There have been several times in my own life where the Lord took me from a place that I was comfortable with inside myself into a place of discomfort that was definitely out of my comfort zone. I used to be a very successful corporate business man focused on managing corporate relationships / alliances with other businesses that complemented the largest internet banking company and largest banking compliance company in the United States that I worked for. My focus in life was making a lot of money and becoming a millionaire and traveling the world to see beautiful places.
But then I ended up going through a divorce after 19 years of marriage that saddened me greatly and caused my children much pain and hardships that I could not stop. At that low point in my life I began to hear the Lord speak to me for the first time. He asked me what I wanted out of my life. I told him I thought it was a lot of money so I would not have to deal with problems like my father had (as he and my mother argued a lot over not having much money). But I told God that I really wanted to have peace in my life if I had to choose between that and money. God told me that was a good choice and that He would do that for me. He would take away all of my money (about half a million dollars) and then change me in the process to give me His heart which would give me the peace I wanted and that I would desire to do good things for Him instead of being selfishly focused on me. I agreed to the deal. Then He brought me into another relationship which was extremely painful with much stress and abuse and ultimately cost me all the money that I had saved up.
And yet I was right in the middle of God’s perfect will for my life. I took on the debts of my step-sons and wife, the Lord took me out of a lucrative career making a lot of money, and then I had to work for $14 an hour while giving my blood (plasma) to make money to survive. Feeling completely uncomfortable yet knowing that I was right in the middle of God’s perfect will as He was changing me into the person that He wanted me to be. I thought I was supposed to be a successful businessman while God was telling me that I no longer was going to live for myself but was going to do greater things for His kingdom as I began to receive Words from the Lord from prophetic people about who I really was for the first time in January of 2009 ( I was 42 years old). The words stated that I was going to become a leader for God and help people around the world who had major issues and pains and broken relationships to be able to heal and be restored. That God was going to use me to ultimately help millions around the world to become the pure and spotless bride that Christ was going to return for. And prior to this I just saw myself as just a kid from a cornfield who never saw myself as doing anything significant for God.
Then in October 2015 I began to do a healing ministry at my church in Noblesville, IN and it quickly became the busiest healing room in the state of Indiana. We were open every Saturday from 12 noon to 4 pm (and often later) as people were driving and flying in from other states because we would focus on helping people get delivered from demons which would lead to their healing physically. Then the Lord told me I would begin traveling around the United States and helping people get healed from their wounds and delivered while also helping people around the world. And it began to happen – as I had no money, no wife and no home to call my home and everything would have appeared to be in disarray by others in the church. Everything would have been considered a complete mess by most people in ministry yet I was smack dab in the middle of God’s will. Then later the Lord would connect me relationally with ladies who were into witchcraft and needed major soul wound healing and deliverance that would cause even more attacks to my growing ministry – all the time I was in the middle of God’s perfect will by design. And now today Restored to Freedom is helping people around the world to get freed as we have more than 150 people in 9 countries who are helping people to get healed from their soul wounds and delivered from demons every day and helping marriages be saved from being miserable and broken to healthy and vibrant.
So just because everything in your life circumstantially may look like a mess – God will often times take you into situations that appear crazy and cause you much pain, while you are exactly where God wants you to be.
When God is changing your life from where you were comfortable into an uncomfortableness you are being stretched in order to handle the future ministry that he has for you. You are actually right in the middle of His will. Moses could not have handled leading a million Hebrews out of their bondage into their freedom to the promised land had he not have gone into the wilderness for 40 years preparing him to hear God’s voice and allow him to see who he really was in the Lord. Joseph was right in the middle of God’s will while in jail for 3 years receiving injustice for escaping Potiphar’s wife who wanted to have sex with him.
Many people who have been used in huge ways by God have lived lives of great sin and evil but then God got a hold of them and cleaned them up and then positioned them into great and wonderful ministries for him helping to bring many more to Christ than they would have ever dreamed as they were so grateful in what God did for them.
So what are you to do when you are in the season of being pushed and pulled into a new season in your life, into a new position, causing you to lose various family members or friends – yet knowing that God is all over you while you are feeling completely freaking out on the inside. You are to trust the Lord and stay at peace as much as you can. Ask the Lord to give you more confirmations and dreams which will validate that you are where you need to be so that you can have as much peace as you can. God will stretch your faith as he wants you to be able to believe for greater things and to see yourself as He sees you. When the Lord lead me to leave my home and begin to travel full time in ministry it really stretched me to trust that the Lord would connect me to living in other people’s homes most of the time and to believe He would provide for me financially as I refused to ask people for money. Then when I saw His hand upon my travels and provision it allowed me to believe for even greater things.
So understand that often when you are right in the middle of God’s will that you will not be able to control any of your circumstances and that is a great thing. God loves it when we have bold faith to step into the unknown and yet trust Him.
Hebrews 11 NKJV
By Faith We Understand
11 Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen. 2 For by it the elders obtained a good testimony.
3 By faith we understand that the worlds were framed by the word of God, so that the things which are seen were not made of things which are visible.
Faith at the Dawn of History
4 By faith Abel offered to God a more excellent sacrifice than Cain, through which he obtained witness that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts; and through it he being dead still speaks.
5 By faith Enoch was taken away so that he did not see death, “and was not found, because God had taken him”; for before he was taken he had this testimony, that he pleased God. 6 But without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of those who diligently seek Him.
7 By faith Noah, being divinely warned of things not yet seen, moved with godly fear, prepared an ark for the saving of his household, by which he condemned the world and became heir of the righteousness which is according to faith.
Faithful Abraham
8 By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going. 9 By faith he dwelt in the land of promise as in a foreign country, dwelling in tents with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise; 10 for he waited for the city which has foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
11 By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore from one man, and him as good as dead, were born as many as the stars of the sky in multitude—innumerable as the sand which is by the seashore.
The Heavenly Hope
13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland. 15 And truly if they had called to mind that country from which they had come out, they would have had opportunity to return. 16 But now they desire a better, that is, a heavenly country. Therefore God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them.
The Faith of the Patriarchs
17 By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac, and he who had received the promises offered up his only begotten son, 18 of whom it was said, “In Isaac your seed shall be called,” 19 concluding that God was able to raise him up, even from the dead, from which he also received him in a figurative sense.
20 By faith Isaac blessed Jacob and Esau concerning things to come.
21 By faith Jacob, when he was dying, blessed each of the sons of Joseph, and worshiped, leaning on the top of his staff.
22 By faith Joseph, when he was dying, made mention of the departure of the children of Israel, and gave instructions concerning his bones.
The Faith of Moses
23 By faith Moses, when he was born, was hidden three months by his parents, because they saw he was a beautiful child; and they were not afraid of the king’s command.
24 By faith Moses, when he became of age, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, 25 choosing rather to suffer affliction with the people of God than to enjoy the passing pleasures of sin, 26 esteeming the reproach of Christ greater riches than the treasures in Egypt; for he looked to the reward.
27 By faith he forsook Egypt, not fearing the wrath of the king; for he endured as seeing Him who is invisible. 28 By faith he kept the Passover and the sprinkling of blood, lest he who destroyed the firstborn should touch them.
29 By faith they passed through the Red Sea as by dry land, whereas the Egyptians, attempting to do so, were drowned.
By Faith They Overcame
30 By faith the walls of Jericho fell down after they were encircled for seven days. 31 By faith the harlot Rahab did not perish with those who did not believe, when she had received the spies with peace.
32 And what more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets: 33 who through faith subdued kingdoms, worked righteousness, obtained promises, stopped the mouths of lions, 34 quenched the violence of fire, escaped the edge of the sword, out of weakness were made strong, became valiant in battle, turned to flight the armies of the aliens. 35 Women received their dead raised to life again.
Others were tortured, not accepting deliverance, that they might obtain a better resurrection. 36 Still others had trial of mockings and scourgings, yes, and of chains and imprisonment. 37 They were stoned, they were sawn in two, [k]were tempted, were slain with the sword. They wandered about in sheepskins and goatskins, being destitute, afflicted, tormented— 38 of whom the world was not worthy. They wandered in deserts and mountains, in dens and caves of the earth.
39 And all these, having obtained a good testimony through faith, did not receive the promise, 40 God having provided something better for us, that they should not be made perfect apart from us.
So understand that when you are in a season of feeling completely out of your comfort zone – totally uncomfortable in every way – that you are often being stretched by the Lord as He is preparing you for a future season of your life to accomplish greater things for Him then you can possibly imagine. Just fall back into Jesus’ arms and trust that He has you and will position you for some amazing times in your life. He will catch you and even push you to a higher level than you ever would have dreamed. God is working all things together for your good!!!
