I got a call on Sunday from a friend asking for prayer for a missionary. “Ezekiel” is a pastor in Africa. On Friday his wife called and said his 8 year old son wasn’t there when she went to pick him up from school. Ezekiel hadn’t seen him either. A couple of hours later they received a ransom note.

Someone had their son and wanted 1 million dollars (about 14K US$) for his safe return. Needless to say, Ezekiel doesn’t have a million dollars laying around. They contacted him later and lowered the ransom to the equivalent of $4,700.

Ezekiel came up with $1,700 and called for prayer. As a network of believers began to pray, Ezekiel felt led to contact the kidnappers. He told a friend that he couldn’t pay them off because it would “open the door for other pastors to possibly have their children taken”. He contacted his sons captors and told them: “I’m not giving you any money and I want my son back. You’re not dealing with me. You’re dealing with God.”

He sent his wife and younger child to another village to protect them and prayed. On Monday the Holy Spirit directed him to a certain part of town to look. Ezekiel obeyed.

Ezekiel found his son and took him home.

God is real and God is good.

I hate it when God throws the gauntlet down on me. I was reading Jesus’ words this morning on the work of the Holy Spirit and came across this challenging passage.

“Oh, there is so much more I want to tell you, but you can’t bear it now. When the Spirit of truth comes, He will guide you into all truth. He will not be presenting His own ideas; He will be telling you what He has heard. He will tell you about the future.” (John 16:12 & 13 NLT)

So, here’s the BIG challenge for me out of that. If I’m truly being led by the Spirit then should I “not be presenting my ideas” but “telling what I’ve heard”? Should I hide myself in prayer until I have clarity about the “future” God has for those He’s called me to lead and walk beside?

What a challenge and a call to prayer. How do you play out the call to lead with clarity? How do you “not present your own ideas” and present “what you’ve heard”?

Consider the gauntlet thrown.

I’ve been in youth camp the last few days here in NC. This is the camp that I grew up going to. This is where my heritage is. I first felt called into ministry in the back of this chapel and surrendered my musical gifts to the Lord on this altar. I’ve had the chance to worship with old and new friends and it’s been a great opportunity for me to come back and minister to kids around the same age I was when all those things happened for me.

We’ve had some marathon worship times this week and our speaker has only hit the stage twice. It’s been a great time of sensitivity to the Spirit and seeing kids interact with God. Last night was a pretty intense. As we began to worship a simple song came forward that I felt the Lord was directing at one of the brothers at the camp. I called him up and began to sing three simple words. “He is faithful.” One of the pastors here got up and spoke about God’s ability to seal and keep us. After worshiping for a few more moments we felt the Lord was calling us to give an invitation for people to receive prayer. It was a powerful time of seeing God impact people’s lives and speak words into their lives.

I prayed for several kids last night and the Holy Spirit revealed specific words for most of them. We talk a lot in our church about Spiritual Gifts and it is always great to see them in true operation. We had tongues and interpretation, words of knowledge, wisdom and prophecy. I’ll be honest and say that I’m always amazed when God decides to speak directly to a person’s situation and destiny. He has a way of cutting through to the heart of the matter. The fact that He loves us and died for us is amazing enough on its own. The truth that He remains invested, interested and involved in our daily grind and the over-arching destiny of our lives is almost mind blowing for me.

After having prayed for several kids I walked back to my cabin tired, humbled and fulfilled. Sometimes when God decides to use you in a meeting in a specific way pride is lurking at the door. I could feel myself feeling good about what had happened. That was when it was time to remember that I am completely unworthy. My usefulness to God is only there because my righteousness is not in myself. Whenever I feel a little pride creep in because of something God is doing in my life, I remember the words of Paul. He said:

One of the great joys of my life is being a Dad. I love being with my kids and especially love when we get an opportunity to talk about the real way God interacts with His children. The other week, my son was forgetting a part of a verse we’ve been praying through every night. I told him that Jesus said the Holy Spirit would help him remember everything that Jesus taught us and had him ask the Holy Spirit for the word. Immediately he said “compassion” with this big look of surprise on his face.

A couple of days later, I was talking to my kids, 4 and almost 7, about hearing God speak to us. I used my son’s example from a couple of days earlier and I was encouraging them to ask the Holy Spirit to speak to them in prayer, give them direction etc. My four year old interrupted me to tell me that she already knew that God wanted to talk to her. She learned it in Sunday School. (big shout out to our 4 year old teachers!) So I asked her if she’d ever heard God speak. Here’s how the conversation played out:

Mercy: Oh yeah.
Me: What does he sound like?
Mercy: Daddy. He sounds just like you.
Me: (muffled sound…trying not to cry)

My wife and I have always hoped to be the kind of parents that our kids would grow up to say, if God is like Mommy and Daddy, then I want to know Him. We’ve also prayed that they would far exceed us in all things pertaining to life and Godliness. Here’s believing that these are just the first in a long line of confirmations that they are well on their way.