Emily Parker spoke with Tania Harris about her new book 'God Conversations', what God's voice sounds like, how you know when it's Him speaking and who God is in the midst of suffering.

Emily: What did you discover about God's love and what did you learn from Him in those moments?

Tania: As a young person I remember very clearly thinking to myself, "If I listen to what God says for me, what if He says something really bad? What if He sends me to some outback place, or what if He tells me to marry someone really ugly?" You don't know. "Who is this God?"

What I've realised as I've gone on, is that what He says is always good, even when it's hard; even in one of the first experiences I had, giving away some money. I had saved hard for my money, and He asked me to give it away. That didn't feel good. It was difficult to take what I'd earned and give it away and be generous, but the thing I learned was that God wants to set me free from the things I hold too dear. Learning to give was one of the most loving things I could do, because it sets me free to be fully who I am.

Whenever God says something, it always makes us a better person. Often it means learning to give up the things that I prioritise above Him. That's a process of following God, as Jesus said, "Will you follow Me? Will you take up your cross and deny yourself to follow Me?" What that means is that I'm learning to let go of the things that hold me back; the wrong things I do, the unforgiveness, the selfishness, the greed, the pride, and so when I hear God's voice, He actually expects to get rid of a lot of that stuff. It doesn't always feel loving, but eventually, because of the fruit, you begin to say, "Ok God, I understand You now. I've seen how it sets me free."

Emily: How do you see approaching God in a conversation when bad things happen, like terrorist attacks and we may not always get the answer?

Tania: When bad things happen? I think that that's one of the biggest questions of life, isn't it. I was actually passing through England when all the recent terrorist attacks were happening, and that was all very real. There are no easy answers to those big things.

The truth is that there is evil in the world and that evil tends to happen indiscriminately. The scriptures give us a lot of examples of people who are asking those kinds of questions, and so we have some foundations to go on. When you look at the character of Jesus and at the way He approached life and the way He talked about evil, He said, "In this world you're going to have trouble, but I'm with you."

One of the most beautiful things about who God is, is that He showed us He suffered. He came into the world as a person and He gave His life on a cross. When we talk about suffering and pain, this isn't a God who stands far away, not understanding something, or what it means to be human and what it means to be subject to evil and to be a victim of other people's crimes. We have a God who empathises and who understands, and at the end of the day makes a promise that wrongs will be made right and that justice will be done in the end and that we can put our hope in that. But at the same time, He doesn't leave us alone.

I remember very clearly in my own in life, how He spoke to me during those times of pain. Obviously they're nothing like a terrorist attack, but everyone's got their own story about what's gone wrong. For me personally, hearing God's voice during those times, it doesn't always mean that you get the answer to why this is happening, but you certainly get His perspective.

I remember one particular situation when everything went wrong and He spoke to me and He said, "This is what's happening in your world and this is how I want you to approach it." That gave me a little bit of an idea of the attitude He wanted me to have, the position of my heart and that He and I would get through this.

Hearing God's voice in the midst of pain is such a strengthening thing and gives you hope. He always says good things for hope and the future and He always works things out for good, so who better to have with you walking through those things.

Emily: What would your advice be for anyone wanting to begin having a conversation with God?

Tania: I would just say, ask. The beautiful thing is that God hears our prayers. When it's asked in sincerity, "God are you there? Speak to me, help me," He'll either speak back to you, or He'll bring someone into your world who knows God. You watch what happens, He's incredible.

I was talking with someone who had never met God before and God had given her a dream of Jesus, it was incredible. God wants to speak and draw people to Himself, so all we need to do is seek Him and ask. Then watch as He answers that. Often it's through people, it really is, I can't tell you the amount of times I've asked God a question and He has brought someone into my world, or He has led a circumstance to happen and He's started to answer that. Jesus said that if you draw near to Him then He'll draw near to you.

Emily: You've written the book 'God Conversations', what do you hope that people will get from reading your book?