God Speaks in Many Ways

God speaks to us in many ways. He speaks to us through His Word, the Bible. He speaks to us through the Holy Spirit. He speaks to us through the circumstances of our lives. In the Bible we learn that God spoke through angels and through prophets. He spoke in awesome manifestations, the handwriting on the wall, the voice from the burning bush, the voice from heaven at Jesus’ baptism. He spoke through a donkey, gave guidance through a dove, made an animal skin wet and dry, and made the sun to stand still! He spoke through visions and through dreams. One thing for certain is that you can’t put God in a box, or tell him how He is going to speak. In fact, His many ways of communicating to us are as many and varied as we are unique.

The real question before us is this, Has God spoken to us at Christian Fellowship Assembly, about the purchase of this land and property? I believe the answer to that question is a resounding YES! And the evidence is overwhelming! Now, if anyone might question this conclusion, shouldn’t I be the one? Didn’t I focus our attention on Gideon and his fleece on the Sunday of our meeting? I told the body, “with all my heart I believe we needed to have a qualified presence at the auction,” because the opportunity was just too good to overlook. I said that at the very least we should consider the auction as a fleece, and that if we could win the property for whatever our limit or less, we should consider it a YES and if not then we would know that it wasn’t meant for us. It was certainly a reasonable conclusion to believe that when the bidding passed our limit of that we had lost and had our answer. This question was echoed in the voices of others, “Did this bidding miss the spirit of our decision?” But this account of God speaking to us doesn’t begin nor end with that moment in the auction.


The Bible speaks of finding confirmation in the mouths of two or three witnesses. A matter must be established by the testimony of two or three witnesses (Deut. 19:15). I want to share with you how clearly God has spoken to us about this property.

The first witness is how strongly Brother Cochran has felt about this property from the beginning. The credibility of this witness is soundly established. First, it is because Brother Cochran heard from God about the purchase of property, that we are currently located on the corner of Church and Cemetery Streets in Tunnel Hill today. We are not here by accident. God worked through Brother Cochran not only in the selection but also in the provision for financing for the property we have now. His personal belief was so strong that he cashed in life insurance and used his own funds to acquire the property initially. Likewise in this auction, his insight into the value of this property, caused him to be willing first to donate the difference between his final bid and the authorized bid, writing his personal check to the church that day for the difference. He stated that it would be a miracle if we could acquire this property for less than half a million.

A second witness takes us back to the significance of the amount of our authorized bid. The first time I heard this number was after one of our brothers went out to see the property before the auction. He told me that he anointed the corners and prayed, claiming this for CFA, and that a number came to him. That number turned out to be the amount of our authorized bid. When the board came together to decide on a recommendation to the body, this number was shared again by one of our board members, but our numbers were all over on both sides of this significant number. We tabled the decision on an amount for our recommendation until after the open house the following Sunday. We met half an hour before the business meeting and the number in the middle that we decided to present was that very number of our authorized bid. In the end after the reimbursement from Brother Cochran, the cost to the body was the authorized amount.
A third witness is a spiritual witness. Personally I had a strong sense of the Holy Spirit’s Presence when we visited the property. During our 1^st board meeting prior to the annual business meeting, Brother Cochran felt a witness of the Holy Spirit, when one of the other members expressed agreement with his statement about it being a miracle if we could get the property for less than half a million. At that same meeting the Holy Spirit spoke through tongues and interpretation, speaking directly, “Don’t be afraid!” I confess that that I was more than a little afraid about the size of this project, but I felt sure then that God was directing us to press on. At our last board meeting after the auction, the Holy Spirit gave special revelation as He moved on one of our members, who said, “finally all of the pieces fit.”

A fourth witness is the witness of reason. Can we really afford it? If all we do is look back on our record, someone might reasonably say, “no, we can’t.” But with more confidence than I could have imagined just a few weeks ago, I can declare with confidence that “we can’t afford not to do it.” The day we close on this property the net worth of our assets will increase by at least half a million dollars. In less than a two weeks, we have raised over 80% of the funds needed to close on the property. We have a few members of our fellowship who could afford to do this without the rest of us, but they are willing to do this with us! I think it is altogether reasonable that we should accept their offers to help us see this miracle come to pass.

In the next few days we will have to address all the questions and details about how we will pay for it, but I declare again to you the Word of God, that “nothing is impossible, with Him.” God has spoken, and now is the time for His people to respond in faith.