God Conversations with Tania Harris

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 – t...

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...

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...

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 an...

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 toda...

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 fr...

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...

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 t...

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 fol...

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 t...

“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 us...

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 n...

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...

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 behi...

How could Jesus have white hair if he was only in his early thirties? How can a lamb have seven horns? How could clothes be white after they’ve been washed in blood? It is perhaps easy to see why many of us steer clear of the book of Revelation, why it was the last book to be accepted into the canon in the 4th Century and why Martin Luther tried to oust it generations later. Many of the colourful...

A beast with seven heads? A prostitute drunk with blood? A lamb with seven eyes and seven horns? What was the author thinking? What had he been eating?! We could be forgiven for asking questions like these when we start reading the book of Revelation. One could wonder if we’ve found ourselves in the middle of a scene from Lord of the Rings rather than a portion of sacred Scripture. In order to und...

The last book in the Bible – the book of Revelation  – can be a closed and confusing read. Graphic imagery of seven-headed beasts, gaudy prostitutes and winged creatures serve to make some of the scenes in the book resemble the Lord of the Rings movies more than the writings of sacred scripture. Yet Revelation contains a profound message that is as relevant today as it was to the 1st C church. Thi...

On this week’s podcast, Light FM radio host Clayton Bjelan and I chat about the experiences of listeners from Melbourne (Australia) in hearing God’s voice. We hear from: Robert who heard God’s voice on one of the worst days of his life. Bernadette who received a vision that helped her avoid a devastating car accident. Ken who received encouragement while waiting for his first child to be born. Mar...

“Gold told me; …to park my car here.” …to divorce my wife.” …to kill the Muslims.” It doesn’t take long in church life before you hear someone saying it. The words ‘God told me’ have been used to justify mass murder, the proliferation of a range of weird beliefs and abuses of power so heinous that you can’t really blame church leaders from throwing their hands up in the air in exasperation and say...

I was first asked this question while pioneering my church in Melbourne around fifteen years ago; “How does it feel to be a woman pastoring a church?” Back then I replied; “I don’t know – I’ve never pastored a church as a man!” It is perhaps an unusual topic for a podcast on hearing God’s voice, but I’m asked this question often so I thought I would take some time to answer it. In this podcast, we...

Yes, the podcast today is for those who can’t find time in their busy schedules to get away for hours and sit cross-legged on a mountaintop! It may be the longest headline ever, but I think it encapsulates what we all long for. The thoughts in this podcast provide some solutions to our busyness problem and how to hear God’s voice in whatever situation we find ourselves. We start by looking at the...

“‘In the last days, God says,     I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will prophesy,     your young men will see visions,     your old men will dream dreams.” It’s one of the most famous verses in the New Testament and a pivotal moment for the early church. The Holy Spirit ‘fell’ on a group of people as they gathered to worship on the Jewish Day of Pentecost. A number...

Our response to God’s voice is critical – both in terms of the consequences of our decision-making as well as our ongoing conversations with God. In today’s podcast I would love to introduce you to the person who taught me what to do when God speaks. Ps. Melinda Dwight is a pioneer and a visionary – raiser of leaders, personal mentor and the first woman to be a state executive member in the Austra...

How often does God speak? Is it a rare, one-off event that we look back on and reminisce over? Or is it a normal part of my everyday experience? Some make it sound like God speaks every single day. God said this, God said that. He told me what to wear today. He said, I should do this and go there. It’s like God is saying something new every moment. My immediate response is, I don’t think so. Yet a...

Men are better at parking cars and reading maps. Women are better at communication and intuition. The prevailing research shows that our gender differences are related to neurological processes in the brain. So if women are naturally better at communicating, does this effect their ability to hear God’s voice? Why is it that more women are on prayer-teams than men, why do more women attend God Conv...