Hey friend, do you wanna hear a super cool crazy story? Oh man this is one of my best stories about God speaking to me. Get ready for crazy awesomeness.
So it was 2018, just over a year ago now, which is crazy because it feels like a lifetime ago. I was longing for more in my life. I was searching for a deeper connection with God and boy oh boy did I get it.
I had just started life coaching with my older sister, Jennifer, and she had been helping me nail down ideas of things I wanted to do with my life. One thing in particular was organizing a women's retreat for the ladies in my church.
When I started trying to put something together, it just started working out. I put together some info on a few places we could arrange to go for this retreat and how much it would cost and I gave it out to the ladies at church.
One lady told me it's a great idea but seemed difficult to create our own weekend and she had the most wonderful idea instead! She told me that she knew about this women's weekend event in a nearby city that we could all go to, instead of trying to make a new event of our own we could just drive down and go to this one.
I looked it up and loved it immediately! And God started working everything out. You know how hard it is for everyone's schedules to open up for a weekend trip? Well that's exactly what happened.
From our tiny little church, all three of my closest friends and four other ladies came along for the trip. That NEVER happens!!! And the only reason it did happen was because God made it rain so much that our husbands were able to take time off from their jobs in farming and the oil patch. He worked it all out.
We had so much fun. I can't even tell you how awesome that whole weekend was. The speaker was incredible and she totally lit a fire in my soul and was hilarious too.
And the worship. . . oh the worship.
I had been singing traditional, old, quiet, boring music at church for so long that I had in fact forgotten what it was like to really worship with your heart and soul totally reaching out for God. It was loud and it was fresh and it was awesome. I sat at the end of our row by the aisle on purpose so that I could move over into the aisle and have space to move around, lift my hands up and just be free.
Looking back, it's interesting to notice things. Most of those ladies from my old church didn't like the music very much. Especially the older ladies. I remember looking over and seeing them standing there, some of them singing a little and others not even trying because I guess they probably didn't like the songs.
I think they would say they didn't sing because they didn't know the songs but let's be real here. Anyone can sing along with a new church song at least somewhat because the words are up on the screen and the chorus repeats exactly the same. You just jump in and try - unless you don't want to try a new song because you don't like singing new songs.
So, worship goes on and they never closed their eyes or raised their hands or did anything except stand there like statues or sit and wait for the music to be over.
It was easy for me to really worship there and it awakened me to my need for real genuine worship. In fact, I think I'd forgotten how moving worship should be.
The weekend goes on. The lady speaker was killing it with stories and lessons and the worship team led us into God's presence over and over.
It was magical.
It was so awesome I didn't want it to end.
But it was.
A weekend doesn't last very long. And we were in the last worship session.
I was soaking up every minute, feeling overwhelmed by gratitude for the experience. The band was on the last song and like any good worship band, they leaned into the holy spirit and just kept playing for a little longer.
Everyone kept singing even though the song was over, we were just enjoying the last lingering moments of worshiping in unity. It's a pretty special thing.
Then. . . something really special happened.
As we were all in the moment, I stood there with my eyes closed and suddenly I had a picture come into my mind. I saw myself standing in a hallway full of doors. I was standing beside one door I wanted to open, the right door, but I couldn't open it and I was waiting for God to open it.
Then, the lady who was leading the worship band, she started talking to the crowd.
She said: I feel like God is speaking to me to speak to specifically one person in the crowd.
Immediately I felt it was me.
"God said that this person was waiting for Him to open a door."
Yeah it's definitely me now.
"God is going to open the door for you."
Instantly fear pierced my heart.
"It's going to be scary but God says don't be afraid. Just trust him and go through the door."
Holy crap. This so cool. But it gets even better.
Going back a bit, this door I was waiting for God to open was for a new business I wanted to start. A couple weeks earlier I had heard God tell me to put down my business idea for a little while until he would tell me to pick it back up again. Specifically he led me to read a chapter in a book where a Christian lady said sometimes you have to put your things down so that you can free your hands to open doors.
So just in case I had any doubt this was for me, from God, she says. . .
"And this is about a business."
Bam! He brings the hammer down on the last nail in the coffin holding my doubts.
Of all the times God has spoken to me, this is by far the coolest yet. That was it, the worship was over and the speaker took the stage for her final message for the event but I couldn't wait.
I saw the worship leader sit down at the front and I sneaked over to sit beside her and tell her about how she had spoken to me. She loved it and was so glad I came up to tell her because it had scared her to take the risk of speaking a message from God for just one person in front of so many people.
So what happened with that open door?
Well, it led me to my new kick-ass church where God is working in crazy amazing ways and it freed me from my old church where they need to get rid of the organ and stop being afraid of what God actually wants to do in their church.
For my business though, God led me step by little step through the right people to find my solution and I'm really excited to tell you that next year, 2020, God told me he is going to help me start my new business! I'm so excited to tell you all about it but it'll have to wait just a little longer.
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