God Speaks, And Serious Stuff Happens!

I believe that for the most part God is silent. Most people aren't even sure he is there. Garrison Keillor from "Prairie Home Companion" prayed a prayer I heard on the radio during my trip down here from Alaska. It went something like this,"God please exist,hear this prayer I just want to know you are really there. Please exist, because if you don't and I die, I'll wake up pissed knowing after all these years I should have been an Atheist!" (my paraphrase) Some would take issue with my statement. Let me clarify. In the day to day life of a believer there is, I believe, a dialog between God and his children. What I'm talking about here are the "Big Event" statements. The "Your whole life is about to change" type of "Words from on High"! They are prophetic in nature, deeply personal and very powerful emotionally. In my 54 years on this blue ball, and in my 39 years as a believer, I have had 7. For the majority of people they never have any. For someone like me there was a plan and purpose and as with my salvation God once again invaded my life with a call. Of these "Words" three occurred early in my walk and my music. One, a year and half before leaving Alaska to move to LA another a year and half before leaving LA. Another in the truck of a total stranger God had sent to me with a message during the most horrible time in my life. And the last was sitting at breakfast with my producer in the midwest where we had come to play the Christain festival "Cornerstone" that was three years ago. How did I know this was God speaking? Besides the emotions involved, the fact was I was not paying attention. These all came out of the blue,two occurred at church where I was called out by the pastor. And without exception every single thing God had said to me came to pass(with not a single effort on my part). I do realize to the general public I talk a lot about God. Please humor me. I don't mean to offend or alienate. But these were events that led me here. Here is where it all began..1973

"The Call"
That summer we continued to attend the Assembly of God as well as the halfway house. Fairbanks at this time was in transition, from a sleepy little hamlet to the jumping off point in the interior for a construction project the likes of which the entire country had rarely seen...the Trans Alaska Pipeline....a 900 mile metal snake that would suck black gold out of the most hostile and forbidding environment on earth to send it south to feed the hunger energy starved nation. A project that would make some very wealthy and change Fairbanks and Alaska forever. And I would do my time "working the line". People from literally world wide would make their way here to stand in line at the local unions to get their chance to make the big money never before seen that was there for the earning. Two street would see business boom and the local musicians would be in hot demand, this being the days before karaoke and DJ's..back in those days top 40 musicians could actually make a good living just playing clubs...something that hasn't been happening in this town for years.
I found myself singing in the choir and playing in the band at school. As well as helping out playing my first guitar at the local youth group...the stage was set for an event that would set in stone my focus and purpose for the rest of my life.
As with many of these events of my life they happen when I'm really not paying attention and minding my own business. And usually I/m the only one aware that some serious event just happened.
It would be this moment in my life that would be defining and make me just plain ODD. Had I not had this moment who knows what direction my life would have taken....ya I was playing a lot of music but really I wasn't looking at any of it as a "life"...it was just a thing I did ...like reading sci-fi books or going to movies it was something I really wasn't that serious about...mostly at school choir and band was an excuse to avoid some other "pencil and paper" class hang out and not have to take some dum ass test afterward......in short I had zero ambition...zero confidence...growing up in a blue collar family a life in the "arts" of any kind wasn't even an option and my christain peer group(i,e the grown ups)sure didn't consider it a career path worth taking.....you know....retirement,medical benefits....paid vacations...but hell really what did they know?.....and the real thing here was at that time I really couldn't play very well, ya I knew some chords but guitar instruction back in those day(at least around my little town) was dismal to say the least. What books you could find at the local music store were either classical guitar or old fat cat and frankly confusing Jazz. This was a time that pre-dated "tableture"or "tab" musical notation so if you didn't read music you were out of luck,and the internet wasn't even a gleam in Bill Gates eye.. There was literally nothing...nothing on rock music ...it would be years till I came across a few books that introduced tab and "How to play like Hendrix" (which I snagged)I learned my first slide guitar licks off one of those books....
So it was with this going on that one night I went to the sunday evening service at Assembly. Nearly from the moment I got saved I had begun to seek God for what his plan for me was....ok ya saved me,filled me with the Holy Ghost....what do you want me to actually DO?...back then my ministry options were on a short list...having only been aware of what I heard at church and they were as such(top to bottom) PASTOR,EVANGELIST,BIBLE TEACHER,YOUTH PASTOR,ELDER,DEACON,USHER......or......church janitor...I probably was only qualified to be the janitor.....hey "It's a living"
Over the years I have heard literally thousands of sermons. I couldn't for the life remember any of 1) their subject matter or 2) their titles....but this one had stuck to me all my life...that sunday night the pastor preached on the portion of scripture after the Children Of Israel had been delivered from Egypt and sat at Mount Sinai waiting for Moses to return. The title description "Receiving God's Marching Orders for your Life"...yes an appropriate tittle.....little did I know what was about to happen. As I had grown in the faith I had begun to experience something once again the was "Inside me yet had it's origin other worldly" in times of prayer either with my friends or alone on rare instances I would have (for the lack of a better description) a "vision" It was if God would pull back the curtain of this world and briefly reveal the other world...the spiritual one. This was not anything I could anticipate, it always came as a surprise..and I never afraid because these experiences would always,,always be accompanied my a strong sense of His Presence and peace and with that there is never any fear. Sometimes it would be just to know how to pray for someone. Years later I would come across a couple of land mark books on the subject...one "Deliver Us From Evil" by Don Bash-um and "I Believe in Visions" By Kenneth Hagin...Brother Hagin explained it very clearly with scripture references and examples in his own ministry. I would go on to read nearly everything he ever wrote, the Apostle of Faith they called him.
That night as I sat there all of 17 years old,green as a christmas tree and still wet behind the ears I listened intently to the sermon. There began a growing desire to go forward and pray after the service ended it was a strong prompting I was feeling from God. I don't know why,maybe it's traditional in those kind of churches to go forward.....it's not like God can't speak to me in a pew...maybe it's significant that through out the bible there is always a "crossing over" a departure to an arrival...crossing Jordan...through the Red sea...crossing the wilderness.....call it a "willingness walk"...so after the pastor prayed I walk forward ....I kneel down and "Pow" I am swepted up into God's presence...this was one of those very rare moments when the entire physical world fades into the background and drops out of sight and I find myself alone with God...what opened up to me in my minds eye and my spirit was this....I saw myself standing on a stage, an out door stage...it was strange because I felt like I was standing in the crowd...me looking at me...I saw myself on stage surrounded by a ton of equipment...huge PA system,guitars, large amplifiers, drums, mic's and mic stands...all the accouterments of a rock show...I saw myself playing and singing(something I definitely had no confidence in)...and I heard as wall as felt God's word to me....."THIS IS WHAT YOU ARE GOING TO BE DOING FOR REST OF YOUR LIFE.......THIS IS MY CALL ON YOU....."By then I'm standing up weak in knees.....then Mr Doubt shows up...I'm thinkin......"dude you took one to many hits of acid...." you got to be kidding...I can count on one hand the chords I knew....I thought of all my other friends who were so so much better and more talented than I...as the cold creeping fingers of doubt continue to inch their way up my backbone...the Assistant Pastor, a largish feller with a friendly smile comes up to an says....."Hey you play guitar don't you?".....I am jolted back to earth...I look up and sheepishly go...uh......yyyya?.....sorta.....he goes, Ya? good! Next sunday we want you to play...we are having a special music night and a gal here says she needs a guitar player to accompany her on the flute...so you're drafted(the guy had never even heard me play)......I stood there looking heaven ward..and go "OK God I get the Idea".....ya I get it...and just like that "poof" away went the creepy hands of doubt...and I had received both a Gift and a Call that would refine, define and sustain me the rest of my life(even though it be a hard and at times very lonely journey).....you can never tell what will happen at church on sunday night...could be nothing at all or SOME BIG EVENT.....so go to church...and Believe!