Devotion Pyes in Longing

Recently the Lord took me through one of the more interesting seasons of my life; and there were two ways that the Lord met me as I journeyed. The first was revealing His character and the second was simply blessing me. As I tend to be pretty stream-of-consciousness in my writing style, I am hoping that details of the journey, and details of the Lord teaching me intertwine well.

Around the turn of the year the Lord started speaking that a season of transition was coming for me. As a pretty transient person this excited me, but as someone who had only six months earlier fallen in love with our great city of Los Angeles, I was also a little bit bummed. I had made a connection with a lovely church in Alabama, and they asked me to come and lead worship for a church retreat, and I took them up on the offer.

Just before I left, I felt the Lord impressing upon me to leave my job. I felt like I heard the date July 1. I began to protest much, mainly reminding God, “This economy is not the best. So, are you sure that this is the process?” So, I asked a couple of people about it and surprisingly all but one said, “Go for it. You’re young, and even if you are missing it, you can recover.”  So, I went for it and put my notice in for July 1.

My eyes were set on moving to St. Paul, MN. There is a long story behind that, but something inexplicable happened, I really enjoyed this church in Alabama. And they asked me to consider moving there. Then in less than a month, I had submitted my resume to places in Tuscaloosa, AL. Then the first door opened. Then the second and finally it became clear that no other doors were opening in Southern California, St. Paul or in my home state of Texas.

I secured a job interview for a job that I had not applied for, and I began asking the men and women of faith around me to pray for discernment. (I had applied for a different job in the same company.) No one seemed to have any words of confirmation that this was the Lord or that it wasn’t. So, I got to the point where they had offered the job and I needed to make a decision. I agreed to the job and the peace of God came down. And afterward, my friends began to tell me that felt it was the right choice.

The Lord just wanted me to come to Him. I am the type of person who truly wants and needs my community to speak into my life situations. In this instance however the Lord wanted me to rely on Him. Having my community confirm that I should put in my notice, the Lord then plugged their eyes, ears and mouths until I heard directly from God. He was forming me to rely upon Him. And it was good.

The Lord also wanted me to grow in trust. God is good; I just needed to learn that. God has good plans for me; I just needed to believe in them. It was a great process that some of you were a part of. I was encouraged that the trajectory of my life’s journey was my testing ground. I continued forward while still learning, and I think that is how it was and is always meant to be. We have never arrived, we continue arriving. Even when I move into my new home in Tuscaloosa, I have not arrived, I am only arriving to a place in my journey. It reminds me of Paul. We are aliens in this world. We are never home here, but we get glimpses of home. We get community. We get His presence. And that is enough in times, and somehow seemingly not enough in other times.

So, how was God showing me his goodness? This job ended up paying twice my current salary. My new roommate is what I would call “awesome sauce.” My rent will be a third of my current rent, and if I budget wisely I should be able to pay down my debt in 3-4 years. Oh…and the Lord has provided amazingly as I have sold things. Letting me get more than I should have on several things.

I just encourage you to continue living in the foolishness of God. When God speaks and it sounds risky, seek your community and step out in faith. It is that place of abandoned belief that we come to see and understand His wisdom and His goodness. Blessings friends. Praying you find as Kevin Prosch says, “Peace in the struggle.”

So, I recently got back involved in The Well at PIHOP. After about a year break, I came back and started ministering to the men and women of God who come to our home on Saturday nights. It has been amazing to see what fruits have come in my life from just getting back in the action.

In the two weeks since I have been back, I have been caught off guard by the onslaught of prophetic visions, words and songs that have come…outside of The Well. Every time I turn around it seems that the Lord is speaking again. The Lord wants and even needs to speak to His people. And because I have inclined my ear to listen, He is beginning to speak regardless of the context.

It reminds me a bit of having car trouble. Stick with me for just a moment. You know that moment when you feel that your car is starting to “behave” differently. Maybe it is the way that it shifts, or a hesitation when it accelerates. It is often in those moments that we begin to notice a change in the noise the car makes. We are positioning ourselves to hear.

That is what the past few weeks have been like. I have put myself in a position to listen again, and it is amazing what I have been hearing. One story that brings my heart a lot of joy is the story of “Tom.” Tom and I have been good friends for many years, and the Lord has used the prophetic over and over again at key times in our friendship.

We are currently separated by about as many miles as is possible in the continental U.S. I am here in Pasadena, and Tom is in Maine. Over the course of three days, the Lord gave me two visions for him, and I sent them to him via text. He and I talked about and processed them on the phone last night and Tom has finally seen what a few men and women of God had known about him for years…he was called to serve the men of women God as a pastor.

Tom had always fought the idea being a “pastor” because he has know desire to preach. He finally realized that his calling is to work with those who have sexual addictions. He wants to see people set free. And it took the prophetic word of God to reach him and awaked his heart to the reality of his calling.

And the beautiful part of this, is God is speaking through many of you in the same ways. God is using you to call forth a generation of worshipers, ministers, deliverers, prophets, teachers, worship leaders, dancers, etc. I look forward to hearing that you are seeing the same things happen in your life. The power of life (and death) is in your tongue as you speak forth God’s revelatory word men and women are able to finally understand and walk forth into their callings. And that is an amazing thing.