A rewritten and updated version of my book "An Army of Ordinary People" has just been released by Tyndale House Publishers. It is a book of stories, each chapter illustrating a principal of simple/organic church. You can get hold of a copy at http://bit.ly/a8LdVL or other online locations. Everything that we know about God teaches us that He desires to communicate with us. It is a part of His very character. Within simple/organic church, we like to say that church is as simple as knowing God, hearing His voice and obeying what He tells us. Jesus is head of His church, and if we dare to take this literally, it means that both at an individual and at a corporate level, He desires to communicate with us. It also presupposes that we have the ability to recognize His voice when He is speaking to us. Imagine the adventure of hearing God speak and recognizing His voice. We might hear Jesus say to us, “Go and sit down next to the person on the bench and get chatting with him, He needs to hear from Me today.” Imagine a community of God’s people that knows when God is communicating. God might tell them to get involved in a certain apartment complex. He would tell them where their finances were to be spent or what they were to do with their children when they meet together. John 1:1 describes Jesus as the Word: In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. Words communicate. God desires to communicate with His people. In Matthew 4:4, Jesus tells Satan, “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that proceeds out of the mouth of God.” The verb “proceed” is in the present continuous tense. A better translation might be “Man does not live by bread alone but by every word that is continually proceeding out of the mouth of God.” In John 8, Jesus says that He only did what He saw the Father doing and only spoke what He heard the Father saying. Jesus Himself continually heard from His Father. He was in constant communication with Him. His life demonstrated a total dependence on hearing from the Father and then obeying Him. Was Jesus able to do this only because He is part of the Godhead? If that is true, hearing God speak in this same way is outside of the realm of our capabilities. Or was Jesus dependent on the same Holy Spirit who now indwells us? It is notable that Jesus did not begin His earthly ministry until the Holy Spirit had come upon Him at His baptism. From that point onwards, the Holy Spirit led Him. Philippians 2:7, 8 says, “When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn't claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death… (The Message) When Jesus went to be with His Father after His resurrection, He asked the Father to send the Holy Spirit to us (John 7:39; 15:26). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of truth. He leads us into all truth (John 16:13). He helps us to communicate with the Father (Romans 8:26-27). When we become a Christian, the Holy Spirit makes our Spirit alive and dwells within us and awakens within us a God-given ability to hear what the Father is saying. So how does God speak to us? Is He limited to speaking through His Word? Can we learn to recognize His voice? Does God speak in an audible voice? Does He speak through our own thoughts? If so, how do we distinguish between our own thoughts and what He is saying? The majority of Christians here in the West rarely experience this vibrant and alive walk with Jesus. Most struggle to know when God is speaking—not sure if we hear God clearly. One of the main paradigm shifts within this movement of simple/organic churches is the belief that ordinary men and women hear God. They can be entrusted with the affairs of the Kingdom. It does not need specially trained people to manage the church. The Holy Spirit is able to run the church by speaking directly to His people. He will do a far better job of it than our organizations and denominations!
Felicity's Blog: www.simplychurch.com 
