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Learning to Wait - Part 3 (My Experience)

This will be the last entry in this series. We left off with me sharing part of my dream of holding crusades that will spring board new churches and revitalize established churches. I am just so anxious to move forward in our ministry to see this dream become a reality. And that's where my experience from the Apostolic Prayer Summit last Friday fits into this series.

If you have read the earlier posts and then listened to the .mp3 file, you'll understand this a little better. As I sat there, hearing that my dream was not dead, but was alive..., I just kept praying God..., "what's next..., let me hear your voice!" I am all about taking risk in life; my whole life right now is a huge risk. However, I do not take that risk unless I know that I am directed by God. So I prayed, and all kinds of prophetic words continually were spoken over various people at the prayer summit. Naturally, in my human mind, my prayer evolved to this..., "God if you could just make it clear and speak through someone to me (just like you're speaking to everyone else right now!), I'll know what to do next. I'm ready to get the world saved for you God!" Okay, maybe those weren't my exact words..., but you get the picture right?

During our second prayer session, we had a time of prayer where the older guys began to pray over the younger guys (praise God I'm still a younger guy!). So this was it. This was God's chance to tell me how to get from where I am to where I am going. A pastor from Youngstown, OH began to pray over me. I've never spoken with him before..., in fact, I don't even know his name. Regardless, he spent quite of bit of time praying over me. Remember, this guy doesn't know me from Adam let alone what I do!

As this pastor began to pray, he spoke deeply into my situation. He said something like this, "God I pray you would begin to open doors for this young man (now I'm getting excited, saying oh yes Lord, yes Lord!). But then His prayer took a turn; He began to pray for great endurance in my life (now I'm saying, where are you going with this one now God?). He prayed for divine wisdom in my life to know God's perfect timing, and that I would engage in that rotten fruit of the Spirit, patience (okay, I know it's not rotten, like I'm the only one that doesn't like to wait).

So that was my experience, my reconfirmation, that I'm at the right spot at the right time. Just because I'm in the waiting room doesn't mean I'm not going to get to my appointment. When my time comes, I'll be taken in to see the doctor (thanks for the analogy Brad!). Just because God is never early, doesn't mean He'll be late. He's always right on time!

Waiting isn't always fun, but in my estimations, I'd rather be waiting for my appointment then not have an appointment at all. But thanks be to God because they that wait upon the Lord will renew their strength and mount up on wings as eagles!

So, I've said all of that to say this, just because I don't hear God's voice now, doesn't mean He's not going to speak to me. Just because my number hasn't been called, doesn't mean I won't be in the game. Just because I'm in the off season in conditioning camp, doesn't mean that opening day isn't around the corner! I'm waiting, and the longer I wait, the more I learn. The longer I wait, the stronger I get. And the longer I wait, the sweeter it all will be.

Isn't God good, He's always got it all under control!!!

Learning to Wait - Part 2 (My Dream)

Let me pick up where I left off from yesterday. I guess the easiest way to proceed would be to explain to you what my dream is for our ministry.

I absolutely love traveling and speaking to different believers in all types of churches, however, I feel the call of the evangelist is to reach the lost and hurting. It's kinda hard to do when all I get done doing is speaking with believers inside of churches. Our dream from the beginning has been to hold some type of crusade events all over our nation that would reach people spring boarding new churches and revitalizing established churches.

Our primary goal would be to raise up teenagers and young adults that would lead these churches. Katie and I believe that the up and coming generation can be the generation that turns our nation to God by planting new churches and reviving established churches that will be relevant to the needs of people through the supernatural power of the Holy Spirit.

Katie and I have always had a heart for church planting, but we never knew how we would fit into the equation. When I get around other church planters or talk about church planting my blood begins to pump, but I've never seen myself as actually planting a church. Don't get me wrong, I'd love to plant a church simply because I believe in advancing the Kingdom; I've even got towns and areas in mind that I think would be strategic launch sites.

As we started traveling, we began to realize what we believe to be our God given dream. So for now, I continue to pray, fast, network, and prepare for those coming days. If I could, I'd start doing those crusades all over and seeing the lost reached, the church reenergized, and the hurting restored, but I still feel God saying not yet.

I'm excited to see what is ahead of us, but I'm also anxious to move forward in our ministry. Time and time again, I'm reminded that the preparation period is just as important as the action period. That's where I'll pick up tomorrow, and explain how this fits into what happened to me last Friday at the Apostolic Prayer Summit.

Thanks for taking the time to share in our dreams. If you have time, write out your dream. It's a good start of realizing them, and then send me a copy. I'd love to hear what God is doing your life.

Learning to Wait

I've waited a few days to put in to practice what I felt God telling me this past Friday. Okay, that's not the reason I waited, but it sure would have been pretty genius on my behalf..., which we all know wouldn't be like me:). I waited because I've needed a few days to process everything in my feeble mind (maybe Microsoft can come up with Vista for my head!).

If you've read my posts a few days back, you'll know I attended an Apostolic Prayer Summit at Allison Park Church in Pittsburgh with about 70 other church leaders. We prayed together from about 9:30 AM to about 4:00 PM last Friday. It was probably one of the most intense times of prayer I've experienced in a long time. We focused on praying for the lost abroad and here in the U.S. We also prayed for a renewed apostolic ministry to ignite and be lived out all over the U.S. and around the world.

Around 11 AM, a powerful man of God began to speak to us. His name is Andre Van Zyl. I can't remember the last time someone spoke under such an anointing. Every word came from straight from the throne of God, out of Andre's mouth, into my ear, down to my hear, and then rang every bit of moisture possible out of my tear ducts. I haven't cried like that in a long time! This session that was only to last for about an hour, but it went nearly 3 hours. It was simply amazing.

Andre spoke from Genesis 45 when Jacob realized his dream was not dead, but it was alive. Jacob's son, Joseph, was alive and the ruler of Egypt. Just when the situation seemed irreversibly hopeless, Jacob was revived from the news that even when he thought his dream was dead, it was alive the whole time. Jacob could not see God working, but that didn't mean that God wasn't working.

Jacob waited a long time, and then realized his dream by God making it possible. Jacob went to see his dream on carts that his dreamed provided(Gen. 45:27) (chew on that one for a while!)!

I'm going to write a few more posts this week in this series, so if you'd like to read the rest, you'll have to put in to practice the much hated discipline of..., waiting. I'll share how and what God spoke to me during that prayer gathering, and part of my dream for ministry.