Well I am stepping out in more ways than one in this new season of my life as I now enter the world of blogging! People keep asking me what I am doing now and so I thought a blog would help to keep people posted plus I hope it will be a source of encouragement too.

I've enjoyed regularly reading about heroines of the faith like my friend Emma Dawson’s witty and thought provoking tales of her life as a wife and mum in an all male household and Wendy Virgo’s gifted teaching and writing on a wide variety of topics as she travels the globe. As a result I actually feel somewhat daunted by the standard already set! It was actually my new friend Wendy Mann’s blog writing that recently inspired me to have a go. She too is a heroine of faith and a great example to me of a pioneering woman of this generation.

I’m calling my blog 'Expecting More' because that is exactly what I feel God is saying to me and I am hoping as someone in my middle years that my journey will inspire others not to slow down but to keep pressing forward into all God has for them.

Perhaps at 56 I could be beginning to look towards early retirement or certainly slowing down a bit with two out of three children married, 4 nearly 5 grandchildren and a husband who is already past retirement age, but Tony and I both know retirement has never been on God’s plan for us.

Back in July, God spoke to me about drawing away from an administrative role where I had been serving on staff at CCK and spoke about stepping into a new season, a season of increase in the area of the prophetic and the miraculous and to expect dreams and visions. How exciting! Over the last 2-3 years God had been speaking in similar ways but you know when God is saying now and in July I knew I needed to be obedient and it was NOW!

So, I have stepped into this new chapter with great anticipation of all God will show me. It is now November and along with two other friends from Brighton, I am two months into the TSM course (Training in Supernatural Ministry) held at the Kings Arms newfrontiers church in Bedford. 

Before I joined the course, God gave me a picture one morning of a house restoration project.

He showed me the house needing to be stripped right back because the old support structures were unstable and were for another time past. I felt God say, they must go now and new support structures need to be put in to make way for the new build. I was reminded of the verse that says 'you cannot put new wine into an old wineskin’ But what would remain? I asked God and I felt him say, all my promises over you and the foundations that I have already laid. As with old house make overs, owners like to retain the original features and I asked God about that too. I felt him say they are the uniqueness of who I have made you to be!

I sensed that the things I had put my trust in and that gave me confidence, even believing that they made me who I am, would be challenged and old structures would be taken away. 

I felt this year that paradigms would be shifted.

Well that is exactly what has started to happen!

God is teaching me so much in a culture that absolutely prioritises his presence and in his presence everything is so much easier! 

Since half term we’ve been hitting the streets of Bedford and though scary, it’s been great fun knowing that it’s all about Him and not about us. God gave us words of knowledge for people who he led us to meet and then to pray for, one of which took me into a car workshop, an all male environment, to then pray for a car mechanic called Sam who was dressed in overalls exactly as God had spoken to me before we went out!

Last week God gave us opportunities to pray for healing for people in the town centre. One older couple said to my friend and I, God must have meant you to meet us today and they were deeply touched as we prayed for two of their friends who are battling cancer.

I look forward to sharing more stories of God’s amazing goodness both in my life and in those as he chooses to use me to bless.

Facebookclaire.coggan@cck.org.uk