God Conversations With Tania Harris

A few years ago on an Australian reality talent show, a young man expressed his dream to be a famous singer. The emcee told of his dedication in preparing for this moment. His mother spoke of his deep passion and commitment. When the man took to the stage, the audience applauded in great anticipation. In spite of the lead up, the performance was awful. This young man had plenty of zeal, but absolutely no talent. One judge known for his honest feedback didn’t hold back: “Your dream will never happen. No amount of hard work will make you a good singer. You will never be on the stage.” It was a brutal moment, but it was also an act of grace. This man’s dream was completely misplaced. It wasn't based on who he was or how God designed him to be. He was believing a fantasy and without the reality check provided by the judges, was headed towards even greater disappointment. When We Grow Up? What are we going to be when we grow up? It’s a question we usually ask children, but it’s a question we all need to ask ours

What would Jesus say to a terrorist? Just this week we've received news here in Australia of another terrorist plot. Our nation remains on high alert after police uncovered plans to allegedly bring down a commercial airline with a bomb or toxic gas. It's difficult not to feel helpless every time we hear those kinds of reports. Most of us are not politicians, international diplomats or war strategists. How are we to respond to the constant threat of terrorism we receive across the world today? Today's podcast looks at the 'Jesus way' to approach terrorism. What would Jesus say to a terrorist? In order to answer that question, we're going to take a look at what he's already said. This is not the first time the world has been threatened by terrorism. History has been here before - with the early church facing similar questions to what we do today. In their case the enemy wasn't ISIS, but the Roman empire - a force that was actually far stronger and just as brutal. Some people in the church had already been mar

How do we get better at hearing God’s voice? The answer doesn’t lie in a formula or a set of rules: "Follow these 3 steps, take time out or spend 15 minutes with God each day." Hearing God's voice happens in the context of relationship, so if we want to get better at it, it’s the state of our relationship that becomes the focus. This week on God Conversations with Tania Harris we’re talking about how to get better at hearing God’s voice. It’s one of the most important questions to ask because it lies at the heart of knowing God. We’ll get better at hearing God's voice by applying the same principles that we use to grow communication in our human relationships. In the podcast, we look at three different principles that apply: 1. Make a commitment to improve your communication Learning to hear God's voice is a process that develops with time and practise. We learn to recognise his voice. The prophet Samuel was a man who knew how to hear God’s voice. He was the expert. The Bible says of him that not one of hi

Back in the first century, it wasn’t normal for men and women to be friends. They didn’t meet for coffee in morning tea breaks or discuss current affairs over the water-cooler. They didn’t sit next to each other in the synagogues and swap ideas about their theology. They certainly didn’t discuss their spiritual lives by the village well. That’s why the actions and behaviours of Jesus with the Samaritan woman were so radical. Even his disciples couldn’t fathom his socialising with a woman, let alone one with such a scandalous reputation (John 4:27). Somehow Jesus managed to interact with the opposite sex in a healthy way, even being alone with them in a public setting. Jesus shows us that it is possible to engage meaningfully with our female and male counterparts. In the radically new equality of the kingdom he inaugurated, it’s not surprising. It’s when men and women relate together that they are seen to fully represent the image of God (Gen. 1:26-28). The question is how. Subscribe to God Conversations

What does prophecy look like in the contemporary church? How do we handle the fact that we can get it wrong when we try to hear from God? And what could God possibly be saying to someone when he gives her a vision of a yellow peacock? In this episode of God Conversations with Tania Harris, I’m excited to be talking to Professor Mark Cartledge, a British scholar who pioneered in the field of practical theology by looking at how contemporary prophecy functions in the Church of England. What I love about Mark is not only is he a very smart man, but he is also a practitioner who has been involved in local church life for over 25 years. He’s a worship leader and preacher as well as a theologian and a lecturer. It’s a winning combination! In this podcast we talk about: How God knows our passwords - God speaks through the preached Scriptures but he also speaks specifically into the details of our lives. What Mark discovered in his pioneering research and how common it was for followers of Jesus to just “kno

How do we know the will of God for our lives? It’s a question that is often hotly debated with one side emphasising the need for God’s direct guidance for our decisions and the other emphasising human free will (Listen to: Is God’s will a Narrow Path or a 6-Lane Freeway?). In this podcast, John Peachey from the Mornings show at Rhema New Zealand and I take a different tack. We explore this commonly asked question by drawing on the story told in Jessica Kelley’s book Lord Willing. Against the backdrop of her dying 4 year old son’s battle with brain cancer, Jessica challenges the popular idea that God has some sort of master plan where he ordains and controls every decision. In this view, God's plan did not include her son Henry’s cancer, nor did he even “allow” it. As Jessica so vividly communicates, Jesus came to give abundant life, not to steal, kill and destroy (John 10:10), so he could never be to blame for her son’s tragic death. God's sovereignty does not mean he is a controlling micro-manager (Read: Wh

One of the most difficult times to hear God’s voice is when we're in the throes of making a big decision. Shall I take this job, will I marry this person, or will we have children? Each of these decisions have life-changing consequences; they tug at our heartstrings and our emotions are deeply invested in the outcomes. That makes hearing God in these areas particularly fraught with difficulty - to the point where some say you shouldn’t even try to hear from God for them. We’ve already looked at hearing God’s voice for marriage in episode 29 when we discussed some wisdom for hearing God’s voice for Mr and Mrs Right. But today we’re talking with someone who has heard God speak about two other highly sensitive areas: career and children. Ps. Lisa Woods is the Senior pastor of Wheatland District Church in north West Victoria, along with her husband Dion. She has worked as a youth pastor, school chaplain in the local secondary school and local member of Yarriambiack Shire council, the youngest councillor to be e

Does God still speak today? I grew up in a church that didn’t believe he does. We were taught that as soon as the last pages of the Bible were written, God stopped talking (known as Cessationist theology). That may sound illogical for some - after all the Bible is full of God-conversations - surely if he spoke then, he would continue to speak now. But there was a good reason for it. People thought that if I claimed to hear God speak today, that would diminish the authority of what he had already said. The Scriptures gave us everything we need, so why would we need to hear anything else? But then I heard God speak. He spoke prophetically, miraculously and in ways that resembled the way he spoke in the Bible. That left me with a whole lot of questions. How did my experience compare to the experience of the Bible writers? What authority did it have in my life? Is it okay to say ‘God told me’ as they did in the Scriptures? And what about those times when people claim to hear God’s voice, but then it doesn't happe

In the Western world, one of the biggest challenges we find in hearing God’s voice is the ability to take time out to listen to him. The ever-pressing demands of a fast-paced life mean that prioritising time to pray often finds itself at the bottom of our endless to-do lists. Then when we do find the time, it’s difficult to quieten our minds long enough to focus on what God is saying. This was the subject of a question asked at the website. Karen asked; “Can you give us some tips on how to just be still & listen to God...how to stop the chatter in your mind?” There is good news for those who find themselves wanting to hear God’s voice in a busy season. In this podcast, which is an encore episode from the show, we share the good news that finding time alone is not the most important prerequisite to hearing God’s voice. God can still speak to us even when it’s impossible to take five hours out to sit cross-legged on a mountaintop… Subscribe to God Conversations with Tania Harris and never miss an episode!

Last week, a new reality show called Married at First Sight was launched on Australian TV. I have to confess, I’ve been glued to it from the first night and the early episodes have not failed to disappoint. In the series, a man and a woman meet for the first time on their wedding day after being paired together by a group of three experts. There’s a neuropsychotherapist who considers pheromones and ‘chemistry’, as well as a psychologist and relationship expert who draw on personality profiles and extensive interviews to make their best scientific match. Once having participated in a (non-legal) wedding ceremony, the newly married couples spend their first night in a hotel, then leave for the honeymoon. After returning and living together for a month, they make the decision whether or not to continue their relationship. Last year the whole process worked out beautifully for one of the four couples, Alex and Zoe, who are now happily on their way down the non-reality TV wedding aisle. It’s all gripping viewing.

Since I started my ministry eight years ago I’ve heard plenty of God-conversation stories, some life-transforming and God-glorifying, and some to be honest, I’d much rather forget. During that time, I’ve also been asked lots of questions about hearing God’s voice, questions that tend to be repeated wherever I go. Most of them are identical to the questions I’ve asked myself over the years. So today’s podcast includes some answers to three most commonly asked questions. It’s some plain talking wisdom about hearing God for the personal issues of our lives in 2016 - much like a coffee and a chat at the start of the year! Perhaps they are questions you've asked too: 1. What is God saying in this area? Whether it’s a question about a new job, or a place to live or wisdom for a new relationship, we don’t always get a clear answer from God. Why is that? It’s not that he doesn’t want to speak to us about these deeply personal areas - the Scriptures are full of instances where he speaks into the specifics of people’s

2015 has been another year of global chaos and turmoil. From terror attacks in Paris and Beirut, drowned toddlers washed up on the Turkish coast, a devastating earthquake in Nepal, and the Syrian crisis spilling millions of desperate refugees into Europe, we’ve faced a constant stream of tragic and disturbing news. As Christians, how do we respond when we hear the nightly news? How do we relate from the positions of our comfy lounge-room chairs when we hear about the latest deadly attack? Most of us are not politicians, international diplomats or war strategists. We are just fellow humans who cry out to God when we hear the stories. So what is God saying to us in the midst of global chaos? Just before Christmas, I spoke with John Peachey from Rhema's Mornings Show in New Zealand. In this podcast, we talk about some of these important issues by looking at what God has already said. The first century church faced threats of persecution in their day not by terrorists, but by a brutal Roman empire. God's words

When God spoke to Joseph about his future destiny as a great leader, he waited until he was sleeping. When God spoke to the Apostle Peter about his strategy for building the church, he put Peter in a trance. When God answered Paul about which direction to go next on his missionary journey, he chose to answer in a dream. Why would God speak to us in the night and not the day? Why wait until we are sleeping?  In this podcast, we explore some of the answers to these questions. You'll learn how dreams can be used to get difficult messages through, how dreams make God's voice accessible to everybody regardless of their personality type and how dreams and visions reveal God's masterful creativity and his incredible heart to communicate. Subscribe to God Conversations with Tania Harris and never miss an episode! Learn More: The Awaken Your Dreams 3-part CD Series will equip you how to recognise God’s voice in dreams and visions. Learn how dreams are God’s most common mode of communication, how to understand t

How do you follow God’s voice for your life if there are two of you? What if both of you hear different things? Or what if one person gets the low-down from God while the other doesn’t? How does God lead married couples? On the show today we have some guests who are brilliantly qualified to answer these questions and I know you’re going to learn a lot from them! Brett Ryan is the CEO of Focus on the Family Australia. He’s spent more than 12 years as a Children’s Pastor at Citylife Church Citylife Church, Melbourne, Australia building a significant ministry to over 1,000 children across 3 different church campuses. Brett’s wife Kate has been a PE teacher for the past 24 years, first of all as a Primary teacher and then as a Secondary teacher. Today Kate and Brett work together to serve the community and the church with a heart to see families thrive. In this episode, I talk with Brett and Kate about: The story of how God led them through the various career changes in their lives What the story of Manoah

You may have heard it said that being a Christian is boring - that it’s all about keeping the rules and making sure you don’t do things you’re not allowed to. Today’s interview turns that thought on its head. I’ve often said that when we when we follow the Holy Spirit, we replace the ‘good life’ with the God life - one which is full of supernatural adventure. When you listen to God’s voice and follow it, you end up doing things you’d never normally do and seeing miracles you wouldn’t normally see. That’s why I’m excited to introduce you to Pastor David McCracken on the show today! If you live in Australia, you probably already know his name. David is a well known prophet both nationally and overseas. He heads up a wonderful team based in Melbourne (David McCracken Ministries) and has an incredible reputation, having been in ministry for over 40 years, first as a pastor and now as an itinerant ministering in the prophetic. This podcast contains some gems that will help you live the god-life with wisdom and

A few years after starting God Conversations, God spoke to me about a second branch of ministry. Unlike equipping people to recognise God's voice, this one was just for women. The vision of God Conversations for Women is to help women realise their God-given potential. The goal is to see God’s original plan when he cast both men and women in his image and commissioned them to steward the planet together (Genesis 1:26-27) fulfilled in the 21st century. The question of what a 21st C woman looks like is not an easy one to answer. Once it was simple. Women’s roles in the home, church and community were all very clear. But the feminist movement has changed all that. The last 50-100 years have seen seismic shifts in Western society. Today women can vote and go to university. They can get a job and travel without their husbands. They can fly aeroplanes, join the army, preach sermons and rise to the position of Prime Minister. It wasn’t long ago that all these things were unthinkable. But at the same time, these

“What? You’re a pastor?”  “What do you mean - like in a church?” "Do you think God called you because there was no man available?" “Are you in rebellion?” These are just some of the responses I’ve received over the past twenty years in ministry when I’ve been introduced to someone for the first time. The next question (if there is one - sometimes people just change the subject or walk away!) is usually: So how does it feel to be a woman in ministry? Even though the denomination I’m ordained in (the Australian Christian Churches) has always held an egalitarian position towards women in ministry, I’m still a bit of an anomaly - both in the church world and more so, in wider society. After sharing my initial journey into ministry on the podcast last year (listen to How it Feels to be a Woman in Ministry Part 1), in this episode, I talk a bit about the responses of others to my being a female pastor - yes, the good, the bad and the ugly(!) - and how I believe God is working in the midst of them. My purpose is

How can hearing God’s voice be easy? Admittedly it is a slightly provocative statement designed to get you reading my eBook, The Easy Way to Hear God’s Voice, but there’s also an element of truth in it. Let me explain... Many of us struggle to hear God’s voice and it seems we are not alone. Even in Bible times people experienced the same frustration: Why do you complain to him that he responds to no one’s words? For God does speak—now one way, now another—though no one perceives it. In a dream, in a vision of the night, when deep sleep falls on people as they slumber in their beds... (Job 33:13-15) Though we know these words were spoken by someone who didn’t always have the right advice for his friend Job, they still give us a glimpse of the ancients’ experience in trying to discern God’s voice. God may well have been speaking to them in dreams, but like so many of us, they didn’t notice it. The premise of my book then is, that hearing from God may be as easy as falling asleep - something we can all do!

How did John know his Revelation was from God? I wonder how the seven churches of Asia Minor felt when they first received John’s letter. Along with the rest of the early churches, they’d been instructed to ‘weigh up’ prophecy (1 Corinthians 14:29) and ‘test the spirits to see if they’re from God’ (1 John 4:1). Like today, there were many claims to divine revelation floating around. How did they know it was from God? And even more so, how did John know it was from God? We learn from history that the book of Revelation was received eagerly by the church - at first. By the third and fourth centuries, church leaders became sceptical. Some debated its source and you can probably guess why. The book of Revelation certainly has a chequered history. Even today eastern orthodox churches don’t use the book in their liturgies. Like the seven churches of Asia Minor, we are called to test the revelations we receive. The question of course is, how? We can learn from the early church’s example, applying these 3 tests 

What the Hallmark Designers Didn’t See at Christmas... The scene appears so peaceful on our Christmas cards. A soft glow over the manger. The serene face of mother Mary cradling her newborn. Joseph leaning in proudly. But the Hallmark designers weren’t sitting in the same seat as the Apostle John. They didn’t get to see what was really happening as the scene unfolded at Christmastime. A glimpse behind the curtain of the natural world reveals a completely different drama. There’s a seven-headed dragon with ten horns. An army of angels at war. A torrent of water and a providential earthquake. It’s a front row seat at one of the most pivotal scenes in history. We talk about it on today’s podcast and you can read about it in Revelation chapter 12. The scene is a classic example of how symbolism works in dreams and visions. Mary wasn’t literally given two eagle wings, but she was given freedom from the clutches of her attacker. Herod didn’t have ten horns, but he was a powerful king representing a tyrannical