Timing is Everything!

How often do we hear the expression "timing is everything" in our lives? It seems to be one of those that you hear normally in a negative sense, because you're late turning in a project or paper in school and the professor looks at you merciless and says, "Jessica, timing is everything in life!" But, the expression also evokes a positive sense!

The past weeks I have really had my eyes opened to the positive side of "timing is everything." As many are aware, July 21, 2011 I packed my bags and hit the road with the family caravan for the 18 hour drive to Broken Arrow, OK to attend Rhema Bible Training Center. What many may not know is the long path that lead me to this point.



As a child I grew up attending every Kenneth E. Hagin meeting possible with my family, along with other meetings by other prominent ministers (Kenneth Copeland, and so forth). But the main ministry I grew up under was that of Dad Hagin, because that's where my Father's roots were from graduating RBTC in '81. As a kid I wanted to go to RBTC so I could learn from Dad Hagin, just like my daddy. I remember being a child, crying in a bathroom somewhere, for God to use my hands and voice to touch the nations. At that point in my life I had never been anywhere outside the US, but I had a burning on my heart for the lost around the world. Growing up, I had people I "adopted" as aunts and uncles in my life who were traveling ministers. They spoke into my life and spoke to me about things only God knew, things I had cried to God about in the midnight hours, and spoke to me about the things God would do through me. I was full of big dreams and just knew I was going to change the world with the Gospel (the faith of a child is a wonderful thing).

Then, my teenage years hit and what was so important to me at one time began to grow dim, because I allowed the voices of peers to outweigh the voice of God. I began to believe there was no way I could ever change the world, I mean I'm scared to talk in front of people for an oral report in a class of 20, how could I ever preach a sermon? But still, something inside pressed on my heart to go to Rhema. Then High School graduation hits, and I'm heading to college. College is an environment that is designed to challenge everything you believe. I faced difficulty during this time as voices were speaking to me, pressuring compromise, and such. And, I didn't make it out unscathed. I had times where the devil really hit me hard and mocked my dreams and made me feel unworthy to ever walk in the place I dreamed of walking as a child. I remember so vividly the moment where I knew I had to be as serious as death itself in my walk with God, I was with some friends, and then something very unusual happened. People (people I didn't know well at all) started pouring out their hearts, sharing their deep, dark secrets with me and I knew I had the truth they needed. At that moment a still small voice on the inside spoke to me and said, "I didn't call you to be like them, I called you to make them like you, spotless in My sight." I knew in that moment, more than ever before, that if I were ever going to be satisfied in life it was going to be because I was reaching the lost with God's love, mercy, and redemption.

Even after that epiphany, I still felt like the big dreams I had, would never happen. I mean I was graduating from college and just didn't see where Rhema was going to happen anywhere in the near future. But a few months later, a ministry team that I've always loved and respected came to our church. They had a word for me about leaving some things behind and "stepping it up." I knew right then what that meant, I needed to go to Rhema, I didn't know how or when but I knew that it would be sometime in the near future. That was in September of 2009 and in late August 2010 I had a release in my heart and knew that the RBTC application that had been in my room for years needed to be sent in. I made that decision in a single day and sent my application in right away! I was accepted within a few months. And then half a year later I was packing my bags for Broken Arrow, OK.

I arrived here in Broken Arrow, OK on July 22, 2011 and realized all the time I thought I was never going to walk in my dreams or that I had messed up too big to be used by God, God was bringing me out with a story of victory and turning what the enemy meant for defeat, into strength. I see now that truly timing IS everything! I see that had I come out here a few years ago, I wouldn't have been ready, I wouldn't have been as mature as I am today, I wouldn't have been the person I am today. But, today I am the person God wants me to be and I am in the right place at the right time, and I have never been so sure of anything in my life! I see God's hand has been on everything along the way, divinely preparing me for this chapter of my life!

There is something so special about this place, it is the training ground for those who's marching will be heard throughout the lands as they go forth with the Word of God and Power of the Holy Ghost to turn the nations to God! I have already grown so much out here and school hasn't even begun!!! In this environment growth is inevitable. I've been so blessed because of the people God has placed in my life! Peers and mentors who fuel the passion within to burn brighter and brighter and make me realize how all along God was preparing me for such a time as this!

"I know the plans that I have for you, declares the LORD.

They are plans for peace and not disaster,

plans to give you a future filled with hope."

Jeremiah 29:11 (GWT)

So excited to be in the middle of HIS plan,
JRT