My Vision And Some Facts About Me

My vision has been to find my vocation, my life's purpose, not a career, but a place in ministry where I would find fulfullment, where I would love what I was doing, and be able to use to the maximum the full complement of gifts and talents the Lord has endowed me with.Where I would truly be able to make a lasting difference in the Kingdom of God. Until recently my dream, my vision has been kind of vague. It used to be simply becoming the woman of God I was meant to be. I didn't see myself in the MINISTRY although I saw myself ministering to God's people. I recognized I had some gifts and that I had a desire to use them to serve the Lord in some capacity. When I looked at the things I was good at and areas I felt the Lord had gifted me in however, I could not see how they could come together. I had been concerned as there wasn't one thing that was my PASSION. It seemed others knew what they wanted to do with their lives, there was something that was compelling them and I was still trying to find that in my own life.

From the time I was reading books I used to dream of writing them, in fact I literally dreamed frequently at night of going into rooms where my published books were on the shelves, and in the dreams I could read them but could never remember the topics in the morning. So, I always thought I would write books but never knew what on, for a time I thought it would be historical fiction as that was the genre I used to read a lot, then it became Christian fiction, then when I stopped reading those I decided it must be Christian non-fiction, but that was still pretty vague, that is a very broad area of the market. I love writing still, love words and choosing the perfect ones to communicate what I want to say. (Prov 25:11) "A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver."

I was one of those strange people who loved researching and writing essays. I had the dream once I became a Christian of writing sermons, didn't want to preach them mind you, just write them! Hahaha!! I have thought often I would like to work in publishing, editing really appeals to me, taking something in its raw form and polishing it up, I cannot even read anything without automatically proof reading it, not a gift always appreciated I might add. Oh yes and I am much better at finding other people's typos than my own!

I had a dream and the desire to be a teacher but never pursued it as I felt I wouldn't be able to control the children and command their respect. But I have always had great joy in learning things and sharing what I have learned, even if only on a one to one basis. I liked helping people, making them feel better and have the gifts of mercy and compassion so I became a Registered Nurse and worked fulltime for 8 1/2 years at the Plains Health Centre in Regina.

Music has always been an extremely important part of who I am. I have always sung a lot, mostly movie themes when I was younger, I was a reasonable facsimile to a car stereo!! The Lord must have given my parents great grace to put up with my singing in the car all the time!! and then that changed through the different phases of my life and has been narrowed down to anointed praise and worship music the last number of years. Since the Lord activated the gift of prophetic song in me three years ago, I have had a rarely shared dream of going into hospitals and nursing homes and the like and singing prophetic songs of healing and deliverance over people, and seeing them healed by the power of God and to His glory!!!

Two years ago at a Worship Conference in Regina, Marty Nystrom prophesied that there were people in the room whose music was going to go around the world and I said to myself I want to be one of those! Now my voice is quite ordinary so I wasn't thinking of becoming a recording artist, that is not one of my dreams, not a solo one anyways, it would be awesome though to be a part of a worship team whose music would be recorded and sung in other churches. I have dreamed of being a worship leader for many years, and not had many opportunities to do that in front of the church, mostly just in small group Bible Study thus far. Not even on a worship team at this point. But I am choosing to keep that dream alive!!!

I am called of God as an intercessor, a crisis and warfare intercessor and as a warrior in worship. Some other parts to my vision include prophetic counselling, being used in healing and deliverance, and being used by God in prophetic ministry, the whole area of communicating God's heart to His people has been a strong desire in me for the past 3 years. I have also a ministry of encouragement that I have been exercising for years but has really come into its own over the internet. Nothing like being able to make multi-media cards with pictures, poems, music and Scripture pasted in! I believe I am called to leadership and it has been prophesied that I have a grace gift of administration, and I certainly am concerned about all those practical details and hate to see things fall through the cracks. I don't particularly want to do all those things, so I haven't made it one of my dreams but I want to see that someone does them, and preferably NOT me, I already have plenty on my plate, I would be most happy to delegate!! For years I have thought if my church ever planted a sister church that I would like to be a part of the core, to be in something right from the beginning, to help build a solid foundation. An especially personal dream is to remarry, this time the man God has chosen for me, and to work in the ministry together with him.

You look at that hodgepodge and think Jack of all trades, master of none right? Many of my dreams I had simply buried, as I didn't have the vision to believe they could come to pass for a number of reasons. Some I clung onto secretly in my heart but didn't share them with anyone as I felt they were too fragile to continue to breathe if they were shot down as they almost inevitably were when I dared express them. Some of my dreams I did voice and got a lot of encouragement along the way, particularly in the area of publishing the Spirit-Empowered Living Series I have written, Pastor Ron has encouraged me to pursue publication, and the ladies who have done the study also, as well as the principal of a Prophetic School wants to use it and many other doors are beginning to open for it.

Over the past 4 years particularly the Lord has been defining my purpose and bringing into more clarity my vision, specific details have been added, the vision has evolved a lot. Until a few months ago I still didn't know where this was leading, I didn't see how all these different things that I wanted to do for God, could ever be accomplished in one vocation and there was NO part of them that I wanted to let go of, they all satisfied some part of me.

I have been attending Fountain of Life School of Ministry part-time, taking the classes the Lord led me to and that the finances were there for, which really limited the number I took. The Lord had said I could not incur further debt to go to college. So that meant I would not be doing any of the internships and wouldn't get a piece of paper saying I had completed anything, just a few block certificates. I was thinking why Lord? What is the point of all this? What do You want to do with my life? What can I do that will make a difference in this world?

Focusing on my vision energizes me, and it makes the vision become more real to me, especially when I get specific and detailed when I envision it and it appears more attainable than when it is only a vague notion. To renew my focus on my vision means getting it down on paper and that is why I am doing this topic.

I believe momentum will gather from me first having a clear vision of what my
calling/ministry is, then added to that, well-thought out strategies to achieve my vision and
for carefully conceived and communicated directions and plans that enable the realization
of my vision in the context of the other people who are an integral part of it.1 As I said,
God has been clarifying my vision and opening the eyes of my heart, and I can see that
some parts of it are already coming to pass and I can now see how it all fits together.

My Vision Comes Into Focus

Back in early September of 1998, I realize now, I was beginning to pull up stakes
in the Spirit, I no longer felt the same burden for my church or community as I once had
but still figured I would be there until the rapture, I wasn't planning on going anywhere!
This is my hometown and I believed that God had moved me back here 16 years ago for a
purpose. Well I was found by Him here Hallelujah!! I know He had other plans, some of
those consisted of being a forerunner in my local church. In November when I was
chatting with a friend online and joking that when the Lord sent a new husband my way
he would have to want to live in Prince Albert as I was well rooted here, the Holy Spirit
spoke to me very clearly, (He doesn't always *SIGH*) and said think again DEB! I knew
then that I was going to be moving but didn't know where to or when?? I had told Him
and meant it, "Here am I Lord, I am available, send me!" but I was surprized that He took
me up on my offer!! An apostle who was prophesying over me said the Midwest of the
US. In the beginning of December I felt the Lord impressing me to enroll in an online
school ICSOM (Intensive Care School of Ministries, now renamed ACTS (Antioch Centre
for Training Servants), because He wanted me to sit under the teaching of Apostle
Kathryn Shank.

I recently read my entry to the guest book on that website and was stunned to find
I had written " I want to be apart of this ministry!!" Very prophetic words!! In January I
was creating a birthday card to send online to ICM (Intensive Care Ministires), the first
time I ever have made a card for a ministry and suddenly found myself prophesying to
the ministry (an unusual occurrence at that time) and the Lord spoke to me and said that
there was going to be an explosion in that ministry and that I was going to be paid staff
there, a fact which I kept to myself for a time. Then in the middle of February in a class
where the Prof was sharing her vision for the ministry, I felt the Lord STRONGLY
impressing me that I was going to be partnered with her in this ministry and when I shared
this with her she confirmed it and said she had been waiting for the Lord to tell me for
months already!

The vision the Lord has given her is so much bigger than my vision but it is absolutely amazing to me how my dreams, and my giftings and my vision fits into hers. ICM has twelve facets to it, among them the school where I can teach at some point, (my
calling as a prophetic teacher is recognized there and I have been appointed Assistant for
ACTS). It includes counselling ministries where I can do an internship, I pray, a
publications arm where not only will my own Bible Studies have the opportunity to be
published (one of them has been completed and revised once) but I will have the
opportunity to edit the work of many others, including my employer. In fact when I was at
the Conference last month it was prophesied that I would head up the publications arm.
Am I trained to do that? Am I qualified to do that? Not yet. I can write and I can edit and
I have been practicing already on the ministry's websites as well as those of some of my
internet friends. It has been prophesied that my next book I write will be on Prophetic
Song and I won't have to research it like the other ones and reference all those footnotes
either, as the Holy Spirit will basically write it through me. HALLELUJAH!!

Now how about some of those other dreams? Well when I was down in Quincy I
had several opportunites to sing prophetically over people. And locally as well,and of
course online.Being involved in this ministry there will certainly be no shortage of things
to interceed for. Is that an understatement!! God spoke to me in February and said I was
still a NURSE, only now in His Kingdom and many of His people need deliverance and
inner healing, and physical healing and restoration too, so I am anticipating the Lord to
use the gift of the gifts of healings through me in many different ways. Everyone needs
encouragement and I have had countless opportunities to exercise that gift which I know
is a blessing to others. It also blesses me to bless others!! I have actually had a few
opportunities to preach those sermons I once dreamed of writing, however at this time
anyways, it not does not appear to be my strongest area, I am more a teacher than a
preacher.

Now I do see myself as a minister and have the desire of becoming licensed and
ultimately ordained. I will have that opportunity to be a part of a church planting, as
Antioch Fellowship has beeen newly birthed and I have had a part in that through the
wonders of technology over the internet, and will obviously have more involvement once I
actually move there. I see that my personal vision, with all its varied components can come
to pass through a partnership with the ministry of ICM. And I believe with all my heart
that the Lord is calling me to Quincy, Illinois to fulfill my destiny in Him!!! Destiny is a
word that keeps coming up over and over for me the past month now, I know when I was
flying to Quincy last month even before I got there I KNEW I was moving towards my
destiny, and when I was there I felt that confirmed time and again, I am drawn to the city
and I am very drawn to the black community there. As I flew back, I was sad to be flying
away from my destiny but the Lord said there is much work to be done back home before
this can come to pass and that I am already walking in my destiny in the Spirit.

The obstacles to seeing my vision come to pass would appear insurmountable if I had to face them alone, I am choosing to believe that because this vision is God-given, He will cause it to come to pass if I faint not.

FastCounter by LinkExchange