Priscilla Shirer | When It Feels Like God Is Doing Nothing

hey well good morning you may take your seats it's a privilege to be with you again to have the opportunity to be at design for life i love gathering with you i love the lindell so much i love this incredible church that sponsors this conference and the amount of prayer you can tell can't you that they've already been praying for us planning for us that they didn't just throw this together last night there's been a group of people that really have been on their knees asking god to meet us in this place and and so i celebrate that and i wonder even if before we jump into just a few simple thoughts i want to share with you today i wonder if you join me in celebrating the lindells and celebrating james river church and celebrating the volunteers everybody who's been paving the way for us we are so grateful we're so grateful no small task i mean how would you feel about hosting 10 000 women at your house [laughter] lord jesus thank you for this morning thank you that we get to be in your presence in worship thank you that we get to be amongst the people of god in your presence father but also i thank you for your word i thank you that it is living and active and sharper than any two-edged sword lord i pray that in these next few moments that we have together over a simple portion of scripture that you would do what only you can take this one simple message would you divide it about six or seven thousand different ways so that every single person in the room will know they have been in the presence of god this morning that they heard your word we're expectant lord we're your daughters we're sitting on the edge of our seat to hear what it is that you will speak to our hearts it is in jesus name the matchless name of jesus christ the name at which every knee will bow and every tongue will confess it is in that name that we pray come on let the daughters of god say amen amen as savannah mentioned to you just a moment ago i am um the mother of three boys that is my full-time job trying to feed these people i have giant children i've got three giant boys 14 uh he's getting returned 15 in a couple weeks and then i have a 13 year old and i have a 9 year old and y'all they are just big big old boys um my 14 year old is six two and wears a size 14 shoe so i'm just trying to feed them that is my whole life mission is to try to figure out a new way to cook chicken for dinner every day so that i can get enough food into their bellies and it is our joy to rear them and raise them me and jerry i was thinking about something that happened with jude and i our youngest jackson jerry jr and jew jude is our surprise boy uh we still don't know how jew got here and i've told you this before but when i had him he was our surprise boy and we named him jude on purpose because that's as close as i could get to revelation because it is finished it's over it's the end of the line and i was sitting on an airplane with jude we would happen to be sitting looking out the window that was right over the wing of the airplane and i could see my little boy he must have been about seven or so at the time i could see him just sort of pensively staring at the wing of the airplane and considering it thoughtfully and finally after a few moments he looked back over at me and he said mom how do they get that thing to stick on the plane how do they get that thing connected how do they make it stay well i looked back at him and answered the only way i knew how um i said but buddy you can ask your uncle vaughn jerry's brother their dad's uh brother is uncle vaughn and vaughn happens to work in the airline industry that's what he does is he connects the wiring and the veins that makes the pieces of the airplane stick together so this was kind of a little teachable moment i was having with jude i said listen when we get back home you got to talk to your uncle vaughn because he can explain this to you it's really actually pretty exciting i'm sure he can he can try to make sure you understand the nuances of how the wing gets on the airplane and i thought i'd take it a step further this conversation and i said to him jude do you know that when you grow up you can be anything in the world that you want to be you do know that right like you can do exactly what your uncle vaughn does when you grow up if you want to you know if you want to be a doctor you can be a doctor if you want to be a lawyer you can be a lawyer if you want to be a singer you could be a singer you are you have so much potential and you can do exactly what your uncle vaughn does when you grow up if you'd like to he looked back at me and he said mom i don't want to do what uncle vaughn does when i grow up i want to do what you do when i grow up ((applause)) you know where you have that moment your heart gets warm your kid does something and it just makes you want to melt and say baby just whatever you want what do you want i will do it for you today and then in the next moment it all comes crumbling down has it ever happened so i looked back over at my boy and i said well buddy what does mama do i had expectations about what his answer could be i didn't know if he would say mom i would love to tell people about jesus i didn't know if he'd say i'd love to write when i grow up i didn't i didn't know exactly what his answer would be but he looked back at me and he said mom i want to do nothing when i grow up just like you you do nothing all day every day you do nothing ((applause)) i said buddy you see them clean clothes you got on today how do you think you got those clean clothes or you know how you eat a homemade meal on a fairly regular basis how do you think those meals are getting cooked he was like well you know that's just like regular mom stuff i said buddy do you know how every now and then i have the privilege to stand in front of a group of of people and share god's word and and that means i have to study first you know every now and then there's a new book or a bible study and and i have to write that thing and he said yeah but you're just sitting behind the computer all day every day doing nothing now i share this next part with you just to make a point i hope that at least many of you will know me well enough to know that i just really want to make a point by sharing this part with you yesterday or or the day after i had this conversation with jude i thought the timing was interesting that our publisher emailed me send me an email to keep me updated on something that she knows that i don't normally keep keep myself updated on she wanted me to know that a little book i had written called fervent several years ago she wanted me to know that that book was on the new york times bestseller list and that it had won several awards that's what she emailed to tell me she knows that you know when you're trying to feed three boys you ain't got time to keep up with such things and so she emailed me to let me know that i appreciated the email but i could only chuckle when i read it because i immediately thought back to my conversation with jude the day before that while i was doing what to him looked like absolutely nothing i was actually crafting something that hopefully had amounted to something that had blessed people's lives and i thought to myself how often it is that i consider my relationship with god in the exact same way that i feel like god is doing nothing that i'm praying and he's not hearing my circumstances are not changing i look at the details of my life and i feel like he is absolutely doing nothing all day every day disconnected from my life when all the while most often when we feel like god is doing nothing y'all he is crafting chapter after chapter with the story of your life that he's fully engaged and fully invested in the details of all of our everyday living he is never not doing nothing i believe in the sovereignty of god somebody say sovereignty god's sovereignty is one of his characteristics that i am most intrigued by there are many but i love thinking about the sovereignty of god when you get a grasp on it it really does give you a sense of rest and peace and stability in your life god's sovereignty is his overarching orchestration of all that happens in time and eternity god's sovereignty means that god existed before time began that is pre-genesis 1 1 because y'all know the only reason why there was a genesis 1 1 was because god was already there so that he could say let there be and there was he was in eternity past he has been there and done that he has seen all of time from the beginning of the spectrum of time genesis 1 1 all the way through to the end of time which you and i have not yet yet seen and he has already been into eternity future the entire spectrum of eternity and time he's already been there and done that but sovereignty does not just mean he's seen it all sovereignty means listen that the whole thing is in the palm of his hand sovereignty is what lets us do what psalm 46 10 says be still chill out relax and know that i am god providence is his overarching control of the throes of the universe i'm sorry sovereignty is his overarching control of the throes of the universe but within that big umbrella of his sovereignty there is providence providence is the working of the details of your life and mine when we feel like he's doing nothing when we feel like our days are just filled with regular eight to five things or when we run into tragedy or difficulty providence is knowing that god is orchestrating the details of our days and our lives and our encounters and our opportunities that he's actually ordering our footsteps providence is jeremiah 29 11. i know the plans i have for you i've got plans that are designed to give you a hope and a future providence is ephesians 2 10 that we are his workmanship created in christ jesus for good works which god prepared beforehand providence means you can trust god with the stuff of your life because he's orchestrating it all i love god's providence as seen throughout scripture that he shows up everywhere even in the most unlikely places even in the places when he seems and the seasons of our life y'all when he seems most distant or most disengaged that we can trust that when we can't trace his hand we can trust his heart that he's there fully present fully engaged fully invested in the details of our life that's what we get from scripture because he's everywhere even in the books of the bible you know in esther the name of god isn't even really overtly mentioned and yet he's there in the book working and orchestrating all throughout the scriptures from the beginning to the end it reminds us about the sovereignty and the providence of god right from the very beginning in genesis you always see that he is the breath of life in exodus he shows up as the passover lamb in leviticus he is our high priest in numbers he's the fire by night in deuteronomy he's israel's guide in joshua he's salvation's choice in judges he is israel's guard in ruth he's the kinsman redeemer and first and second samuel he's our trusted prophet in kings and chronicles we see him as sovereign in ezra he's the true and faithful scribe in nehemiah he's the one who rebuilds walls and he rebuilds lives and esther he is our courage in job he's the timeless redeemer in psalms he's our morning song in proverbs he is our wisdom in ecclesiastics he's a time and a season in the song of solomon he's the lover's dream and isaiah he's the prince of peace in jeremiah he's the weeping prophet in lamentations he's the cry for israel in ezekiel he's the call from sin in daniel he's the stranger that will show up in your fire in hosea he's the forever faithful and joel he's the spirit's power in amos he's the strong arms that carry in obadiah he's the lord our savior in jonah he's the great missionary in micah he's the promise of peace and mayhem he's our strength and shields in habakkuk and zephaniah he's the one that brings revival in haggai he restores anything that has been lost and in zechariah he is our fountain and in malachi at the end of the old testament we see him as the son of righteousness rising with healing in his wings and that's just who he is in the old testament amen because you give them a little time wait about 400 years and then in matthew mark luke and john you'll find out he's not just god now he's your messiah and in the spirit-filled book of acts he's the reigning fire from heaven in romans he's the grace of god corinthians he's the power of love galatians he's freedom from the curse of sin in ephesians he's our glorious treasure in philippians he's the servant's heart in colossians he's god and the trinity and thessalonians he's our calling king in timothy titus and philemon he's our mediator and our faithful pastor in hebrews he's the everlasting courage in james he's the one who will heal you when you're sick and first and second peter he's our faithful shepherd in john and jude he's the lover coming for his bride and in the revelation in the very end he was and is and will always be the first the last the beginning and the end amen the scriptures remind us that he is always there woven throughout every story and as debbie was so beautifully unwrapping for us the mystery of god that sometimes it sounds to us regular old girls like us it sounds so big and so grand and so beyond us that we tend to disassociate our regular lives from that mystery we can't imagine that a regular housewife like us or a corporate woman like us or that a single woman like us or a teenager in high school or college student in university you can't imagine that someone with regular skills and regular talents and and who lives in a normal neighborhood and works on a normal job you can't imagine that you could fit into that mystery and i came to tell you that the details of all of our regular lives are threads in the great grand huge miraculous glorious mystery of our great god that there's nobody here that's removed that is too far gone that your story doesn't count in that mystery there is a story in scripture i think they're gonna put it on the screens i'm gonna read several portions of first samuel chapter 9 to you because this is not ever to me more clearly seen than in this one little portion of scripture about the life of saul saul the one who would be the king of israel his story starts this way in first samuel chapter 9 i'm going to read several verses throughout this chapter listen verse 9 says now there was a man of benjamin whose name was kish that verse goes on to to list all the lineage of kish and then it says at the end of verse 1 that he was a benjamite a mighty man of valor verse 2 says and he had a son whose name was saul listen to saul's resume he was a choice and handsome man there was not a more handsome person than he among the sons of israel he stood from his shoulders up taller than any of the people verse 3. now the donkeys of kish saul's father was were lost so kish said to his son saul take with you one of the servants and arise go and search for this donkey talk about a mundane regular ordinary old task verse 15. now the day before saul's coming the lord had revealed this to samuel the prophet he had told samuel verse 16 about this time tomorrow i'm gonna send you a man from the land of benjamin and when he shows up you shall anoint him to be prince over my people israel and he shall deliver my people from the hands of the philistines for i have regarded my people because their cry has come up before me verse 17 when samuel saw saul the lord whispered to him hey this is the one it's the guy i spoke to you about this one shall rule over my people verse 20 2 through 24. then samuel he took saul and his servant he brought them to this great hall he gave them a place at the head of those who were invited who were about 30 men and samuel said to the cook hey remember that portion that i told you to set aside yesterday verse 24 this is the time bring it out set it before saul and samuel said here is what has been reserved somebody say it's been reserved for me here is what was reserved set it before you and eat because it has been kept for you until the appointed time it's amazing to me how sometimes it's just donkeys that are connected to destiny sometimes it's just the most regular mundane assignment that we don't even recognize in the moment is actually the pathway to something bigger and grander that the lord has allowed us to be included in the story that he is crafting in this generation i have a tendency you have a tendency to despise the small things the small little errands that we've been requested to run the needs that arise in a regular daily life like yours and mine in this case there is a man named saul he has been described as distinct among all the people he stands head and shoulders above them all he is more handsome than them all if he were to uh be on instagram we would definitely be following him because he had perfectly lit selfies verse 2 tells us and shows us his selfies he is choice he is handsome his resume is one for the record books and yet what is going to connect him to his god assignment to his part of the mystery that the lord is allowing his thread to be connected with and the bigger story that he has for his people will not be how choice he appears in verse two it will be a simple mundane errand that he's asked to run in verse 3. i love that verse two and verse three are so closely connected to each other you know i believe in the inerrancy of scripture meaning that i believe every t is crossed every eye is dotted as it should be i not only believe that there are no errors in the scripture i actually believe that the placement of the the books of the bible as they are and the verses as they are the chapters as they are that those are inspired as well and so when i come across two verses that do something either contrasting or comparatively that draw my attention i lean in carefully to see why the lord would have placed these two particular portions of scripture that closely connected to each other that's why i'm drawn to the fact that in verse 2 we see saul's resume and in verse 3 we see a simple aaron that he is humble enough that he is willing to submit all of the grandeur of verse 2 to be willing to run this mundane ordinary errand in verse 3. it occurs to me that in most of our lives we are riding on the coattails of our verse 2. we want people to be impressed with the way we appear on social media we want to be savvy and flashy and we're hoping that that will sustain us and carry us and include us in the bigger plans of god that if we're gifted enough if we're talented enough if we stand head and shoulders above everybody else or at least appear to that will be what includes us in the plan of god but in saul's story it's not verse two it's verse three his willingness to run a simple errand that connected him with the promises of god i want to ask you if you've been turning up your nose at the mundane regular things that god has set before you to do i want to ask you if you've ignored the simple details of your life the errands that you've got to run the dishes that need to get done you know the laundry that you washed and you dried but it's just dumped out on the dining room table waiting for somebody to come and fold it the dinner that needs to be cooked the assignment that needs to be written the details that need to be crafted throughout the regular course of your day just to make life work day in and day out sometimes we turn our noses up at those errands not realizing that sometimes it's the donkeys that lead to destiny sometimes it's the simple errands that we that we want somebody else to take care of because we were made for bigger and better things we're riding on the coattails of our verse too and we don't even realize that that verse two is not the connection it's not what god is looking for it's the one who's willing faithfully and diligently to say yes sir to the assignment that is in front of them to do listen to me you want to know what god's will is for your life that's the question we have what is god's will for my life i want to know what god wants for me to do and what we really mean when we ask that question is that we want to know what he has for us for the next 20 years isn't that what we want to know we want to know 20 years from now what his will for our life looks like and most often when we want to know what god has for us for 20 years from now his response is if i can just get you to be obedient for the next 20 minutes we'll be on our way somewhere ((applause)) elizabeth elliott said you want to know god's will here it is do the next thing that is god's will you're here in this conference be fully here because guess what here you are be fully and engaged and invested in the task that it is at hand instead of trying to so busily we so visibly with our ambitions are trying to climb some ladder trying to look a certain way and in doing so we miss out on the beauty and the bounty of the the regular mundane ordinary tasks to which he has assigned us we miss out on the character that it's supposed to build in us the backbone it was designed to fortify in us the humility it was supposed to develop in us we miss out on it because we think that mundane task couldn't be for me because i've got some verse two stuff going on i've got some importantness about me some giftedness some potential in me and i want to use that and so i'm just going to wait till god calls me to bigger and better things so we ignore the donkeys not realizing that the donkey is connected to your destiny just waiting he's just waiting for somebody to be willing to do the next thing to do what he's called us to do i am stunned y'all at how many divine occurrences throughout the course of scripture were connected to regular ordinary people who were willing to do regular ordinary things i'm drawn to rebecca who was just going to a well to draw water a regular ordinary daily sometimes more than once daily assignment it would have been a taxing duty for her to have that water on her shoulders day in and day out drawing enough to meet the needs of her family but on this one particular day she goes to do this mundane task in obedience and diligence and by the way she doesn't go upset and mad and frustrated and with the wrong attitude to do the task she goes with an attitude of willingness humility and generosity she has no idea that on this day that regular assignment that regular mundane detail is going to lead her to the meeting of her spouse because on that day abraham has sent a servant saying look for the one who the lord will send to marry isaac she's just going to draw water from a well or joseph he has no idea when he's in prison a circumstance that he does not particularly care for that he does not want to be in he has no idea that even while he's there his willingness to use his gift to interpret the dreams of two people two years later his willingness to do that would literally be the key that unlocks the prison doors that set him free in exodus chapter one a mother who's just afraid for the life of her little baby she has no idea that when she just does the best that she can and she crafts a little basket for him to set him a sail on the nong river so that hopefully he will find some safety she has no idea that just in being the best mother that she can that she is sending off a man named moses who will be raised as the prince of egypt and who will become the deliverer for the children of israel and then there are some shepherds in luke 24 these shepherds are out just doing what they do just tending a flock of sheep they have no idea that while they sit out under the star lit sky that this will be the day when they're just about the business of doing the ordinary task at hand they have no idea that this is the night that the sky will break open and the heavenly host will announce the arrival of jesus christ the lord if he's asked you to tend sheep y'all tend the sheep if he's asked you to go to the well and draw water well then you go to the well and you jaw draw water whatever it is he's called you to do come on y'all we got to do it with all of our mites we do not know that if saul's father lost this donkey because of neglect because he was not doing what he needed to do and lost his donkey he wasn't responsible and lost the donkey we don't know if it was because of neglect or just because life happens because some things like that just occur we do not know the details of why the donkey is lost i love that that detail is left out because then i can just make it broad enough for all of us to consider the fact that that there are some burdens i know in a group this size you've been asked to bear and some of it is just a reality of the life that you're living right now the season of life that you're in that this this bucket of water you've been asked to carry is heavier than you expected it to be in this season this errand you've been sent on to chase this donkey is taking longer for saul it did it took him through three different provinces and took much longer than he anticipated in fact he got so frustrated at how time-consuming this was he actually wanted to throw in the towel you can read there in that chapter he wanted to give up and just go back home and it occurs to me that in a group this size there are some of you that are bearing some mundane ordinary life tasks and really it's not as a result of just life some of it has happened because of the neglect of other people in your life that your spouse really isn't pulling his weight that your mom or dad have dropped the ball that your co-worker if that co-worker you know that one co-worker that one that if she says one more thing to you you go knock her out that one man if she just pull her weight you'd have less to bear it occurs to me that in a group this size there are very many of us that are burdened with tasks that because of someone else's neglect we are carrying more than we ever thought we we would or that we think we should and yet saul was willing and because he was humble enough to just say okay it doesn't matter why the donkey got lost but i've been tasked my father has asked me to go find the donkey so i'm going to be willing to do the mundane assignment to wash the dishes again to change yet another dirty diaper to go back up to the school to meet with the teachers about my teenage son or daughter that i'm going to be the one who will faithfully study who will faithfully be in god's word whether or not there is an audience listening to hear what it is that my bible study produces that i'm going to be willing and diligent to write the lyrics to this song whether or not there's a recording contract on the other end that i'm going to be diligent to put pen to paper and write this blog post that i feel like the lord has given me whether or not anybody comes to my blog and actually reads it because i'm not doing it to impress people i'm doing it in surrender and humility to my great god what has god called you to do do it do it your god assignment is waiting on you when you walk back home tomorrow it's what's right in your house it's what's right on your job the job that you've been trying to leave for the last year and for some reason the lord won't move you on the neighborhood that you've been trying to get out of you've been trying to buy a house in this neighborhood but the lord for some reason keeps you in this neighborhood those deals keep falling through and you just can't move and you're hemmed in on every side you can't figure out why the lord won't let you move on to that organization or leave this church to go to this church he's got you hemmed in in this place where you are that is where he wants you to be and if you'll be faithful to the task that is at hand in this season in this place you'll be amazed how that particular donkey is designed to lead you to your destiny because saul could never have known that the lord had gone before him that he had already whispered his name in samuel the prophet's ears he had said to him there is someone coming i will point him out to you when he gets here if saul will be humble enough faithful enough to go on the assignment that he has been given mundane regular ordinary assignment if he'll do it he will intersect his path with yours and when he shows up i'll make sure that you know it's him i need somebody in the room to know that god has already whispered your name to somebody he has already set this is what providence is y'all providence is when the lord goes before you and lights up steps you don't even know you gonna take yet providence is when he goes before you to set up answers to problems you don't even know you're gonna have providence is when he makes provision for you when he's whispered your name somebody needs to know in the room there is an employer that already has your name on their hearts there's already a spot that is in need of your gifts and your talents and what you can bring to the table it's waiting on you if only you'll do what he's put in front of you to do today you will be on the right path to intersect with the divine plan that god has for your life and for this generation do you know in first corinth uh first chronicles chapter 16 it says that the lord is looking for something it says that the lord is looking it boggles my mind that he's looking for anything that our god could be looking for anything it says that god is on the lookout he's looking he's trying to find somebody whose heart is wholly his who's fully surrendered and submitted who's not trying to be impressive and applauded by the people who's not so arrogant and needy and has so much hubris that they'll only do the things that that put them in the position of verse two he said i'm looking for some verse three people some folks that can just go ahead and take my assignment whatever it is for them he says in first chronicles chapter 16 verse nine i'm looking for those kinds of people when i find them he says i'm going to lend my strong support and my strong favor to anybody whose heart is wholly mine i don't know about you but i'm after the strong support of god anybody i want his favor on my life more than i want to impress people forgive us lord when we've been more interested in verse two standing head and shoulders above the rest having more followers and and more friends and more applause than all the rest forgive us lord for making everything so whitewashed and clean and perfectly looking in our life that we have forgotten we were not made to impress people we were made for the applause of heaven do you know most of the people that we admire most of the people y'all at least me i'm sure i can get a witness in the house about this but most of the folks that we really want to be close to and i mean like women that have gone before us women that maybe have walked the road a little bit longer than us the people who i want to sit at their feet and just listen for a little while and hear what they're saying and what they're thinking and where they've been and what they've done what attracts me to them is not because they were impressive what what attracts me to them is this quality right here that's what draws us in it draws us in that they stayed the path as bobby houston would say they stayed the course like how'd you how have you been married for 54 years what you raised your your kids and they're doing well you got grandkids now i want to sit at the feet of women like that i want to know what tell me about your story they might not have the most notoriety they might not be impressive to people but what they did was chase whatever donkey that the lord put in their life to chase they were on a mission to be obedient to god no matter what that looked like and the reason why we're drawn to people like this the reason why we want to know about them and we want to be connected to them is because this characteristic of humility and willingness to do what is assigned to us that characteristic is more like jesus than almost anything else because jesus being in the form of god did not regard equality with god as a thing to be grasped but taking on the form of a bond servant he humbled himself he humbled himself even to the to the point of death on a cross y'all he emptied out himself and you and i are often so full of ourselves that we can't do what it is that god has called us to do we're so busy climbing up the ladder we get to the top of the ladder of success only to look down and realize that jesus is still at the bottom washing feet so what have you been asked to do the beautiful mystery of god in our generation requires that you and i do what he's called us to do his providence makes it so that none of those ordinary things are disconnected from his glory being displayed it's leading you somewhere it's taking you somewhere to a divine intersection and when saul showed up samuel said hey i got a meal for you i didn't just cook it yesterday i didn't just cook it five minutes ago actually yesterday so we were making this meal and i already told the cook put some aside so saul come on over here sit at the head of the table and he says to the cook listen do you remember that meal i had reserved somebody say it's been reserved i need somebody to know that you are not delayed you are not behind even if you think you've wasted a few years and you've not been on the mission that god has compelled you to be but you feel like you want to go home and go ahead and put your hand to the plow and stay the course and get back in the game i need you to know there's some good news today what god has for you has been reserved for you it's got your name on it it's been put off to the side just waiting for you to show up and when you do it'll be placed in front of you to enjoy i want to tell you uh in closing there's a woman named karen abercrombie you all know karen abercrombie as miss clara in the movie war room ((applause)) karen abercrombie karen abercrombie is a real actress that's what she does for a living it is her craft she went to school for it karen abercrombie came up with the in the ranks with other um actors and actresses who if i said their names you would know all of them she went to school with them she lived in la with them they have all now won oscars and climbed the ladder and um are in magazines and she came she came up in the ranks with these same contemporaries and she explained to me how through the years she has sat back and been so discouraged because she watched them get all the parts for all of these blockbuster movies she watched them continue to excel in their in their craft and in their field and she just felt so left out matters got worse when she would turn down roles that she was offered because as a person of faith she just didn't want to say that and she didn't want to do that it just didn't gel well with her she felt conviction about certain things so she would just say no her agent she told me when she was in los angeles her agent thought she was crazy that she would turn down some of those roles for which now other people were gonna get awards and recognition but she just couldn't do it so she just said no matters got even worse when her husband needed to move out of los angeles for work he moved into charlotte north carolina and anybody that is in the field of acting knows if you're serious about it you do not move out of los angeles to charlotte north carolina and there she sat in charlotte and you know what she just said okay i'm discouraged i'm disappointed this is not what i had planned for my life but you know here i am so she started an acting school and she just started teaching young people who wanted to be thespians and who wanted to know about the craft and the skill of acting and then she just kept auditioning for small roles and doing things that she could she just was faithful with what was in front of her her husband her son the students that the lord had given her little did she know that there were some movie producers out of all the places in the world where they could have filmed a movie there was just something about a little suburb 20 minutes outside of charlotte north carolina called concord where they decided it would be the best place to film a movie called war room and i remember when we started shooting i arrived two weeks early and we sat in a casting room with the directors and the writers of the film and they said to me priscilla we need to pray we need to pray because the heart and soul of this movie is this miss clara character and we have audition person after person woman after woman and we can't find anybody to capture this role will you pray with us that god somehow will providentially bring the right person at the right time to fill this position we grabbed hands together y'all two weeks before we started and we asked god to bring us a miss clara the last resort for the writer and the director was to send word to send word throughout the churches in charlotte if there's anybody that would like to audition for this role we'd love to see them we've tried every which way we can the traditional ways to find an actor and we cannot so please let us know if there's anyone in your church a couple of days later karen abercrombie with a wig on dressed in a big robe waddled in in her 70-something year old way she's in her 50s but she waddled in as miss clara and they knew immediately she was the one when war room began to influence people the way it did on such a broad scale we were not anticipating that we're so grateful that the lord really galvanized his people in all walks of life toward the power of prayer when that happened and it began to spread far and wide ms clara karen abercrombie called me up one day with tears rolling down her face and she said now i realize i realize why the lord didn't let me do all of that because what she discovered is that the directors of the film any actor they hired they would look back at their resume if there was anything that would compromise the integrity of their role in this film they would not hire them no matter how good they were so she said to me priscilla i realized that this was reserved for me and even if the lord had to move me out of the place i thought i needed to be to move me to an obscure little city which was the place i needed to be i'm so glad that i didn't resist i just went where he asked me to go and i just did just faithfully serving in her church and there was word that she that it was her time to receive what was reserved for her i want to tell you that some of you when we leave this conference uh tomorrow we still have so much more that the lord wants to impart to us but i'ma tell you right now that when you go back home the question on the table is going to be will we do the regular everyday stuff we've been asked to do trusting that his providential hand is maneuvering and orchestrating and aligning and preparing for us what he has for us our will in our hubris and our arrogance our pride will we shrink back from the regular stuff of life expecting something different or something more i believe that the lord is preparing a table for anybody in this room who's willing to say yes lord