September 13

On September 13, 2015 God spoke to my heart during a prayer meeting with our staff team.  He gave me this word for our church:

 

My Children, My Little Children

I am going ahead of you.

There are mountains in front of you.

Many mountains.

Do you see them?

But I am moving the mountains.

Do you see me?

I am moving the mountains before you.

 

I emailed those words to our team the next day, not knowing that the mountains that were looming before us were the most daunting things I could ever have imagined.  If you had told me that night what that group of people was about to face together, I am not sure how we would have handled it.  I am not sure that I, as one of their leaders, could have even asked them to handle it.

But our God is gracious and there were many times along the way that He reminded me of the words He had given us.  He knew the mountains were before us, but so was He.

And for those brave souls who will see a God-story through to the end, the reward is always sweet…

Today, precisely 3 years later on September 13, 2018, we got our occupancy permit for our building.  A building that was our first rented home nearly a decade ago and now is ours forever.  A building that symbolizes for our church a story of hope, redemption, and anointing.  The journey was never about a building, but I believe God gave it to us as a gift for trusting Him when the earth was shaking.

Tonight the very tired bodies of our team stood there as teenagers flooded in the doors for their first service in a building that has a million of our beautiful memories wrapped into it’s walls. They laughed, they worshipped, and they enjoyed their church…

And all the mountains that seemed totally impossible along the way suddenly seemed to disappear.  We are home.