"Out West?"

It's been a while, and a lot has happened since I last wrote. I'm still giving you the back-story of what God is doing in my life and have hardly been able to update you on current happenings. Thank God for the consistency of Facebook. Feel free to find more frequent updates there, including the occasional photo and video.


Now, to where we left off...


I had returned from the 50th Anniversary Celebration with YWAM to mounting difficulties at my home church, the place I had worked for the past 5.5 years.  Some turmoil had been present for some time and things were getting worse. I began to seek the Lord for some clarity and His heart and mind about the situation. Asking Him for a solution.


As I went to Him He told me, "Ignore the problems. It's not for you to fix. I will fight on your behalf. Just look to me. I'm going to speak to you about the plans I have for you."


Wow. It was, honestly, very hard to "ignore" things that were so strong and forefront in my daily life. As I was wrestling with whether or not to believe God for His words to me, a friend asked me what the Lord had been speaking. Just saying out loud the things He had been making known to me helped me to hold onto them as true and begin to walk in the way He was calling me to.


This is a stand we all have to take: to let the voice of God be louder than any other voice. Knowing and believing what God says to you and about you kills the fear of man and allows us to step into anything He calls.


"The plans I have for you," He said. What could that mean? As I was spending some time with the Lord one night, trying to not focus on the issues at hand and rather just hear what was on His mind, I heard him say, "concentrate." "On what?" I thought. Some clarity peeked through, ever so slightly, as when you sit under a tree on a sunny day and see glimpses of the sun through the crowded leaves. I was to begin concentrating on the things He had stirred while in Kona.


Memories of the visions came to mind. I had always wondered what I may be doing in California as part of seeing this vision fulfilled. I remember one night in particular, only couple of days after the Lord spoke to me about "concentrating." I was in one of my resting places- a spot I would go to connect with the Lord with a book and often a cigar- when the Lord showed up in a startling way.


As I sat there, and had just got a refreshing word from the Lord about the difficult thing I was going through, He began to give me that word about my future that He had said He would give. As I looked up at the star-filled sky a sense of His awesomeness was upon me. I had an experiential-knowledge of His holiness in that moment that caused me to really listen. I heard with great clarity, "I'm taking you west very soon." Almost immediately I called my dad and shared with him what I felt the Lord was saying. He confirmed that it sounded like the Lord. I now had a new direction, "West."


What exactly did this mean? a few days earlier I had a sense from the Lord to call a good friend of mine that lives near L.A., a guy who I have been friends with for several years, named Jason. After this holy encounter and the word about "the west," and having talked to my dad about what I had in mind, I decided to call Jason, doing "the next possible thing," to see what the Lord may do from there. The feeling I had from the Lord was to check into being his roommate. I told Jason a few details about what had been happening at my church, the words the Lord spoke while in Kona, and now these things that I had just experienced in God's presence only a few short moments earlier. He was excited about the prospect of my move to California and even said, "it's about time!" We decided to continue in prayer and stay in touch. It was January.


Details, more numerous than I'll list here, kept pointing the same direction: west. Confirmation from my pastor, close, Spirit-led friends, and continued clarity, and words from Jesus kept me walking in the way of the not-fully-known. I'm currently reading a book called Dreaming With God in which the author writes that God hides things for us, not from us. Meaning, we meet with God and discover the things He's inviting us into... even though we don't always "get" the whole picture.


During this discovery process I had one lingering question on my mind: what am I to do in the "west?" I had been asking the Lord to speak to me about this, but was still unsure about what lay ahead. I had prayed about stepping into a new ministry position in a church and wasn't receiving a "yes" or even peace from the Lord about that. I prayed about beginning to use my carpentry abilities again, but wasn't led in that way, either. The sense I was having from the Lord was that this was to be a move for purposes of calling, not just geographical. I hesitated to simply go and start life there without any goal or idea of what God wanted. I knew I was being given a gift of freedom to explore the will of God, and I didn't want to squander it for fear's sake. 


Praying often, one thing kept coming to mind: the movie about King David and his mighty men. That's it. nothing else allowed the peace of moving forward in confidence (the confidence I'm talking about doesn't come from ease, but from knowingly being where the Lord is leading). I brought this up to some wise counselors, again: my dad, pastor and some close, Spirit-led friends. Oddly enough, while they likely still don't understand why (as I don't fully), they agreed that I was likely hearing from the Lord and that I should press into Him for that specifically. And so I did.


Late one night I was sitting on my back porch, bringing all of these thing to Him. Asking about the new direction of the film and feeling that this was, somehow, to be my next step. I felt Him leading me to look back at the website of YWAM Kona, this time paying attention to training I could receive for the film industry. I saw that they offered 2 different schools that worked hand-in-hand to train people to enter this field: the School of Digital Filmmaking and the School of Acting for the Screen.


If I were to move to California I would be delayed a bit because of some overlap in my friends' availability with getting a new apartment. So, one thing that I muttered to the Lord as I went to the site was, "If this fits right into the time frame I need, I'll consider more that this could be from you." Sure enough, the schools started directly during the time that I was looking to fill. Reading over the content I saw that the acting school would be more up my alley (odd, since I'm not an actor), so I immediately wrote an inquiry email. 


The idea was preparation. Getting ready for whatever the Lord may be leading. Leaving doors open for the Lord is fun (Revelation 3:20)... more on that next time.