It was Wednesday 25th October 2017 and we are about 11 days from the launch of the new International service in partnership with Abbalove Church and CityLife Church. It was around 6:15pm, Jo was out, Beth and I were at home.
Jo had been gone for a while and I was getting a bit concerned where she was so I thought I would just send her a txt message to see how she was. What was to happen next was the most amazing thing and something that has really pointed us to the fact that God has an amazing plan and He invites us all to be a part of that with Him.
Let me start with some background.
Jo, Beth and I had been in Bali since January 12, 2017. We had been sent from CityLife Church as missions partners and apart from the work we were to do in the prison, building water tanks in the rural areas of Bali and working with street kids, we were to be working with another church assisting it in an assistant pastor type role. Through circumstances beyond our control, the church side of things came to an end around July. This was an extremely challenging time for us as a family and over the months that followed we struggled to make sense of it all.
In the midst of that we had some meetings with Abbalove Church in Bali and at the start of September Jeff Hammond (another CityLife missions partner and a senior leader at Abbalove) contacted us inviting us to come to Jakarta to chat about the possibility of leading an International service in Bali with Abbalove. My initial response was “No” but we decided to go to Jakarta anyway just to chat and process what we had been through.
While in Jakarta we had meetings with Abbalove, chatted with Jeff, and out of the blue received a prophetic word in the form of a scripture from someone whom I’ve never met. He didn’t know our situation and I can’t even recall his name. This was the catalyst to us seeing that God was in this, so after returning to Bali we contacted Jeff and said “Yes” we will do it.
Saying yes in some ways is the easy part, next came the hard bit. Having never done this before, I was quite anxious and nervous. This story comes with this as the back drop. 10 days till we launch, me not knowing if we’d done the right thing and certainly not sure if we were the right people to do this. So back to the story…
After sending Jo a ‘You ok?’ txt at 6.10pm, this is the conversation that proceeded…
6.13pm ‘Just round the corner – looking for a wedding gift!!! Maybe another half hour.’
6.14pm ‘No problem!’
Then this happened.
6.21pm ‘ ‘
‘M’
‘Lmmmmmm’
‘Ea’
‘Maybe maybe mmmmmm’
‘So be content with who you are, and don’t put on airs. God’s strong hand is on you; he’ll promote you at the right time. Live carefree before God; he is most careful with you.’
‘- 1 Peter 5:7 MSG’
‘http://bible.com/97/1pe.5.7.msg’
‘After the death of Moses the servant of GOD, GOD spoke to Joshua, Moses’ assistant:
“Moses my servant is dead. Get going. Cross this Jordan River, you and all the people. Cross to the country I’m giving to the People of Israel. I’m giving you every square inch of the land you set your foot on—just as I promised Moses. From the wilderness and this Lebanon east to the Great River, the Euphrates River—all the Hittite country—and then west to the Great Sea. It’s all yours. All your life, no one will be able to hold out against you. In the same way I was with Moses, I’ll be with you. I won’t give up on you; I won’t leave you. Strength! Courage! You are going to lead this people to inherit the land that I promised to give their ancestors. Give it everything you have, heart and soul. Make sure you carry out The Revelation that Moses commanded you, every bit of it. Don’t get off track, either left or right, so as to make sure you get to where you’re going. And don’t for a minute let this Book of The Revelation be out of mind. Ponder and meditate on it day and night, making sure you practice everything written in it. Then you’ll get where you’re going; then you’ll succeed.”
‘- Joshua 1:9 MSG’
‘http://bible.com/97/jos.1.9.msg’
6.30pm ‘Why did you send me this?’
6.33pm ‘I didn’t – haven’t seen this before’
6.34pm ‘Did someone send this to you?’
6.43pm ‘It is amazingly very prophetic so I thought you must have found it or someone had sent it to you.’
That’s right. A message from Jo’s phone to mine that she hadn’t seen before and hadn’t sent. On top of that it included three scriptures that were absolutely amazing and spoke directly into our circumstances.
Immediately my mind tried to work it out. There must be a logical explanation. Phone when in pockets can make calls so I thought, Jo had this open somewhere and as her phone was in her pocket it just sent it to me as I was the last txt she received. When she got home I set about working out what had happened.
I got her phone and as you do with iPhones, double clicked the home button to see all the apps that were open. I was certain I would do that and see it sitting there. Open and just through bumps of buttons this would explain why I was sent these scriptures and Jo was unaware of it. The reality though was there was nothing. None of the apps had anything like this.
I know, it’s here bible app. I opened it and as before I expected to see it right there. To my surprise, nothing. Not even one of the scriptures and not even anything remotely like it.
How can this happen?
Suddenly we both realised this was a God thing and an amazing one at that. God had hacked Jo’s phone to get a message to us. I was so encouraged and as I read them I had this real sense that this new step was the right one and without a doubt God was in this.
So what about the actual scriptures? Why these ones and why are they important. As I read them they spoke directly into three areas of our life.
Scripture 1.
As I read this I felt a real encouraging word an as I thought it was from my wife it was a real word of encouragement and thankfulness. You have to understand that the decision I made to do this service has a direct impact on my family and I was very mindful of it. This was nice to receive as it was Jo saying “it’s ok. I’m with you in this.”
Scripture 2.
This spoke about what we were just about to do. As I said I have never done anything like this before so you worry about whether or not you are the right person. Maybe God could have chosen someone else. This immediately took away that worry and helped me relax and know that I just had to be me and God was the one qualifying and appointing not man.
Scripture 3.
This spoke about what’s ahead and the future and as I read it I was so pumped about the possibilities. Wow! Is this really what you have planned? I know this was speaking of events past but are you saying God that you plan to do this here in Bali. Not just that but you are inviting us in to be a part of it? That is not just amazing but also a bit scary. As I read these words jumped out. “I’ll be with you… Strength! Courage…” You can’t begin to know how much that meant to me. To hear words that spoke to calm my restless mind.
So as I write this I am sitting back in Melbourne visiting our sons over Christmas before we head back to Bali to start a fresh year with this new and exciting future ahead of us.
We left January last year launching into the unknown in many ways but into something very different to what we are looking at now. As difficult these last 12mths have been, we can confidently say that we know we are walking where God has called us and He is inviting us now into a very exciting time for Abbalove, CityLife, us as a family and for Bali and the people we have been called to minister to.
For those who know me know I have a tattoo on my left arm saying ‘Carpe Diem’. This has been my life’s moto and right now it’s in the forefront of my mind more than ever. We can only live right now. Not yesterday and not tomorrow. We must “seize the day” and with God’s help and the support of our church family both in Melbourne and our adopted one in Bali we are excited to lead this still unnamed international service at the Novotel in Nusa Dua.
– Adrian Murley