Someone sent me the following story over the weekend:
“It was late fall and the Indians on a remote reservation in South Dakota asked their new chief if the coming winter was going to be cold or mild.
Since he was a chief in a modern society, he had never been taught the old secrets. When he looked at the sky, he couldn’t tell what the winter was going to be like.
Nevertheless, to be on the safe side, he told his tribe that the winter was indeed going to be cold and that the members of the village should collect firewood to be prepared.
But, being a practical leader, after several days, he got an idea. He went to the phone booth, called the National Weather Service and asked, ‘Is the coming winter going to be cold?’
‘It looks like this winter is going to be quite cold,’ the meteorologist at the weather service responded.
So the chief went back to his people and told them to collect even more firewood in order to be prepared.
A week later, he called the National Weather Service again. ‘Does it still look like it is going to be a very cold winter?’
‘Yes,’ the man at National Weather Service again replied, ‘it’s going to be a very cold winter.’
The chief again went back to his people and ordered them to collect every scrap of firewood they could find.
Two weeks later, the chief called the National Weather Service again. ‘Are you absolutely sure that the winter is going to be very cold?’
‘Absolutely,’ the man replied. ‘It’s looking more and more like it is going to be one of the coldest winters we’ve ever seen.’
‘How can you be so sure?’ the chief asked.
The weatherman replied, ‘The Indians are collecting firewood like crazy.’”
Hmmm… It’s human nature for folks to follow someone else’s lead, but as this humorous story illustrates, it may not always be the most intelligent and prudent way to go, and may even go the way of the old proverb, “the blind following the blind”.
This weekend I put in a significant amount of work in organizing the Honey Lake Church and Worldwide Ministry. My attempt to establish a vision for it and put my dreams and vision into words was more challenging than I thought, but I plowed through it like I actually knew what I was doing.
I suppose I could have saved myself some time and precisely copied some other organization; (imitation is much easier than innovation), but I kept having a nagging thought run through my mind that God wanted something different.
I came up with a couple of central points that verbalize what I want to accomplish:
- Reach those who are un-churched and/or have been turned off by traditional conventional church services in both my local community and worldwide.
- Lead them into a growing relationship with Jesus Christ that begins with obtaining salvation.
I invited several friends to an organizational meeting for the ministry the other night and I received all kinds of advice. It was a typical brainstorming session and advice was running freely, and some of it differed mightily from my original concept. A couple of days after our meeting one of the attendees wrote me a letter and related some advice that he used when trying to accomplish a project of his own and was receiving various conflicting advice:
“I was watching Joel Osteen one Sunday morning and he was speaking about dreams and dreaming big and outside the box. I’m sure he wasn’t the first to say this, but believe it or not it was the first time I recall hearing it. He said something like, ‘You know God put the dream in YOUR heart, not theirs’.
That hit me like a ton of bricks, and although it was hard being away from my family, I keep moving forward. I followed my heart and ended up making a nice profit in my endeavor.” He went on to say that it would have never happened if he’d verbatim followed the advice he was getting to ditch the project from his well-meaning friends.
Whenever I have an important decision to make, my management style (for some forty plus years now) has been to gather intelligent people around me, whose opinions I respect, and listen carefully to everything they have to say. No idea is too large, too small, or too far-out for me to consider. In the end however, I always go the way that my heart tells me to go. I might use my original idea, someone else’s, or a smorgasbord that incorporates ideas proffered by all the chef’s in the kitchen.
God has put a dream in my heart to begin a ministry. It came to fruition while I was writing my new book, The Isaiah Manuscript. As I look around the world and view biblical prophecies that have already been fulfilled, I sincerely believe we are well into the beginning of the end, (the “Last Days”), as prophesied by the Bible. To my way of thinking very little remains before the Lord returns for His children and then the end of things as we know them will come, (just as God predicted).
One thing that is well underway but not yet completed is prophesied in the following verse: “I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and daughters will see visions, your old men will dream dreams. And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come. And everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’”
I don’t know about you, but I want to be an important part of helping to fulfill that prophecy of every person in every nation hearing the word of God. Someone has to do the Lord’s work in this regard, and I say in all humbleness, why not me? Why not you?
Yes I like to dream big and I like to think out of the box. I believe God put it in my heart to do so. I hope you will support me however you can. And if you happen to be among those who scoff at my dream, I say, stay tuned. Soon you will see Honey Lake Church and Worldwide Ministry beamed all over the world, live from God’s especially prepared place, beautiful Honey Lake Church overlooking gorgeous and pristine Honey Lake that sits amongst centuries old Spanish moss draped live oaks especially prepared by God Himself to adorn His children’s worship center….
Become a part of the dream today. Remember the Prophet Daniel and how he relayed God’s promise to us: “Those who are wise will shine as bright as the sky, and those who lead many to righteousness will shine like the stars forever”. Please pray for “brightly shining” success right now, wherever you might happen to be. God is listening and we should listen too.
Matt. 13:43
Then the righteous will shine like the sun in their Father’s Kingdom. Anyone with ears to hear should listen and understand!