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Go and Serve the Lord
"All things are possible to him which believeth"
I was driving to work one day, just like any ordinary day.
Actually I was feeling quite good about my car - because I'd just had the motor reconditioned, a sound-system with a five-band graphic equalizer installed, the air-conditioner restored, and the mag wheels were polished.
Then unexpectedly the words came to me, “...give it away...”
I ignored it and kept driving.
But it came again, give it away.
So I said, “Ok Lord, I'll give it away – on the weekend”.
“No, after work today will be fine,” He replied.
And I knew who I had to give it to.
Then after I got to work, God started speaking to me again.
“It’s time you gave notice in your job.”
“What do you want me to do?” I asked.
Straightaway He showed me a vision of Australia with pathways criss-crossed all over it.
“Just go wherever I tell you to go, and preach the Gospel,” He said.
“How am I going to live without an income? I'm not going to chuck-in a perfectly good job and go on the dole,” I said.
“You won't need to. Just trust me. I'll provide everything,” He said.
So I gave notice in my job, and then after work I drove over to my friend's house who I felt led to give the car to.
I knocked on his door, but he wasn't home.
“Well there you go – this wasn't God after all," I thought to myself, "Pity about the job, but at least you've still got the car.”
However I still felt sure it was God who had led me so far, so I wondered what to do - surely I shouldn’t just go home now and forget the whole thing? I got back in my car wondering what might happen next.
And would you believe - the car wouldn't start!
So I got out and lifted the bonnet to try to find what was wrong, and phoned RACQ. When the mechanic got the motor running again - just as I was closing the bonnet - my friend arrived home.
"Oh John, what are you doing here?”
I turned to see my friend walking up the driveway.
“Wouldn’t you like to know!” I thought. I didn’t quite know how to tell him I was there to give him my car, so I didn’t mention anything about it.
He invited me inside, and the very first thing he said to me was:
“John, my wife and I have been praying - we're really asking God to give us a car.”
That was so good to hear (a confirmation)!
So I threw him the car keys.
“She's all yours then.”
He just smiled, and threw them back to me.
“You've prayed for a car - so it's yours" I protested, throwing him the keys again.
“Very funny,” he said, handing the keys back to me again.
There we were, handing the keys backwards and forwards - yet I couldn't convince him I was serious!
So I said, “Look, come out, sit in the car - there's a few things I'll need to show you.”
After all that, he looked up at me from the driver's seat and said one last time, "You are joking - aren't you?”
With that, I left my friend there, praising God for the answer to his prayer, and I began making my way home, by bus and train.
It had been just an ordinary day when I left for work that morning. But now I was on my way home, after having given away my job and my car, to go and preach the Gospel, without knowing yet where, and without any income - all because I believed I'd heard from God. I knew it wasn’t going to be easy telling my parents what I’d done.
Telling my Parents
It took a couple of days before finding the courage to tell my father. One afternoon he was in his bedroom watching sports on TV. I nervously walked in.
“Dad, there's something I need to tell you. I've quit my job and given my car away - I'm going to go and do something else for God.”
“That's nice, son. It'll be good for you to do something different,” he said. And he didn't even take his eyes off the TV the whole time. So I had nothing to be worried about after all!
The Holy Spirit showed me four towns that He wanted me to go to, and I also knew I was to take five weeks to do it.
The only problem was that I didn't know anyone in any of these towns - except the last one. So I had no idea where I would stay, what I would eat, how I would be able to travel from town to town, where I might get money from, nor what doors might open for me to preach. All I could do was step out in faith, trusting God alone for everything.
So I thought to myself, I may as well really go out on a limb - and I started giving all my savings away too.
Next I thought to sell my house and pay-out the loan then give away whatever would be left.
I'd been on a real roll, but at that point something inside said, “Stop. Keep the house.”
At first I felt relieved - but then it dawned on me what that would mean: it meant I would somehow need to find the money each and every week to make the loan repayments. I realized it was going to take more faith to keep the house than it would to give it away.
“But if I ever miss one payment on my house, I'm going back to work,” I said to myself. Somehow though, I knew that would never happen.
I also decided that two things I will never do are: ask anyone for somewhere to preach, and ask anyone for money for my needs. After all, this whole thing was God's idea not mine.
Counting the Cost
I spent the next few weeks 'counting the cost', as Jesus said:
"For which of you, intending to build a tower, sitteth not down first, and counteth the cost, whether he have sufficient to finish it? ...So likewise, whosoever he be of you that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple" (Luke 14:28,33).
At that time someone handed me biographies of men and women of God who accomplished great things out of small beginnings. I noticed that each of these men and women had heard directly from God and then stepped-out in faith often without any visible means of support. So I was looking forward to proving literally the Scripture:
"Provide neither gold, nor silver, nor brass in your purses, nor scrip for your journey, neither two coats, neither shoes, nor yet staves: for the workman is worthy of his meat" (Matthew 10:9-10).
Someone told me to buy a new pair of shoes for my journey. But something on the inside of me said, It will be provided.
I also wanted to take a guitar, but on the inside I felt, It will be provided also.
Finally the day came where I packed a backpack and tent, said good-bye to my family and friends, and with the prayer-support of my home church, I bought a one-way bus ticket and went. It was exactly twelve years after the night I had been baptized with the Holy Spirit.
"By faith Abraham, when called to go to a place he would later receive as his inheritance, obeyed and went, EVEN THOUGH HE DID NOT KNOW WHERE HE WAS GOING...he lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob (Heb.11:8,9).
Arriving in Esk
When I arrived I went to a caravan park and put up my tent. As I lay back that night I reflected on everything I'd done. I'd quit my job, given my car and money away, left my church and family - and come up here where nothing's organized.
"If this wasn't God," I thought, "I'm..."
But I was soon to discover that God had everything organized.
The first thing I needed was to find somewhere else to put up my tent so I could avoid paying caravan park fees every night. Next morning I looked for someone in the street to tell about Jesus. The very first person I met had just gotten out of jail, and said his mother would like to meet me. She invited me to put up my tent on some vacant land behind their backyard. They started gathering their friends and I told them about Jesus and prayed for the sick.
One day they took me to visit some friends and I noticed a guitar leaning against their wall. I asked if I could play it, and began to sing:
To get a touch from the Lord is so real
To get a touch from the Lord is so real
If you draw nigh to Him
He will draw nigh to you
To get a touch from the Lord is so real
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus is passing, is passing your way.
Hallelujah! Hallelujah!
Jesus is passing your way.
Tears flowing down their friend's face. She believed on Jesus and said, “I want you to have that guitar, and wherever you go - sing for the Lord, and remember me.” The Lord provided the perfect guitar for my travels.
After several days I needed to find a proper place to stay. So I decided to go and see their friend about staying with them. She told me she had already thought of inviting me but felt sure a man of the cloth wouldn't stay at their place.
News started to spread around town that this hardened lady, who had a reputation for swearing like a trooper, had given something away and even invited a preacher into her house. Enough people started to gather for me to start a meeting in her home. I looked up the phone book and Assemblies of God Pastor who came and was amazed to see what God had accomplished. As a result, the Pastor invited me to preach to his youth group and then to his whole church and then to a nearby town also. In these meetings, the gifts of prophecy, the word of knowledge and the gifts of healings were in manifestation. Door after door began to open for me to preach and to see people saved and filled with the Holy Spirit.
After two weeks the time came for me to travel to the next town. While I was packing my backpack I thought to myself, I’d really like a pair of brown, leather, lace-up shoes to go with these jeans. Then I decided to go outside for a walk to pray, before heading-out on my journey.
After an hour of prayer I decided I better get going. I thought I would need to walk to the next town, and I didn't want it to be dark when I arrived. But something inside stopped me from going.
So I waited on the Lord another hour, and then I said to the Lord, “I really need to get going now.” But again I felt Him stop me.
So I prayed another hour and then I said to the Lord, “I really have to go now or else it will be dark when I arrive”.
"No - pray another hour."
So I prayed another hour, and by this time it was too late to go. So I walked back to the house.
That night a visitor came to the house, and he mentioned that he'd been contracted to work the next day in the very town where I felt led to go. So he offered me a lift.
Then I realized that God had been holding me back only because He had already arranged an easier way for me to travel. He was teaching me how being guided by the Holy Spirit often requires laying down our own planning.
Before we left, the first family that had welcomed me gave me a box of groceries and a pair of shoes which fitted me perfectly. The Lord provided me with shoes for my journey, without me making provision for it, just like He said.
The next morning when we arrived in the next town, the contractor asked me, “So where would you like me to drop you?”
The town only had one intersection: with nothing but a post office on one corner, a pub and a phone booth on another corner, and a corner shop on the other. I felt a little nervous because of the uncertainty of where I might spend the night but I trusted God because I knew He told me to go there.
“Well I'm pouring concrete at a house just up the road,” he said, “why don't you just come with me first, and then see where you go from there.”
We both drove to the house, and as soon as we stepped out of the car, a lady and her daughter approached me, “Hi! It's so good to see you! We've been waiting for you!” They seemed to know me, but I couldn’t remember whether I'd met them before.
“Don’t worry - you don't know us, but we know you,” she said, “We are Christians, and we were praying, and the Lord showed us your face in a vision, and told us you’d be coming soon and that you'll be wearing a red shirt when you arrive and that we are to look after you. Where are you staying?” I had a bright red shirt on that day.
Then she asked, “By the way, what size shoe do you wear?”
I thought that was a strange question coming from complete strangers.
“Size eight. Why?”
When I said size eight, the lady and her daughter both burst out laughing. The lady sent her daughter upstairs and when she came back she said, “Here, try these on.” They were a pair of brown, leather lace-up shoes – exactly what I'd desired – and they fitted me perfectly.
The lady explained that she was shopping a few weeks earlier when she saw those shoes in the shop, and the Lord told her, “Buy them.”
She said, "What for Lord? No-one in my family can wear that size."
And the Lord said, "Because someone's coming soon, and when he comes, you are to give them to him, and you are to look after him when he arrives."
After spending four days ministering in that area the time came to go to the next town. I felt that I should leave on a specific day, but once again, I had no idea how I would travel. Then the family received a visitor who happened to mention that he would be driving to the very town where I felt led to go to next, on that exact day of the week. So he offered me a lift, and he dropped me in the main street of town.
As I walked down the street, even though I didn't know where I might be spending the night, I began to feel a deep feeling satisfaction and joy. The satisfaction I was now feeling through hearing specifically from God and obeying Him surpassed anything I’d felt for a long time despite always having kept busy for the Lord. It felt like, Now I’m really serving God.
Only two hours after arriving in this town where I didn't know even one person, I was standing behind the pulpit of the local Uniting Church in their Sunday service. That's how easily and quickly God opened the door! After I finished speaking, no-one left their seats: the presence of the Holy Spirit was touching them. One of the elders of the church became baptized with the Holy Spirit and spoke in tongues. One of the elders of the church had a caravan on the church property, and welcomed me to stay. In mid-week meetings in the local High School students got saved; some were filled with the Holy Spirit in tongues, and word started to get around town about the healings that occurred.
Then the time came to go to the last town. Again the Lord caused me to meet someone who happened to be driving there. This was the only town where I already knew someone, so I stayed with them. I met a group of Salvation Army believers who had held a prayer meeting for years, asking God to send revival to their town. I met the Anglican Rector and I hired a Catholic hall and advertised a Revival Meeting in the local newspaper.
I finished everything the Lord told me to do in each of those four towns, and when I arrived back home, it had been five weeks, exactly as He said. And the Lord provided everything.
Jesus asked His disciples, “When I sent you without purse, and scrip, and shoes, lacked ye anything? And they said, Nothing“ (Luke 22:35).
When I got back home I calculated how much of my own money I needed to spend during the whole five-week trip. Not one cent.
I lacked nothing, but I was given shelter, food, clothes, shoes, money, a guitar, transport, favour and open doors to preach in several denominations and the gifts of the Holy Spirit accompanied me. Everything I'd given up, God gave back to me more. Everywhere I went people said to me, “God sent you to us.” Godly relationships started which continue to this day.
Since then Jesus has sent me on many more trips some lasting either a few days, or a month or a year - intrastate, interstate, and overseas. He has opened the doors, and He has been faithful to meet every need.
Jesus said: “Verily I say unto you, There is no man that hath left house, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, but he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, and brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children, and lands, with persecution; and in the world to come eternal life” (Mark 10:29,30).
God allowed me to experience the surpassing joy that comes when we truly discover the unique plan He has for our individual life.
God has a wonderful, tailor-made plan specifically for your life and ministry. It will fulfill your destiny. It will bring joy.
Ask God, “What do you want me to do?”
And expect an answer within two weeks!
Four steps towards you destiny:
Hear directly from God
Maintain right relationships
Get the timing right
Step out in faith