Are we there yet? Looking at our Journey of Faith and Adventure Part 2: A personal story

Are we there yet?  Looking at our Journey of Faith and Adventure

Part 2: A personal story

While I’ve been writing this post, I’ve been watching a fascinating programme called Penguin – Spy in the Huddle on BBC 1.  In this episode the young penguins who have only known land have to take the leap of faith and jump into the Sea, it’s somewhere they’ve never seen or been before or indeed have experience and knowledge of. What will happen, will they drown or will they survive?  Although Penguins are Birds and look they should be able to fly, and they do spend some time on land, they’re designed and created to Swim, Can you imagine if one of these penguins decided that he or she wouldn’t go into the water they try to stay on land or learn to fly or indeed they jumped into the sea and decided that they wanted the seeming safety of dry land or some other penguin turns and says to them, Swimming tried it once and didn’t like it. However all the penguins did make into the sea and swim because that’s what they’ve been created to do, indeed called to do.

What do we do, when we’re challenged by the Lord to move away from what is familiar and safe to us?  Do we opt to stay where we are happy with the Status Quo, When God speaks to us, and gives us direction and promises if we obey Him. Do we spend time in prayer asking God to speak to us and give us direction?, because we may not like what he asks us to do or when He already has given us His direction, do we look at all our options or decide to play it safe,  are we scared of moving into something new because it may not work out ?

I now live in Southport, Merseyside which is a seaside resort in the North West of England, however when you hear me speak,  you realise that I’m Welsh, so what I’m doing in the North West of England you may ask?

Before we go any further I’m going to ask you to read Genesis 12, and look again at Abraham.

When I was a boy of about 11,  I give my life to the Lord Jesus when I realised that He died in my place for my sin on Calvary, and from that moment I became a Christian or a Disciple of Jesus and joined a Church Family in the South Wales Valleys, although I was raised in a Christian family and was raised in Biblical Values and Ethics and in a way was already part of that Church Family because my parents and grandparents where part of that Church, during this time my parents and grandparents would take myself, my two sisters on a family holiday to Ilfracombe in North Devon however now being a mature and adventurous 11 year old, I went to a Christian Youth Camp on The Gower Peninsula near Swansea for a week before joining the rest of my family in Ilfracombe. I realised there that part of being a Disciple was being involved in Mission or spreading the Good News of the Gospel in things like Evangelism.

I spent some interesting times from about 11 to 23, in a great Pentecostal Denomination mostly in the South Wales Valleys, although in the days before email and Facebook made good friends with other young people and some older people from related Churches from the UK and overseas. I spent two years in that Pentecostal Denomination’s Bible School which was about 30 miles from where I lived in Neath, (although I spent the first 17 years of my life in Melin Court, Clyne and Resolven). but when I heard the stories of both the men and women of God, the Pentecostal Pioneers who had gone before me, I was greatly challenged thinking there must be more than this, My Grandmother fuelled a lot of this desire in me, but lending me books by Arthur Wallis.

 My mind-set was established in Pentecostalism and being Welsh, I thank the Lord for my heritage and history and the friends I made there, but I realised aged 23 that the my journey of faith wasn’t with my friends I had grown up with, and reluctantly and with a heavy heart I knew God was moving me on to other pastures.

 It was during this time, The Toronto Blessing happened.  I wanted a fresh touch or anointing from the Lord so I could be refreshed and go back to the Pentecostal Church that was my spiritual home at the time and get my mind into gear,  I visited another Church in Neath and was prayed for, and for a few weeks everything was okay, but I was hungry for something different and I couldn’t find it where I was at the time, so I made a second visit to this new Church, and I asked one of the leaders, who later become one of my closest and dearest friends, a question and suddenly I asked how could I join.

When I look back over the last 20 years, I remember the challenges I’ve faced, the many times where I have felt life is an emotional rollercoaster! It was during one of these journeys on  life’s emotional rollercoaster,  I give up on Church, I remember being at my sister’s house in South Wales, and now using the technical phrase I didn’t know if I was coming or going,  I felt I needed to pray for direction, and asked the Lord where I had gone wrong.

  

  Some 10 years ago, I came here to Southport on Holiday and I felt that God was calling me and calling me to be a part of the Church family I’m now part of. I tried for several years to come here and nothing worked out, but hey I kept trying and of course kept failing, and eventually I give up and tried to forget about Southport.  I tried moving to another part of the country, and that ended badly and I give up on Church.  I was sitting on my sister’s sofa praying, and I felt I needed to send a text to a friend here, who I not spoken to for some time asking for his advice, his advice was to phone him, which I did, during our chat, he challenged me that I gone off –track and I needed to get back on track. I remember bursting into tears. It was after that call to my friend, I watched two television programmes that both mentioned Southport and realised that God was telling me something.  I arranged to visit here for a weekend in February 2011.

I remember going to Church on Sunday morning of that weekend and sitting in the back row, and when one of our elders was speaking and towards the end of his sermon, he quoted this Scripture

Numbers 10:29

English Standard Version Anglicised (ESVUK)

²⁹ And Moses said to Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, “We are setting out for the place of which the Lord said, ‘I will give it to you.’ Come with us, and we will do good to you,for the Lord has promised good to Israel.”

When I think of God’s grace, mercy, forgiveness and blessings, I just want to praise Him,  I tried to settle for second best, for the comforts of convenience, for an easy life of mediocrity, Yet God has been good and is being good today, kept challenging me to see the bigger picture, and to see there is more than we have experienced or seen before, although I’m from Neath in South Wales,  Southport is now my home.

The Lord says in Jeremiah 29:11 -13 11 For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans for welfare[b] and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. 12 Then you will call upon me and come and pray to me, and I will hear you. 13 You will seek me and find me, when you seek me with all your heart. 14 I will be found by you, declares the Lord.

God’s plans and purposes for our life are higher and better than our plans and purposes for our own lives, He has given our lives direction and destiny.  I’m not sure how my life would look now if I stayed in Neath and for some Neath is where God has placed and planted them and has called them to serve Him and His Church, but it wasn’t my calling and destiny, I will say that if feel your live has gone off – track and you’ve missed your calling and destiny, find your Southport or Canaan?

Yours in His Grace

Blair Humphreys