The Blessing of Waiting

Isaiah 30:18 says,”Blessed are all who wait for him!”  If you look back at my blog “Wait, Be Patient, Be Still” you will better understand what I am about to share.  But the long and short of it is that Beth and I now have two vehicles that God has blessed us with, and we don’t have any car payments!  To God be the glory! 

As most of you probably know, this summer our 2000 Ford Windstar Van died on us down in Orlando at the General Assembly and we had to rent a car to get home.  So during the hot and miserable summer we got around in my 1995 Chevy Corsica, that is until it began to smoke when the power steering went out.  Left with nothing to drive God moved on different folks hearts to bless us (and we are still so very grateful to this day), and with a little help from family we were able to get a better vehicle, which was and is a tremendous blessing! But we were still down to one car.   Anyway, in August I found out that the State of Texas was giving  $3000 vouchers for anyone who could drive their car to a dealership and who would purchase a 2007 vehicle or newer.  Well, I was all over that considering that my Chevy wasn’t even worth $300.   But honestly, I was very conflicted.  As I have shared before, I felt that God didn’t want Beth and I to take on anymore debt, not even a car payment.  Also, I kept hearing this still small voice say to me that I was to fix my car and give it away.  Seven years ago I was given that Chevy Corsica by a dear women who wanted to bless me and now I felt God saying that I wasn’t to try to get something out of it since it had been given to me.  I tried to shake off that voice and convince myself that it was just me but I knew it was God and so after a month of looking for a new car I gave up and let the $3000 voucher run out.  I can’t tell you how much that hurt.  So here I am.  I have no $3000 voucher and God doesn’t want me to take on a car payment.  Crazy right?

Well, to make matters even more difficult, right before the prayer conference the vehicle that God had blessed us with (a 2004 Mazda Tribute) began to act up and the transmission went out.  Seriously!  During the prayer conference we had no vehicle again!  We had to borrow someones car during the conference just to get back and forth to church.  But truthfully it didn’t bother me a bit.  I had such a peace about God’s provision and about waiting on God. 

Well, after the prayer conference God revealed to me again that I was to give my 95 Corsica away and then He made it known who I was to give the car to.  So, I said yes to God (even though this person doesn’t know it yet).  I got the car fixed and it runs like a kitten, a very old and decrepid kitten.  And what do you think happened next?  Well, a few days ago a couple came to my house and with tears in their eyes they shared how God had led them to bless Beth and I with a car.  That’s right!  As I’m sitting here writing this I have two vehicles that God provided that I don’t have a car payment for and the dealership honored the warranty and fixed the transmission in my Mazda Tribute without cost to me.  God did it again!!!  As Isaiah 30 says, God truly blesses us when we wait.  Would it have been easier to just go out and buy a new vehicle?  Absolutely.  But it wouldn’t be a miracle and it wouldn’t be near as much fun! 

Waiting on God may take longer than if we did it for ourselves, but the blessings of God are always worth the wait!

The Lord is with you Mighty Warrior

Back in 2002 my son Luke, who was not even 2 years of age at the time, was diagnosed with leukemia.  I can’t put into words what that time was like for us.  But one word that comes to mind is devastated.  We had just turned a corner in the church with a rennovation of the building, a refocus of our mission, and a name change to Crossroads Tabernacle.   And then with the news of our sons illness our world had suddenly changed.  I remember trying to preach that Sunday after my son was diagnosed.  I was there in body only.  But I felt I needed to show up and preach even though my family had tried to encourage me to stay with Luke at the hospital.  I knew that a spiritual battle was being waged against Beth and I and our church and I wanted Satan to know that I wasn’t going to shrink back.  

Eventually we brought Luke home from the hospital and even though the dates and events are fuzzy now there is one thing I still remember vividly about those early days after Luke’s diagnosis.  I had been reading in the Bible about Gideon in Judges 6. The Midianites had been systematically plundering Israel’s crops to such an extent that Gideon was hiding his wheat and threshing it in a winepress so that it would not be taken from him.  I could really relate to Gideon at the time because it seemed that Satan had been taking from our church for years.  Nothing seemed safe.  If we did reach people it wasn’t long before they would backslide and be gone.  If a good offering came in, something would break or be stolen (like our AC units) that would take all the money we had to fix it.  And now after years of perseverance and fighting to hold on, my own son is struck with a life threatening illness that we feared could take him.    I did feel a lot like Gideon in those days. 

But what so surprised me as I read Judges 6 was that when the angel came to Gideon, hiding in the winepress with his wheat (his harvest) , he addressed Gideon with these words, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.” (vs. 13)  My first thought was that Gideon hadn’t won any battles.  He wasn’t even a warrior much less a mighty warrior.   In fact, Gideon was cowardly, hiding from the Midianites in a winepress and hanging on for dear life to what harvest he had left.   But it was there and then that God’s Spirit lifted a truth off the page and into my heart.   When God speaks to us, He always calls us what we will become through His empowerment and annointing not what we are in the moment.  As it says in Romans 4:17 “…God calls things that are not as though they were.”   I took that truth and went upstairs to my little son Luke’s bedside and while he slept I began to pray over Luke and call him my mighty warrior.  And all the way through that whole cancer ordeal Beth and I would daily speak over Luke, “The Lord is with you, mighty warrior.”  To this day, if you ask Luke who you are he will say, “A mighty warrior!”  And now Luke is 9 and he has been free from cancer for over 5 years.  To God be the glory!

But the reason I share this today is that I believe God speaks this very word over each one of us.  Where ever he finds us His word is, “The Lord is with you mighty warrior.”   And usually God speaks these words to us when we are hiding out and holding on for dear life.  When we don’t feel “mighty” and when we haven’t yet won any real wars.  And when our circumstances seem to suggest that God isn’t even close to being with us.   In these moments God’s voice can be heard declaring over us what God knows we will become if we trust Him.  

Anyway, bless you mighty warrior!  More later.

Immeasurably More

It’s been a few months since I last blogged, but after the amazing prayer conference we just had I could wait no longer to share.   And yet, I’m still almost speechless.   God gave me the vision for the prayer conference in January while I was doing a revival.  In truth, I was struggling during the revival with doing revivals.  I was exhausted and I told God that I had had it and that I was no longer going to go out and try to share what God was doing in our church through prayer.  It seemed that trying to share with other churches about the power of prayer just brought blank stares and the typical responses like “Oh yeah, prayer.  Well we already pray.”  So in a hotel room in January I told God I was through going out to other churches and that I was just going to go home and pastor my church.  

 Other things were going on at Crossroads and during that same time I felt God tell me that I was to call our church to fast in February.  In the 10 years since our church began to pray I had never really fasted, much less called the church to fast.  But I knew God had spoken.  So as a church we entered a month of fasting.  During that fast God spoke to me again and birthed in my heart a vision for the prayer conference–that instead of going out to other churches and sharing, we were to invite pastors and lay people to come to our church.  I knew it was God and I never hesitated.  That month I shared the vision and we launched out and began to prepare for the prayer conference in October.   A big part of the vision was that we were to take our whole team to General Assembly in Orlando and have a booth in the convention hall to promote the prayer conference.  

I had no idea how tough it was going to be and how much of a battle we would face.  At Crossroads we were experiencing incredible things.  Many backslidden people that we had cried out for were returning and repenting.  Easter was incredible with over 1600 folks attending and countless people meeting Jesus as Savior and Lord.  The Church was growing and maturing and everyone could feel the power of God’s Spirit in every service.  And yet, I could sense a growing dark force of opposition to the prayer conference.  As a church we have faced many battles and spiritual warfare isn’t anything new, but I don’t think any of  us were prepared for what we would encounter.    

But in May of this year our church was hit harder than we have ever been hit, when one of our very best servants  and staff members was viciously attacked and assualted at gunpoint in her home on a Tuesday morning.    The news of this attack spread through our church and at prayer meeting that night we just wepted before the Lord!  I honestly don’t know what we would have done or how we would have endured had we not been a praying church.  And truthfully I wondered how we would move forward.   For about two weeks we  abandoned any and all of our plans and just prayed for God’s Help and Healing.   During that time I sensed God saying move forward.  Miraculously 4 weeks after the assualt we all made it to Orlando, even the dear lady who had been attacked was with us.  God was holding us all together and I could feel it.  During that incredible time in Orlando we met and prayed for people all over the world.  Satan had been defeated again, even though my 2000 Ford van died and we had to rent a car to get home.   I still haven’t got over that one.

Anyway, during the summer after the assembly we did what we do as a church (VBS, Urban Encounter, etc.) but very few people were signing up or registering for the conference.  Even as late as August and into September we weren’t sure if there would be much of a turnout.  But honestly by that time I was just so at peace.  I truly felt that I had obeyed and that my part was done.  Sure Satan came almost daily and taunted me saying, “What a dumb idea.  You must not have heard God.  Folks just aren’t interested in prayer.”  But I just shrugged off his lies and each week a few more folks did register.   Remember, back in February we had fasted and for the past 8 months we had prayed and saturated this conference in prayer.  And we could all feel things building in our spirits.  Well, that Monday night before the conference we all met at church for prayer and what a night it was.  We didn’t fight or wrestle in prayer.  That had already been done and won.  We just rested and worshiped! 

But never ever could we have imagined what God would do during that week at the Prayer Conference!  Words fail here.  To see God’s Hand move so mightily.  To see pastors broken and on their faces before the Lord.  To see God’s glory so thick that one pastor thought someone had brought a smoke machine into the sanctuary.   To have services go on 4 and 5 hours and no one wanting to leave.  To hear pastors say that their ministries had been saved because of their encounter with God.   All of these things and more help me to understand what Paul meant when he said, “Now to him who is able to do immeasurably more than all we ask or imagine…” Eph. 3:20

 And just a final word:  Back in September that dear lady who had been assaulted was at our Tuesday prayer meeting and felt God touch her and heal her mind from the terrorizing memories that were inflicted upon her.  She was present throughout the prayer conference and she stood as a living testimony that God is the restorer of stolen property and the healer of our souls.  We do serve an immeasurably more God!!!