Our God is Greater... Than we all think.
My name is Nahum Matthews, I’m from Ulverston in Cumbria. I’m currently studying at the Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA), and I’m learning that God wants to do SO MUCH MORE than I ever expect.
I’ve been a Christian pretty much all my life but I’ve only recently realized at uni that I need God to be right in the center of my life, especially because of the things that I have witnessed and been involved in at uni.
I’ve noticed that the generation of people around me are broken, and at performing arts school people’s lives are rife with identity struggles, broken friendships, family crises, alcohol and drug abuse problems, to name a few.
This has given me a heart for LIPA and the students that study inside its walls.
This academic year, I felt the Lord say to start up something similar to the worship and prayer nights I had been to over summer at a farmhouse with some young people in Lancaster.
When the Lord speaks, I find it easy to hear what he’s said, then take control and lean on my own understanding of what he said, instead of letting him direct ALL my steps. Maybe you know what I mean. This time, I didn’t want to screw up what he had in store for LIPA. So I went to my student pastor and we prayed about what we should be doing and how the Lord wanted us to go about doing it.
After a few months of praying and seeking God, he gave us a date and we went for it.
We booked a rehearsal room in LIPA, gathered some Christian students together and went for it – no agenda, no timescale, no organization, just wanting to be led by the Spirit. It turned out to be an amazing night of singing, praying, encouragements and a general ‘geeing’ up for the people who are meant to be shining God’s light and truth in the halls of LIPA.
One highlight of the night for me personally was that one of my Norwegian friends, Taran, came. I had spoken to him once before about having a relationship with the Lord but I never got the chance to follow up on our conversation. This night at LIPA he joined halfway through to sit in and see what was going on, but he ended up seriously encountering the Holy Spirit. I was hugely encouraged - the Lord’s timing is perfect!
I am realising that we can spend our entire lives putting the God we worship into human, mind-size boxes of expectation when in reality, God wants to do SO MUCH MORE.
We have now held a second monthly prayer and worship night and are seeking the Lord to see what he wants to do next in LIPA...
What idea is God giving you? How does he want to break in in your performing arts school?
“Trust in and rely confidently on the Lord with all your heart and do not rely on your own insight or understanding. In all your ways know and acknowledge and recognize Him, and He will make your paths straight and smooth [removing obstacles that block your way].” [Proverbs 3:5-6, AMP]
