Today has been an incredibly liberating day for me. I have been seriously, daily, praying for about 6 months now about my church home. Ever since I've moved up to North Georgia I have attended Level Grove Baptist. I didn't even visit any other churches in the area when I first moved here, I simply went one Sunday, and just knew it's where God wanted me.
However 6 months ago after I had been at Level Grove for a year and a half, God started tugging at my heart. I didn't know what He wanted at first, and for over a month, I prayed that God would reveal Himself to me. I had no idea what was to come. After a year and a half of going to Level Grove, God was calling me to follow Him and find a new church home. I didn't want to. I hate change. God had uprooted me from my home of more than 12 years, and moved me to a completely new place where I knew 6 people who were all family. Now, after changing any and every constant in my life, and allowing me to get settled in a new church home, He wants me to move again? I didn't want too. I simply plugged my ears, and stopped trying to hear Him.
There's just one problem with that......He lives inside of me. I can't get away from Him, because He never lets go. I cried, I screamed, I hit my pillows and threw a royal temper-tantrum....yet He was still there. I sought counsel from so many different people that I know are solid Bible believing Christians. I told them that I did not want to move churches, but I knew God wanted me too. The answer came back the same every time. "If you do not listen to God, and follow where He leads, you'll go astray..." I started reading in my Bible and God began to speak....
"If anyone would come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me. For whoever would save his life will lose it, but whoever loses his life for My sake will find it." -Mathew 16:24-25
"Follow me, and I will make you fishers of men."
-Mark 1:17
"I am the light of the world; he who follow Me will not walk in darkness, but will have the light of life."
-John 8:12
Ok, ok, ok.......I get it. At that point, I began to pray that the Lord would lead me to the center of His will, wherever that might take me. I think I should have been more specific with Him though....
About 2 weeks later, God took me out of the aparment I was in, and put me where I live now. My former apartment was not working out at all, and I was seriously praying for God to take me out of that situation too. Little did I know, the church and apartment thing would coincide.
The next part of this story, I will never forget. It was election night 2008. I had been to vote earlier on that day, and then I had an appointment with my current landlord (and now friend) to see about moving into one of their apartments. I had 2 appointments to look at one apartment and one room that day, the first one was my current residence. I met my current landlords at their home (which is also where the apartments are) and they showed me around, and then it began. I felt the Lord. His presence was so much in this room that it couldn't have been mistaken for anything else. So my friends went downstairs and left me to look around the rooms on my own so there wouldn't be any pressure on me. They left me keys to 3 rooms that they had available. I walked through each and every one of them just praying that God would give me wisdom to know what to do, and which one take, if any, as long as it was in His will.
I came into my current room, and it was overwhelming how much I felt that this was the right place for me. God answered my prayer in a mighty way that night. So this room was $25 more expensive than the others because it is larger with a separate living room, bedroom, and bathroom. It's more of an "apartment" than a room. Anyway, I knew I couldn't afford the extra $25 a week that it would take to get the apartment, but I knew that God wanted me here in that particular room. So I told them my decision, and God made it happen and at they dropped the rate $25 to allow me to live here. God is awesome.
When I first met my friends, they told me straight up that they were Christians and that this house was their "ministry". A-M-A-Z-I-N-G!! God provided. He knew that I needed a place with Godly people running it so that I could be ministered too. I got their at 6pm that night and I didn't leave until 9:30pm. I completely missed my other appointment and it didn't even matter. My friends took me out to eat (1 hour after meeting me) and I knew that God's hands were all over the whole situation.
So I continued to go to Level Grove after moving here still praying that God would reveal what He has for my life as far as a church home goes. My new friends go to a church here called Life Church. It's a stone's throw away from the house where I live. Anyway, over the past few months, I have developed a very close friendship to my friends/landlords and they have become to mean a lot to me. The man is an extremely wise person that knows a lot about everything!! He has helped me with issues ranging from my car to my finances! And the lady is amazing too. She has such a spirit of grace and love for people. She has discernment and can just minister to you when you need it. So through these qualities in both of them, as I said, we have become close friends.
Well, the man told me that they were offering the "Financial Peace University" course by Dave Ramsey on Sunday nights, and he thinks it would be an awesome opportunity for me to learn more about finances. So I told him that I would have to pray about it, and get back to him because doing the course would take me away from Level Grove every Sunday night for 13 weeks. WAIT!!! Did you hear what I just said??!!!?? It would "take me away from Level Grove for 13 weeks". That started the hampster wheel turning in my head. I started thinking, "Ok God, what are you doing up there...huh?"
Well, the first Sunday night that I went, I went not knowing many people. I had met a few of the men before at a Wild Game dinner that the man had invited me to before, but I had not been back since. So I walked in the doors that night, and BAM....God's presence was there again. It wasn't a "You do or don't need to go here", it was simply an "I'm here" feeling. After going through the course that evening, I re-met one of the guys there who is also the youth pastor there. We got to talking and ended up going out to breakfast that following Tuesday morning after I got off work. We sat there for about 2 and a half hours talking about everything, but mostly church stuff. My beliefs, his beliefs, where we were in our spiritual lives, where we grew up, etc.
Through that breakfast and hanging out afterwards, we have become good friends. He is now someone that I know I can count on, and someone who I can trust, and someone who I can depend on to be able to talk to about anything going on in my life. It's a very good thing. On a side note, that friendship was also an answer to prayer. My mother and I had been praying for myself a quality friend since I was 13 years old. So never be discouraged, God answers prayer......but in His time.
Anyway, through my new friendship with him and his fiance as well as the Pastor and his wife, I was asked to join the praise team there at church pending a membership change. What an answer to prayer. God is so amazing. That was one of the things that I was struggling with at Level Grove....getting plugged in. I knew that God wanted more for my life, but it just was not happening there.
So now I'm here....in my room.......the Sunday afternoon of the first time I sang on a Sunday morning at Life Church knowing how incredible God is. Singing this morning, and seeing first hand the worship, and love, and power of God that is at Life Church, I'm not scared anymore. I know that God has His hand in my life, and that He has called me to my new church home. I'm so excited to be able to be in the center of His will, because it's ALL about Him.
So the moral of this story is this...........if you don't think God is listening, know He is. He is always there, He is always waiting for you to run to Him, He is always ready to give you everything He has planned for your life.....simply in His time.
Live for Him,
Stephen
