Proverbs 29:18 says, “Where there is no vision, the people perish”. In February of 2018, The Holy Spirit lead me to start a countywide revival. This was a monumental task that I could only accomplish with full surrender and full commitment to seek God’s purpose of this revival. As the Spirit of God moved in the hearts of local pastors, congregations and me, the planning and provision for this revival began to come to fruition. God truly was moving in Taylor County and it was an awesome thing to see. Then came another calling on my heart, one in which I never in a million years thought I would be asked to do. In mid-July of 2018, I was praying on the field where the revival would be held. As I was praying, I distinctly heard The Holy Spirit give me a new task to accomplish. The task to move our church and build it on the plot of land we were holding the revival on. My first response was like the laugh that Sarah had when she was told she would bare a child for Abraham. After all, we may possibly be physically the smallest congregation in Taylor County, which would make this task seem virtually impossible. God loves to do impossible things with the faithful few in case you didn’t know. We see these examples of overwhelming odds being overcome throughout the Bible. So, I took this vision to three people in our church and asked them to pray. I expressed to them that I just needed them to earnestly pray about this calling and to keep this prayer request private for the time being. Now we can fast forward to September of 2018. I was back at the field praying again for the revival. This time the prayer turned into a vision and a request from God. The Spirit of God spoke to me and informed me to go to the owners of the land on the first night of the revival and ask that the land be given to our church for the purpose of building a new church. So, here I was, in the middle of a field at night, once again being informed to take a huge step in faith and speak this request to the land owners. On the first night of the revival, which was in October of 2018, I was about to pray with the praise band, when two people asked if they could join us in prayer. After we prayed, those two people introduced themselves as the owners of the land in which we were using to host the revival. I had spoken with them over the phone, but our knowledge of each other was limited to just our names. Then, I delivered the message to them. I said exactly what God informed me to say and exactly when He told me to say it. I informed them that God had told me to build a church on this property and that He wanted them to give us the land so we could do just that.
Then, a true miracle happened. As I finished speaking these words, the land owners handed me a letter. In this letter were words of encouragement, words of blessings and words of provision. God had already spoken to the land owners. Included in this letter were the words, “This land has been bathed in prayer and has been set aside for God’s use and should remain so”. The land was to be given to our church, free and clear. This brings me back to the opening line of this message. God’s people need to have a vision to bring God glory. I personally do not know the when, the how or any other details about our church going forward with this vision of relocation, but I do know that God has already provided the first step, we just need to make sure we follow His lead on the next step…….
Prayer, Provide, Provision, Purpose and Payoff……
