Prophetic
Words and Confirmations:
Planting
a Church in the Twin Cities
JESUS
SAID OF THE HOLY SPIRIT that He will "show you things to
come." (See John 16:13.) It is characteristic
of Jesus' teachings about the Holy Spirit that He would make His
dwelling within the believer and would provide personal
direction. (See John 14:16-17.) However, it is also
clear from Scripture that the Holy Spirit can direct believers
through a prophetic word given through others. (See Acts
13:2.) An important insight into spiritual guidance is
that the believer is not to depend upon "personal
prophecy" for direction. Rather, prophetic words to
an individual are only meant to confirm the direction which the
Holy Spirit has already given that individual. The Bible
says, "In the mouth of two or three witnesses shall every
word be established." (See 2 Corinthians 13:1.)
Making
the Twin Cities Connection
Over
the past several years beginning in 1996, I've received
clear direction from the Lord that He plans to use me to pioneer
a church in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint Paul,
Minnesota. God has spoken some of these words to me
personally while some have come through other believers. I
sense the Lord would have me to share these words on this
website for two reasons:
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Minneapolis
was the birthplace of Mission America, a coalition of
churches and ministries committed to establishing
Lighthouses of Prayer across America as a means of prayer
evangelism. The Lord has
made it clear to me that prayer is to be the central focus
of my ministry, and this website is an important component
of that ministry. I suspect there might be some
connection in the Spirit between the seeds that were sown in
Minneapolis when Mission America was established there in
1990 and my personal calling to establish a ministry base
there.
-
I'm
still prayerfully awaiting God's timing to make the move
from Virginia Beach to Minneapolis and to begin the church
plant that He has spoken about. I sense that sharing
these prophetic words and confirmations online will be a
means of connecting with other believers in the Twin Cities
area to whom God has spoken along the same lines. If
you live in the Twin Cities area and resonate with what you
read here, please email me using the link at the end of this
page. It will provide further confirmation as well as
helpful connections for me to hear from you.
Prophetic
Hints, Directives, and Confirmations
The
following is a listing of what I might call hints,
prophetic dreams, prophetic words, and confirmations of God's
direction that my ministry base is eventually to be out of
Minneapolis. There have been many others, but this list
provides a few of the more convincing ones as well as a couple
on the lighter side for good humor. I begin with an
"incidental connection" from 1993 which I realized
years later tied in with the prophetic words about Minneapolis.
In
May of 1993, Bridge-Logos Publishing, Inc. asked me to do
media interviews to promote my book After This Manner,
Pray. I agreed on the condition that they would
arrange the interviews. They arranged only two and with the same
program -- "Evening Forum" with Chris Kline, a radio
program that originated out of Minneapolis. (Ms. Kline
scheduled the first of these two programs for May 6 not
realizing that this was the National Day of Prayer.)
IN
EARLY 1996, a friend named Debbie Dezielski called me from West
Virginia to relate a dream she had about me the previous
night. She dreamed that I started a ministry in the
Midwest. First, she thought the location was Chicago, but
then she noticed landmarks that clearly identified the area as
Minneapolis -- Saint Paul. She saw that I was sending out
mailings of books and tapes from a ministry base in that
area. The Lord also showed her that the ministry would be
known for healing and deliverance and that people would come
from other parts of the country to receive ministry.
In
the Fall of 1996, I was attending a personal prophecy
service at a Foursquare Church in Chesapeake, Virginia.
One of the ministry team members who knew me, Robert Ashley,
pointed me out and asked me to stand. He stated the the
Lord would send me to the Midwest region of the United States to
start a church that would be known for healing and deliverance
ministry. He also commented that people would come from
great distances to receive God's healing and deliverance.
In
the Summer of 1997 at the end of a four-day fast, the
Lord impressed upon me during a Sunday morning service that I
was to get my ministerial credentials with an organization
called the Association of Evangelical and Charismatic
Ministries. All I knew of this ministry is that my
boss at that time had his credentials with them. I did not
know where they were located. The next morning at work, I
looked them up on a ministry database to find that they are
located in Eden Prairie, Minnesota, which I've learned is about
a half hour drive from Minneapolis.
Later
in the Summer of 1997, the Lord impressed
upon me during a time of prayer that he would open doors for my
"Revitaling Your Prayer Life" seminar in four cities
-- New Orleans, Pittsburgh, Minneapolis, and Kansas City.
I sent mailings to twenty-five churches evenly distributed over
these cities and heard back from only one pastor -- David Meyer,
a pastor in Minneapolis.
In
the Fall of 1997, I was talking on the phone with Pastor
Noah Barefoot of the Robinsonville Pentecostal Holiness Church
in Robisonville, North Carolina. I shared with him about
the four cities that God had mentioned in connection with the
prayer seminar. Pastor Barefoot responded that he had a
confirmation for me on one of those cities. He told of a
man who came into his office and began to share a story about
Minneapolis which God used to give pastor Barefoot a burden for
a church plant in Minneapolis. Pastor Barefoot said he
would go himself to start a church there but God had him
assigned to his church in North Carolina. He said that if
the Lord should ever lead me to start a church in Minneapolis,
he would be inclined to have his church provide some financial
support for the work. (Pastor Barefoot knew from a
previous conversation that I formerly pioneered and pastored a
church in Suffolk, Virginia and that I planned to pastor
again. However, I had not mentioned to him anything about
a prophetic leading to start a church in Minneapolis.)
In
August of 1998, the Customer Service team I worked with
at the time decorated my
cubicle for my birthday. The Lord impressed upon me as I
was working to pull down the helium-filled balloon and to see
where it was manufactured. I had a sneaky suspicion that
it was going to be Minneapolis, and I was right!
In
the Winter of 1998-1999, I was sharing with a fellow
worker over lunch of how God had been speaking
about Minneapolis. When I returned to my desk, I had a
message from a card member who wanted me to call her back to
process a balance transfer on her credit card account. She left
her office number in Minneapolis. This was the only message
waiting for me when I returned from lunch.
In
June of '99, a couple of days before leaving for the AECM
Annual Assembly, I was sharing with a friend over the phone
about all the words and confirmations God has provided on
Minneapolis. The next morning, my apartment mate's wife
pulled a book from my bookshelf by Charles and Frances Hunter
titled I Don't Follow Signs and Wonders: They Follow Me.
She opened to Chapter Six titled "Let's Go Have A
Healing Explosion." The first line read: "How
about Minneapolis?"
In
August of 2002 (skipping a few years), I had an
appointment with a local pastor whom I knew to have a heart for
church planting. Among other things, I shared with him the
words about the church plant in Minneapolis. He took
interest in some of the things we talked about but gave me no
words of encouragement concerning this direction. When I
left his office, I felt somewhat heavy-hearted by this. I
went home, turned on my computer, checked my email, and had the
first ever prayer request through this website from Saint Paul,
Minnesota. This was to me a renewed confirmation regarding
the Lord's words concerning the Twin Cities.
IN
JULY OF 2003, while working on my current job in a call center
for a credit card company in Virginia, I noticed one afternoon
that I received three calls from customers living in
Minnesota. On my dinner break, I checked my personal
email. I received a message from a friend named Laurie
apologizing for not following an inward leading to invite me to
her church the previous Sunday. She did not know
beforehand that a pastor and his wife would be visiting from
Minnesota. In my response, I advised her of the three
calls I had received earlier in my shift from Minnesota, one of
which was from Eden Prairie. When I got back to work, my
first call was from a customer wanting to process an address
change as he was moving from Virginia to Minnesota.
I take this as confirmation that the Lord is saying the time is
near at hand for me to be planning my move from my home in
Virginia Beach to the greater Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota
area.
Your
Chance to Talk Back
I
believe the Lord has impressed upon me to add this page
to the Advocates In Prayer website to give other
intercessors an opportunity to stand with me in prayer for God's
open door for this church plant and ministry base in
Minneapolis. More than that, I believe God is also speaking to
many believers in the Twin Cities about this same ministry He
desires to birth. Now is the time to talk to each other
about what God has placed in our hearts and partner together
with God in the establishment of a work that is much larger than
ourselves because it is a God thing.
If
you are a believer living in the Twin
Cities and wish to respond to what you have read here, or if you
are an intercessor anywhere to whom God has spoken about the
Twin Cities region, please feel free to email me at plmdirector@juno.com.
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