4 The Lord gave me this message:5 “I knew you before I formed you in your mother’s womb. Before you were born I set you apart and appointed you as my prophet to the nations.” 6 “O Sovereign Lord,” I said, “I can’t speak for you! I’m too young!” 7 The Lord replied, “Don’t say, ‘I’m too young,’ for you must go wherever I send you and say whatever I tell you. 8 And don’t be afraid of the people, for I will be with you and will protect you. I, the Lord, have spoken!” 9 Then the Lord reached out and touched my mouth and said,
“Look, I have put my words in your mouth!
10 Today I appoint you to stand up
against nations and kingdoms.
Some you must uproot and tear down,
destroy and overthrow.
Others you must build up
and plant.”
(My brother on the left and myself on the right)
As far back as I can remember I was raised in church. I grasped the concept that we had this Creator who had put us on this earth. As a child I thought it was just a large community who held meetings every week for the One we all agreed to believe in. Singing songs, enjoying fun activities, and reading (what I called the Bible in my adolescence) The Big Book. I loved the fellowship but I was still blind to what was truly going on. As I matured, my knowledge of what was taking place made me want to know this God I had always claimed to say I believe in. My love for God began to grow. One day I was overwhelmed by the Holy Spirit during worship crying out to the Father screaming inside “I surrender.” I was around 14 years of age when I truly accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
As understanding grew I knew God had called me for something, but I found myself falling short when tribulation was too hard or painful. It was a long road and most times it seemed as though I was running away from God. Like if I was on the other side of the path he set out for me. I took a lot of detours but He kept pulling me back. He kept calling me out.
THE DETOUR
One night, during a hard time in my life I was with a friend drinking excessively at a small sushi restaurant in California. After way too many drinks we had eaten some raw fish that were compliments of the chef that had been cooking our meals. I did not know but would soon find out that I was extremely allergic to raw fish. About a half-an-hour after digesting the raw fish I began vomiting thinking it had been all the alcohol we had consumed. My lungs swelled shut when I realized something was not right. I couldn’t breathe! I panicked, but was unable to process a resolution due to being heavily intoxicated. I was rushed to the hospital by ambulance as they tried everything they could to get air in my lungs. My mom arrived at the hospital; she grabbed my hand and told me I was going to be okay. I knew this was it, I was going to die and what scared me the most was that I wasn’t living a Godly Christian life. I tried to cry out to my mother apologetically as tears rolled down my eyes trying to get out the words I love you and I am sorry for not listening. I was scared to think this was all I accomplished; my life was wasted on a beverage and some raw fish. Yet the strong woman of faith my mother is marched up and down the emergency halls outside of my room pleading the Blood of Christ over me. The Doctors saw no way other than to open up an airway to my lungs through my neck. As they were about to operate my mother cried out with authority “In the name of Jesus!” I began to breathe. I walked out the next day Healed and Redeemed. From that point forward I had been forever changed, made stronger.
THE INVITATION
About a year ago I had the opportunity to meet a current world racer Kapri Hernandez. She spoke at our church about her call to the mission’s field. We discussed it further one-on-one. I told her that I felt God had maybe been calling me out. I was at the time very unsure but she encouraged me to let God reveal himself to me and His will for my life. She said God would make a way.
THE PREPARATION
I was interested in the things AIM had been doing but it wasn’t the right time. I kept moving forward desiring a change in my life. I found myself being molded in my walk; God was teaching me to stand firm in (my faith) who I say I believe in, losing friends and loved ones along the way. A friend of mine had bought me a book called The Bait of Satan written by John Bevere. It pointed me to the Word of God and had me fascinated by what God was revealing to me. My walk with God began to increase rapidly. I was on fire for God. As I drew near to God; he unveiled his truth in my life breaking down strongholds that kept me from getting closer to Him. My parents/pastors saw the change in my life and opportunities to speak at the church were put in place. I found myself uplifting, praying and speaking to others on behalf of the Father. I then knew God truly did call me to be a part of the body of Christ. Of course I had been a worship leader for quite some time but this was a different type of work, at least to me. God was preparing me for something much bigger than what I had in mind for my life.
CONFIRMATION
God continued to renew my mind on a daily basis. As he spoke I listened and He slowly started tugging on my heart. The Bible was no longer this big huge book that I couldn’t comprehend; it was now this sacred artifact that held all the accounts of my Father. As I studied I felt God calling me out through scripture to reach out to the Lord’s people.
What I tell you now in the darkness, shout abroad. When day break comes what I whisper in your ear, shout from the housetops for all to hear -Matthew 10:27
John 15:16-17
Hebrews 12:1, 12-13
1 Peter 2:21
Isaiah 6:8, 41:10
Matthew 5:14-16
All these scriptures from God yet still I was in doubt. I prayed constantly for God to truly show me what he wanted as if he had not already spoken. I was confused by what others wanted for my life which made me unsure if it was really God’s calling on my life. Yet another friend had been used as a vessel for the spirit to move encouraged me to read Jeremiah 1:4-5. Not truly knowing the conflict that had been running ramped in my mind. The scripture enticed me to read on and there it was the last of the scriptural-based confirmations I would receive. Jeremiah 1:6-10. Jeremiah cried out to God, “Lord I can’t speak for you I am too young!” The Lord replied, “Do not say that you are too young. You must go where I send you and say what I tell you to say! Don’t be afraid, I will be with you and I will protect you.”
It came rushing in like a flood and confirmation settled in my spirit. I went home and spoke to my parents about me being accepted to enter the world race who out of pure love begged me to not go. They felt there could be another purpose for what God was telling me. My love for my parents let doubt set in once again. I laid there with me eyes closed as if I were sleeping crying out to God. I didn’t want to feel like I was making this all up on my own about what I wanted my will for my life to be, by taking the men of the Bible that God had specifically called out to do his work. So I told God “Lord I need confirmation for Mychal. Not Abraham, Jeremiah, Noah, Joseph, not Paul, Peter or anyone else. I need you to specifically call me Lord.”
THE CALL
April 30th, 2015 the day I received a call from the world race that congratulated me on being accepted into the mission’s organization. It would also mark the day I would receive another call, far greater than the acceptance of the race but a call to a path that was being laid out and appointed for me, by the only one who could make such an appointment. I received the Call later that evening as I attended my Theology class at my parents’ church.
Toward the end of the class my sister heard God tell her to grab hands with me. Initially she thought it was for us both to agree in prayer perhaps for another member in the church. As I gripped my hand with hers God told her He had something specifically for me. She said she felt this strong presence of the Holy Spirit coming from her right side which I had been sitting. She saw us walking around the pulpit in our church hand-in-hand. We got up and started walking, she stopped! I was oblivious to what was happening, so I began to pray that God reveal himself. In the back of my mind I was worried that God was going to confirm through my sister for me not to go out on this mission’s trip, knowing that my sister had not been fond of me going out to other countries either. At that same time God had told my sister that I was not yet open to the Spirit’s guidance to hear what He wanted to say, He told her keep walking. We walked around two more times as I began to pray fervently. I told God I know this is You Father! If you tell me not to go even though I don’t feel that’s what you are saying I will be obedient (I knew my God was moving).
We stopped! My sister began to cry passionately, she grabbed my arms as if to hold me up and began speaking in (Our heavenly language) tongues. I began to worry never being able to discern tongues in my life, I asked God to clearly speak to me so I could understand what he wanted. As she was speaking God told me “I want you to walk with me.” I tried to interrupt asking if this was me or God it felt as if He was trying to speak over me until I surrendered and let Him finish. “Walk with me. I am calling you if you just come to me. I’m pulling on you; if you would just incline your ears to my voice you would hear me. I’m calling you out. Don’t be afraid, you’re going.” I was immediately engulfed in peace, all my doubt and worry evaporated. I was in the presence of the Father without a worry in the world.
My sister began to explain to me the calling God had set out for me. She said as we began walking around the podium she saw our feet walking in dirt. She didn’t know where we were but she knew it was in another country. She turned and saw me sitting in the middle of the circle we were walking in, I had appeared to be writing in a journal of some sort as she heard distant voices call out to me saying come on, let’s go! She said I got up said hold up a sec I’m coming and hurried off. God then told her that I was going. She cried out to God will he be okay, what if something happens? The Lord replied he will be fine but he’s going. She then saw me standing firm, deep in the dirt we had been walking in, she knew God was telling her that He was building me on a firm foundation. She began to speak out all that God had already confirmed in me while she was speaking in tongues word-for-word. I couldn’t help but feel overwhelmed knowing that I had just received the most prophetic confirmation I could have ever received. That this Creator of all was calling on me to do his work, like he has called us all!
God called me out, not anyone else in the Bible that I have read about but me specifically and I know He did it out of complete Love for me and what I had asked of Him. So here I am. Standing firm and ready to journey through the path set out before me. Will you join me?
