Just Follow Me!

It is always good to go back and visit places in your life where God performed miracles beyond your ability to grasp. It quickens your faith for new adventures the Father may be asking you to follow.

This past weekend Patty and I were blessed to visit Mike & Dawn and a team from Haven Church at Beautiful Gate in Lesotho. Because of Covid and obligations in South Africa, it has been 4 years since visiting the Mountain Kingdom.

Walking around the Beautiful Gate campus jolts my mind back 22 years when my step dad Bill and I first saw the land. Ray & Sue Haakonsen had a passion and a God size vision to build a proper orphanage to rescue unwanted babies.

The journey was long and difficult with many dark valleys to travel through, yet what a memorial shouting out the absolute glory and faithfulness of Father God. Hundreds of babies saved, jobs provided, countless guests from all over the world have experienced the Kingdom of Heaven breaking forth as the Holy Spirit revealed the heart of Jesus on the campus of Beautiful Gate.

Here it is already 2024 and returning to this holy ground where love for the forgotten abounds I’m reminded of the voice of the Holy Spirit saying to me as He did 20 plus years ago “Just Follow Me!” Isaiah says it well;

“As the heavens are higher than the earth, so are My ways higher than your ways and My thoughts than your thoughts,” (55:9).

I would have never chosen to go to Africa way back in 2002, nor would I have ever imagined Patty and I would be living in Africa. However, God’s ways are so different from any strategic ministry plan with proper goals and objectives.

Over the years the Father has tried to teach me over and over again He has the right plan and it usually looks different then mine. His plan will always stretch my faith and call me into something that is way beyond my abilities, dreams, and personal security.

Sometimes He has asked me to deal with something in my own heart, other times with another person. In either instance the only hope has been His supernatural intervention. It is during such times He says, “Trust Me, don’t try to fix it in your own strength, keep handing it over to Me and wait for Me to work.”

Other times in my life it has been a ministry objective or some calling way bigger than the resources, staff, or structures could possibly handle.

Recently the Oceans board was discussing an opportunity the Lord seems to be placing before us. All the board members shared it will take another miracle-but they sense the Lord is leading us. I praise the Lord for their faith even though at times my own fears can keep me up at night as my mind races through all the possible scenarios and to be honest challenging my own my weakness and faith.

So I’m thankful to walk on soil in Lesotho that was once an empty field but is now filled with life and preaches again to my soul, “Just Follow Me!” “Yes, Tim you may feel weak and tired for this but it is not about you it is about trusting me on this journey of faith.”

So my Father’s Words to me for 2024 – “Just Follow Me!”

The Father also has a way for you to follow that may seem too much and overwhelming, hear the Spirit say, “Just Follow Me I will lead you and be with you and you will see My glory!”

“To this you were called, because Christ suffered for you, leaving you an example, that you should follow in His steps.” (I Peter 2:21).