Neil’s Minutes 223

Neil and Dana both received spiritual warnings of impending trouble before Neil’s trip to Australia, and though they prayed for protection, they still faced significant challenges—financial strain, vehicle and home issues, and emotional and spiritual battles. Neil recognized the trials weren’t due to wrongdoing but were spiritual opposition to their obedience and purpose. Despite setbacks, they experienced moments of divine provision, such as unexpected help with costly vehicle repairs. Neil reflects that his prayer for God to prepare him “whatever it takes” was being answered through these trials.

• Don’t view trials as punishment.

• Trials can be God “weeding your garden” and “straightening your path.”

• Persevering and returning to God is not failure—it’s growth.

NOTE: Part way through this recording, the volume drops and it becomes difficult to hear (00:35 – 2:23)

A Transcription has been provided:

Welcome to another Neil’s minutes. I’m recording this one after the one I talked about going to Australia and the things I’m feeling.

About three weeks ago, God spoke to Dana and I both separately, that there was going to be trouble before I got on the plane to go to Australia, that there was going to be some serious trouble show up. And when we did bring it up to each other, of course, at that point, we stopped and prayed that God would have his way and that the enemy would not, that God would show us how to walk through this period of time since he showed us that it’s coming and we prayed that it would be gone. But the reality was that I don’t know of a way that we weren’t tested. I don’t know of a way that we did not encounter trouble spiritually, physically, mentally, cars, people. It was crazy. And the troubles weren’t because we’re perfect. The troubles are because we stepped out to do something that God had ordained 24 years ago or 21 years ago. Sorry. The reality of the time this last three weeks, it was just amazing affecting our finances, affecting our home, affecting our cars, affecting all of it.

I wished I could say that I was perfect in this, but I wasn’t. And because of the amount of stress and because of what I feel about what’s coming, that it is important and that I need to be in a place of freedom. So I’m always praying God deal with whatever it is in me that you need to deal with, that I may be in the right place to be an encounter with you for the people. Lord, that they would encounter you if they encounter me. My prayers that broken Lord, break me, destroy me. And through all these struggles that came that God had told us were coming by yesterday evening, by last night, I don’t have anything left of Neil, in a sense. There was a incredible breaking of my fleshly desire to walk in the Spirit in a sense, I guess you’d say, and be this person that God knows I am.

But the reason I am sharing is because I think it’s significant that a lot of times when God speaks to us and shows us something that we’re going to do, it’s like Jesus said, you’re going to be persecuted and you’re going to have trials and tribulations and be of good cheer because I’ve overcome them. And yet there is this going through it. There’s the going through. It’s like Jesus, even in the garden of the Gethsemane is going, but God, Father, if there is another way for this to happen, I’m good with that happening and not having to go to the cross.

So clear up until the day that he left this earth to became a different eternal being, again, there’s trials, there’s tribulations, there’s the enemy. And sometimes in the midst of the trials and the tribulations, we lose sight of who we are and we lose our peace. And we don’t recognize soon enough the ramifications of all that’s happening and why. I tell people a lot of times, and I tell myself too, but last night Dana and I were going, all of this is not happening because we’re in sin. All of this is happening because of the enemy sees that we’re going to do something with God that he doesn’t want us to do because it’s going to affect the kingdom. It’s going to bring the kingdom to bear on earth. And so looking back at it, and in thinking about all that, he’s spoken and all he took us through, and every victory, there were things in my truck that were, if it was true, what was wrong with it is going to cost me bucks. Quite a bit of bucks to get it fixed. And Jeremiah, one of my good friends and fellow Christian followers, says, I’ll come over and look at it. I’ve got a lot of experience on it. And he comes over and he found a terminal that I could not see and couldn’t get to, and it was corroded, and he cleaned it up and the truck runs perfect. It didn’t cost a dime. Brakes on my trailers weren’t working. And they told me that it could cost up to $800 to replace the brakes and whatever it is that was wrong with it. And then they were having struggles getting to it and getting it done, and they’d started it. But then other things took priority. And I went and had to talk with them. And it still was another day before they got to it. But when they presented me the bill and they told me that it’s $505 and I’m just going, crap, here we are. And he looked at me and he got on the computer and he says, $390. And I just laughed because God showed his hand over and over again in the midst of the crisises that we thought we were going through. But they’re just trials to distract us and divide us. And some of the stuff that’s happened and that we floundered in, yeah, they’re going to affect the future for sure.

I don’t know how we’ll ever come to the place that we don’t fall to some of the enemy’s snares and traps and trials. But there’s one thing, and that is the statement. “But God”, God knew what he was doing to refine us and bring us to the place of truly that we’d been praying for at this time and said, it would be no longer Neil and Dana that lived, but Christ who lived within us, that we would be in the place of freedom to allow Christ to do what he needs to do and is to see what he wants to see and happen in his kingdom. And that’s a continuous thing. But at this time, it seemed like a bigger, he honored my prayers. Whatever it takes, Lord, whatever it costs, if there’s anything in me that will hinder your walk through me, tear it out, tear it down, tear me apart, whatever, Lord, I just want to be in a place of vulnerability and humility before you.

Last night was the first night I’ve slept in a week. It just been three or four hours, and then I’m just caught in the turmoil and the trials of what’s going on. And they kept multiplying. And in reality, when they multiplied, I should have been going, oh, this should be interesting. But instead I was going, oh crap. This is not good. I can’t just not do anything. And yeah, all of that garbage.

So I want to encourage you that even though garbage shows up and you fall to the garbage, you fall to the innuendos, you fall to the lies of the enemy. You fall to whatever it is. I want you to remember, “but God”. But God is rich in mercy and grace and his righteousness and endures forever, and that he surrounds us with His presence and he’ll see us through the midst of our trials and tribulations.

And did I fail? Did Dana and I fail? No. And I say that for one reason. We never stayed down. We kept going back to God. We kept getting up. We kept walking forward, and I know that God’s going to work. All of the stuff out that we went through, all of the things, his hands is evident and all that he’s doing. So don’t think because you go through trials that you’re a bad person or you’re in sin. God’s just weeding your garden. God’s just straightening the path. God’s removing the rocks from your road, but he does it because he loves you and he knows who he needs you to be. So don’t get caught in a place where you think that you’re in sin and what you’re dreaming of or what you think you should do will never come to happen.

21 years after he gave me a vision of going to Australia and meeting some Aboriginal leaders, I’m going. Is it because of my perfection?

I think I just cleared that up just a few minutes ago. No, it’s because I never quit and I don’t look back. I press forward for the mark of the high calling of the Lord Jesus. I don’t surrender to the enemy. I don’t give up and say, oh, look what I’ve done. Now it’s over. No, no. God will make all things work together for good to those that are called according to his purpose. And I think we all that are in Christ are called according to His purpose. So he’s going to make whatever happens, work for good if we continue to give it to him, if we continue to get up and go, Jesus, I love you. I just want to please you. I want to walk with you. I want to know you. That’s the key. Don’t quit. Don’t quit. Yes, life is a series of struggles and triumphs in the world’s view losses. But in God’s view, the only way we can lose is to quit, to give up, to sit down.

So blessings upon you, as I said in the earlier message. And if you think about me in the coming month, pray that I would live in a surrendered state of being with Jesus, that the people that come might encounter him and that the earth and his kingdom would be brought together in Jesus’ name. Amen