JEREMIAH 29:13 ” you will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart”
This was the verse that was given to me early on in my month in China. My squad mate Haley is doing this for every month for ever member of our 7 person team. I read this and kept it in my head for the whole month. my prayer for last month was for God to show me my purpose or role on this team. in my mind I wanted it to more than just the worship guy. not to say that I don’t want to lead worship. I just wanted it to be more than that.
for the fist few weeks I prayed my role to be revealed to me. Everyday. but for a the most part I was frustrated with what I was hearing (or lack there of…) I felt like I was talking to a wall. Like the message was being sent but it wasn’t being received (or maybe He did but He wasn’t responding). Either way I wasn’t getting any signs or signals. As if my spiritual antennae was broken or malfunctioning. Then my friend James said he had something for me
James had told me he had a vision for me at training camp. which at this point was months ago. He said he wasn’t sure when the right to tell me was and given how the month was going he felt the was right. He told me in his vision he saw our whole squad with oil lanterns. He saw me with the squad but not holding a lantern. instead it was with a big pitcher and I was filling peoples empty lanterns with oil. At the time, I was skeptical. I thought maybe I knew what it meant but I just couldn’t be sure. I went the rest of the month with out any other messages or signs. Then we got to Mongolia.
Our first night there we had 5 days of debrief to decompress and recharge for ministry in Mongolia. our whole team was together to rest, hangout and process all that the lord did in China. I had heard about a listening prayer exercise that one our teams did (Team Hi-Low). They drew names out of a hat but didn’t look at them. the prayed and listened for God to speak to them. they wrote down verses and words of encouragement on pieces of paper and after that they looked at the pieces of paper with names on them ( My team is doing this exercise for this month). Ravi handed a piece of paper to me with my name on it. when I read it, my heart skipped a few beats. on were the words “God is filling you to the point of overflow. You will spill into, and encourage others.” I knew then that God had spoken. I asked and He responded…message received.
In my mind, hearing His voice is more like Moses and the burning bush (exodus 19) or when God challenges Job ( Job chapter 38) something so heavy and profound it shakes us to our very core (physically and spiritually) something that can be nothing else than the very word of the Lord. In reality my story of hearing from the lord is the exact same… his voice was heard and his message was received…just not with flames or a whirlwind. it was my team mates. His word came to me through them.
I know now that my role as a worship leader or “the worship guy” is to fill and encourage others to do the work the Lord has for them. I think I always knew that this was going to be my purpose for my squad and my team. but for whatever reason it wasn’t clear to me. it was hidden somewhere out of sight. waiting to be revealed.
I don’t know what else the lord has for me…but I cant wait to find out
