It's a brave step to take to turn away from something that has been part of your life since birth.
In fact for four generations.
Something that has been your ministry and your life.
But in the Salvation Army for me the restrictions of its system were suffocating.
That's just me.
I know for some the religious restriction put upon officers is comforting and reassuring and gives them security.
Whether you think I am right or wrong, I personally found it impossible to be all that God wants me to be while caught up in the system.
It felt like I had got myself entangled in a roll of barbed wire and was constantly fighting to get loose.
I believe God will break through that system one day.
But for me?
The plane has left the runway and is heading for the open skies.
It's funny how following years of restrictive and misused authority being heaped on you that when you break free it takes time to heal and rebuild.
You keep expecting someone to tell you what to wear or not to mention demons, or not to be a bit weird in your worship!
Or.
Worse.
Much.
Much.
Worse.
But.
I'm heading for the skies.
So.
None of those things will happen again.
Ever.
Praise God.
And the healing is taking place. I'm being fixed so to speak. The broken bits are being welded back in place. A sense of peace is settling nicely. Doors are opening before me to carry my ministry into a new sphere in a new atmosphere, in a new stratosphere even!
And here is the thing.
I once heard a preacher who had taken over three struggling churches and these congregations had been put together to form a new church, two about the moment he heard God speaking about a way forward.
He said these three congregations had never liked each other. They had battled for years. When they were put together a new intensity invade the battles.
The preacher had been abroad at a conference. He had a vision and a dream for his new church but they just wouldn't get on board with the vision he was sharing. He had been praying to God to show him a way to move forward.
While he was in the airport waiting to fly back to the UK, an announcement was given that his flight had been cancelled. He found out later that the plane that was to take them home had been infested with mice in the old. They had been chewing wiring and lots of other things.
He was despatched to a hotel and told his flight would leave the next day.
In the morning when he arrived at the airport he discovered that they had tried to fumigate the hold of the plane, but the mice persisted. So the only way they could destroy the mice was to take the plane up into skies where at a certain altitude the mice would die off.
And.
As he thought about that he felt the Lord speaking.
He knew that in terms of his vision he had tried fumigating the people by trying to resolve matters pastorally but the mice wouldn't go away! So he knew there and then that God was encouraging him to take his vision down the runway. In other words just do it. When the vision would reach a certain altitude spiritually the mice would either be changed or die off!
In two years his congregation grew from right people to two thousand.
And.
That is exactly how I have done things.
The mice are still chewing away as I take the visions and dreams God has laid on my life down the runway but they are getting fewer by the day.
Don't be held back by a sence of duty or any of those crazy concepts they will be mice. Don't stay entangled in that painful barbed wire that your life might be tangled up in, take your dreams down the runway and head for the skies.
The only one who can make that decision is you.
But.
Here is the truth that some people and the enemy will not want you to believe.
God will be with you whatever you decide, he will not abandon you.
It is for freedom that Christ has set us free. Stand firm then, and do not let yourselves be burdened again by the yoke of slavery! (Galations 5:1)
Stand up and claim your freedom.
One life to live.
