Fasting - the end of the story

As I write this, I'm sitting in my "ebenezer" location. I took that term from the song "Come thou fount", at least I think that's the name of it. Here's pretty cool version of the song by David Crowder. While searching on youtube, I noticed Michael Bolton has a version of this song as well. I chose Crowder. When in doubt, go with the guy that doesn't have a balding mullet. "Ebenezer" is a reference to the story in 1st Samuel 7: 12 and it means something like "God helped us". While I was sitting in this seat (at Starbucks by the way), God answered two prayers I had and I'll tell you about the 1st prayer today. I'll probably write about the 2nd prayer sometime next week when the timing is a bit better.

I know God answers prayers, but it's not always a "burning bush" moment so to speak. I mean, when Moses saw a burning bush and heard the voice of God, he got a pretty black and white answer. I have had some major and tough decisions to make and after a period of prayer in which God didn't give me a yes or no answer, I have spent some time yelling at him. You know, out of a selfish frustration. Anyone else ever yell at God?

To answer us, sometimes I think God says, "You decide! I gave you free will!" A lot of times, we pray prayers that are already answered in Scripture. "God, should I help this elderly, 90lb. lady who has a flat tire on the side of the road in a heavy rain storm?" If I were God, I would answer sounding like Ed Rooney from Ferris Buehlers Day Off, "Read the Bible 'you pinhead'. Love your neighbor as yourself! Come on." In other words, God gave us free will so we can decide. Many times, He has already spoken in His Word and we just need to pickup the Bible and read it. There's a great book about God's Will I read recently by Kevin DeYoung called Just Do Something. Check it out if you want. It's a good, quick read.

Anyway, I say all that because this prayer I prayed to God was something I wanted a very clear answer on.

Karrie and I have been talking about church planting for quite some time, and are now really feeling called to do it. I would say our conversations started up about 2 years ago and have progessively been more serious. I recently resigned from my Student Ministry position at Flatirons Community Church and within a week, Karrie and I knew our days of student ministry were over. Not because we don't love student ministry, but because we had this inner gut feeling it was time to explore church planting. So we began praying. And we asked God, over and over, for a "burning bush" moment. I wanted this church plant to be of God and not some selfish desire I had. I needed Him to speak to me with a yes or no answer.

That is what led me to explore fasting. I fasted because my biggest idol is food. I love food. I have relied more on food than I have on God many times. Meaning, when I have a rough day, the first thing I usually reach for is not Scripture, or time with God. I reach for cookies, or the Taco Bell drive-thru, or something else with chocolate in it. For at least one day, I wanted God to have my full attention and dependence. I told God, "I would love for you to answer my prayer today. But more than anything, I want you to know I love you so much, more than food, money, etc. and for at least today, I want you to actually see me live those words." So for about 23 and 1/2 hours I loved God more than food.

Here's the cool part. He answered my prayers and He showed me how He was going to do it before it even happened. My 1st prayer was, "God, do you want me to plant a church?". I started my fast at about 10 pm on a Sunday night about 3 weeks ago. I planned on going to Starbucks for the entire day the next day to read my Bible, journal, and pray. That morning, while I was getting ready, God put a thought in my head. I felt the Holy Spirit telling me that someone I know would walk into Starbucks that day and answer both of my questions. So I spent the morning reading the book of Acts and 1st Timothy and writing prayers down to God.

At about Noon, a guy named Zach walked into Starbucks. I knew Zach when he was a student at Mooresville High School, where I taught for 3 years. Zach is awesome. The best way to describe Zach is a surfer dude who has somehow been born and raised in the Midwest. He uses words like, "chillin" and "trippin" a lot and starts every sentence with "Dude" and ends every sentence with "man" or "bro". He walks in and sees me and immediately yells (not exaggerating...yells", "Dude, Aaron what's up man!"

After a while, Zach sits down with me and asks, "Dude, you thinkin' bout plantin' a church bro?". And I said "Yeah". I had not seen Zach in over 5 years, and that's the first question he asked me. And then he says, "Dude, you should!" And for the next hour or so, Zach did most of the talking but I truly believe it was the Holy Spirit working through him. He talked passionately about a need in our culture for this church. I was just shocked. God NEVER ceases to amaze me. I kept thinking about this quote I heard from a guy named Rich Mullins. He said, "God spoke to Balaam through an ass and he's been speaking through asses every since." Zach's not an ass. It's just that God can speak through anyone and it's usually in unexpected ways.

God blew me away and now Karrie and I are on our mission. We are going to plant a church. We are under assessment with a great church planting organization called Stadia and so far it's going really well. I am interviewing with two churches who want to plant and honestly, we truly hope it's one of these two. But if it's not, we will continue to pursue God's call on us.

That's where we are at. It's a little scary and very exciting at the same time. We know it's going to be REALLY hard. But God has given me a vision and that's a peaceful place to be, no matter what craziness is going on around us. There is such freedom in handing our lives to Jesus.

I have fallen in love with Jesus's church and I can't wait to start our mission and this vision He has layed on my heart.