TESTIMONIES AND REVELATIONS…
Since I was a little girl, I was fond of creating beautiful things. From surprising my mom on her birthday with jello (I was 8) in the kitchen, to planning weddings for couples as an adult. Watching people’s faces lighting up from joy, I simply loved everything about it.
Spring of 2014, I met with a potential client bride who was from New York. She flew in to meet me and we ended up sealing a contract that evening[I believe God allows people into our life that will build and shape our character]. Little did I know, this was going to be a very long and interesting journey for the upcoming year. Long story short, she was a very difficult person to please. I remember my husband asking me, “Honey, why do you put up with her when she treats you like that? Is this even worth doing?”. My reply was, “No, it’s not. But I made a contract with her and I will fulfill what is being expected of me. It’s called integrity.”
So I continued, serving the best way I could.
Meanwhile, my hubby along with my brothers and daddy, decided to take a boys bike trip up to the Tennessee Smokey Mountains. A few days in, I receive the worst call of my life. My husband called to tell me that they had lost one that day… And then he was barely able to get the next words out that it was my daddy…
He began to tell me how it had all happened, I thought that it was a terrible dream, but this is life at it’s worst. That night as I hugged my knee’s to my chest in bed waiting on Andrey to arrive from their trip, I could make out only the following words. “At Your chest I will be comforted, my heart will be comforted by You”. Holy Spirit came in that moment and flooded my heart with peace and I fell asleep.
Loved ones pass from one life to the next in an instant. The Word of God says that our life is merely like vapor, its there and then its gone. April 18, 2015 I lost a hero of a father.
He had kind eyes, a precious heart, and he was a peace maker with everyone I knew. He showed me Jesus and I miss him so much.
So as this news begins to settle in, I still understood that a wedding must take place in two weeks. I, of course let my bride know what had happened. I told her that all was well, but I needed one week to grieve my father’s death. A tough week went by super slow (how ironic is that? when your having a good time, the week seems to just slip away from you ). At the moment my father was lowered into the ground, I received a phone call, but because it was on vibrate I didn’t feel the previous 3 missed calls. I recognized the number as a west coast area code. I answered the call and instantly recognized the voice. It was an evangelist who became a good friend of ours over the past few years. “Yana, hi. I’ve called to offer my condolences to you and your family. We are here for you. But, I have some very exciting news! Your flight tickets to Africa are completely covered!” Right there, my mouth fell open and I sensed a sigh of relief come as I thanked him (God was leading us to minister in Africa for another year which i’ll share more in the next post) and hung up the call. I then yelled to my husband across the field about the news I received, not caring what anyone else might have thought at that moment. We then both welled up and cried softly together and thanked our Heavenly Father for His provision in our finances.
After my father’s burial, I got back to doing what needed to be done and prepared for the big day of my client. When the day arrived, I prepared a giant basket of goodies and yummy snacks for the bridal party. As I pull up to the venue, my boss called me and gave me orders not to get out of the car because the bride had not paid in full. I then received a text message from the bride, giving me directions on who to call to get an explanation. Basically, I was then “released” from my duties as coordinator/planner and was told to have a lovely day (actually I just made that last part up).
My heart began to beat fast and moved into my throat. I couldn’t believe that this had happened, although somewhere in me I felt like I knew it the whole time.
So what did I do next? I began to head home. I had about a 40 minute drive ahead to shout, cry and pray. I felt betrayed, embarrassed that I had been so naive, and just hurt. I also knew that Jesus was in a situation that was incomparably more difficult than mine, so I began to cry out to Him. “God, I’m not going to ask you why. You told me not to ask you why. So Lord, I’m going to ask you WHAT do I learn from this?” and He immediately responded, “Forgive her!” See, when God speaks, He will never contradicts His Word. The Word of God tells us that we MUST forgive or our Heavenly Father will not forgive us on judgment day. But I responded to God, “Really? But it just happened… can’t I just meddle in this a bit more?” HA! I knew that was a foolish thing to say. So I said “OK Lord. I forgive her, but this is Your mission, so You provide the finances!”
The rest of the way home was spent in praising Jesus because that’s what you do. You put on a garment of praise when you just don’t feel like praising and guess what? I felt like I had won a battle and I was coming home from war. Wow God is good! He manages to take something broken and painful and turn it into a beautiful masterpiece. After all, He is a Craftsman… that’s what He does!
So how is this relevant with the title of my post? Here it is. My whole life I knew I wanted to become skilled in transforming things from a mess to something beautiful… isn’t that the Father’s heart? Isn’t that what Jesus came to do when He came down over 2,000 years ago? The mess that humanity was in was above just mending, something had to give. Guess what gave or Whom gave? That’s right, God so LOVED the world (that’s me and you) that He GAVE His one and only Son, that whoever believes in Him wouldn’t perish, but would have eternal life! Now that right there is love… I don’t know about you, but if Jesus died for me, I’m saying “YES JESUS, I’LL FOLLOW YOU!”.
Are you currently in a ministry or field that has nothing to do with the Great Commission? If so, ask yourself why. God calls believers to bring His Kingdom on earth as it is in heaven, if we aren’t doing that, then what are we truly doing that takes up so much of our time?
Remember the story of Jesus’ first few journeys of gathering His disciples? He told Simon Peter, “Leave everything and follow me, I will make you fisher’s of men.”
I literally heard the Lord just say to me, “Yana, leave it all, come and follow me. I will make you a fisher of men.”
Jesus took upon Himself a broken world, full of people hurting and sentenced to eternal judgment by A Holy God. All of humanity was under the law, that no one was able to keep, therefore, they made sacrifices to the Lord to pay for it (if they actual did). So Jesus came to fulfill the entire law, and then give His life for us, so that through Him and what was accomplished on the cross, through His blood (for our sins), He would be raised to life on the third day (conquering death), took the keys from Hades that we would have the right to be called chosen, righteous, sons and daughters of the most high King! Hallelujah!!!!
What if I said that you’re headed in the right direction, you’ve accepted Jesus as your Savior, repented of your sins, asked Him to cleanse you and fill you with His Spirit… yet your life is bland and you just don’t know what to do. Maybe you’re in college and you are working for a degree and you have no idea why. May I pray for you? May I ask God to fill your heart with a burning desire to seek Him and remind you of His calling upon your life? You will never arrive to heaven and say, “Man, I sure wish I would have gone to college longer!”
No. You’ll be filled with such zeal and wish you would have laid it all out for Him, sold your entire life’s dreams to inherit and fulfill His dreams.
“Father, I pray that each person reading these words, may be encouraged to step out of their comfort zone and learn to be comfortable in the uncomfortable. God I pray that their hearts would be stirred and that Holy Sprit, you would pour out on them your fire and that a hunger would be developed in them. A hunger and thirst that would only be quenched by Your Sprirt. I pray this in Jesus Name, Amen.”
Blessings to you friends, until next time.
Yana Gorlachev
