Getting confirmation of God’s word is a funny thing. Can the enemy repeat a lie twice? Of course he can. When I do need confirmation I try to keep everything private: what God said, and what I am asking as proof to double check it. But one time I was trying to figure out what kind of fleece I should ask for to test God’s will but I could not make up my mind: “Ok, God, if its YES then let this happen–No! I mean let this NOT happen! Oh no! How about if it’s NO then let this person call me, no no no … let this person say this phrase the next time we speak … oh forget it!” I was just confused what fleece to ask for and got fed up and just said, “God, do you want me to do it?” and he just answered me, “Yes.” Ok, that’s all I needed to know. Fleeces were more meaningful to me when I was younger in the Lord but when I got more confidence to hear God more clearly, and maybe when I just began to hear God talk more often, I stopped feeling so insecure, and was more able to just ask for coherent clarification … but maybe we all start out like Gideon, who was also not the best role model in some ways as well …
Anyway we went to Mindano suddenly to explore open doors for a training seminar on the Foundations of the Kingdom and first met an old friend. She was distracted with the upcoming election and had our time completely scheduled to do things she wanted us to do, we never asked her to plan, and most all of which I felt was not God’s leading, but we went along with it not to upset her at first. Then I saw a vision of a pastor I needed to talk to, as soon as possible–that day actually–and I told her, but she said absolutely not! Not until Monday at least, 3 days away! He was too busy! And she wanted us to do so many things that seemed to be more personal whims than God’s direction, and this meant we would do sightseeing things over the weekend which I did not care to do, and we would miss any opportunity to share in any church all weekend as well. We prayed and prayed and didn’t discuss it … and so we were finally headed up the mountain to the meet the pastor I saw in the vision. Was this God’s will? Do we need MORE confirmation? Well, I was watching videos on opals, and the daily puzzle’s first word that day was OPAL, as I was using my phone, an Oppo, and one of our kids was climbing Mt. Apo, a 9,000 foot peak in Mindanao, as I was told this pastor I saw in the vision lived far up in the mountains in a remote town called … Opol.
God once told me it’s ok to ask to clarify his instructions … but at some point we have to obey.
Anyway we walked in to their church and the Spirit began flowing instantly. We shared and they asked us to minister a little and preach on Saturday and also on Sunday, and we did, but God’s word was primarily just to ‘meet and greet’ this trip and not do much ministry. Saturday we drove far up into the remote mountains to see three church plants they were supporting in very rugged and hazardous terrain. Finishing the weekend of sharing and exploration we drove back through Cagayan De Oro, then up to cold Claveria, then over the mountains to see another old friend in Medina along the coast. A prayer warrior we both were close to in Hong Kong ten years ago. When she and Ann began to pray it was like an explosion in the Spirit Realm and demons began screaming in terror. So many problems arose suddenly, I think because God was both testing us, and showing us ways we were not yet prepared.
But we got back home to Bohol and God said to PREPARE for the seminar. He gave me the dates. He said, “The 20th … I SAID THE 20TH! and 21st and 22nd” to make sure I was listening. I looked, it was Fri, Sat, Sun, so I texted the friend who was coordinating and the pastor agreed … Then I looked again and what?! This was not Fri, Sat, Sun, it was Mon, Tue, Wed!! But I know God said those days clearly and even repeated himself! Do NOT rely on your own understanding. Everyone I mentioned this to said they were bad days, but in the end it proved to be the only dates that would have worked, but we’ll get to that later maybe.
So I sat down to prepare and rewrote the entire set of revelations of Foundations of the Kingdom to condense them for seven short teaching sessions as God asked for, and targeted to people whose English is not very strong. I worked night and day for several weeks and when I rested to check God for daily direction twice he said again, Get Ready! For what? The seminar!! …
I was reviewing hundreds of verses and prophecies, visions, revelations and conversations with the Lord on more than 10 main topics and I am trying to be thorough, but also condense the materials, then format them for my notes, handouts and web views … it’s a lot of work!
Twice he also stopped me late at night and just openly told me, “The seminar will be fine…” Ok … but I had no reason to think otherwise … UNTIL TWO DAYS before we were about to leave, ferry tickets booked, money had arrived to fund the trip, everything was getting settled and I was told the seminar was cancelled. They were too busy! Just never mind!
We spent a restless night praying for direction. In any case I had done my part, the materials were prepped and ready to be taught anywhere at any time. I was ready even if the people who had agreed to the day and time of this seminar were maybe not. I don’t want to sow into the wrong church. Pearls and swine and all that! So I just laid my heart open to the Lord, without care if we went or cancelled. He said it would be a two week trip, and this would be a small seminar, to train the leaders I assumed, but that NEXT time would be large, and it would be good to go a few days early … had I heard him wrong on SO MANY points? Maybe we were ready but they failed and God would give them a second shot, and we could push the date back by a week if they were really too busy, or unsure, or maybe we could find another church if this one was unwilling. Someone saw a spirit causing trouble, someone else said to dust off our feet if people don’t receive the Lord’s message. I could not understand what to do. What if we had assumed wrong in some way and this was not God’s will at all? I don’t care what we do, I just want to find and do God’s will.
I just emptied my heart, Lord what do you want? … Quietly, in what people often call this his ‘still, small voice’ and he simply said, “You can go if you want to.” … I told Ann, well, it’s up to us I think. What do you want? We still had a few hours to cancel the ferry tickets …
The 9 hour ferry trip was very uncomfortable as we had chairs not beds but at 5 am before we docked at 7am we got a text from the pastor, who was very busy going all over doing many seemingly important ministry activities, he said, “I am home now. You can’t come and we can talk when you get here.” I showed the text to Ann. In the Spirit it felt like he was saying YES, but the text clearly said it was a NO. Was this a typing mistake? We waited. Less than an hour later he texted Ann, this time in their native language, Visayan, and said he was home, please do come and we will discuss the seminar when you get here … At that very second when Ann translated this to me, the Lord spoke to me in my heart and said, “See? I told you the seminar would be fine.”
We stopped at McDonalds in Cagayan de Oro to rest and eat and a man came and before he even sat down he began talking to us. His daughter lives in the US near where I went to law school, something I don’t tell many people, but I felt it was ok to share this. And also that I am not a lawyer any more because I gave my life to serve the Lord and he asked me to stop all my corporate work and just learn from Him and serve him. He said it was incredible and was so excited to meet some one like me he said. He then said he is old and has so much money but does not know what to do with it! I perked up immediately. He had just sold some land for 70 million pesos and had it with him he said, and is a casual commercial real estate developer, but this phase he said was exactly what God told us a few years ago about the man who would be used to fund some of his projects with us. It would be an older man who has a lot of, money and does not know what to do with it. This man said this phrase almost word for word. We exchanged numbers and told him we had to train some pastors in the mountains and would chat later.
We got back up to Opol Saturday morning and as I walked in I could feel the Holy Spirit’s presence in the church already. I began to take off my shoes as the Lord leads me to do when I enter his presence but he said it was ok, to leave my shoes on, it would be a short meeting. Still ready to cancel and walk away … but it turns out there was a lot of miscommunication, blocked communication and misunderstanding and it turns out God has just prophesied to them two of the main ideas Jesus spoke with me at length about which we are explaining in this teaching. The Pastor’s wife, the pastora as we say, asked God to explain these two verses to her and He said just wait, he would soon explain. God also said to them to get ready to teach many people soon. But God, what should we teach? Just wait, he said, he would reveal it to them soon. When I explained more of God’s revelation that Saturday morning the Pastora became so excited! This is what God has been talking to her about for many months! She didn’t yet understand it but this as what she was waiting for. I’ve been learning and studying this narrow focus revelation that can revolutionize the church for over 12 years and have a huge depth of understanding to share, but which is too much to talk on, and so I made a short, concise teaching to share over the 3 days God had indicated.
We also said we DO NOT WANT a large crowd. This is not a family celebration, we need to find 14 to 20 mature leaders who want to walk in the power of the Kingdom. We need people who are already prophesying, already mature in their faith, already seeking the higher way of the Lord. The miscommunication seemed to play right into this outcome.
We left to prepare ourselves to come back Monday afternoon and begin the seminar. We drove to Iligan City and then back to Opol on Monday to see what God had prepared for those who love him …
… to be continued …