Nineteen months ago, on Christmas eve I woke up in the middle of the night to the sound of a voice in our room. The voice was loud, clear and full of authority.
"Its the beginning of a beautiful new season."
"Its the beginning of a beautiful new season."
I sat up and looked at Pete, but he was sound asleep and I immediately realised I had heard the audible voice of the Lord. In reverence and humility my spirit leapt and I knew the Lord had deposited a promise into my heart.
I have held onto those words for nineteen months and I have been incubating them in my heart knowing that, in time, those words would birth the "beautiful season" God had promised.
Our third year at BSSM has been incredible. Pete spent ten months working and travelling with Steve Backlund of Igniting Hope Ministries. We have grown deeply as a family in every possible area and God has provided for us in the most miraculous ways. I have loved homeschooling the girls and have had the privilege of being involved in Wendy Backlund’s ministry. The year flew by and before we knew it Pete received his graduation certificate at the beginning of May this year. All around us fellow students were starting to pack up and say goodbye. The “what’s next?” question was on everyone’s lips and everybody seemed to have a plan….except us.
We didn’t have a clue what was next. Our simple “We don’t know” answer was acceptable at first, but after a few months the answer seemed crazy and irresponsible. Throughout our time of praying and seeking God for the next step in our life, we only heard one word from Him..."WAIT." That word was all He said for two very long months.
Pete and I both felt that our season in Redding and at Bethel wasn't over. we felt a sense of destiny here, we believed we were called here by the Spirit of God and our minds couldn't comprehend how it would work because there didn't seem like any possibility of us staying. Our visas were expiring and, unless a miracle opened up for us, we had to pack up our lives and leave America by August 2016. I knew God had a plan but we didn’t know what it was and the weeks of waiting started to feel like torture. I kept hearing those words echoing in our quiet room on Christmas eve and my discomfort increased as questions started to explode in my mind…”God where are You? What are You doing, what are WE doing? I feel crazy, I feel lost, I feel hopeless, where is this beautiful season? God I don’t know what to do, where are You?!”
I recognise hopelessness and I know what it does. It preys on dreams, destiny and desire. Hope allows us to walk on the water in victory whereas hopelessness drowns you in defeat and comparison. I began to feel like I was drowning and thats when we decided to dig! I felt God challenge me to dig deep into His heart and wrestle with the promise He had given me all those months ago. He didn’t lead us out here to drown and I wanted to find out why.
“Lisa you and Pete are pregnant with a promise. And If you will faithfully stand with Me, I will birth the season out of the wait. This birth will be by My hand alone and in My time. Don’t panic and abort the promise out of fear and don’t look to man or to yourselves to prematurely bring about the next season. Trust in Me and I will sustain you.”
I felt in the Spirit He was leading me to the top of a mountain and the higher we climbed the more I began to realise why. He was graciously bringing me to an altar. Everyday I would spend thirty minutes on my exercise bike alone in my 35 degree celcius garage listening to sermons and, in prayer, I began contending with God for the promise He had given to us as a family. I wasn’t ready to lay the promise down, but the closer I got to that altar the more I knew I had to. We gave ourselves until the end of June to pray and hear God. The weeks rolled on and the praying became more desperate but I found God's hand bring my daily bread. Each day there was grace sufficient. The end of June arrived uninvited and all we saw were closed doors. We knew we had to start making decisions and plans but we were not ready to make those plans in defeat. Nevertheless we laid our dreams down, sold our car and gave notice on our apartment: we would move out and leave Redding at the end of July.
One evening I was cycling in the garage and through tears I began to worship God. I thanked Him for His faithfulness and I purposed in my heart that He deserves all the Glory. I truly felt like I was laying my “Isaac” on the altar in worship to Him. I never want a promise or a place to be more important that Him. He is my reward, He is my promise and He is all I want. I began to tell Him who He is (as if He doesn’t know, but my ears and heart needed to hear it) Good, kind, faithful, loving, abundant! An ever-seeing God, patient and merciful. Life-giving, true and worthy of every cell in my body! This is what we were designed for - worship. Our lives are His and it felt amazing.
Then I heard Him speak …
“Lisa its here. Come and pick it up. The promise is here and its getting ready to be birthed. Pick it up off the altar. Be brave and hope again. I see you. Give Me another week, but give me your all!”
I didn’t know if I had the energy to do this. Its painful to hope where there seems to be no hope, to throw your heart out and risk the possible disappointment and discouragement. Its scary! I just wanted a decision. I wanted to aim somewhere and shoot!
But out of my lips came the “Yes Lord, here is my life and you are My God." Our all we gave…and that week was life changing…
We discovered how to turn frustration into celebration. I learned, that as I delighted in my God, He became my glorious Hero. Everyday we began to focus on who God is and moment by moment His nature became not just our bread, but our feast. I learned that, even in the unknown He fully knows us. I understood the power of laying down my will and placing it on the altar. I discovered that worship in its truest form is obedience and saying yes to Him is worth a thousand songs. We began seeing that our most dangerous weapon in warfare isn't travailing in prayer but rejoicing in faith. I realised that God doesn’t want to kill our dreams and our desires, He wants to breath life into them! He is a life-giving God, not a life-taking God! I started picturing me placing our "baby" of promise into a basket, as Moses was, and sending it down the river of His love. I began to trust Him to lead our promise to a palace, something greater than we could ever imagine. All simply because He is GOOD! He LOVES us and He is GOD! He only works in abundance. He doesn’t offer lack or second best. He is trustworthy and so we chose to trust. He is a God of Hope and hope NEVER disappoints. We placed our desires and dreams at His feet and praised God for His goodness. We chose to celebrate and not feel disappointed. The beautiful season will be beautiful because He is beautiful.
The week ended in victory. Nothing changed in the natural but on the inside we felt absolute freedom and triumph. Something shifted in the spirit and we felt surrendered but in a powerful way, not in a defeated way. We were ready for the next season and we were excited.
A few days later out of the blue Pete was called for an interview for a position as a Pastor within the Bethel School of Supernatural Ministry, the exact position we had felt lead to pray and trust God for. Within the week he went through three interviews the last of which was with Kris Vallotton.
At the end of July Pete was invited onto the Pastor Team at Bethel Church. When we received the news we could not believe that this had actually happened... we weren't crazy! God did hear and He was with us the whole way!! The promise was real and the wait was for something. This position has been a dream of ours since we arrived here three years ago, but we never thought it would happen. It seemed impossible. The most amazing thing is that three of our best friends are on the same pastor team, all South Africans!
So within days of our visa expiring, we will fly to South Africa to begin the process of changing our visa from a student visa to a Religious Workers Visa. We are SO excited to see family and friends and the girls can’t wait to fly … again :) They are incredible travellers.
More than anything I want this blog to be a testimony of Gods goodness and His grace. Testimony opens doors that others can walk through and the breakthrough we have received as a family is yours to walk into. Our story has not been written by man and it is not about us, but it is and always will be about His mighty strength and His glorious kindness. His promise of a beautiful new season has arrived and it is always on time. God is not a second too late and not a minute too early. Nothing is impossible for Him. NOTHING! And if you give Him your life, He takes you into beautiful places. It's not about a location, a job or a possession but its about Him. Its about going deeper into trust, hope and greatness in Him alone. Faith looks like signing your name on a blank piece of paper and allowing Him to write your story.
All fame, praise, glory and honour goes to God! He is a good good Father!
