Photo by Mike Jones

I once heard it said that the nearer one draws to the altar, the more apt they are to hear the call of the Lord on their lives.  Isaiah 6:1-9 is a perfect example of this principle. As Isaiah drew near the altar, he would see the Lord upon His throne, and the events that follow paint a picture of how God worked in the lives of the many men and women as they too would draw near, experience the Lord’s touch on their lives, and respond by saying, “Here am I; send me.”  This wasn’t a half-hearted remark, one of those “Okay Lord, I’ll go if You really want me to, but only if You really need me.” Isaiah was genuinely and actively responding to the Lord.  God asked, “Who will go for us?” -a question that wasn’t addressed to Isaiah…it was addressed to anyone listening.  But Isaiah happened to be near enough, attentive enough, and hungry enough to respond back, “I’ll be that guy, Lord, send me!” He saw the Lord, and he was so honored and impacted by God’s gracious cleansing of sin in his life he had the kind of tone in his voice implying, “How can I not go?!”

Like Isaiah, I’ve found myself getting closer to the altar.  The last several years my family and I have served the Lord through the medium of music as the ministry Universal Royalty.  As God has used the band, we’ve found the Lord drawing us deeper, undoing our lives as we would know them, and giving us the opportunity to respond to His call to “go into all the world…” as the great commission would command.” One of the places the Lord has returned us to for the past few years has been North Devon, England.

Over the years Universal Royalty has had the platform to preach the Gospel on stages, in classrooms, on streets, and in homes.  This past year while performing on tour with the Creation Fest road shows we had the open door to do quite a bit in the town of Bideford.  It was evident that the Lord had already gone before us as we shared our testimonies with families, taught Religious Education courses at the local colleges, and ministered from the stage at the road show events. The result was many commitments to the Lord.  As we considered the events and results of the time spent in Bideford, a compassion for the people was birthed, and so we began to pray for the Lord’s will in the matter.

While at the close of the main event site for Creation Fest, the brothers, as well as other friends, began to disassemble the skate park that we had built for the event earlier in the week.  After we had finished with the park a friend from Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa approached me and said, “Bideford needs a shepherd, would you pray about leading the work there?” I responded with the calm and collected, “sure, I’ll pray about it.” Unbeknownst to my friend his words started a massive wrestling match between me and the Lord.  Immediately every excuse to not respond to the call began to scream in my mind, and I found myself hesitating to pray, knowing that if I did, God would speak…and I might not like what He would say!  Graciously and patiently the Lord ministered peace to me, in so doing He started to address the excuses, calm the restlessness in my soul, and lovingly began to instruct me in the way I was to go (Psalm 32:8).

A few days later I randomly ended up in a phone conversation with a pastor friend from the states, I felt led to share with him all that the Lord was doing and we ended our conversation in prayer together for the Lord’s leading.  As we prayed the Lord brought to mind 2 Kings 6.

In this passage Elisha was being surrounded by the King of Syria’s charioteers, his servant was freaking out, and Elisha was cool as a cucumber.  His servant began to cry, “Master, what shall we do?” After consoling his servant, Elisha prayed that the Lord would open his servant’s eyes to see.   In the same way the Lord put on my heart to pray for “eyes to see” in the Bideford situation, then I asked the Lord to bless me with the courage to obey His command.

The Lord answered my prayer very soon after when He instructed that some of my family and I go to Austria.  A few of my family members and I had been considering attending the Calvary Chapel Western European Missions Conference, but had no means to pay for the conference and travel to Austria to attend.  When the Lord put it on our hearts that we were to go to Austria, I sensed that He would speak very clearly as to my involvement with the work in Bideford while there.  It was at this time that another friend approached me and said, “The Lord has put it on my heart that you are to go to Austria, here is three hundred pounds, it’s all I can afford, take it and go.” It ended up being just enough money to pay for the airfare for the four of us to go, and when we arrived the Lord worked it out that we had just enough left over to pay for the conference.

We were now in Milstatt, Austria attending the conference.  Again, the Lord had gone before us, and the atmosphere was set so that the time spent would be time “approaching the altar”.  As the first day passed my heart was stirred, I was feeling undone as the Lord convicted me of my excuses, my rebellious spirit, and my arrogance in the way I felt entitled to do things my way.  That night I was driven to repentance and I prayed asking the Lord to speak, I was now ready to listen and obey.

The next morning, as I was spending time in the word, I came to Psalm 112:1 “Blessed is the man who fears the Lord, Who delights greatly in His commandments.” I responded to the Lord in prayer, “Lord I need You to call so clearly that I won’t mistake Your voice, tell me Your commandments and I will obey.”   Later that day in the Men’s study on the lawn the Lord spoke clearly.  The speaker was a pastor from Portugal; he shared about the Lord’s call.  In the middle of his message he began to speak about the story of Elisha being surrounded by the King of Syria’s chariots, and how Elisha prayed that the Lord would open his servant’s eyes.  His closing words were, “If the Lord has called you to stay where you are and minister then great, but if God is calling for you to go, then you need to “cowboy up” and do it!” It was as If the Lord was speaking directly to me, He used my previous thoughts and prayers from 2 Kings 6 to confirm His voice calling.  He had spent the previous day touching His coal to my lips and cleansing me of my pre-conceived ideas, poor spirit, and misconceptions, now He was saying, “Who will go for us to Bideford?” At that moment I knew, and I responded to the Lord, “Here am I, send me to Bideford.”