When God Says Go

I loved serving as an executive pastor and loved working with my team. However, I knew God was asking me to let go in areas of my leadership and to delegate more responsibility to the people I was leading. I could sense that God was asking me to take my hands off the wheel and let go.

Fast forward to this last April, when I went to the Exponential conference in Boise. During the conference, I was in a breakout session regarding "multiplication" and the man that was leading it made the statement,

“God did not call us to manage lakes but to build rivers.”

I remember instantly hearing God tell me that I needed to be a part of the river and I had this vision of something new coming.

The next day I went back to the conference and Joby Martin spoke on how fear is a liar. Everything that he said was debunking every single reason I had told God that I couldn’t lead a church. He was speaking to my insecurities and my fear of preaching. God convicted me and at the end when Joby had an invitation, I felt God stirring my heart. Joby made the statement, “Someone here whom God is calling to something that you don’t even know what it is yet, but you just need to obey.”
In that invitation time, I stood knowing that God was speaking directly to me.

In a moment of prayer and surrender, God asked me if I would do whatever he asked me to. I said 'yes' and sensed God saying, “You need to resign your job.” I immediately began to protest in my mind, thinking that it didn’t make any sense. God began to remind me that He just needed my obedience.

Following the time of prayer, I pulled my lead pastor aside and told him what I thought God had shown me. Without hesitation, he said, “When you stood up in response to that invitation, God told me you were going to resign.” He knew God was leading me to something new for months and God had been preparing him for this moment.

A couple of days later on a Saturday, I spent the morning praying and asking God for clarity and direction. As I was studying God made it very clear that I needed to plant a church.
I told God that if this was true that He would need to show my wife. It was something I said I would never do but I wanted to be obedient if that’s what he was calling me to.

Sunday morning, my wife was preparing to go to church, while she was praying, without warning, she heard in her spirit, “I want you to plant a church.” She gasped inside and looked at the clock. It was 9:10 a.m. and she immediately went to her calendar and journaled it. She went on getting herself and the kids ready and went to church. She didn’t say a word to me all day, or the next morning.

Monday morning in a staff meeting one of our pastors was leading our staff devotions and talked about how God moved the cloud for the children of Israel when it was time to go. Once again God reminded me His timing would be perfect. At the end of the staff meeting, my wife sent me a text asking me to call her. I called and she told me that she had waited 24 hours to tell me, and she began to share with me how Sunday morning as she was getting ready for church she felt like God had told her that we needed to plant a church. It was then that I let her know what I had prayed on Saturday.

The following week God showed us both that Kuna, Idaho is where He wanted us to plant. He gave us a clear vision of reaching the communities in the Treasure Valley with the hope that He offers.

We can’t wait to see what God is going to do! It is awesome to see how God is at work sending us people, financial support, and answering countless prayers.

I know God was clearly leading when He asked me to surrender my job during Exponential and called me to plant a church. I can’t deny it and we can’t wait to launch E3 Church in September of 2020. There are so many people without hope in our community and I can’t wait to see changed lives changing communities for God!

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