Starting a New Adventure on my 30th Birthday….
Well it is official….as I type this, it is my 30th birthday and I am officially 30 years old!!!
I have been waiting for this day for a long time
It’s a monumental birthday and age…
It’s the age Jesus started his full time ministry! It’s the age that he left the carpentry shop behind and walked in the destiny that was planned for him (and for us) from his Father in Heaven. He was always God’s One and True Son, but when he turned 30, a new season began and the calling and destiny for his life began to fully be fulfilled.
So I am excited to announce that today is not just a special day because I am celebrating 30 years of being alive. But it’s a special day because I get to embark on a new adventure in a new season of life that God is unfolding! I believe this year and this day is the beginning of a new season of life that is going to be a season of promises that God has spoken and promised being fulfilled! One already has….let me explain!
When I was 21 years old, I accepted and received Jesus Christ into my heart to be my Lord and Savior! I experienced a love in my heart and life that has changed me forever. When I was 24 I felt called to attend Ashland Theological Seminary. I spent 3 in a half years there not just getting a degree, but learning, growing, and being molded into the son that God created me to be. The last three years after that I have been blessed to go on three different intense mission trips. The first was started three weeks after I graduated from seminary where I left to go on “The World Race” which is an 11th month long mission trip to 11 different countries. The next one was about 6 months after I got back from the world race, where I then moved to Guatemala for 6 months. My third one was being blessed to be a squad leader for a world race squad of 50 people where I traveled with them to the first 5 countries for 5 months out of their 11 month long adventure to 11 different countries. God has blessed me so much with being on these three different mission trips. In seminary he taught me that I was a son, the last three years through these missions God taught me that I was not only a son, but a warrior alive in Him and that He is a warrior alive in me (Jeremiah 20:11 and Colossians 1:27.)
When I was on my first world race trip three years ago, I had a God moment. I felt like God spoke to me about my future. I did not hear an audible voice, I did not see a bolt of lighting from heaven. But I did feel a deep peace and a deep whisper and knowing within my Spirit that I believed was God’s Holy Spirit speaking to me. This is what I felt like God said:
“Ryan, when you turn 30 there will be a major shift in your life. You will be working at a church being a Joshua to a Moses type leader and pastor there. You will learn to serve the leaders and pastors vision from church and you will work there for 3-5 years. When you are 33 or 35 I will then give you your own life vision for your calling for your life. But before you can serve the vision that I give you, you need to learn to serve someone else’s vision that I have already given them for their live first. It’s important for you to know that you will be working for them but also learning from them, you will learn the eseence of serving someone else’s vision first before serviing your own. I will also use you as a support to the leaders and pastors and you will be with them in battle supporting them, helping them, and holding their arms up in the battle.”
So when I felt like God spoke this to me; one I wasn’t sure if it was really God or myself. But I remembered it and kept it in the back of my mind. As I have met many pastors and visited many churches these past couple of years since I felt like I heard that from God, I always looked for a church that I felt like was a church I not only could work for and bring something to, but also learn from. I looked for a church that I felt like reflected what God has taught me, shown me, and done in me within my heart and life.
Well I share all that to say that today on my 30th birthday God’s word has been fulfilled. I am starting my first day as the new college pastor for the Vineyard Church in Champaign/Urbana Illinois! Here is the website to the church if you want to check it out: “>http://urbana.thevineyardchurch.us
I truly believe with all of my heart that this is only the beginning of what God is going to do in me and through me. I believe that this is only the beginning for the promises that God is going to fulfill in his timing and his way in my life.
God reminds us in Ephesians 3:20 that He can do more than we could ever imagine or ask, by the power of the Holy Spirit that lives within us. He also reminds us in Ecclesiastes 3:11 that God makes all things beautiful in his timing and his way. Finally he reminds us in Philippians 1:6 that He is our God who is faithful to complete the work that He has started within us. A good Father doesn’t leave their children half finished, a good Father confirms what he says and follows through with actions that He has promised. A good Father like our Father and God is faithful because that is his character…He is trustworthy!
Things may not turn out exactly as we wanted, hoped, or thought they would. It may look different and be later or earlier than we thought, but when God speaks and says something, He means it! He confirms it after he speaks it in his timing and in his way, by His Holy Spirit and His love!
So as I start this new adventure today not only with being the age of 30 and with starting a new ministry calling, I’m also starting a new adventure in a new season season of trusting our Father and his faithfulness in believing that when he speaks something, he means it and when he starts something, he finishes it. Will you start on this adventure with me in this new season of my life and yours?
He loves us because He loves us because he loves us….Here is to a new year in a new season of promises and words being fulfilled by such a faithful, true, trusting, and loving Father!
He loves you because He loves you because He loves you
Believe it and Receive it
He has better things planned for you than you could ever hope for or imagine
and it’s gonna be wild, great, and full of him!
BELIEVE
