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Moving On from Refreshing Hope Ministries on Vimeo.

There will be times when the Lord sends you in a different direction than those around you, like Barnabas and Saul: 

(Acts 13:2 NKJV)  As they ministered to the Lord and fasted, the Holy Spirit said, "Now separate to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them."

That time was graceful, but there will be other times when He only tells you, and those around will believe it is the stupidest idea they have ever heard. When Paul was heading to Jerusalem, even his companion Luke tried to convince him not to go. Only Paul understood that was the path for him.

(Acts 21:12–14 NKJV)  Now when we heard these things, both we and those from that place pleaded with him not to go up to Jerusalem. Then Paul answered, "What do you mean by weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus." So when he would not be persuaded, we ceased, saying, "The will of the Lord be done."

When Jesus explained His destiny in plain language to His disciples, they stared at Him dumbfounded until the Apostle Peter took Jesus aside and began to rebuke Him:

(Mark 8:31–33 NKJV)  And He began to teach them that the Son of Man must suffer many things, and be rejected by the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and after three days rise again. He spoke this word openly. Then Peter took Him aside and began to rebuke Him. But when He had turned around and looked at His disciples, He rebuked Peter, saying, "Get behind Me, Satan! For you are not mindful of the things of God, but the things of men."

By this time, the prophecies of the Messiah who would come had turned Him into a superhero who would destroy the enemies of Israel and become the next king. He would rule the nations with a rod of iron and crush those who opposed him. The thought of the Messiah suffering and being killed was completely unthinkable. It would be like someone running for president and, at the end of their campaign, heading to Washington to be rejected and executed by the leadership.  

So Peter took Jesus aside and tried to correct His role as the Messiah. Now, I am sure it was done in love, but Jesus ended that conversation quickly. Jesus had a destiny to fulfill, but Peter couldn't understand it, so he tried to tell Jesus that He must not be hearing from God correctly. Apparently, in this case, satan was using Peter to discourage Jesus from pursuing His destiny.

There have been three times in our lives when God told us it was time to move on after serving faithfully somewhere for years. All three times occurred during a season of fasting inspired by Him, and He didn't tell those over us. 

Anytime you feel led to fast, it's the Holy Spirit, for the flesh likes to feast. Jesus was driven by the Spirit into the wilderness to spend time fasting and praying. He came out in the power of the Spirit and began His ministry (Mark 1:12, Luke 4:14). During those seasons of praying and fasting, our spirits became restless and hungry for more. 

When the Lord told us it was time to move on, all three times, we were told by the ones over us to wait. Yet, we could feel an urgency in our spirit that we had to go. The leaders meant well, and we received the usual one-on-one sermons about faithfulness, dedication, and rewards for those faithful servants who wait. Yet, God was telling us to do something else, and He didn't tell them. 

The Lord spoke directly to young Samuel, and He didn't tell the high priest Eli, who was sleeping down the hall (1 Samuel 3:8).

The first time it happened, we tried to listen to them and stay longer, and it became very messy. The anointing on our lives dried completely up. It would have been better for everyone involved if we had obeyed God and left gracefully when He first told us to. Instead, we tried it their way, and we found that there is no drama like church drama. Our spirits wilted.

After taking some time off to heal from church abuse, God plugged us in somewhere else, and the Spirit began to flow through us again. We got drafted into the tech team, advanced in our knowledge, and learned increasingly complicated equipment each time. The Lord used on-the-job training to teach us what we needed to know to start Refreshing Hope Ministries later. 

The Lord wanted to teach us skills we would need in ministry one day, but the previous church leadership could never see that. All they could see was they were losing the tech team, and they were tithers. Yet, if we had stayed there to appease them, we wouldn't be in ministry today.

There will be times when you have to choose between heeding God or man. If you choose to obey man, you will stall in your journey with the Lord and sit there and grow stagnant. To follow the Lord will often involve making difficult decisions that some people will not like. 

Also, you need to be prayerfully careful and let the Lord confirm His word to you. If this is an important decision, He will. When the Lord moved us from one church, He gave me the first part of a dream and my wife Sylvia the second part the same night. In my dream, I was saying goodbye to all my friends at the old church, and in Sylvia's dream, we were being welcomed into a new church and given orders by the Holy Spirit. That's exactly what happened.

When the Lord was preparing us to start Refreshing Hope, He gave me seven sequential dreams over a couple of months. One would resume where the last one had stopped, and together, they told a story of one thing ending and another beginning. It did, and here I am. 

When God calls you to do something, He may only tell you about it. Be sure to keep yourself humble with fasting and prayer during times like this because pride will blind you. Yet, sometimes, to follow your destiny, you can't listen to "Apostle Peter." 

You can pray this with me if you like: 

Prayer: Heavenly Father, please give me a clear vision and put me where You want me to be. I pray that You speak to me in a clear, unmistakable way I can understand. Please give me the grace to live this life and help me make the right decisions. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray. Amen!