Part 2:
This is part 2 to “Sink or Swim”. The titles are COMPLETELY DIFFERENT, but I believe it all goes hand in hand for what God has been walking me thru the past 2 weeks. Most of this is coming straight from my journal entry I wrote a few days back. This is just raw material and I don’t really know any other way to make it into a blog except just putting it out here.
I have had several meetings today, with Joshua (one of my squad leaders), Mandy (our ministry contact), Megan (my other squad leader), the other team leaders (Nick, Sara, and Christin), Joshua a second time, Jimmy (one of the AIM staff who has become a friend of mine), and also Stacey and Micah (they were both on “P” squad). On top of all of that, our team had feedback tonight like we normally do each night. So, in other words, a lot has went on today to say the least.
Tonight while carrying a bunch of peoples plates to the kitchen after supper, Micah seen me and afterwards pulled me aside and said that she had a prophetic word for me. She gave me the word “Man”. That might not seem like a big idea when you think about it at first, but the more I thought about it the more I realized how heavy it actually is and how I need to own that word. I need to learn to walk in that each day. I am a man of God. A bold, confident man of God. That is who God has called me to be. This month I feel like I have really stepped up and started to walk in that more and more. Tonight the squad was addressed and we were told that at this point if we were not “bought into” the World Race, it probably will not happen. Month 3 is a huge transition month. Team changes happen, new squad leaders and team leaders are raised up, etc. If you are not starting to walk into who God has called you to be and getting a firm foundation on where to go from here, a lot of times, people never make the transition. Month 3 will either make you or break you. Period. So I realized that its time for me to own being a man of God and walk firmly in that.
Today was a hard day, but it needs to be hard for me to get to where I need to be. God gave me another vision tonight while talking to Jimmy. Jimmy told me that sometimes the “water needs to be rippled”. On the World Race we do what is called feedback. Each night our team gets together and we give a positive, constructive, and another positive to each person. For whatever reason, we do not like to give constructive because sometimes we are afraid to call people out, but heres the thing… You are not calling them out, you are calling them up and calling them into a better man or woman of God. The crazy thing is, it actually works. So Jimmy and I talked and he told me that sometimes when things are “easy”, we don’t get anywhere. Its true. If this race is easy the whole time, I will get to the end of the 11 months and possibly look no different than when I began the World Race. I don’t want that for myself. I could have set at home and did that. So I need to learn to not always take the “easy route”.
So then after talking to Jimmy, God gave me this vision. I was standing at Cape Point (its located here in Cape Town. Its the peninsula where the Atlantic and Indian Oceans meet). There was a light house. The seas were rough, the fog was super thick and it was storming like crazy, but of out the fog emerged an old wooden ship. You can actually just picture a pirate ship. His sails were torn and tattered, but the ship was still afloat. There it was, sailing out of the storm, following the old light house. It eventually docked. As I am having this vision, I hear a very familiar song called, “The Anchor Holds”. Its a song by Ray Boltz, if you have never heard it. The lyrics read, “The anchor holds, though the ship is battered. The anchor holds, though the sails are torn. I have fallen on my knees, as I faced the ragging sea. The anchor holds, in spite of the storm”. The sea in my dream was the World Race, I was the ship, Jesus is the light house, the fog/ storm was all the ups and downs on the World Race that we experience, and I (the ship), had emerged victorious in the end because I had kept my eyes on Jesus! I made dock.
Jimmy challenged me to not seek out an easy World Race, because yes, I will still get to the end the “easy” way, but nothing about me will be broken and torn. There is so much beauty in the breaking. I don’t want easy. I need to sometimes ripple the waves in feedback by calling somebody up into greatness by giving constructive. Even when it hurts. I need constructive too. Its necessary to sail into the storm sometimes. God will still be my lighthouse and shine for me to follow though. I just have to keep my eyes on Him…
To be continued…
