This was the third of three sessions in New Birth Birmingham. What a testimony for us—what a greater testimony for the Lord. How faithful was the Lord God. The lessons we taught were from the Precept Model. A Model given by the Lord whose foundations are directly from the Bible! That application that the Lord used was powerful—not because I wrote it…but because I know I heard from the Lord!

In the very first lesson we had to shoot from the hip because our technology was incompatible with the projector. So with a crudely drawn precept model, we opened up a deeper understanding of the identity of each man. How could we know that it would work? We could only “trust” the Lord and believe that He was true to His Word in us. The old foundations in men were shook up—the new foundations in man were established!

God is so awesome, that He knew even in 2009, that these words etched on these pages would shake the hearts of men. Some who knew what they didn’t know and those that believed that they knew all they needed to know. Somewhere in the depths of that understanding, a new man began to emerge. So much so, that when the call went forward to purchase our Devotionals—we sold out! And even had to send for more for these hungry men!

Hungry and Hurting Hearts

That’s what sums up this experience even more. The men are hungry! They want to be fed and will embrace the teacher who God sends. As one man positioned it yesterday…,

“It was not the words that you said that captured us—it was what you said…with such conviction…with such passion!”

Or even as an Elder who was there stated it this way:

“Everything you said was a pivotal statement in my life. Each statement affirmed the messages of the House! You were in sync with everything that the Pastor has been preaching!”

And then there was the testimony from the brother who shared in confidence that he had been molested as a child, but after reading the transparency in the devotional and journal, “Overcoming Past Pains,”

“I have been carrying this thing around all my life. But after reading this book, it allowed me to see that what has been crippling me is the result of hiding this thing in my heart. Now I have shared what happened to me with my wife, and my life has changed. My marriage is better…my family is better…I am better!”

All we can say is wow! Of course the only ones who were truly surprised was us—God was, and has been in complete control! But before I move too far ahead, let’s wrap up the final testimony of the first session. And that was the way the men lingered and fellowship with us, BounceBack Ministries.

Stronger Faith

Somewhere—in spite of all that we have had to endure, God made a way for these men to be blessed…and along the way our faith to be strengthened!

As the Pastor stated after each meeting:

“You are helping me to learn my men. What you have taught is not so much a revelation to me…and it isn’t to the men. It is just the way that you lay it all out. Line upon line…precept upon precept!”

And he continues further,

“Each session has helped me identify leaders from among these men. You have helped me to learn their hearts!”

And this statement—for those leaders and Pastors who question why we should engage BounceBack Ministries to support the growing of their men,

“As a Pastor, I could do everything that was presented here today. But, I don’t have the time to create the systematic detail and approach that was used to present this information.”

Just Hang In There

For each session, it was obvious that if we allowed the Lord to be in control…He would be. My church and one other had asked for a curriculum for the men. And so in excitement, I wrote it and delivered it to the leaders of those churches where it was never used.

One church was understandable because the Pastor died. His heart was set on creating a systematic approach for developing his men, which he never got to use or see. The other was our own church—and I couldn’t understand why something so needed would languish the way it did…but we didn’t quit…we pressed on!

Of course, that is difficult when you are presenting something today that God gave to you five years ago. In fact, that’s the rub, the material was written, ready to be used as a tool for ministry—without an audience of men to use it. It is times like this, it is easy to quit—and just give up, believe that perhaps God really wasn’t in it…. Or maybe that we would all be better off, if this BounceBack thing just went away.

But that’s when my wife reminds me, that the Pastor put out a “call” to the entire church, and said, write the vision, make it plain…and so we did. And we never believed that the Lord would do what He did through these materials. We knew that in order to be “in time,” we needed to do what we have done with BounceBack, even though we haven’t gotten the attention of those who need it most.

But then God does something so powerful—that the only requirement would be was whether I could hear Him, and be obedient. No better illustration of that was the one that opened the second session.

The Intercessors

As we readied to go before the men, I went into a separate room to change my clothes after traveling to Birmingham. Immediately the Lord spoke asking me to “call out the intercessors from among the men.” Sure, that would be easy enough—but then the Lord qualified the statement a bit further. He said, “Have the intercessors sit at the front table just to the right of the “host table,”“ which would be the table we sat at with the Pastor.

Now see, that’s when we get into trouble because the timing of that statement meant that I would have to go into a room full of men, and then displace the men sitting at the designated “Intercessor Table” to replace with the men who were identified as intercessors.

What I had expected was that when I went to the room, the men would be distributed across all the tables and the whole ordeal would be too much and such a hassle. So, honestly I dismissed this whole notion that it was God who had given me this request.

But once we entered the room, we were greeted by an array of men, seated all over the room with the exception of two places. One, the Host table which was reserved for the Pastor and his guest. And two, the table that the Lord had designated to be the Intercessor Table!

As soon as the Pastor took the microphone I knew that I had just moments before delay turned into strict disobedience. Grabbing the microphone, I shared that God was calling out the intercessors. He knew who they were—he just wanted the pastor to know who they were!

We weren’t simply talking about the men who prayed for the Pastor sometimes…every now and again. God was calling forth those men who may not even know why the Lord woke them up to pray for the Pastor. God was calling forth those men who rise up each morning, and go before the Lord on behalf of their Spiritual Father. These would be the men who had a burden to pray for their Pastor with fervency.

And after the call went out, eight or nine men stood up, applauding as they moved to their position of recognition. Called out for God’s own purposes.

The Illustration

For the third session, the Lord moved a different way. About mid-week, the Lord showed me an illustration of what He wanted to use as an illustrative lesson that would be used in parallel with what was being taught. He didn’t tell me why until the drive down to Birmingham.

The amazing thing about ministry is that the real strength of it comes directly from God. Or as in the words of my former pastor, “Prepare like you are going to do it all—and trust and pray for God to show up!” And it was in the preparation that God spoke.

The challenge is this: when God asks you to do something that is peculiar—you know it is because He wants the Glory. And most of us don’t have a problem with that at all—except that in order to be obedient—it kind of puts us out there on the proverbial limb.

That is, that if it wasn’t God who spoke, but it is instead your own devices or the devices of men…you will be left standing, looking foolish. And who wants to look foolish—ever? But the Word says something like this, “…for Christ sakes, I will play the role of the fool!”

What the Lord wanted was a bowl, a pitcher of water and a glass. The glass would be filled with water, and then poured into the bowl. Why you ask? Because it represents something.

When the water is poured into the glass it represents the Spirit of God being poured out into our lives. When the glass is poured into the bowl, it represents the sum accumulation of the blessings of the Lord.

“…I will pour you out a blessing…”

Two Things

See, every one of us is blessed of the Lord—but most of the time, when that blessing comes we receive it, and move to the next pain point of our lives, never taking the time to acknowledge the Lord and never celebrating the blessing! This is why we encourage people to journal, because our mind is not good enough to hold on to the “manifold” blessings of the Lord.

The second thing is that men are peculiar in this area of receiving and acknowledging the work of God in a large setting of men. As a speaker, you will notice the slight reactions to body movement as a point is made. A head will nod. A head will look downward. A smile would appear. And that is that. But in this season, the Lord desires for testimonies to be shared to encourage one another that we are not alone in this thing.

So as the Lord spoke through me, I shared with the men, “That whenever a man is blessed in anyway, he would walk to the front of the room and fill a glass of water and pour it into the bowl.” And when the session was ended, we would collectively see the sum collections of the blessings as testimonies of the whole group! Amen Lord! Amen!

And that’s what we saw as man after man, sometimes even a line of men waiting to “testify” of the goodness of the Lord! Of course, in my mind before hand, after hearing from the Lord, I could only anticipate the level of confusion and distraction that would be created. But once again the Lord reminds me, “That my thoughts are far from your thoughts!

This simple act of men pouring out water into a bowl created such a powerful reflection of the Word of God being ministered. Where men may have felt some shame in standing up and “testifying” to the truth of the challenges in their marriages, or with their children, or with other relationships, they could instead, easily pour out a word of confirmation by pouring a little water into a bowl. Only God does things like that! Glory!

Conclusion

And that’s the way it went in Birmingham for our third session with BounceBack! We were of course overjoyed. Our expenses were met. We spent the night in a hotel. We fulfilled the Will of the Lord. And better yet, we were reminded…”that we will be back!”