In this Dining Room…

Last night was my last to spend on Baywoods Court. Such a strange feeling. So many beautiful things happened when I moved back home from Virginia in 2005. It was a Divine setup.

In this dining room on 9/11/06, at one of the lowest points a person could be, and while listening to the names of those that had died exactly five years earlier, I said a one-word prayer that I knew many that day also prayed – “HELP!”

In this dining room, I immediately encountered my Heavenly Father, and He changed everything about me and changed everything I thought I knew about Him. I saw with my eyes and felt with my flesh the brightest light I have ever seen. How do you feel a light? I can’t explain it but I did. I also felt my Father’s arms around me, and heard His voice loud and clear…not once but over and over that entire day and into the weeks and months ahead. Words of correction. Words of comfort. Words of wisdom. Words of love. Words of Hope. Words of a Father.

In this dining room on that blessed day, I confessed my sins, repented, and gave my life to Jesus Christ. Fully and completely. I was saved, healed, and delivered from years of social anxiety and depression, and filled with the Holy Ghost…. on this dining room floor. God has done amazing things in my life since that moment in time. He brought me through trials and taught me to lean on Him especially in good times so I can withstand the hard times. The Holy Ghost has been faithful to teach me His Word, and I have been given a love for reading and studying His Word. Jesus has taught me how to listen to Him and Him alone and follow closely. He has taught me the power of fasting and prayer. He taught me that I can not fulfill His plans and purposes alone but that I need the likeminded. He taught me to love His church and allow them to love me. He taught me I needed pastors, teachers, evangelists, prophets, and apostles. I needed them all. He taught me who I was in Him.

In this dining room, I have said “Yes” and walked through His open doors to go to Romania, Tanzania, and Haiti, the streets of this town, the nursing home, the food pantries, across my own street. Small group meetings, Bible Studies, Prayer meetings, every sermon I have ever preached, and every ministry I have been allowed to serve in had their roots in this dining room. So many MIRACLES!!! My brother always falls asleep when he comes to my house. He says it is the most peaceful house he has ever entered…and as a pastor he has entered a few. It is peaceful – every room of this house has been anointed, every room prayed over, every room used by God somehow.

I have lived many places in my life, but I have lived on Baywoods Court longer than I have lived anywhere. Today we will finish packing and tomorrow, it will all be removed and put in storage until we close on our new home. It has been quite a long journey and continues but even this step (that I know is ordered by the LORD) began with a “YES” in this dining room.

In the next weeks, a young family will move to Baywoods Court. I hope they love it here. They are moving down here from New York to raise their two little boys and be close to their parents. God has great plans for their lives, and I know one day they will look back and realize too – it was all a Divine Setup.

Thy Kingdom come, Thy perfect will be done on Baywoods Court (and in my new home)…. as it is in Heaven. In Jesus’ precious and holy name I pray. Amen!!! Amen!!!