The Holy Ghost Said!
They Have A Right To Hear
I did not receive direction from God to go anywhere in particular after graduation from Rhema Bible Training Center. I did not expect to return to Alabama, but took this as a sign that it what I was supposed to do. A lot of times ministers think that the harvest is so important that they never have any consideration for their own families. Many have done great works for God, and their own families suffer unnecessarily in the process. Even though we don't put our families before God's will, they do come before ministerial responsibilities. God may have sent me back to Alabama because I had an eighteen year old daughter at the time, and there was a young minister in Alabama that needed a wife.
During the year after I returned to Alabama, a church not far from where I grew up ask me to come and preach one Sunday. They were without a pastor and knew me and my wife. We went and enjoyed two great services that day, and I knew they were going to call me as their pastor. Since I knew the history of the church and that they were split down the middle, half Pentecostal and the other have "strong will" Baptist, I did not want to pastor the church. Even before they ask me to pastor as I was thinking about them one day, the Holy Ghost said, "David, they have a right to hear what you have heard." I immediately knew what he was saying. Not everyone can quit their jobs and move to Oklahoma to hear the truths of the gospel in their fullness. About the best most people can hope for is partial truths filtered through denominational traditions, but they still have a right to the full truth.
They did go ahead and call me as pastor by a large majority. The Pentecostals knew that I was baptized in the Holy Ghost, and the Baptists knew that I was an ordained Baptist minister, so both sides thought they wanted me. What they didn't know is that the truth is impartial. It seemed that both sides were in a ditch and I couldn't get in either ditch with them. It didn't take long until both sides wanted me gone. Even though most of them rejected the truth, they had a right to hear it, and I didn't hesitate to declare it in love. Even though I thought that I was patient with them at the time, I can see now that I could have been much more patient. Sometimes, we just have to learn from our mistakes and move on.
God cares for the one, and sometimes he may send you to a place where there are many people, but only one receives. We read in Luke 5:17-26 where the power was present to heal them all one day, but the scripture only records that one person got healed. Jesus went to the Pool of Bethesda (John 5) and slipped away after healing one person. It's difficult for us to accept sometimes when it appears that the vast majority rejects us, but some do hear and receive. God sent Philip away from Samaria where he was having a great revival just to minister to a lone person in the desert (Acts 8:26-40). Too frequently we fall into the trap of judging God's will by numbers and circumstances. Paul and Barnabas being beaten and cast in jail in Philippi (Acts 16), could have thought that they missed God based on their circumstances, but they knew you couldn't go by circumstances.