Our guest blogger today is Matt Coombs, student worker at St Mary's London. He's an all round good egg.
"Everyone knows that the student years can be the best of our life. They are key to forming who we are, but at the same time they throw up challenges and sometimes our relationship with God can take a backseat. For me as a student one of the things that got me most excited about God was seeing him do the extraordinary.
The church I work for (St Mary’s) with New Wine and Fusion are partnering to put on a day conference called Student Third Person.
It’s all about praying for people so stuff happens, whether it’s healing, receiving words for people or growing in any of the gifts of the Spirit - all massively exciting things that build our faith, empower us to be bolder and show us that God is actively with us.
Let me share a few stories from our student group this year to show what this is all about. I do this not to show off, because I had literally nothing to do with any of them, but because it shows that God uses absolutely anyone and wants to bless everyone!
One of our girls was on the emergency heart transplant list. This meant that she would be having the operation within three months. This was obviously very difficult for many people in our group (not least her). The students had been praying for her for ages but nothing was happening, if anything it seemed to be getting worse. Then some of the girls prayed again one evening service where there was a lot of power, and she was healed so that she now has a completely healthy heart.
Praise God!
One of the boys with nearly no church background or experience of the Spirit was prayed for and fell to the floor. When he stood up he explained that for the first time ever he understood what it meant to be loved by and receive the grace of God. Since then he has begun to bring some of his non-Christian friends to church so they can experience it too.
Another group all received the same word from God at the same time that they should begin to meet in Soho and regularly pray for and meet some of the girls working in that area, so they are now doing that!
We are still waiting to see what God is going to use them for.
These among many other stories have brought so much life to our student group and church. It is for these reasons that we are running Student Third Person to help equip students to pray with power and expectation that God will do something when we ask. If this becomes second nature to us it will all flow into all our other activities like worship, mission and evangelism.
Think how much more effective we will be if we are overflowing with and following the Spirit!
Matt Coombs
Student Worker – St Mary’s London
