During our “Filled” series in 2015, Pastor Andy Williams preached on how walking in the Holy Spirit requires taking action. He shared a little bit about a crossroads in his career, and felt led to follow up on that with this blog post about “faith in action”. Andy wrote this blog following his sermon.
A funny thing happened to me on the way to delivering a sermon to our community about “Faith in Action.” As He almost always does when I speak at Relevant’s Gatherings, God made sure I had a real-life story to tell.
Literally days before I was scheduled to preach during the “Filled” series about walking daily with the Holy Spirit, I was given the gut-wrenching choice of keeping my very stable and secure job with some not-so-great new requirements attached…or taking a parting gift and taking a flying leap into the unknown and leave my job behind.
It was almost as if God was saying, “Let’s see if this ‘Faith in Action’ you’re talking about with Relevant folks is real for you, or just theory.”
At a pretty late date in my sermon preparation, God put an impression in my mind to look at Hebrews 11 in the New Testament—a chapter known as “The Roll Call of Faith” for the heroes highlighted there. He focused me in a place that had a profound impact on the decision Lorrie and I made with Him.
Hebrews 11:6 says, “Without faith, it is impossible to please God (emphasis God’s for me at that time). Anyone who wants to come to Him must believe that God exists and that He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.”
That was our marching orders: Have FAITH in God, or He would not be pleased with us. Acknowledge that He is smack-dab in the middle of this situation. He’s not surprised, caught off-guard or worried about what’s next. And believe that if we earnestly seek Him and truly give this up to Him, He would reward us.
Lorrie and I both sensed very strongly—through prayer, lots of great input from mentors and friends and awesome talks with each other—that God was saying “Take the leap, and trust me.” So we did. I turned in my resignation on Friday, February 13 (OK, all you superstitious people!) with no idea what was next.
It’s hard to express in words how faithful and true God has been to His Word. As we placed our simple faith and trust in Him—over and over again, many times a day—God kept blessing us with the peace, the presence, the power and the guidance of the Holy Spirit. It became one of the best times of us seeking God together in our 25 years of marriage.
God kept giving us the grace to believe that He exists and that He was right in the middle of this, and He strongly directed the path of my career search. It went fast—MUCH faster than I thought, as God put me in front of person after person to discuss my next move. Within just days, I had several options open to me, and some really good ones.
ONE MONTH to the day of me walking away from my stable income and job (yes, it was another Friday the 13th!), I got an offer that I accepted to join my friend and fellow Relevant-er Tyler McCarty on a faith journey of its own to build a young company into something great. My first month on the new job has been a blast, and I can’t wait to see what God is going to do in the future.
I am so humbled to see how God has dealt with us. I know everyone’s journey in faith doesn’t end the same, and it doesn’t mean that God isn’t in the middle of it when it shakes out differently. But I amazed all over again at the wonder and mystery and beauty and power of walking with God through real life.
Thank you to our wonderful community of fellow journeyers at Relevant who prayed for us, encouraged us, kept us strong and moving toward God in this. You were a vital part of living out the truth that God is pleased when we put our faith in Him, and He rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
Pastor Andy Williams