“Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” — Yeshua/Jesus (Matthew 4:19)
IMAGINE –
Imagine being on the boat with Simon and his brother Andrew, working the nets with their father, and then here comes the Rabboni (“Lord” or “Master”; see Mark 10:51; John 20:16) Yeshua/Jesus walking down the beach, and He watches you out there for a few moments, and then He calls out, “Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men” (Matthew 4:19). What do you do? Do you drop everything to follow Him or do you keep on working? According to the Scriptures, Simon and Andrew “immediately left the nets, and followed Him.” But what if, instead of Simon and Andrew, that was you in the boat or me? What would you or I do? Would you leave your job to follow Him, or would you give Him reasons why you couldn’t leave your job right now?
MY CALLING
I was the first one to be approached with God’s calling. I was uploading material onto a website that sought to rip apart an argument that I had found on another website. After completing it, I was quite content and happy with what I had done, and so I went to bed. As I laid there gloating in my accomplishment, I heard Yeshua/Jesus audibly speak to me:
You know I didn’t call you to do that. I’ve given you revelations about the Kingdom, and it’s time now to share them. (November 14, 2014)
He then gave me three titles of books He wants me to write regarding the kingdom. I laid there in awe that I had audibly heard His voice. It had a very nice, gentle, and loving tone, and after hearing it, I could easily see why He was a regular reader in the synagogue in Nazareth, where He grew up (Luke 4:16). However, although the Lord had audibly spoken to me, my wife was anything but thrilled about the idea.
MY WIFE’S HEALING
Throughout my wife’s life and almost all of our married life together, my wife has suffered from a learning disability. The problem was that she knew in her mind what she wanted to say, but she couldn’t seem to get it out or it came out all wrong from what she was thinking. It was like there was some sort of disconnect or “bad wiring” in her brain. We would get into fights frequently, because whenever I asked her to explain her views or something she read, she couldn’t do it, and then she’d get angry at me and accuse me of trying to make her look dumb or stupid. It was a horrible cycle that was repeated over and over again.
However, in February 2015, we were preparing to go to a writing conference down in Texas. My wife had been struggling with severe depression and anxiety, and she felt lower than she had ever felt in her life. She laid there on the bed, and then broke down and cried out to God. It was then that she said she felt this hot burning sensation in her forehead. She cried as it continued. I stood there, not really sure what to do, so I asked, “Can I get you some aspirin?” She told me it didn’t really hurt, that God was healing her.
I didn’t understand the extent of the healing until we arrived at the Conference. In the afternoon break, we went off to grab something to eat, and I was telling her about a short story I had been working on. She asked me to read it to her. She didn’t usually do that, but I went ahead and read it to her. What happened next when I finished reading the story to her just blew my mind. For the first time ever, my wife retold to me the story point-by-point in detail. I just sat there with my mouth hanging open. I could not believe what I was hearing. After that, there was no doubt in my mind that God had truly healed my wife and had done a marvelous work in her life.
MY WIFE’S CALLING
My wife, Karen, received her own personal calling from the Lord while she was at a women’s conference for the Assemblies of God church here in the state of Oklahoma. While she was sitting there listening to the speaker, God spoke to her and told her that He wanted her to go forward for prayer, but not for salvation but to receive the same calling of ministry that He had placed on my life. She told me that He was calling her to join me in partnership in ministry.
OUR CALLING AS A COUPLE
After my wife and I had received our own individual callings from the Lord into ministry, He then called us as a couple, to serve Him together. And in obedience to that calling, I have resigned from my full-time teaching position at Oklahoma City Community College, and we’ve made the decision to leave everything behind and to follow Him wherever He may lead us. I formally handed in my resignation letter on Monday, May 23, 2016, and began to announce our decision to go into full-time ministry. For the most part, we have been given support for our decision to begin this new journey; however, there have been a few who believe we’ve lost our minds. But this decision did not come about simply because we had a feeling this is what God wanted, nor was it a one-time calling, but on several occasions, Yeshua/Jesus has spoken to us and has told us that this was His plan for us. For example,
I love you so much, my children. I need you to choose Me rather than the world so that I can reach the ones who really need Me to help them. I want for them to know I’ve heard their cries and haven’t forgotten them. Time is close at hand, and they need to hear My word, My teachings. They need to know that I do love them and want for them to prosper and be in good health. There isn’t anything that is too hard for your God to handle. (September 29, 2015)
Go, and I will be with you, says God. But you say, “Go where?” I say, “Follow Me into all the world and make disciples of all nations, and I will make you fishers of men,” says God Almighty. Do not fear what others will say of you. They will call you all sorts of things. They will call you nothing that they hadn’t called Me first, so let this, My child, My son, comfort your very soul. Trust your wife; know that she hears from Me and hears My voice and teachings. I have chosen her to be your helper in just a time as this to go along with you and help to proclaim Me to the world, too. I love you and desire for the both of you to love Me and trust Me with your whole hearts, mind, and soul. I want for you to go and tell My story to the nations, telling them that I am real and that I’m coming back, and I have not deleted anything from My Torah, says the Lord God Almighty. (November 2, 2015)
There is no doubt in our minds that God has called us into full-time ministry. The Lord has made Himself clear that this is His desire for our lives. And even though we are sure of His calling, this is still very new to the both of us. Karen did spend two months on one of the small islands in the Bahamas (Cat Island) with her brother and his wife, who were missionaries out there at the time, but the only time I’ve been outside the United States was when we spent one night on the Canadian side of Sault Ste. Marie and once when we drove from Detroit, through Canada, to Niagara Falls, New York. Obviously, then, we are not but any imagination expert “world travelers,” but we are two people who dearly love the Lord and His Word.
Our Lord and Rabboni has called us to go into the nations and to represent Him and His Kingdom, and He has not only told us that He intended for us to be together, but that He has had this calling on our lives since early in our childhood:
Karen, You and Chris were meant to be from the beginning. I have been with you, and I have been loving you and taking care of you all of your lives. My Spirit is inside each of you to bring about healing and restoration of My people, says God Almighty. You have all that you need from Me, says God. Trust Me when I say, “Go and preach My words among the peoples and nations.” This is no small potatoes. This is the big stuff. You, Chris, have had My calling on you from an early age. I have been watching over you both because I knew that I could trust you to do what I need for you to do. (November 2, 2015)
This is truly humbling when the Lord gave us His personal invitation to follow Him, and that He told us that He’s been watching over us our entire lives to bring us to this moment because He knew He could trust us to follow through with what He needs for us to do. I have not always been obedient by no means, and I have gone through times of depression and doubt in the past as well, but over the past ten years or so, the Lord has been radically changing me, the way I think and look at life, but for my wife, as I’ve pointed out, it’s only been a little more than a year.
FROM THE VERGE OF DIVORCE
There were several moments in our past when my wife and I were on the verge of divorce. In fact, there were a couple of times when she had packed my bag, set it next to the door, and told me to leave. Fortunately, we worked things out moment by moment. Yes, there was a lot of yelling, screaming, and fighting. We were like two rams standing on the same path wanting our own way, but neither side willing to compromise or give in to the other. In fact, God Himself compared us to fighting lions and bears:
Choose today to seek Me and to trust Me. Yes, you have been very unstable minded, but that was due to you and your wife being unstable with one another, says God. I could not do what I have needed to do with your lives while it was a mess, says God Almighty. I cannot and could not be a Holy God living inside a temple that was living in such disharmony and confusion as the two of you were. Things were not good, but your minds and heart yearned to do what was right in My eyes, but you two were like fighting bears and lions, trying to tear each other apart from the very core of your being. You could not see Me through all of your discord and disharmony, says God, and you were so unhealthy while trying to serve Me. (November 7, 2015)
God couldn’t accomplish what He wanted to do in our lives because of the continued arguing and fighting. He had to fix us and our marriage before He could use us to do His will. But we want everyone to know that God can radically change a marriage by changing the people in that marriage. And we are witnesses to the miraculous transformation that God can accomplish within a marriage. For me personally, a lot of my problems boiled down to the fact that deep down, I did not believe that God really loved me. In fact, in my late twenties, I remember feeling so depressed, abandoned, and alone, I asked God to simply let me die. I was so unhappy with my own life, our marriage was falling apart, I had been fired from a couple of jobs, and even as a father, I felt worthless, so at that point, I felt death was preferable to any of this. However, I also believed that suicide was wrong, but for some reason I thought if God took my life, then that would be okay. However, He did not do that. He began ministering to me through His Word. It was not a quick process, but one that took several years.
MY REMINDER OF GOD’S LOVE
The clincher though for me came in July 2007. Karen and I had been walking around the track at the local YMCA, and I started having pain in my chest and arm, not severe pain, but just enough to know it was there. I also had to stop several times to catch my breath just to walk around the track even once. We decided to make an appointment to see my doctor. He asked a number of questions about the symptoms and about my family history. When I explained that every male on my dad’s side of the family as far as I knew, except my dad, had died of heart disease or a stroke, he sent me to a heart specialist. The heart specialist asked similar questions and then scheduled me to get an angiogram.
During the angiogram, while I was laying there on the table, not sure what it was that I was looking at on the monitor, I heard the heart specialist ask me,
Why are you alive? There’s no reason why you should be in the condition that you are. With the amount of blockage in your heart, you should either be dead or have had a severe, debilitating stroke. I just don’t understand why neither of those had not happened to you.
Definitely, not the news I was expecting to hear. I learned that the front artery of my heart was 100% clogged, and the two back ones were 90% clogged. They kept me in the hospital and rearranged the surgery schedule in to get me into surgery the very next day.
For the surgery, they were planning on doing a triple bypass; however, when they got in there, I learned that they found two more blockages, so I ended up receiving a five bypass at the age of 45. During the surgery, while my wife and family were in the waiting room, I learned that God showed up and my wife was slain in the Spirit. God ministered to her there in the waiting room. After some time, my wife opened her eyes, got up, turned to my mother and told her that God had told her that I was going to be all right. My mother responded, “I know. You were breathing for him.”
After surgery, the heart specialist came out to speak to my wife. My wife told me that when the doctor came out of surgery, he was shaking his head. She wondered what was wrong. He said,
I don’t understand it. With that much blockage in his arteries, his heart should have been damaged, but there was no damage whatsoever.
Although I have a scar down the middle of my chest from the operation, it is a daily reminder to me of God’s love and that He has a purpose for my life. If He didn’t love me or didn’t have a purpose for me being here, then He would have just let the blockage kill me as the heart specialist had expected. But I praise God every day for His mercy and grace. The “old me who doubted God’s love” died on the table that day. It was a new me who is absolutely convinced of His love for me and everyone else that got up off of that table.
So if you are in a bad marriage or you feel that no one cares about you or loves you, we want you to know, God loves you and in Him, there is hope. Yeshua/Jesus can change your marriage, the same as He did ours. He may begin with one of you, but then as you pursue Yeshua/Jesus with all of your heart, mind, and soul, He will change the other partner as well. I wish I could say that I was the one God started with, but that would be a lie. God began with my wife, and through her continued attempts, prayer, and study, God used her in the process of changing me. I cannot begin to tell you where we would be if she had not allowed the Lord to use her, but we would definitely not be where we are today. Let me assure you, Yeshua/ Jesus can radically change your marriage relationship and can bring love, peace, joy, and harmony, where there was nothing but anger, resentment, pain, and discord. We indeed serve a great and mighty God!
CALLED TO SERVE
So considering where the Lord has brought us, it means the world to us to receive His call to work for Him in the fields of this world. He has called us to follow Him into the nations, and that He will use us to bring others to Him. What a gift! And on top of everything else, He has shared with us that He now feels that we are at the point in our lives when He can trust us with this. This really humbled us, but we were particularly excited when He told us where He was first sending us:
For I have separated you and have called you out for such a time as this, says God. Be not afraid, humble yourselves unto Me, and I will make you fishers of men. Follow Me, says God, for I know you love Me and want to do what I have been speaking to you. I am not far from you, My child, for I want to do exceedingly great things through you and your husband. Trust Me, and know that I have called you out and have placed My blessings upon the both of you to go and tell My people Israel that I love them and need for them to love Me also, for such a time as this, says God Almighty. (November 5, 2015)
Again, we are very humbled by this call. I have had a strong love for the Jewish people and the Torah for at least 26 years now. I have attended several different synagogues and have had the privilege to present to churches teachings regarding several of the feasts, including Passover, Pentecost (Heb. Shavuot), Purim, Hanukkah, as well as teachings regarding the coming Millennial Temple. Some may be wondering if I am Jewish, but as far as I know, I am not. So to be called by God to first go to Israel is truly awesome! However, the Lord has also made it clear to us several times that this will not be an easy venture:
Remember, I’ve told you it will get hard, and you will need to trust Me, saith the Lord God Almighty. Don’t let fear and doubt overtake you, but keep strong in the words that I have spoken, and there is nothing by any means that can harm your dwelling place with Me. (November 2, 2015)
I know this won’t be easy, but what is easy, My child? Do understand that My time is short before I am returning, says God… (November 5, 2015)
Although we are leaving the country on August 1, 2016, and are planning on our ministry beginning in Israel, the Lord has also told us that we would be ministering to non-Jews as well. Whether we will be ministering to them in the land or outside the land, we don’t know yet. But whatever the case, He will be leading and guiding us all along the way. It is for this reason that we have entitled our ministry, Following Messiah. People need to know that the time of the Lord’s return is quickly arriving and the time is short, and God wants all of His people prepared, including His people Israel,
I love My people Israel with a love that only a Father can. They need Me so very much, and I long for them, My children. (November 5, 2015)
My heart cries out to My children, My people, says God. Yes, My people are Israel, and I have set them apart for such a time as this, says God Almighty. Go and proclaim Me to all the House of David and tell them to prepare their hearts and clean themselves before coming to worship Me, for I am a Holy God, and I am God Almighty, which is and always have been and always will be Holy, for I know nothing about being unholy because that is not even an option for Me. (November 7, 2015)
You have been chosen to be used for Me today for such a time as this, and I want to do a new thing in you so that My people Israel will become One with Me as I am with you. I love My people Israel, and I desire for all My people Israel to know and to love Me too. I have called you, My daughter of My Torah, to be set apart for My use to do this in such a time as this, so I say, Trust Me, Follow Me, and I will make you to arise and soar high amongst the eagles, says God Almighty. (November 11, 2015)
God loves His people Israel. They were the first people that He brought into His kingdom; who received His Torah, His commandments; who gave us the prophets, and most wonderful of all, they gave us Yeshua/Jesus. God has not replaced the Jewish people at all. He dearly loves them and yearns to be in an intimate relationship with them. But He also desires to be in an intimate relationship with all people – Jew and non-Jew alike – and for each of us to be a part of His kingdom. We should never doubt His love for each of us, or the fact that He yearns for us each and every day, His children, to be one with Him and to be one with one another.
We are One great big happy family enjoying the fruits of the true engraftation; we are all One tree, says God. I have no favorites. I love you children all the same with a love that’s greater than you all could ever imagine, says God Almighty. I love it when My people, My children, come to Me in worship and praise to lift up My holy name in honor of the One who has redeemed you and has set you on high to soar like the eagles. My Father and I have created everything for you, My children, to be able to see and to understand how great and mighty and awesome of a God we are…My heart cries for My people to see Me and My Father as one and the same. As I and My Father are One, so I yearn for My children to be One and the same with Us also. (November 5, 2015)
God has planned this moment, this journey, in our lives from before the beginning of time, and He has given us a simple message to share with others: He is real, He exists, and He loves them more than they can possibly imagine. He has also told us that we are to let people know that time is short and that He is coming very soon, so we as His people need to wake up and to prepare ourselves for His arrival, and finally, that He has not changed His mind about anything that He has spoken in the Bible, nor has He set aside, annulled, or eliminated any part of His Torah and His commandments.
HOW YOU CAN SUPPORT US
This is a whole new journey for us, so please pray for us. We are currently working on establishing our ministry as a non-profit, as well as getting ready to sell our home and some of our other possessions. Although we have moved several times in the U.S., we have never moved to a whole new country. So pray God’s blessings through this process, as well as His blessings, protection, and provision for us as we go to do His will for our lives. Thank you for your prayers and may you be prepared for the Lord’s soon return.
