God Moving.
It has been quite a while since I’ve blogged, and to be honest I’ve been putting it off not really knowing what to write about or what to say. I’m conscious that so far I’ve yet to post up any images of Swansea, but hopefully I will be doing that this week, with a few mega posts in picture format of the place which I’ve come to call….. home.
Over the Christmas break, I was leaving Swansea full of excitement to be back in Scotland, back in Glasgow, back around my church the people I love, the friends I have, involved in the deep community life that our church has, and just being able to spend time relaxing, resting and reflecting.
Of course God allowed me to do all of those things, but the Holy Spirit sometimes has other ideas of what He defines as “resting” in God. This all begins with the typical drama that seems to follow me from town to town, from day to day.
It all started on the very Sunday when I had flown in to Glasgow. The picture as I met Stephen was absolutely serene, walking up those stairs of Re:Hope was even more alien to me, and then into the place of which I had become so familiar the sanctuary, seeing my pastor, friends, and fellow workers of the church, and then seeing the congregation which had so obviously evolved, and changed. It was a shock just being back in a place and a life which had become so strange to me after little more than three months away.
I loved the service, I loved hearing Brian preach and Andy lead Worship, and as usual God had decided to pick a topic to convict me on, and challenge me in returning home to Fort William for Christmas - those of you who know me will understand how difficult that even the mere notion of doing such a thing is for me, but if the Lord says Jump, we have to ask, no matter how much we don’t want to, How High?
Anyway, the drama all begins when I went back to my Summer home at Tony Gastons for the Sunday night, where I found a whole host of banking correspondence which I had completely and utterly forgotten to forward down to Swansea. The pile was quite ridiculously huge, each letter referring to one of the biggest mistakes in my Pre-Christian life, and that was taking out a Student back account with full overdraft facilities.
When you enter into the first year of University, the mere thought of over a thousand pounds of free finance is simply overwhelming, and of course as the adorable little atheist/moron I was, I decided to take the bank up on their offer and quite simply proceed to spend, spend, spend and spend some more, until I had reached the upper limit of one thousand pounds negative.
Simply thinking about it is quite ridiculous, being in debt to the tune of over one thousand pounds, which has unfortunately stayed with me until this year, through my entire Christian walk, and has been a growing burden and gnawing of the Holy Spirit to begin the repayment and freedom of the yoke of the bank.
The letters, were quite simple. The bank had decided to call in their overdraft without any notice, which is their perfect right to do. They had asked that I give them the entire sum of money which was of course one thousand pounds, right away otherwise they would begin proceedings to take me to court and “further escalate the matter”. Naturally, me not getting any of these letters at all, for a period of three months slightly aggravated the bank, and further made the situation worse, but that’s neither here nor there.
So, I felt absolutely sick when I read those letters. Never before had I seen anything like them, never before had I been in a situation where I was incapable of providing for myself, where no one I knew was able to help me, where no one, nothing at my disposal was capable of dealing with this matter quickly. I was trapped and completely thrown onto the floor.
I myself believe that this was an attack of the enemies doing, and at the same time a test from the Lord. I believe that the enemies servants had decided to use one of the last remaining parts of my old life to strike at me, to try and destroy me, to make me fail and reject the Lord which I have come to proclaim as God and saviour.
I was afraid, and decided to leave Tonys right there and then. I returned to Michaels flat, where I was staying and came under immense spiritual attack. The enemy put three options before me, Go to your parents and family for help. Go to your Church for help. Go into the bank and lie through your teeth Dan, you can blag your way out of this!
Let me say right now, that all three of them were tempting, all three of those options I seriously weighed up. But the Holy Spirit ministered to me. The Lord said to me that this is where he provides. This is where his word says he provides for his people, and this is where I must rest in him. The Holy Spirit told me that the Lord says not to worry, and so I decided to trust in the Lord, through his ministering, his guidance and his direction. I fell upon the bed and started to fall asleep.
As I was going under that realm between awake and sleep, the Holy Spirit said to me, that I was to attend prayer the next morning, and that everything would be sorted out.
I attended prayer with Wade, Andy and Tim Macdonald, I told them the situation, and my brothers prayed for me as I prepared to meet with the bank. What could I do? What could happen for me? Would the Lord deliver? I was nervous and afraid, I had no idea what was about to happen.
As I got up to leave, Tim, stopped me and pulled out an envelope from his bag. He handed it to me and said “Dan, I feel that the Lord is telling me to give this to you.” I looked down, and I just couldn’t believe it. I took the envelope and put it in my bag and headed to the bank from Starbucks.
I walked in, and there was people being served at every desk, and lines at most of them, but there was one empty desk so I walked up to it. I told the cashier the problem and asked to see the bank manager so I could sort out this problem. Instead the Lord delivered. She reactivated my account, she stopped the pending legal action, she saw to it that the bank was informed that I had never received the letters, but, she asked for a deposit.
I was utterly and completely broke, I had no money on me, I had no finances available, I had nothing I could do, apart from one envelope which the Lord had pushed into my hand through his servant.
I opened it right there and then in front of her, the teller not knowing the significance of this gift, not knowing just how much it meant to me spiritually and financially. I handed over the money inside the envelope, and that was exactly the amount the bank needed as a sign of good faith, though they were still wanting the outstanding amount repaid.
So I returned to the Bible College of Wales, wondering how I would ever repay this debt. I went up to the college leadership and told them the situation, and the first and simple thing they said to me, was repay the bank with the money that should be paying the college. The money you’re getting for your fees. And pray through faith for all your tuition.
When I was coming to the Bible College of Wales, I had read the Intercessor inspired, amazed at how God moves for us all. I was wanting to see the Lord move for me as he had for Rees Howells, and God has answered my prayers. He is my backer, he is the Lord, and in him I trust, and look forward to seeing him provide in the future.
If any of your who read this, ever consider getting a student overdraft my advice to you is this.
Don’t. It’s unbiblical, it’s not Christian, we should only ever have one debtor in our lives.
The Lord, God Almighty.
And so friends, I close this posting with a hymm.
I have entered the valley of blessing so sweet,
And Jesus abides with me there;
And his Spirit and his blood make my cleansing complete,
And his perfect love casteth out fear.
Oh, come to this valley of blessing so sweet,Where Jesus will fullness bestow;And believe and receive, and confess him, That all His salvation may know.
There is peace in the valley of blessing so sweet,
And plenty the land doth impart;
And there’s rest for the weary, worn, traveller’s feet,
And joy for the sorrowing heart.
There is love in the valley of blessing so sweet,
Such as none but the blood-washed may feel,
When heaven comes down redeemed spirits to greet,
And Christ sets His covenant seal.
There’s a song in the valley of blessing so sweet,
And angels would fain join the strain,
As with rapturous praises we bow at his feet, crying,
“Worthy the Lamb that was slain!”
Amen and God Bless You.