By Do you remember as a kid growing up those summer nights when the sun was out till late and the play day seemed to be forever extended? Do you remember your parents calling you to come inside for dinner? Of course the natural response for a kid playing outside in this blissful time is to pretend we did not hear our parents right? Of course our parents would come outside and find us to tell us directly to come inside for dinner. All the while we heard them but were too focused to pay attention or act on what we heard.
Sometimes we do this very thing to God. I know, you can gasp now to even think that we would ignore God. We all have our reasons right? “I am too busy to add anything else to my schedule.” “I am not ….. enough.” Or we think that we are already are doing enough work in the church. Anyone else every feel like this? Maybe you begin to think that you are just where you need to be with ministry.
I know that I began to feel like I did not have much more to go. I mean my week is full with my internship helping people, I lead a life group at my church, and I work at the church through almost all of the weekend services. I thought what more could I do, I just started attending the Sunday night service because I really felt like I needed to be able to attend a service each week and since that is the only one where kids ministry does not happen, I started going.
After attending a couple weeks, I felt like I had found a place to belong again. Then started the call. You know when God starts to tug at your heart. First Pastor Ronnie talked about asking God, What’s Next? He talked about dreaming big dreams and asking God what’s next. Asking God about the next part of the journey. I knew then, it was going downhill from there. God began to tug on my heart, and I knew that it would not stop there. The next week we had a guest speaker, Albert Tate, and he talked about beginning again and how God went to Moses and called him back to Egypt. He had it all going good where he was but God told him that it is time to move and do something new. I knew that I was going to be done for. Then our Sunday Night service had a week where the focus was on getting new volunteers. I knew that this was coming in advance, but then once again God spoke clearly and I knew that I needed to sign up for an area to serve in my service that I attend. To be a part of the community that is active and involved. I walked outside and looked around and the various areas to serve.I stood and waited until I knew where I would decide to serve.
I walked up, finally, to the table for the prayer team. Those that know me fairly well know that prayer is an area I am very passionate about. I am always texting my friends asking how I can pray for them. Those that have known me a really long time know that when it comes to praying for people in the moment at a service, know that I usually find a reason at that time to be in the sound booth where it is safe. After asking what the expectations were, I decided that I would sign up to be a part of the prayer team. I knew that this would mean participating in the pre-service prayer time which had already been drawing me. I knew that at some time there would be an expectation of praying for others during service but I figured that I would have some time before that happened. First meeting seemed to confirm that. I figured I am safe right?
I should have known that in the moment when I felt safe, things would change. After we had our pre-service prayer, there was discussion that there would be people available to pray throughout the service that night. Any one that had already been a part of the prayer team was going to be one of those people. I went to walk away and was asked by one of the prayer leaders if I had prayed for people before, which I had done and answered accordingly. I was then asked to be a part of those praying for people during service.
So the times comes and I am incredible nervous, because it has been some time since I have done this. Then all of a sudden everything came together and when it was time to pray, I felt like I was back in my element. Then new things began to be stirring in my heart and old things are rekindled and I know now that this is just the beginning of the journey. One thing is that I am going to begin blogging more frequently. So the question, if God calling your name? Will you answer the first time? How is God calling you? Where is God calling you? Post your comments, lets discuss how God is moving.
