Does God Really Write In the Sky or Communicate With Neon Flashing Lights?

As you can see, this is a short book but I really believe I need to share all the details of this situation because it is so clear and evident to us how God is taking all the pieces and putting them together. While the whole picture is not there, we have more of a glimpse of what the picture may resemble so here is my attempt at showing you how the hand of God is working in our lives right now...

I have to admit that as much as I want to be obedient, I sometimes just don't know what God wants me to do in a situation. We have tried to make sense of all the events in the past few years. As much as we have sought to learn whatever lessons we need to learn or be obedient to whatever our call is, we just have been stumped so many times, and I will beg God, "We just need You to spell it out to us with neon flashing lights." I feel like in a matter of 24 hours He did just that!

I will tell you the decision we made is one that I am still nervous about because it will definitely seem foolish in the world's eyes and as a Christian, if I had heard of our story and financial situation, I might say that what we are feeling called to is crazy as well. However, I have also experienced enough in my individual walk with Christ to know that sometimes God has called us to do what seems pretty foolish to others and has definitely taken us out of our comfort zone, but God has NEVER failed us and we have seen His powerful hand at work in the past and believe we will continue to see it. This leading is a HUGE step of faith for us and I know you are praying for us already, but we ask that you will pray fervently for clarity as we move forward one day at a time and literally one step at a time.

A Little Background on Vince to set up what will follow:
Vince's core conviction and ambition for many years now has been to impact culture in many and various settings outside the church walls and outside of "the box," and with various types of people but he really had no idea what that would look like in the form of a job. We desired for us as a family to be part of something much bigger than ourselves and for our boys to grow up thinking outside of themselves and giving to others. He has been told time and again that he needs to be in a role where he is speaking frequently and investing in mentoring relationships as he is uniquely wired and gifted in those ways. We had God in a box thinking a job would probably come inside the walls of an established church as a pastor or MAYBE as a trainer in corporate America but God seems to be showing us something different.

Now, let me rewind to last Sunday to set the stage for what God would do in our lives in the 72 hours that would follow... this can be summed up by "divine appointments" - encounters, everyday conversations, and other means by which God "connects the dots" (one of Vince's most-used terms :) to not only provide but speak into our lives in a way that can only be Him!

Here goes...
SUNDAY:
- Vince and Jim, the pastor over church planting at our church talk to 'catch up' - they go back almost a decade when they both worked at denominational agencies.
- Jim tells Vince about a conference for church planters happening the next two days that happens to be a ministry co-founded by David, one of Vince's close friends and former bosses when he worked in the church planting group at a former ministry agency. Jim encouraged him to attend based on what Vince was sharing with him.
- Vince contacts David Sunday evening and the means and logistics to go are worked out.

MONDAY:
- Vince attends Day 1 and at the pre-conference they talk about the "DNA" of a church planter. As he listened to all the aspects that make up a church planter, a light bulb went off as these characteristics fit him perfectly. Now, he was beginning to get a little more clarity to what He believed God COULD be calling us to do, but still uncertain.

TUESDAY:
- Vince attends Day 2. His first choice breakout session was full early, so he attends a breakout with Bob Roberts of GlocalNet and Northwood Church in TX. While he really enjoyed the entire conference and walked away with a lot of wisdom, this particular breakout session changed him. As he listened to Bob speak, it was like another light bulb went off and this bulb was popping even brighter! Vince knew God wired him with certain passions, convictions, gifts, abilities, and experiences but he just didn't know exactly how all of these things fit together to fulfill his calling until he sat in this breakout with Bob. He said all of a sudden God gave him the picture of exactly what he needed to do as Bob shared his own journey as a church planter. Bob told of how he was completely broken by God a few years in to his church plant to dive much deeper into the words of Jesus, how He multiplied Himself in the disciples, and how New Testament Christians and churches should model after Jesus and the early Church. He spoke about a multiplying church that flows out of making discples and how this can lead as many to Christ as possible here and worldwide.

IT HIT VINCE LIKE A TON OF BRICKS that this is what we are to do! If you are wondering what I was thinking as Vince explains all of this to me, I was on board completely. I have felt that God may be calling us to plant a church on and off for a couple of years but Vince wasn't confident that this was our calling. However, it was in this setting and with the "dots" from the last few months and years coming to a head, where God chose to reveal very clearly that not only are we to plant a church, but that we must focus the church on making disciples who will think outwardly and some of whom God will raise up to multiply themselves, the church, and thus win many to Christ all over the world by planting the Gospel and churches in many contexts and cultures!
(There are so many details about what that looks like that a book could be written on just that alone so I won't do that today :-)

NOW, BACK TO THE SEQUENCE that God unfolded on Day 2...
- Normally this does not happen but an opportunity presented itself where Bob and his associate were able to speak with Vince after the session and through this conversation, they invite him to a small group intensive training the FOLLOWING WEEK out in TX. The training had been capped off as it is a small group of planters (20ish) that are invited to participate and the slots for this training were booked up long ago. This is a very unique and rare opportunity because God has used Bob and his church to be a catalyst for church planting movements in various cultures literally all over the world. Along the way, God has opened doors for Bob with heads of state and religious leaders in many countries as well as with the United Nations, and other mind-boggling, God-ordained opportunities. That to say, to have an opportunity to be personally trained and further discipled in a small group setting by this man is an amazing one!
- Vince shares with them our current financial plight that we are flat out of money, but God is meeting our needs literally one day at a time. They keep the invitation open but tell Vince to call back to their TX church to speak with their church planting director immediately to "see what they can do."
- The director of their church planting tells Vince a few hours later they will scholarship him totally on the cost for the actual training, which is not cheap so for that Vince was humbled and grateful. However, they did not encourage Vince to put travel expenses on personal credit. Both parties knew that bottom line, if God wants Vince there next week, He will provide the cash means to do so.
- In the course of all of this, Vince happens upon a top-knotch web hosting service at this church planters conference that is usually hundreds of dollars to establish followed by a monthly retainer fee. They are planning to comp Vince for the time being FREE of charge and charge MINIMAL monthly fees the first year once financial support for Vince and the church plant starts to come in. This is one of the needed elements as he begins to lay the foundation of a future church plant so we have yet another free opportunity that God gave us.
- Vince makes a few phone calls as he leaves the conference and in a couple of hours is catching up with an old friend and mentor he had not talked to in some time and who just so happened to be driving in the same area as Vince. When they realized they were in close proximity, they meet at Starbucks to catch up. After two hours of talking about life and Vince sharing his vision, half of his trip is paid for through this godly and gracious gentleman!

WEDNESDAY:
- The next day, we're at 7 days out from what would be flight departure and you travelers out there know how fares start to skyrocket, thus the urgency on Vince, "If I'm going, I gotta book NOW before rates shoot way up and get out of reach!"
- With desire high to take advantage of this opportunity, we both agree and hold back with the thought that if God wants Vince there, somehow the means will come in just in time without us having to gamble by charging it before the funds were secured to pay the bill.
- SAME DAY, literally minutes after Vince sent an email letting the director of this training know he has half of the money... a check comes in the mail that covers almost the remaining expense! Even though we knew we could probably get family to give us the remaining balance if push came to shove, we just felt we needed to wait and let God make it abundantly clear that he should attend. We also struggled and prayed about whether that second check was to go toward bills or the trip and we asked God to make it clear.
- SAME DAY, in the evening, Vince was on the phone with his parents sharing how God was moving and the unique opportunity with this training, but that he did NOT want them to pay for this trip and be stretched even more financially since they were already helping us. While Vince is on the phone, a call comes in from an old friend who happened upon a blog, then upon THIS blog for the first time. This friend shares that she and her husband had talked and prayed and felt led to give a certain amount to us which would be the EXACT amount needed to cover the remaining expense if we ended up using the second check that came in! I share with this person what was unfolding after she shares the amount they felt led to give us because in that moment, I felt that I had my answer and we were to use the second check to go toward the trip but I still wanted further confirmation and wisdom. I also wanted to make sure they were okay with the money they were giving us to go toward this trip. While deep down I felt this was God's clear way of saying Vince needed to go and that we needed to be obedient, if I'm honest, there was still a small part of me that still struggled with whether we were being wise with the money God provided by using it to go for the trip instead of bills because we were just days away from needing to pay our house payment and this money could definitely be used to put a chunk toward that bill. I asked for this person's wisdom because she is such a godly lady and she said that a revelation from God always trumps wisdom! What great advice! There are things that just don't make logical sense (sometimes good wisdom that we would normally lean on) but when God shows you something, you act so that is exactly what we did.
- When going to book the flight moments later, there was an ad that hit the screen with literal flashing lights and it is a roundtrip "deal" from ATL to Dallas/FW Texas (where he would be going). However, this deal was not good until a few more weeks but it was funny to see the flashing lights on the screen because I had really prayed for God to send us a sign.
- While it appeared at first that the fares had doubled from the time Vince received his first initial money to go toward the trip, after a phone call, we found that there was an even better deal than if he had gone ahead and booked it when he first learned of this opportunity on Tuesday evening. So, everything was booked for even cheaper than we originally thought possible! God made it clear and confirmed that Vince needs to be at this unique opportunity.

THE FEW DAYS FOLLOWING... spiritual warfare hit like never before! Doubt, conflict, unprecedented discouragement. We have seen time and again not to doubt in the dark what God has shown you in the light but unfortunately, we did doubt when the spiritual warfare hit its peak. Vince went off to think and pray and I was checking e-mail after the boys were all in bed (for those of you wondering why I wasn't praying, I had just been praying...I know how some of you think ;) when one came in from a guy who attended the church planting conference. He said that he felt led at that very moment to pray for Vince and send him this e-mail. It was a bit like a "Paul to Timothy" moment as this e-mail went on to affirm what he saw in Vince and to urge him to stay the course and do what he knew God was calling him to. He said he knew through his own experience with Christ and committing to church multiplication, that we would be hit hard by the enemy to discourage us and try to knock us out of the game, but NOT to give in. It was very detailed and definitely a Paul/Timothy type of letter/e-mail that seemed to describe exactly what was happening to us and how we need to keep persevering as God always honors and multiplies the impact of those He has called as they stay the course and act on His promptings. This is the second time that I can recall that literally in the midst of the spiritual warfare we receive an email that seems like it comes straight from God telling us it is going to be okay.

While we are excited, there are still so many unknowns with the financial aspect being a biggie. One thing we are definitely seeing from literally being out of money, God is providing daily in unimaginable ways so we are confident that He can and will continue in one way or the other. The other is Vince has always worked in what would seem by most to be very "stable" jobs and as we all know now, even with the great job he did in those roles, they turned out to be very unstable. I also firmly believe as I look back that we probably would never have considered leaving a stable job to go out into the unknown with no secure income and plant a church. I believe in the back of our minds we would question if we really had heard God correctly and with all that has transpired over the years and especially recently, I feel confident we know exactly what we are to do even though we don't know all the steps that are going to get us there. I believe God may be trying to show us that until we step out on faith and follow what He is calling us to, nothing else will be stable no matter how "safe" it may appear from the outset.

For now, God has revealed the first step which is going to this training (which he arrived in Dallas-Fort Worth today for) and we are just trusting that God will direct each of our steps clearly and eventually the full picture will be revealed. I'm reminded that God's Word "is a lamp to our feet and a light to our path." That reminds me that there are often times when all He gives us is just enough light for our feet to take the first step of obedience, then the next step, and as we take more and more individual steps He shows us the light to our path!

We just ask that you continue praying for us because there are definitely exciting days ahead but we still need clarity and God's provisions. We also need strength during this intense spiritual warfare. We look forward to celebrating with you all when the picture of this puzzle is revealed. It is going to be amazing if the spiritual warfare we are experiencing is any indication. Obviously, we still need to pay the bills so we are still in prayer for something to open for Vince to do while he also works to lay the foundation of a churh plant and begins to raise support for this ministry. Stay tuned as the story continues....