By George Mcardle

      This journey began with a dream. In the dream, I was pushing a boat through shallow water. A pastor from my church was pulling the boat with a rope over his shoulder. The water started to get deeper and soon it was too deep for us to walk in any longer so we had to swim. About this time two words appeared in the sky above. Roberts Liardon. This caused me to wake up. I googled the name Roberts Liardon and the title of a book he had written also came up. The title of the book was God’s Generals and an extract from the book followed. It must have been about 3 AM when I started reading and I soon became engrossed in what was a wonderful account of the Great Awakening Revival that swept England and the New World. As I continued to read I received a text message from my good friend Norm Sawyer in Canada. His message simply read. “George. You can have it. But you have to really want it.” That was all.

      The next morning was Sunday, so I went to church and saw the pastor that had been in my dream and I asked him If he owned a book called God’s Generals by Roberts Liardon. He looked at me strangely and said “Yes I do, how did you know that?” I said, “God told me.” He got the book from his office and lent it to me. The book tells the story of men such as John Wesley, Charles Wesley, George Whitfield, Charles Finney,  and many others who brought the Great Awakening revival to England and the New World, now the United States of America. On Sunday night I went back to church and listened to a lady share her very powerful testimony. Towards the end of the meeting, I was filled with the Holy Spirit and left church that night thinking that it had been a very significant day.

      Soon after I had a second dream where a man walked up to me and simply said, “You need to go back to the mountain.” I used to go to an isolated beach years earlier to fast and pray. The place was called Noosa North Shore and I understood the dream as a call to prayer and to return to the North Shore. I was not overly excited at the thought of going back there as the beach was isolated especially in winter and the nights used to be a bit creepy, listening to the noises outside my tent in the middle of the night. I decided to further pray about it. I went for a late-night walk to pray about my plan and as I was walking along at about 9 PM I suddenly became aware of someone walking no more than one arm’s length behind me. This gave me quite a scare so I stopped and turned around and saw a man standing there, and as I looked at him he vanished before my eyes. I concluded that I had seen an angel, and therefore I had no choice but to obey The Lord and follow His leading.

      I bought myself a tent and a few items for camping and I began my adventure, following the leading of The Holy Spirit. It seems to me that God will give the invitation and then comes a period of silence and testing to see how we respond to His invitation. Will we remain focused or become distracted by the cares of this world and the desire for other things? I can see how easily it happens. Many are called but few are chosen. God calls people all the time but they either don’t respond or respond but don’t go the distance.

      I had a ministry before this happened to me. As a former professional musician, I would call pastors and ask them if they would like me to come and minister in their church. I would bring my PA system and backing tracks, sing three or four songs and share a testimony. Then I would hand the meeting over to the pastor for the altar call. I did this for a number of years. Then I had this disruption in my life and everything came to a standstill. The reason for that is that I won’t call pastors anymore. I have a conviction that promoting myself and chasing opportunities is not God’s way for me now.

      I go to the North Shore about once a month and have just returned from my 20th. camping trip up there. I pray and fast for two or three days each time. I have had some encounters with God along the way. For example, only recently at about 3 AM I was awake in my tent and said to the Lord, “I’m lost.” He immediately showed me a picture of a rock star-looking guy with cool hair and a leather jacket. I lay there pondering the meaning of the picture and came to this conclusion. “You’re not lost, you have just lost this identity. This is not who you are anymore, and you feel lost.” Men who retire can feel that their lives have lost meaning and purpose so they go and get another job and go round in circles. The answer is a new identity. I am not that person anymore. I’m a man of God that hears from God and I am led by the Spirit of God.

      I spoke at two churches recently and the Lord moved by His Spirit in both meetings. No items. No backing tracks. Just a word from God. For me, this is the way forward.