Episode 133: Hearing God in the interruptions

Nov 1, 2026 | 0 comments

Episode Description:

Do you find you keep getting interrupted? Are they interruptions or distractions? Join us as we explore the idea that God’s pattern is that not every interruption is a distraction. Maybe that interruption is really an opportunity for service. A divine interruption is always a call to a proper focus. Every time God interrupts us, God also invites us to follow Him. We have an invitation to create margin in our lives so we can respond well to God-interruptions and love. Do you have enough margin in your life for love?

Episode Notes:

Introduction:

  • Gary often says Jane has a ministry of availability. That is learnt. Jane has learnt to leave margin for the interruptions.
  • There is a difference between interruptions and distractions.
  • Gary explains what he sees as the difference between interruptions and distractions. An interruption is God-ordained. Distractions can be likened to ‘going down a rabbit hole’ and have a fruitless outcome.
  • Interruptions are not necessarily obstacles. They can be opportunities for us to embrace God’s plan.

First Principle: Interruptions can be divine appointments.

  • Jesus was often interrupted. In Mark 5:21-42, Luke 8:40-55, Matthew 9:18-25, we see two stories interwoven with two people from the extremes of society.
  • Jane unpacks this story on Day 15 of her book ‘Ministering like Jesus: how to grow in healing, deliverance and miracles. A 30-day devotional from Mark’s Gospel.
  • A synagogue leader well placed in society has a 12-year-old daughter. He asks Jesus to come to heal his daughter, and Jesus immediately goes with him, no questions asked. We can only presume that doctors couldn’t do anything to treat her.
  • We then see a woman with bleeding issues for 12 years, who has been ostracised from society. She is considered unclean and cannot touch anyone. No doctors could heal her either. She suffered physically, emotionally, and financially, as she was now penniless from seeking healing. She interrupts Jesus by touching the hem of His garment. An ‘unclean’ woman touching Jesus meant He was now unclean and, by law, couldn’t enter the Synagogue leader’s home.
  • The number twelve was significant for both people. Twelve represented faith, perfection, authority, power, and completion.
  • This woman comes up behind Jesus where He cannot see her and touches Him, making Him ‘unclean’ by doing this. She does not want attention. She wants to remain ‘invisible’. Maybe that’s why she didn’t face Him and ask Him to heal her. Instead, she chose to extend her arm to touch His garment discreetly. It seems she hoped He would not notice. Due to her bleeding condition, which made her an outcast, she was ‘invisible’ to society, and this was no different. She did not want anyone, even Jesus, to ‘notice’ her. Maybe she thought that she was not good enough, rich enough, significant enough, influential enough.
  • The woman in the passage today knew the imbalance of societal value and feeling worthless. Here was Jesus, a powerful man, on the way to another powerful man’s house. Not only was she a woman, and a woman of a lower societal standing, but an outcast due to her bleeding.
  • Yet she persisted.
  • After everything she had overcome, she finally reached Jesus. Immediately, this woman knew in her body that she was healed. Instantaneously. Jesus also felt the difference as the power left Him.
  • What I find extremely interesting is that Jesus could have just kept going about His business. People were crowding Him, jostling Him, pushing Him. But He still stopped and acknowledged this woman. He wanted to meet her face to face, to talk with her. To re-establish her standing in society by pronouncing her healed, thus cleansed, and blessing her with peace as she left.
  • Jesus finishes the interaction by calling her ‘daughter’, a title that indicates intimacy, acceptance and position. All the things she was missing in society due to her illness.
  • Do we take that extra time to ‘finish’ what Jesus is doing? With this lady, the healing and transformation were miraculous, but it was restoring her place in society that was the ‘icing on the cake’, the completion. Jesus was letting her know, face to face, that she was now completely healed in all areas.
  • God’s pattern is that not all interruptions are distractions. There can be divine interruptions. A divine interruption is always a call to a proper focus. Every time God gives us an interruption, God also invites us to follow Him.
  • Often, our view of urgency differs from God’s.
  • Moses tending sheep – burning bush. Exodus 3. Minding his own business. Tending sheep. He had just led them through this huge wilderness, come to this mountain, and was trying to keep them from being distracted, but then he was distracted by this bush on fire that wasn’t burning up.
  • Acts 9:1-19 – God interrupted Saul/Paul on the road to Damascus and blinded him for 3 days. Completely changed his life – from murdering Christians to evangelising for Christ.
  • Different types of interruptions – Abraham & Sarah’s lifestyle was interrupted by having a child late in life. Genesis 21:1-7.
  • Gary explored how to determine the difference between a distraction and an interruption, and emphasised the point that if there is an opportunity to do something that you can only do once in your life, do it. That may be God’s agenda for you at that moment.
  • One of our family’s mottos is that failure is not not succeeding. Failure is not having a go in the first place.

Second Principle: Our attitude is important.

  • View interruptions as God-appointments, instead of frustrating nuisances.
  • Look at how you respond – your heart reaction.
  • Are we willing to be inconvenienced?
  • Gary often says Jane has the ministry of availability – that of being available. When Jane realised that and created margin in her life, she was able to respond appropriately. Don’t get bitter and twisted. Jane has found it important to have enough margin for love.
  • Look at Joseph in Luke 1 – engaged to be married. Suddenly your fiancé shares she is pregnant, yet you’ve never had sex.
  • Proverbs 16:9 “In their hearts humans plan their course but the Lord establishes their steps.” The Message version: “We plan the way we want to live, but only God makes us able to live it.”
  • S. Lewis famously addressed the nature of interruptions in a letter to his lifelong friend Arthur Greeves on December 20, 1943
  • “The great thing, if one can, is to stop regarding all the unpleasant things as interruptions of one’s ‘own,’ or ‘real’ life. The truth is of course that what one calls the interruptions are precisely one’s real life—the life God is sending one day by day: what one calls one’s ‘real life’ is a phantom of one’s own imagination.”
  • Maybe that interruption is really an opportunity for service.
  • A Scottish farmer named Fleming viewed his interruptions as opportunities for service. Fleming was a poor Scottish farmer who was working the land when he heard cries for help from a nearby bog. Running to the bog, he found a boy sinking down into the muck with no possible way to get out. Mr. Fleming threw the boy a rope, and saved his life as he was drowning. Farmer Fleming gave the boy a new set of clothing and sent him on his way without getting his name.
  • A few days later, a fancy carriage pulled up to Fleming’s farm. A nobleman got out and thanked Fleming for saving his son’s life in the bog. The nobleman wanted to pay Fleming for his gesture of kindness, but the farmer would not take any money. Fleming’s son came to the door while his father spoke with the nobleman. “Is this your son?” the nobleman asked. Fleming replied, “Yes.” The nobleman said, “Why don’t you let me take your son and educate him? I have a feeling this boy could turn out to be something great… if he’s anything like his father!”
  • Fleming entrusted his son to the care of the nobleman, and some years later his son, Alexander Fleming, graduated from St. Mary’s Hospital Medical School in London, England. Alexander Fleming discovered penicillin. But the story doesn’t end there. The nobleman’s son got pneumonia and became quite ill. Dr. Fleming’s penicillin saved the nobleman’s son’s life! The nobleman was Lord Randolph Churchill, and his son was Sir Winston Churchill!
  • Wouldn’t it have been a loss for the world if Farmer Fleming had not responded to that interruption? The world might not have had penicillin…or Winston Churchill!
  • Remember… an interruption is an opportunity for service.
  • Are we open to the needs of others?
  • Shifting our posture. Instead of “why?”, ask “What are You wanting to do, Lord?”
  • Gary & Jane share a couple of recent God-interruptions.

Third Principle: Can God trust you in the interruptions?

  • On a recent Saturday evening, about 5 pm, after a busy few weeks with the wedding. Jane was totally exhausted. Looking forward to a quiet evening at home. Got into her pyjamas. Knock at the door. Neighbour anxious about his wife. It was a God interruption. Had to get over the fact that she was in her pyjamas. Listened. Asked a couple of questions. He turned the talk to faith. Explored that a bit. Prayed for him and his wife. A God-interruption.
  • Acts 10:1-7 tells us about Cornelius, a Centurion in the Italian Regiment. Responsible for commanding 100 soldiers. “At about three in the afternoon, [Cornelius] had a vision. He distinctly saw an angel of God, who came to him and said, ‘Cornelius!’” Though startled, Cornelius responded, “What is it, Lord?” The angel instructed him to send for Peter. Without hesitation, Cornelius “called two of his servants and a devout soldier” to carry out the mission (see Acts 10:3-7).
  • This was probably a regular day at the office for Cornelius, until an angel appeared out of nowhere. Cornelius could have said, “Sorry, angel. Now’s not a good time. Can’t you see I’m busy training my soldiers?” But instead, Cornelius embraced the “interruption” for what it clearly was—a divine appointment from God. God could trust him.
  • Beginning of the ministry to the Gentiles in Acts. While God was interrupting Cornelius, he was also speaking to Peter about sharing with Gentiles. Both Peter and Cornelius obeyed God; Peter went to Cornelius’ home, where he had invited all these Gentiles – Peter spoke, and the Holy Spirit filled them.
  • An invitation to create margin in our lives so that we can respond well to God-interruptions, to love.

Summary:

  1. Interruptions can be divine appointments.
  2. Our attitude is important.
  3. Can God trust you in the interruptions?

Prophetic activation:

Turn your heart and thoughts to Father God and ask Him:

  • “God, please bring to mind an interruption that I don’t like? Something that happens quite regularly but I don’t like it?”
  • “God, how do You view this interruption?”

Time Stamps:

[0:43] – Gary & Jane share how they have heard God this week.

[3:24] – Introduction to interruptions verse distractions.

[6:27] – First Principle: Interruptions can be divine appointments.

[13:07] – Second Principle: Our attitude is important.

[21:48] – Third Principle: Can God trust you in the interruptions?

[24:10] – Summary.

[24:33] – Prophetic activation.

[25:41] – Gary & Jane share a prophetic word for a listener.

[27:11] – Gary prays for you.

Resources / Links Mentioned:

Bible Verses Mentioned:

  • Mark 5:21-42
  • Luke 8:40-55
  • Matthew 9:18-25
  • Exodus 3
  • Acts 9:1-19
  • Genesis 21:1-7
  • Luke 1
  • Proverbs 16:9
  • Acts 10:1-7

Connect with Gary & Jane:

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