lot to us where we get to this T junction and we can either go left or right, and in this case going left was to, to swimming and going right was to grab fuel and the only option that I had in my head was getting fuel and I knew that I didn't wanna be late for the swimming lessons.

And it was interesting because I had this thought that was completely foreign to my own thinking at that time to, um to turn left and go straight into swimming. So I already knew that that, you know, with reason I wouldn't make it there. Um, and then I go on to talk about basically all of the, the places that I stopped at before I actually got to swimming lessons very late, which ended up being the most blessed thing for my daughter.

And, uh. You know, it was good to be late that day. She got to go to a bubs swimming lesson. That was a nice introductory to her. It was the first time she'd had a swimming lesson. She's a little bit more shy, and so it worked really well for her.

Hmm.

Yeah.

Even before that, yeah you talk about how you have this conversation with this man who is asking questions about this very thing that we are talking about, about how to trust God and how to have faith and how to hear him, which is yeah, which is just wild how God works.

But I think probably if we rewind a little bit, most of us, myself probably included, would have, um. Found ourselves with that t intersection. Heard that voice to go this way, and then probably thought, that's silly. Wisdom says, I need fuel. So I don't know what this voice is, but I probably would've doubted or questioned if it was God.

But I would love to know what made you ignore that or what gave you the confidence to, and this might sound rude, but ignore common sense and take that risk.

Look, you know, it is really hard to be discerning. And I would say I argue with God a lot or at least that thought, you know, the thought that doesn't seem to make sense.

But I also have faith and I also have a story that comes before that moment. And I think in terms of faith, you know, faith grows because it's an action word. It's a word where we weigh up risks and we look at what was in the past and we see where has God been with me personally in the past.

And so the reason I ignored my own common sense was because in my reasoning, I went, I have an experience with God where listening to God has been the right thing to do and

Hmm,

I don't wanna miss out on what he might wanna reveal. You know, it's hard to, to kind of, ask for clarity at the time. You really do go through a whole list of things. One of which is, am I crazy? Am I imagining things and am I completely loopy? In that moment it's not so hard because nobody has to know whether, you know, you ran outta fuel and nothing came of it. You don't have to share it with anyone.

But there are times in our life where we do make choices that impact us in larger ways and others can see. And that's where, you know, experience and continuing to trust in God come to God in a surrendered place and move forward with him. Taking risks in faith is really important because you don't have a story without taking the risk.

Yeah,

for sure. Yeah.

And Noah did this for the

story. Did, yeah, that's what I was about to say. Yeah.

You know, you can't hire building for 20 years. He built a boat, and looked like a crazy person to most people.

Which is a vulnerable place for any of us to be in.

Yeah. Oh, absolutely. Yeah.

It reminds me of this verse in John. I think it's John four. It says, his sheep follow him because they know his voice. And I think for anyone who's tried to hear God, we know that our souls aren't like automatically attuned to his voice. Hearing his voice takes practice, it takes risk, it takes, making mistakes and like you said in your article, being vulnerable, being sometimes prone to ridicule by people who are like, what are you doing? Why wouldn't you get petrol? Or why would you build that up when there's never been rain?

Um, and so I think, I think, I

mean, he wouldn't have even had that as a concept. Like what is that?

Absolutely. What is raining? But I think what I'm hearing you say is we, we learn to hear God's voice by taking those risks, even though they might seem embarrassing or they might seem odd, but that voice of God becomes familiar in those moments, over time and over practice and over our lives.

I had a verse here, a couple of verses. That was one that I'd written down too. That's an awesome verse. But I like the one in John 1613, but when he, the spirit of truth comes, he will guide you into all truth. He will not speak on his own. He will speak only what he hears, and he will tell you what is yet to come. And, I like this in thinking about how God speaks to us because he does share with us things that are yet to come that we haven't perceived yet.

And you can only step forward in faith. Yeah. But he is saying that when he will speak to us like that.

Hmm. You mentioned in your article that you had to pause in this moment to ask for clarity from God.

Yes.

Because you weren't sure if this was just your voice, if this was him.

In your experience, what does looking for clarity kind of look like? Is that an audible of voice? Is that a thought?

 you know, I think it's actually asking God in a surrendered place of prayer, I think sometimes to just repeat himself. I don't know how many times I've had a thought and then just go on.

Can you affirm this or can you just say it again? Or and just waiting that, waiting. I mean, especially when you're pausing on a street. You know, you can't pause too long. Cars come behind you. Exactly. So, you know, you've gotta be in a place that's surrendered really, quickly, almost like, you know, it needs to almost be a natural place for us to come and sit and wait.

Mm-hmm.

It's not all the time that it's easy to do that, but in terms of, asking for clarity, that's what I often do. I also go back to the word and read the Bible, if that's got guidance, outside of this particular situation. And the other thing that I do is ring friends, prayer partners, and people that I hang out with that I trust that also have a relationship with God and go, Hey.

You know, I was doing this and I felt God, had asked me to do this. It came as a thought. It was outside of my own thought, can you pray with me about it? What's your thoughts on this? And having wisdom of a collective at times can be really, really good to have too. But again, just relying on faith going, will I hurt someone if I do this?

Is this in fitting with the character of who God is? Can I read about this in his word? And just be discerning and keeping it in prayer.

Yeah. And I think sometimes you just have to, you know, like you're saying, you're at the team dissection. You don't have much time to call friend towards. You just have to like, okay, well I feel this strange inclination, so either I act or I don't. And you just have to make that choice and see what happens and learn from that.

Yeah, because I'd already made the decision, look, if I go this way and I run outta fuel, like I already had kind of gone ahead of myself and gone, okay, what would the process look like there?

And I had to consciously go, I'm gonna trust you God, and we'll just see where we roll and we did actually, we literally rolled into a person's house and I think it was such a blessing for both of us to have experienced that. And I just think in hindsight, what do we miss out on when we don't taste, take the risk.

Hmm.

We can miss out on a lot.

Yeah, for sure. Tell us what happened after you had this encounter with this man, you went to swimming lessons and you said that was a real blessing as well. There was more to this story than that. Can you tell us the next kind of phase of that?

 Yeah. So we left swimming lessons and then my daughter said, can we go and visit? It was like a daycare center that she used to attend and can we go visit my old teacher, my favorite teacher and it was such a random thing 'cause I drive into town regularly. She'd never asked before. And here we are driving yeah, to her daycare center. And this lady actually runs the daycare center and I thought i'll probably interrupt her. She's probably gonna be busy. I have no purpose in meeting her. The appropriate thing would be to like, organize it and, you've got signing in and signing out and all these process.

So I was thinking it's inconvenient. It doesn't make sense to me. It's not really that necessary all these reasons why not to. But in the end we went, this was another place where I just said to God, I think you're actually asking me to go and. And you know, sometimes we can also have these, convenient coincidences almost, or little miracles where my daughter hadn't asked before and it seemed odd for her to ask that.

And then I felt convicted in prayer to go and so, I think we can kind of just brush away at these little miracles that God has in our life and not follow through with them because we don't even see that they're important. But I think noticing those things are. So anyway, I went, I went there and, the lady was actually just arriving.

As I had arrived and she was only gonna be there for a few minutes. She literally left as we were leaving. And so it was only in a short window of town a time I could have even caught her. But the reason that I think God had brought me there, I know that God had brought me there, was because she'd taken time off because she had a tumor, benign, also removed from her neck and she shared with me the importance of getting a second opinion and why that was the case for her, which is what led to me getting a second opinion and it ended up being listed as urgent. And, I was able to have that removed December of last year. So it's only just happened actually.

Yeah.

Wow. Um.

Yeah,

and uh, you know, just quickly on the side, God works all the time and I could have had that surgery at any time meeting anybody. But after I had surgery, I was driving our car and we got to like this main large roundabout just before we got to the hospital and my car's clutch dyed and I dunno about anyone else that has surgery.

But I was heading into the hospital and I had a drain attached. I was in my pajamas, I hadn't done my hair. I looked fright and I thought it's okay 'cause only the nursing staff have to see me. But. When you clutch dies, you can't go anywhere. And so I had a vehicle come and pull up next to me and say, do you want some help?

And, it was immediate and they were wonderful. They helped me, they actually drove me. They sort of bunny hopped it into gear enough for it to literally go round, roundabout and stop at the other side of the roundabout so I could cross the road to go to the hospital. And we got to share just a few minutes, and had a conversation about God just in one and a half streets, and then, went to the appointment.

And after the appointment, I met a man who, was the tow truck driver to get our car back to our house. And he was in the car and he said, you know, it's funny when you hopped in the car, I actually would just really like to share something with you that I've struggled with today. Would it be okay?

'cause it's, you know, it might be a bit triggering. And I said, sure. And, um, he was saying that as a truck driver, they've changed the policies with road accidents now, and so they're on scene a lot earlier than they used to be. And he said, that he'd been at a car accident and it was a bit confronting for him. And it's interesting because, as a hospital chaplain, I talk to people about some, you know, hard hard things. And this was a conversation that I was equipped to be able to have and to be able to refer him on to some different places, but he didn't know anything about me or who I was or what my, history is.

And, so even in that, I thought, it was worth having my cars clutch die. And, there was no real thought that I heard from God, but God was moving and operating and allowing conversations to happen. And you know, I think we, we all can have experiences like that too, where God just shows up in places we get to have good conversations with each other.

Yeah.

I love that I've been thinking about this word lately. Um, the word interruptible, and I think it's coming to mind you, that's a good word with you because I think, I think that, you know, in order to serve people and to help people and to be a blessing to people we have to be interruptible.

We have to have schedules and lives that we, you know, don't get fussed about or dramatic about when those moments come into play because, if that happens then we'll never potentially have the opportunity to bless people like you're talking about. And yeah, that's just the word that's coming to mind as you're sharing.

I love that

word. I'm actually gonna use that word.

But usually I ask people in these living covenant conversations, what prompted them to write about the individual that they did. And I think it's funny for you because you talk about in this moment where your daughter asked to go see her teacher, you were unsure and uncertain, and then all of a sudden the story of Noah popped into your mind.

So it feels like Noah has kind of chosen you in the sense, yeah, but you know, you're in your car, you're going about your life, and then the story of Noah comes into mind. And I think sometimes reading these stories and reading the Bible is really important because when we find ourselves at these kind of crossroads as to like, what do we do? God can use those stories to speak to us. And I think we see that in your case.

Yeah. Actually, I would like to give you a little snippet of behind the scenes in writing this story. Because this story is actually, I don't know if you can say as big as changed my world, but it actually has been very significant to me.

Quite a few years ago, I like to be specific back in 2012, I had this thought that I wanted to be able to write a book for God. It's actually completely opposite to what I ever wanna do.

Writing is not something that I feel natural at, not gifted at, at all, at, it's not something I would choose to do . So this idea, oh, I think God's asked me to write a book, was a bit, you know, left field and at the time I was studying the story of Noah. And, I did quite a lot of work with, you know, reading his book, reading about Noah at the time.

Back then, Adventist Media had this show called In Focus and it was where they were like interviewing people, about stories and things, things that were happening. And I had watched this interview of this lady who had just written this book and they had said in the interview, what inspired you to write this book?

And they talked about it. And I had this moment where I thought, I can't write a book for God, because if I was in that interview, in that place. I would have to reveal, the only reason I'm doing it is because I think God asked me and I'm not sure if like that's appropriate, like if you can say that.

And so I had this horrible thought. But one day you'll be interviewed and you'll be asked this question and you'll be able to answer it. And, back then in 2012, I was so worried about that being reality because of my current relationship with God. I just stopped writing like, I didn't even wanna touch it.

And God had said then, because I, like I said, I was reading the story of Noah at the time to be obedient and just be faithful. And, so anyway, fast forward to December of 2024. No. February, February of 2024, Jared wrote me a letter and said, would you like to write this article?

And I agreed straight away and he said, I'll send you what the brief is. And as soon as I read the brief, I knew straight away that Noah was what I wanted to write about. And I actually said to him, Noah or Moses? And he said, Moses has taken, but you can have Noah. And so I said, I'll do Noah. And another sort of side story really is that Jared and I grew up together.

He was in my Pathfinder club. He went to church with me. He went to school with me. He's an awesome guy. He's very great at English. And I was a little bit. Um, you know, I've put him on the pedestal over the years, so to write an article about being obedient to God and moving faithfully and hearing from God and revealing that was really vulnerable and putting it into to somebody who was going to edit it that you'd put on a pedestal was actually very challenging for me, it's more challenging than the story I wrote about, in the article itself.

So challenging in fact that it took me till. December of that year to hand in the story. Almost 12 months. And Jared never pushed me, but, behind the scenes I was working a lot with God about what it looks like to be able to talk about, how do we hear from God and how do we move in faith and how do be we be obedient and how do we talk about that?

So anyway, I handed that in and when I handed that in I thought, it's okay now. I've done it, I've written it and nobody's gonna interview me. And not that long ago, the end of last year, I got this message from you and said, you do and interview. And you sent me a couple of questions I could think about and one of them was, you know, how do you hear from God?

And I said, I said to God, I gotta do this. And he said, be obedient and be faithful. And you know, I speak to my children, because I love them. I want them to know that I love them, and even when we can't hear him, he's still moving. He's still working in our lives. And so, yeah, this really has been, a big step for me to be able to do this.

Yeah.

Oh, well I think it's, I'm glad that you were obedient said yes. 'cause I feel like the article has been a blessing and I'm sure it'll be to others as well, because like we said earlier, I think hearing from God is something that so many of us, I would say probably all of us desire and at some point in our lives have struggled with or will struggle with.

And so I think it's, yeah. Awesome that you said yes to the challenge. Yeah. But, um, this is something that you've looked at the story of Noah for a period of time, I suppose, like you've thought about it for a year. You were reading it beforehand. Has there been something that you've learned about Noah's story or taken from Noah's story that is like the key thing that you were walking away remembering or the key lesson? Um, yeah. Yeah. That is sticking with you.

You know, reflecting about, just the story I've shared now and just how God moves in our lives, this idea of what surrender really looks like, what, being in a place of vulnerability and sitting with risk and sitting in discomfort, in the unknown.

What gift that is because it's uncomfortable. It's not nice, but it also reveals the heart of God, which is free choice. He speaks to us in ways where, and he puts things in our lives where we are making choices all the time. And I don't think I really have understood the beauty of free choice as much as I do now. And how painful free choice can feel, in making decisions. And the other thing is, probably, you know, we have this idea that things all always turn out Rosie. But the reason they don't, you know, we have a world of sin and I like the story in that it features this covenant idea where God has made a promise and

whether we hear him or whether, we struggle to hear him and whether, we have a deep relationship with him or whether we are just a new Christian, whatever place we are, we don't have to strive or work hard. He's already made a promise. This covenant I'm your God and you are my people, and we have this choice that we can just go accept that.

In the case of Noah, it was get on the boat. In the case of today, it's, I don't need to come to you Lord, as perfect. I can be obedient, as flawed as I am. And just be in relationship with you. And even though things don't always go as planned and there is sin in this world and there's there's terrible things that happen, at times and you know, decisions are really hard. There's this bigger perspective where God has gone I actually brought my son as a rescue plan, um, sort of talking about salvation here, but, it's sort of all entwined with this initial story of the covenant and the rainbow going, I've promised you that I've got a bigger perspective and I just want you to come and be in a relationship with me.

Yeah.

Uh, and, and that's the nuts and bolts of it.

Hmm. And I think that's important to remember when we're talking about taking risks sometimes here, and sometimes you'll take the risk and you'll end down the wrong path and maybe you won't hear God speak or nothing miraculous will happen.

And I think in those moments, remembering what you're saying about God's covenant, about God's character and his love is really helpful and encouraging because if you do make the wrong decision. It's fine. There's not, like God's, there's not gonna punish you for that. He's still there and he can still redirect you.

He can still you know, guide you from that point. So I think remembering that is, yeah, really, really,

and, and you've used the term mundane a few times today too. And I kind of wanna touch on that too, because. We often describe yeah our everyday life as mundane the little, the mundane things that we do.

And I wonder what's God's perspective on our mundane, because in our mundane, there are big decisions that we make and I don't think any moment to God is mundane. I think every moment is a chance for him to reveal who he is and for us to reveal who he is to others and for us to see who he is. Yeah. And so I think where I've changed is I'm not sure whether I even see life uh mundane actually. Yeah,

Yeah. There's this awesome book, it's actually one of my favorites. It's called The Liturgy of the Ordinary. But the whole point of the book is basically saying, what you are saying is that everything is sacred, every moment is sacred. Like all these tiny little intersection moments or these moments in the car, these are potentially sacred moments in which, can become something amazing and

yeah.

Um, so yeah, you're right. Maybe I should stop using the word mundane..

Yeah, well, you know, it's a word we use, but,

yeah.

It's a wonderful, it's, it's a wonderful place to meet God too. Yeah.

Yep. Now I just wanna touch on this one, part of the story of Noah, which, you talk about in your piece and I think is interesting. You talk about Noah builds the arc and then before the rain comes, there's this seven day period where.

They have to wait. And I assume that they're probably left thinking, have we made the right decision? What have we done? They're probably doubting whether God really did instruct them to build this arc. Yeah. Lots of things are going through their mind, and I think when you were in the car, you also had this moment where you were like  am I doing the right thing? Should I have turned left? Yeah, break down. And obviously the day turned out to be a massive blessing for others and for yourself. But for people who are in that in between waiting season where they've kind of like listened to a prompting, um mm-hmm.

Or maybe unclear direction that they're not sure it's from God or not and a doubting God are worried do you have any encouragement or advice for people in that in-between season?

It's a place to sit. It is a place to sit. It's a place to be. God asks us to come to him and to rest and I guess I've probably flipped that in rather than viewing it as this. This place to stew and worry, it's actually a place to allow God to revive us in that place. There is a lot of waiting, but in that waiting, we go through processes of self-reflection processes of really, seeking God and all aspects of our relationship with God is important. There is a period of waiting and waiting as painful as it can be isn't always bad for us. It can be confusing, but it can also be healing. It can be reviving. I know for me there's times where things have been confusing. I haven't known what to do and I've done nothing. I've had one of those days where, you lay in bed till 3:00 PM and then, and then there's this aspect of being revived by God because I was forced to stop or I felt forced to stop.

Mm.

So, yeah, I think that. As, as hard as waiting is there is a place for it and God is still listening.

There is no tear that we shed, there's no thought that we express, there's no desire in our heart that God does not see that God hasn't acknowledged. He's moving all the time with us. And I guess I would also say is just to believe the fact you are loved, you are lovable, you are being cared about. And even if you can't see God, he's right there, right next to you and, supporting you and loving on you. And you know, we have this covenant promise. I am still your God and you are my people. Yeah.

Love it. It's a good place to land, I think. Well thank you very much Tamika, for taking the time to speak to us today and for taking the time to write the article.

Even though it took you 12 months, I think it's worth it in the end. So, yeah, really appreciate the thought that you've put into that. To our dear listeners who have stayed with us, you can read Tamika's article in the Living Covenant book or on the record website. It is titled Walking Faithfully With God.

And if anyone also wants to go to her website, check out more of her stories, more of her podcast, you can go to hisherd.com

yes.

Thanks.