god-incidence.com

It might be a small thing but what are the odds of this showing up in my Google Reader?

Let me set the scene.

I recently launched my book “Worth More Than Rubies” at Amazon.com. I set up a promotion for a 24 hour period and watched the ranking of my book go from 900,000+ up to 1,127 which was quite exciting. Sales were coming in. I discovered that Amazon has an RSS feed for the top 100 Hot New Releases for my genre, so I subscribed to it, but it only shows 1 book a day from that list of 100.

You know what’s coming don’t you? Overnight, whilst I was asleep, my book reached number 23 but when I saw it 12 hours later on the feed reader it had moved back down again so I would never have been able to witness this or even know it had happened. Why was my book showing instead of someone else’s on the feed reader? Random books are shown every day, in different positions and yet mine was the focus for that particular time the information was posted.

Only God could have orchestrated that for me otherwise I would never have known.

Amazing to be able to look back and see that God has been working on something - even when you haven’t!

I returned home from a business workshop/seminar this morning to find a 10 min old Skype message asking if I was around for a chat about something? I Skyped back to say I’d just got in and shall we chat? And so we did a short time later.

The guy who contacted me outlined a new project he’s working on and that he saw me as someone who could possibly get involved - that he was aware of the things I’d been doing online and where my interests lay.

Now I can’t yet divulge what the project is but as we spoke two things came up that can only be God-incidences.

1. He asked me about doing copy writing for a website he’s working on - I’d just returned from a copywriting workshop! Amazing. I know I can write but learning how to refine it for clients is important and so here I was, not even home a half hour after the course and already my first job lined up!

2. He mentioned the field of possible clients he was looking at for his project (unrelated to number 1 above) and immediately a name of a very well known personality popped into mind. I mentioned who I was thinking of and the caller got real excited as this was exactly the same person he’d been talking with over the past few months. He wanted to know if I knew this person personally and I told him that the PA and I are very good friends and have been on committees together for over 10 years.

So I promised to contact the PA and put in a good word for him. Enter the third thing that happened as a result of this conversation. Turns out the PA (my friend) had been telling her boss (the well known personality) about things I’d been doing online. And then I go and contact her about the very same thing!

Talk about timing. I love when these divine connections happen and you can see God written all over it! I can’t wait to see what’s going to happen next.

I was running later than normal this morning when I went down to the post office to check for mail. As I walked along the pavement a young lady was walking towards me, her head down, reading the book in her hands. She must have just come off the train - there was a fair bit of foot traffic around. I don’t know why I was watching this lady but as she got closer, I noticed the book was moving up and down in her hands with the movement of her walking. And in a flash, as the book moved up momentarily, I saw the cover of her book and my heart jumped! The book was mine - “Worth More Than Rubies“.

I stopped and watched her as she moved further down the road away from me, wondering if she even realised she had just walked past the author. Probably not. How cool was that? Definitely a God-incident in my books!

I recently read how God is always there, always seeking to get our attention, always talking to us, but in the busy-ness of life we tend to over look this. I’m definitely guilty of that, even when I do respond to promptings by the Holy Spirit to pray for people.

We are currently going through a 40 Day Prayer & Fast time at our church.  A couple of weeks ago during my prayer and bible reading time I was prompted to pray for a couple I’d not seen for at least a couple of years but probably much longer. They used to go to our old church and then shifted to another state to minister at a church there. I knew they’d been having challenges and we’d heard on the grapevine occasionally about things happening in their lives. But we weren’t close friends and we hadn’t maintained contact.

So, to be prompted to pray for them wasn’t because they were always on my mind and I knew it was not of my own thoughts. I prayed for them and that God is with them in whatever is happening currently and after my prayers for that day got on with my life. They didn’t enter my mind again… till this morning. Who should walk into my (new) church this morning but this couple and their children? I had an overwhelming feeling of joy and excitement about seeing them and fired heaps of questions at them - how long have they been back, how are they, where are they living, and so on. I didn’t know who to hug first and excitedly chatted to them and then moved off to sit in my usual spot but keeping aware of where they had sat in the auditorium.

The prompting came back within minutes for me to go sit with them and I walked around to see if there was a spare seat near them but there wasn’t, so I moved back to my seat and waited till the time for the children moved came, then I grabbed my things and moved over to that side of the building and sat with them. During the service I was reminded of the prayer and concern for them a couple of weeks ago and I shared it with the husband (because he was sitting next to me and because we had also worked together a few years ago and had some common ground and I felt we connected more) after the service, with tears filling my eyes.

I still don’t understand why I was so overwhelmed with emotion for this couple - we’d not been close friends but did know each other. We didn’t mix in the same circles and their children are very young - our’s are full grown - and yet I know I was prompted to pray for them and then totally excited to see them this morning. They’re trying to buy a home and once settled will decide on their new church home.

One more amazing thing in all this, the husband told me he was surfing the web during the week and came across my blog - I asked him which one? I own 12 He told me the one about my book and was thrilled to come across it. He doesn’t even know how he found it - so there you have it. God had me thinking about them and vice versa - amazing.

Whatever is happening I know that God was in it, and for them to turn up in the church I attend out of all the churches they could attend, I feel was a God-incident in itself - that coupled with the prompting to pray for them.

Throughout this year I’ve been working on a new book based on The Proverbs 31 Woman. The book is called Worth More Than Rubies: The Value of a Work At Home Mum.  The journey I’ve been experiencing during this time has been amazing and the evidence that God continues to work through things I do will never cease to surprise me. The following is just one such incident.

The most awesome thing happened and I wanted to share it with you.

A few days ago I was annoyed to receive yet another email newsletter from some group I’d never heard of. Because they were obviously Australian, and bearing in mind the spam legislation here, I emailed them and asked how I got on the list - to give them the benefit of the doubt.

The guy answered today and advised I’d signed up for their regular newsletter last December and this was a special one-off. I emailed back and suggested that they actually advise who the ‘parent group’ is so that recipients know who the sender actually is. He responded and agreed and then he emailed me again:

Kathie, you’re a Believer! So am I!!

I just clicked on your link for http://worth-more-than-rubies.com/

Where do you fellowship?

He’d seen the link for my new book in my signature block and followed it and knew instantly where my heart lay.

We ended up emailing back and forth and it turns out that 3 years ago he and his wife was touched by a special ministry that operates from my church. More than that, his wife works at home but is struggling and none of their friends can relate as they are not in a similar position. He asked if I would consider chatting with her on the phone to encourage her and of course I said ‘yes’.

It is important that we always respond and ‘react’ to things in a way that is not seen as rude or bad character at any time. We never know who we’re connecting with and the internet allows us to connect with anyone and everyone at any given time. We are on duty, God’s duty 24/7.  If I had not responded ‘nicely’ it’s possible we would not have discovered what I now believe to be a ‘God-connection’ and it thrills me that once again, my Lord is using me to help others.