We were having a “restoration service” that night for a young couple that had become pregnant out of wedlock.  It was a very moving service as person after person prayed aloud for God to heal these families and guide them through life. I too was moved and felt a strong feeling to pray for them as well.  But, as soon as I felt those feelings to pray, the Holy Spirit spoke to me as clear as the words on this page telling me that as soon as I prayed, someone would stop me.  I have never before or since “heard” God as clear as that night.  But there was to be no doubt what He spoke.

I immediately got out of my seat and went to the back to stand as several more people prayed aloud for the families.  By this time I was almost sweating as I was standing in the back almost swaying back and forth in nervousness of what I had just heard in my spirit.  But somehow the urge to pray was stronger than the prophetic voice inside of me and I started to pray from where I stood.  I prayed nothing really different than what everyone else had already prayed.  But toward the end of my prayer, I felt a hand on my right shoulder that would change my life forever.  Nothing was said from the gentleman that placed his hand on my shoulder.  He just gestured me to stop praying.

This, as you can imagine, sent a shock wave through my system and I was immediately filled with a flood of emotions that were overwhelming me by the minute.  I then told my wife to get Hannah (our 5 year old at the time) and Sierra (our newborn) ready and head for the car.  I proceeded to find the elder that had placed his hand on my shoulder to ask him why he had stopped me from praying.  When I found him, he was praying over one of the families and told me to call him tomorrow.

The next day, after a restless night, I called him and he went on to tell me that in all the years of being a Christian, he has never heard the voice of God audibly but three times and this was one of them.  He told me, “Jim, I had no reason to stop you from praying and I don’t even have a clue of what you prayed.  All I know is that at the very moment you started praying, God told me to stop you but to not say a word when I did.”  He went on to tell me that he fought the urge the entire time I was praying as he didn’t want to hurt my feelings, but couldn’t resist the Spirit any further.  After he finished I told him what God had spoke to me and we had both realized that we had just witnessed a supernatural prophesy that had come true right before our eyes.  He went on to encourage me to pray and fast to find out what the meaning was…and so I did.

Three days into my fast, I was lying in bed face down with my head buried in my pillow when God told me the interpretation.  It was as clear as the words on this page.  He said that the hand on my shoulder was representative of His hand and that the elder was not supposed to say anything because it was not the elder stopping me but God Himself.  He told me that there was no further reception for me at this church and that He was going to take me into another direction that they would not accept.  Was God asking me to leave the only real church family I had ever known?  I had no reason to leave.  We were just in the process of raising a family in this church.  I knew this news would crush my wife.  In that same moment, He also gave me the names of two other people that would confirm this interpretation just in case I thought I would doubt what I had felt in my spirit.  And so my next move was to contact these two people immediately.

The first person went to our church but I did not know her very well.  The only thing I really knew about her was that she was instrumental in my mom's early walk with the Lord some twenty years earlier.  I hesitatingly picked up the phone and dialed her number, sheepishly telling her what had happened and politely asked her if by any chance she might know what all of it meant.  To my shock, what came out of her mouth next stunned me.  Without hesitation, she told me that God was calling me in a different direction.  She continued and said that the hand on my shoulder represented the hand of God and that there would be no more reception for me in that church as He would be taking me in a direction that they would not accept.  I almost dropped the phone at what I heard as she had used almost the exact words as what the Spirit had already spoken to me.  If that wasn’t enough, I met face to face with the other person that didn’t even go to our church and yes, I received the same message.  It was clear, yet depressing all at the same time.  We were being called to leave the church , and as far as we knew, for no apparent reason.  Who leaves a church for no reason?  Try explaining that to 125 people that are your closest friends.  We were the first family that pioneered that church to ever leave.  Most of our friends could not believe it and certainly did not believe that we had no negative reason to leave.  But through many a tear, we swallowed hard and packed our bags.

The night we told our pastor the whole story, he blessed us, prayed over us and sent us on our way.  But I can assure you we felt anything but blessed.  We felt lost, alone and confused as to why God was doing all of this.  Most of all, my wife was trusting me heavily that all of this really was from Him.  Then, the phone rang.  And that phone call would change everything.
“Hello” I said, like a million times before.   But this conversation would not be just another phone call.  “You don’t know me”, the man said.  “But I know your mom a little bit and she said that you might be interested in our bible study.  So I thought I would call and invite you.”  I decided that we should check it out as I told Cheryl that it might be an open door.  An open door it was.  I arrived at this bible study not knowing what to expect.  What I found was a half a dozen couples studying the Word complete with laptops, books, while others even spoke the Semetic languages of the bible and knew the culture like they were there!  I was a little intimidated but that would not stop my pride of defending the things that I believed.  And each time, someone would politely share with me an angle, a thought, a scripture, or a way of looking at it that I had never heard or seen before.  We left there at 2:30 in the morning dumb-founded at what we experienced.  My pride hurt, my mind racing and my future really becoming unclear.

Six years later I would realize that what I thought was unclear was actually, from God’s perspective, His way of making things clearer in my life.  Over the next year at that bible study I would learn new tools of understanding the scriptures that would change my life for good and would send me on a quest to help others do the same.  I would learn that some of the things and ideas that I grew up believing needed a second look at.  It was almost like a whole new world of ideas was opened to me that year as I was challenged over and over again to interpret the scriptures from their original Hebraic background from which they were written in and not from our western, 21st century Christian bias.

From that time until now I have dove head first into the waters of the bible studying everything that I could about first century Judaism and what the apostles and my Messiah believed when they penned the words that we now call scripture.  It would be this journey that would take me to new lands of the bible that I didn’t know previously existed.  All of the previously confusing verses that I just “read over” now seemed to slowly make sense.

Understanding ancient Eastern Covenants and the sacrificial priestly system and how it related to the New Covenant in Christ through the writings of Paul and other authors of the New Testament would shape how I would look at the scriptures once and for all.  And over the years God has no doubt led me in a direction that my old church would not accept.  As a matter of fact, not very many people from any church accept the direction that He is taking me and my family.  But an exciting direction it has been with the sails of our ship being the Holy Spirit and our rudder being only His Word.  Our destination?  The Island of Truth.  We have sailed through many a storm of man-made doctrines and traditions of men and we will no doubt sail through many more.

We are all just fallible men looking for an infallible God to guide us through the waters of life in search of the Truth.  I have no seminary degree nor group or person that I follow.  I, by all means natural, do not have any qualifications to lead, to teach or even challenge the common religious systems of my day.  My only hope is in Christ and Him crucified and that He will be true to His Word when he tells me to study to show myself approved, a workman rightly dividing the Word of Truth.  I take Him at His Word that He will lead me and teach me all things by His Spirit.  My motive?  To grow closer to Him in the process as I understand more and more of His Word and to play my small part in His mission to help free His people from the traditions and the doctrines of men.  For when we are free…we are FREE indeed.