seven years of waiting ....

It broke my heart to leave South Minneapolis.

But....we had an incredible opportunity to own a church building that we really needed, the only trouble was it was near Lake Minnetonka and that is pretty far from Minneapolis. Without a doubt God had moved miraculously on our behalf and provided a lovely church building for us to purchase. So, we began to work in our new area. For one year we continued to hold weekly meetings in our home in South Minneapolis. But those services ended when we moved closer to the church. We had no where to hold services any longer in our old neighborhood.
I can't tell you how many times I have been in anguish just thinking that we had left the work God had called us to do.... I felt that I had failed God so many times.
Then to our surprise, our grown children shared with us their burden some months ago. They both felt God calling them to go back and re-start the Minneapolis work. After they had prayed and fasted, their calling was confirmed in a very supernatural way this summer. They waited until they had returned from the General Conference in Houston, TX. to hold the first service. The spirit of the Lord certainly was in their first meeting!

Seven years after we had to quit holding services in Minneapolis, on Oct. 7, 2010, the first service was held right back where we had started in 1996. Now I realize that the Lord was not saying "no", to us but he certainly was saying, "wait".

I never would have dreamed how God would answer these deep plaguing questions of ours. At the time we left Minneapolis, our older kids were only teenagers. I never thought that this was how God would work, but all along God was preparing them for the ministry.

Psalms 27:13-14 I had fainted, unless I had believed to see the goodness of the LORD in the land of the living. Wait on the LORD: be of good courage, and he shall strengthen thine heart: wait, I say, on the LORD.

Forgive me, Lord for not trusting you. Help me to learn to wait. You do all things well.

even though he didn't have to.....

Jack Cunningham, the crusade evangelist asked the preachers to repent first. At General Conference we saw an unprecedented move of the Holy Ghost (Spirit). Close to 3,500 attendees were baptized with the Holy Spirit speaking with tongues (Acts 2:4) in the arena in Houston, TX this last Sunday evening.

Are there words to describe this night? Many things touched my heart, but one in particular was that Bro. Cunningham asked the leaders to sincerely model repentance. It was so beautiful to hear the choir of preachers raising their voices in prayer to God for repentance. Then others joined in, pretty soon the whole place was crying out to God for a clean heart.

Jesus didn't NEED to be baptized but he modeled that humble act for us. He fulfilled all righteousness. Matt.3:15 And Jesus answering said unto him, Suffer [it to be so] now: for thus it becometh us to fulfil all righteousness.

Maybe some preachers didn't really need to repent, but when the unsaved saw the example of preachers with outstretched hands to God asking for mercy, it was a little easier for the others to soften their hearts to God and admit their need for a Savior to forgive them of their sins.

I'm still convinced that repentance is the first essential part of salvation.