And there came a Lion

Good morning Rabbit Bible. We're going to be in the book of

John. Apologies for the feedback.

It's coming out of my brain. We're going to be in the chapter

6-7 and eight of the book of John.

We're actually going to what I want to do today.

Bear with me. I want to highlight three things

that's that really came alive for me out of the book of John

and prepping to hopefully someday be back in South Africa

to be able to preach. I was sort of hop skipping and

jumping through John and God was ministering to me.

I know it's because of and it was through the experiences in

the Middle East. I apologize for that, but that's

how and where God unpacked his word.

And I simply want to spend the next half hour showing what I'm

showing you, what I've seen. That's all right.

So these are the three portions. So the first in John 6 verse 35

John 6:35

says, then Jesus declared, I'm the bread of life.

Whoever comes to me will never go hungry.

If you turn over to Chapter 7 verse 37, on the last and

greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and said in a loud

voice, let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.

And then finally in John 8 verse 12, when Jesus spoke again to

John 8:12

the people, he said, I'm the light of the world.

Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness, but will have

the light of life. And I want to look at those

three things, Jesus explaining how he's the bread of life, how

he's living water and he's the lights and the darkness.

And I want to unpack those 3 today because essentially that's

how God sort of journeyed it to us through our time stuck in a

war zone. So for, yeah, for those of you

who don't know, we were invited to go over RT Kendall was

speaking in the Middle East and he was, he's 90 years old and he

was set to, to preach 9 times in five days.

On the 4th day, war broke out and everything changed.

And so because we were bunkered down, they locked the borders,

they locked the airspace, and no one could go anywhere.

There's no coming or going. And we had some really good

times together and we had some incredible ministry moments with

those around us. But there was a moment when I

was sitting and turning to RT and you asked me, he's like,

what do you think God is doing through all of this?

And I immediately had a reply because God has spoken to me.

I felt in terms of the reason and what he was wanting to do

there. And it, it came out in ACS Lewis

quote where essentially CS Lewis says that God whispers to us in

our pleasures. He speaks to us in our seasons,

but he shouts to us in our storms.

And then it it ends, says Lewis ends that quote by saying it is,

it is God's megaphone to rouse the sleeping world.

The storm is God's megaphone to rouse the sleeping world.

And I said to RT, I said, actually, I would change that.

And I'll say storms God's megaphone to rouse a sleeping

church because I felt that God was wanting to wake me up, that

I'd become comfortable and cozy and He wanted to shake off the

dust. And us being there was part of

this process that He was going to get us through and it.

And He did so by sort of unpacking these three elements

in John 6, 7:00 and 8:00. And he did it because what what

had happened was right at the very beginning RT was in, in

before war had broken out. He was really laboring the point

of us waking up to the fact that God's presence is so near, but

we're so oblivious to the fact that he wants more of us than we

want of him. And so it it really challenged

me and I did decided because we were living in a home like a

typical Middle Eastern home that had a room on the roof.

So I decided, you know what I'm going to do?

I'm going to follow suits like Saints before me for thousands

of years have done in the Middle East.

I'm going to have my quiet times up on the roof.

You can oversee the city, praying for the city.

But basically what I thought God would say was not just to read

Scripture, but to pray Scripture and that he would highlight on

Scripture for me. And you know, kind of like

wonder saying highlighted the spleen.

Praying into the spleen. I felt that God said, you know,

I am the bread of life. You know, the Bible says give us

this day, Our Daily Bread. It's not just talking about

material stuff, but it's talking about that which I need today.

He would be my daily bread. He is the bread of life and I

was to look for that. And so here I am up on the

rooftop, just like Daniel and Joseph and David and all the

Saints before me sitting there having my quiet times and I want

to highlight some of the things that God showed me through that

and specifically some of them. The times what Raw touched on

last week and the first one that I want to jump into is in One

Kings 19. You, you're welcome to turn

there, But essentially the back story to 1 Kings 19, is this guy

larger? You might have heard of him, one

of the great prophets of old. He had also been through the

mill. So he had faced famine, He had

faced drought, he'd faced death and then he faced war.

Essentially the queen Jezebel declared war on him.

He said I will find you and I will kill you.

And so he hottails it out of there.

He spends 40 days and 40 nights running away from Jezebel.

And then eventually we found in one Kings 19, verse 9, it says

that he went into a cave and spent the night.

Now I revisited this because Raw said last week, are you

journeying in the dark without Jesus?

And there's a little bit of that going on here.

So I want to show you what's what God said to me in this and

what I was praying for. So verse 9 of 1 Kings 19 says,

then he went into a cave and spent the night and the word of

the Lord came to him. What are you doing here, Elijah?

And he replied, I've been very zealous for the Lord God

Almighty. The Israelites have rejected

your covenant, torn down your altars and put your prophets to

death with the sword. I'm the only one left and now

they're trying to kill me too. The Lord God said go out and

stand on the mountain and the presence of the Lord for the

Lord is about to pass by. I'm sitting here last week

Sunday. I'm going like, Oh my gosh,

Rory's been reading my mail. I'm about to pass by.

Last week, if you weren't here, Rory spoke about the disciples

in the storm and the presence of God passed by.

And he said this is kind of what Stephen and Kathy were going

through. I'm like, actually, that's what

God was speaking to me on the rooftop.

And he asked the question, why did he pass by us?

Because that is how his glory comes past.

And it's this invitation for us to lay hold of the bread of

life, to feast on him and what he has so that he can be our

resource and our strength. But like Wonder said, yeah, we'd

love to do it ourselves. Let me just control this war.

But the said God says lay a hold of me and he said the same thing

to the disciples and essentially says the same thing to Elijah.

So he says, go out, stand on the mountain and the presence of the

Lord for the Lord is about to pass by the next verse.

Then a voice said to him, what are you doing here Elijah?

Now you might think I'm just rereading the same portion, but

what happens is he says, what are you doing here Elijah?

And Elijah gives all his reasons, then he passes by and

then he says, what are you doing, Elijah?

And Elijah repeats exactly the same word for word.

He says, I've been very zealous for the Lord God Almighty.

The Israelites have rejected your covenant, torn down the

altars, put your prophets to death with a sword.

I'm the only one left, and now they're trying to kill me too.

I want to take a little bit of a step back because this is Elijah

we're talking about. I think people will know the

name of Elijah in heaven. They might most probably not

know my name in heaven. He's like one of the greats,

right? But if I can be so bold as to

say, Elijah is whinging, he's whining, he's grumbling.

He's just had the the very presence, the manifest presence

of God Almighty pass in front of his very own eyes.

And then he asks the same question and gives the same

answer. You don't know what I'm going

through and the Wi-fi's down, you know.

See, we can't control what we go through in the Middle East, but

we can control how we respond. What are you doing here?

Elijah Winch passes by. What are you doing here, Elijah

Winch? Look at what God does in

response to his grumbling. Verse 15.

The Lord said to him, go back the way you came and go to the

desert in Damascus. When you get there, anoint

Hazarayal, king of the Aram, anoint Jehu son of Nimashi king

of Israel, and anoint Elisha son of Shafat from Abel Mahala to

succeed you as prophet sitting in the in the desert in a war

zone. And you're saying to me, what

are you doing here? Our presence is near.

The Bible says he is close to those who mourn.

He's close to those going through a valley.

What are you doing here? And then, then I'll read that

line. Go back the way you came.

I said, Lord, I don't want to go back the way I came.

I don't want to be in the midst of this and go home completely

unchanged. You know, if we were there for

one day or 21 days, nothing would have changed emotionally

and physically. But the difference between being

there one day and 21 days, I was saying, Lord, would there be a

radical change spiritually? May I encounter you?

Because when Elijah encountered the presence of God and did

nothing with it, continued whinging and grumbling and

moaning, it was as if God said, OK, then your season is over, go

and anoint Elijah to succeed you as prophet.

Chatting to Neko Fanimova, he was saying he was reads through

these daily devotionals and he said on the day that we left for

the Middle East, there was just this tiny little portion for One

Samuel 1734. It's out of the new King James

Version where Daniel was busy talking to Saul about what

happened when he was looking after the sheep.

And there's this half verse that Nico shared with me.

He said, and there came a lion, and there came a lion on the day

that we're now heading off to the Middle East, none, none the

wiser, the war that's about to break out.

And God says to him, and there came a lion.

And if you read the little devotional, it essentially says,

here's David minding his own business.

And there came a lion. And if David had not engaged

with that line, if David had run like Elijah or like Elijah had

run, I don't think we'd even know his name.

Because the guy says underneath there, the lion and the bear

prepared him to face Goliath, and Goliath prepared him to be

king of Israel. So when David saw a lion, God

saw a kingmaker. When Elijah saw this queen who

wanted his head, God saw a kingmaker.

When the disciples were in the storm, all they saw was the

possibility of drowning. But God said, I'm going to make

you fishers of men. I'm going to raise you up to

change the world. You need to go through this.

And there came a lion, and there came divorce.

And there came a phone call and there came a loss of hearing.

And there came a business that was collapsing.

What are you doing here, Elijah? My presence will pass by.

What are you doing here, Elijah? Are you whinging?

Are you groaning? Are you moaning?

Are you listing all the reasons why we're you know, it's easy

for you to say. You just don't understand.

Your life is perfect. My life is falling apart.

Or you're laying hold of the God who's passing by.

Now compare apples with apples. Go to larger, God passes by and

you've got the disciples. God passes by, Elijah ends up

whinging. But in Matthew 14 and the fourth

watch of the night, Jesus was about to pass by and it says in

verse 26 of Matthew 14, when the disciples saw him walking on the

lake, they were terrified. It's a ghost they said and cried

out in fear. But Jesus immediately said to

them, take courage. It is I don't be afraid.

Remember Rory said they are 365 times in Scripture that it says

don't be afraid. This is one of them.

And look what happens next in verse 28.

Lord, if it's you, Peter replied, tell me to come to you

on the water. Come, he said.

Then Peter got down out of the boat walking on the water.

On one hand, you've got a larger where Jesus passes by and he's

whinging on the other side. He got Peter where Jesus passes

by and he's walking on water. In the situation that you're in

and what you are facing, whether it's missiles exploding over

your head or whether it's an affair that you've heard of or

whether it's your finances that are hemorrhaging, there are only

two responses. There is a whinging and a

whining or there is a walking on water.

There is a king making process that God wants to call you into

and partner with. He says come and feed on me.

I'm the bread of life. I'm right there in front of you.

We don't see him because we're navel gazing and we're comparing

and we're complaining when he's calling us to walk on water to

never be the same again. He's the bread of life.

He's living water and he's light in the darkness.

In verse 37 of John 7 talking about the living water, it says

on the last and greatest day of the festival, Jesus stood and

said in a loud voice that anyone who is thirsty come to me and

drink. Whoever believes in me as

scripture said rivers of living water will flow from within

them. So what's happening here is

Jesus is in the temple courts and they are doing a water

drawing ceremony is basically what they did was run this

celebrations festival on the very last day.

The priests would go to the pool of Siloam or Siloam.

It's spelled Siloam. So let's call it Siloam.

We go to the pool of Siloam and they would draw water with these

golden jugs and they would come and pour it on the altar of God.

And they'd eventually there was so much water being poured on

the altar that it would overflow and is running out of this

Tabernacle and it was into the streets.

And in the middle of that Jesus says I am the living water.

So that's the picture right now put a pin in this.

I just want to unpack how how God dealt with me with this

aspect of Christ. So what I was doing when when I

was on the rooftop, I simply went through my Bible reading

plan. I for those of you interested, I

read through Robert Murray Mcshane's Bible reading plan.

It's basically 2 chapters from the Old Testament, 2 from the

new every day. And then every now and then

there's a what chapter from Proverbs or from Psalms.

And essentially you get to go through the whole of Scripture

in the year. So it's just literally it was it

just so happened that every time there's chapters, it just so

happened that I was in one Kings 19 in the Old Testament right at

the very beginning where I was like properly ready to whinge

and moan and God was saying, OK, you can do that or you can walk

on water with me. And I just so happened to be in

Psalm 46 on one of the days where I read and you probably

not be still and know that I'm God.

One of my favorite chapters in the Bible.

And it was like God was just calming the storm.

But the thing was, my wife and I, because we happened to be

there, because we were on eldership and because we're

known in the community, we had the incredible privilege of not

only hanging out with RT from time to time, but we also got to

speak to the elders. And we went to the staff

meetings and connected with some of the couples that were really

struggling. And there was a moment that

someone asked me, like, how are you doing?

And I said, no, we're good. You know, today God just really

said, be still and know that I'm God.

And it was very strange because this was a leader in the

community. And they've pretty much rolled

their eyes, you know, sort of. Yeah.

Easy for you to say, you know, you're out of here sometime soon

with. And I was so thrown by that

because of the person that I was speaking to.

I'm like, yo, there's such dissonance in that moment.

Then I went home and I revisited the song.

I've actually never really dug through this.

I just, you know, I'll be so, you know that I've got this

lovely, you know, get the tattoo and you move on.

But we're not dug. This is what I want to share.

What you know. OK, bear with me.

You know, this is my my rabbit hole.

So I discovered that Jerusalem, so this is a Psalm written about

Jerusalem. And Jerusalem was very unique in

the ancient near East because it was built on a hill.

Most predominant cities were built by a river or a water

source. And So what happened was there

was a time in Israel's history where the northern kingdoms set

their sights on Israel. They said, we're coming for you

and King Hezekiah, knowing the fact that the water was way down

there and also knowing that the king of Assyria's general modus

operandi was to besiege a city. So he was as lazy as they come.

He would just bring hundreds of thousands of people surround a

city. There's no going in, no going

out. And they just wait until you run

out of food and water and then eventually you surrender.

They don't, you know, don't have to shoot an arrow.

So he knows this is coming. And the first thing they're

going to run out of is not food but water because there's no

water source in the river. So what Hezekiah does is he

gives you instructions for people to build or dig

underground tunnels from the spring of Gayon all the way up

to the pool of Siloam. You can't see it because it's

underground. The Assyrian king wouldn't know

that they have a water source, he would just know they are so

far away from the river. This is going to be 3 days and

we're back home. Not even a long weekend we

sorted. And then they go on to say the

following, said Hezekiah realized, and Hezekiah

implemented this because this meant the enemy could surround

the city, but they would still be living water.

And that meant that the Pool of Siloam became the most important

water source in ancient Israel because this capital city was

actually besieged by this king of Assyria.

It was surrounded. And they say this.

And when I read this, I just went cold.

Said he besieged the city. No one could get in and no one

could get out, just like the Middle East.

But they were not defeated because they had access to

living water. So let me read you and join all

the dos. Let me read you Psalm 46.

It begins by saying God is our refuge and strength and ever

present help in tons of trouble. Therefore we will not fear that

the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of

the sea, though its waters raw and foam, and the mountains

quake with the surroundings. Essentially this is a war Psalm.

So Eugene Peterson says that reading Psalms is praying

psalms. So the Israelites would memorize

this and they would read it and pray it.

So they would call on Psalm 46 and times of war when they were

in storms or dark times. And then it says in verse 4, but

there is a river, a river whose streams make glad the city of

God. There isn't a river.

That river is this underground, unseen tunnel that has been

built. And because it is there, she

will not fall. God will help her.

At break of dawn, nations are an uproar.

Kingdom's fall. He lifts his voice.

The earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us.

The God of Jacob is our fortress.

Come and see what the Lord has done, the desolations he's

brought on the earth. He makes wars cease to the ends

of the earth. He breaks the bow and shatters

the spear. He burns the Shields with fire.

And he says, be still and know that I am God.

How? How is that possible?

Because there is a river, because there is not built a

time of war. But before the battle, before

being surrounded, before getting news, before being called into

the boss's office, there was a river.

And when I looked into those hours, I suddenly realized it

wasn't the kickback against the verse Be still and know that I'm

God. It was a kickback and a

realization. That there wasn't a river and

there came a lion, but we could be still and know that he is God

because there was a river. And the river was resourcing us

through the pool of Siloam. And we drank deeply from the

living water and we feasted daily from the bread of life,

because here's the bread, here's the water, and here's the light.

You know, when I read this and prepping for today, I realized,

hey, we've probably gone full circle.

You know, Rory, last week I think I probably wrote it 3 or 4

times, came up at Life Group. Are you journeying in the dark

without Jesus? He is the light of life.

And so I'm like, OK, we're on to something here.

And the Bible says your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to

my path. Jesus is referred to in the very

beginning of the book of John as the Word and so it's important

that you not only have his presence.

You're not only spending time and prayer, but that's you

actually opening scripture to show you how to navigate what

you what is that you're going to?

How do you respond? How do you know that it's a

spleen. So I want to tell you our little

journey through the lights. So what did, what had happened

was, yeah, let me start at the beginning, right.

Like this. The day before we were supposed

to fly out, the missiles hit and now you're sitting there.

No one's ever been this way before.

You don't know what to do. You can't get out.

The only way is more fearful than anything else.

And so we, we just decided, OK, let's let's sort of watch

things. We're not in a rush.

We've got things sorted out with my wife's business back home.

And they chatted to Raw and he said, listen, you know, we we've

got this, just wait it out. But the problem is with war is

you don't know. Is it going to get worse or

better by the next week or the weekend?

Yeah, it could be that could be just throwing stones and, you

know, moaning and grumbling and just, you know, back on social

media being nasty. Or it could be World War Three.

You don't know. So you're sitting and you're

watching and you're trying to soccer analyze all the little

bits and pieces. And they come right up to that

line and then they back away. And then they come right up to

that line and then they're back away and then they'll cross that

line. And I don't know if it was

Israel or America, but someone bombed the the State Bank in

Iran. And so the general gets online

and says, OK, hey, hey, hey, hey, hey, if that's how you want

to play, we're going to do the same.

Then they announced, they said, listen, what we actually, we

advise that if you're in a kilometer radius of anything to

do with the the nation's economy, where you're at,

whether you're in Oman or the UAE or Saudi or Qatar or Bahrain

or whatever, all the baddies with the guns.

He said. If you're within a kilometer

radius of anything to do with the economic processes within

your nation says evacuate because we are coming for you.

And they came and it was like escalation like no one expected.

And so then the conversation changed.

We just happened to be sitting with a couple we had gone across

just to spend time with them. They're in a really tough space.

And my wife and I had an incredible opportunity just to

minister and pray. And I get a phone call on the

back of this new unleashing of strategy.

And Adrian and Luther and John were there with us in the Middle

East. And the phone, they said,

listen, what are your thoughts about getting out via Saudi

Arabia? I'm like, yes, I've watched,

yeah, some movies. I know about Saudi Arabia, some

swords and camels. So I'm like, I have my wife with

you. Yeah, I know.

You actually boys, is like, let's do this.

So. Well, speak to her.

So if you want to come, we found a space on the plane that leaves

tomorrow morning from Riyadh, 3:00 AM.

But it means we need to leave in 90 minutes.

Yeah. I just love making high pressure

decisions like that when your life is at risk.

So I hang up and I'm like, numb. My mind is racing.

So say share with Catherine. She's like, well, let's let's

just get the process going. But we're on the other side of

the city because you basically you do these movements and then

they bomb the daylights out of you.

And then you do a little bit of moments, you bomb the daylights

and you wait for all clear. And then you quickly go, hey,

but the guys that we were with couldn't care, climbed in the

car. We broke the speed limit.

You know, it's like there were fireworks in the sky and there

were flashes from all the cameras.

You know, it was paparazzi. So we rushed back and we're

like, OK, are we going to do this?

So a whole bunch of things that we needed to do.

Firstly, we needed to book tickets, which was an absolute

nightmare because my phone had died halfway through the

journey. And I tried to get a new phone,

but you're in another country and you can't get your SIM card

swapped. And so I wasn't able to get OTPS

and I'd Max my credit card. So I was trying to get money out

of bond into the credit card so I could buy plane tickets.

And then there was this random stranger named Michael who

started phoning me. You know, when you're waiting

for that data package to work And this I'm like, hang up and

then first again, like hang up and then first again hang up.

And then we, before we buy those, while we're buying those

stickers, we also need to make sure that we can get to Riyadh.

So you've got to organize a transfer.

And so we're chatting to someone and I'm phoning AD, he's phoning

me. And he said, listen, we found

someone that's going to cost us like 32 grand for Kath and I to

get to just like driving over this 10 hours drive but in a war

zone. But it's 32,000 Rand.

Well, and he's saying, but we need to get make sure we have

tickets because it's kind of pointless getting all the way

there. And then you arrive at the

airport and you don't have a plane ticket and planes are full

because everyone's fleeing in the Middle East.

So make sure that you make a call and this driver, and then

I'll Scroll down and I'll see the fine prints.

The guy says, you know what? This only guarantees that we'll

take you to the border, then you'll disembark and there will

be a taxi waiting for you on the other side.

You know, and what I didn't realize was that there are 4

border posts about 5 kilometers in distance from the one side to

the other side. Can you imagine me and my wifey

with our Gucci suitcases going through sitting here?

And then you get on the other side and that guy's long gone

with your 32,000 Rand. And while I'm trying to figure

this thing out, this phone is ringing nonstop.

I get a phone call from the guy who was leading the church that

we were hosted by. And he's saying he's like this

proper Mountain Lion man of faith.

And he's saying, but I really think this is the only gap that

you're going to get because it is getting worse.

You know, it's only 90 minutes and then you're out of here and

your journey started. He said, I think it's a good

idea. But the people that we're

staying with are saying, listen, please, I don't want you to feel

any pressure. And we're happy to.

You can stay as long as you need to.

Don't make this decision based on us.

And then he says, and if you do decide to go, would you mind

taking my 8 year old mom with you?

And so that's all happening. And then Adrian is phoning me

and he's like the sky is falling.

The sky is falling here. I'm looking at my wife's eyes

and she's saying, baby, I will follow you wherever you choose

to go. And my heart is saying stop.

So eventually I close everything I said to my wife, I'm on the

roof and I got see because about 10 days before that, and it's

too long to tell the detail, but God, I felt, God said to me,

this was a Tuesday. About 10 days before that, I'd

felt God say that we would only be released from this the coming

Thursday, Friday of the week. I'd really felt that God said if

you go anytime before, you're going to be missing out, you

know? And then came a line and Stephen

ran. It's like there's something I

want to do in you. So I'm looking at the the

Thursday, Friday word that I'd felt like 10 days ago.

But I'm also hearing from these church leaders who were saying,

come, come, come. We've got 90 minutes, we've got

to go. And then there's this chop who

just keeps phoning me every time I'm trying to hear from God, you

know? Anyway, so I go outside, I leave

everything behind. I'm just like, Lord, I don't

know what to do. Put my eyes on you.

There's quiet in the storm and I walk back in and I'll pick up my

phone and the top I finally decided to WhatsApp me says, hi,

my name is Michael. When I'm in South Africa, I come

to three CR. I live and work in Riyadh, Saudi

Arabia that has an airport that you're wanting to reach.

Said how can I help? Said, do you need transfers?

Do you need plane tickets? Can you please pick up the

phone? So I'm like, hi, random citizen.

My name is Stephen. And what Michael says to me is

he says I can hop in the car. It's big enough to take all of

you. I'll drive there, pick you up,

bring you all the way. So I'm like, and how much is

that going to cost? But in the Middle East, water is

more expensive than fuel. It's like it will cost you

nothing. I'm like, really?

See, I'll go through this border often.

I know exactly what you need to do.

He walks us through that. And then he says, would you like

me to help you buy those plane tickets?

Send me your passports. I'll get my people to get you

the ticket. And he says, and if we get there

and there's any delays, we've got a partners that we can put

you up at and we will see you out of here.

How could you not? And so he did just that.

But the best thing about it was he says he's looked.

So the tickets that we're wanting to get, we're not going

to be able to get onto that. He says the first you'll be able

to get out will be Friday. So Michael climbs in the car,

drives whatever 10 hours, crosses the border, comes and

fetches us. And I kid you not, he arrives.

He opens up the boot to put in our bags closet, and we go.

I'm like, do you want to sleep? Do you want to shower?

Do you want lunch? He's like, no, I'm good.

And he drives us 10 hours all the way through to Riyadh.

Now we were supposed to get there by midnight because the

flight is leaving at 3:00 AM. But on the drive, we found out

that it was delayed by 4 hours. So he says, no problem, I'll

take you to the church house. All right, good.

They're going to pop in at the church house.

Not what church, just Christianity is illegal in Saudi

Arabia. So yeah, we got an underground

church. So we popped in to this

underground church. We arrived there.

The people that lead us to Mark and his mates have planted this

church. A year ago, we arrived there and

we get this pot of biryani. And I'm, I'm sorry, but it was,

it was better than, but I think it was because we were in war,

you know, free biryani, you can't compete.

But this massive pot of Brianna. And because we were there a

little bit earlier, he hired apartments for us to stay for

the night. And so we got to bed at about

midnight. He sought to drive, I think it

was like 45 minutes to his place.

And then he was back another 45 minutes to come and fetch us to

be at the airport by 4:00 AM. And then it just so happened to

spell you the details. But when we got there, they

said, no, it wasn't delayed. You've already missed your

flight. And so he was arranging, we were

going to a different terminal. I know you just got to love this

faith journey. You know, this is lions

everywhere. And so eventually we get there,

we get in the queue and he goes and he buys everybody coffees

and their friends. And then he's stuffing money

into our pockets and saying, listen, on the other side, it's

very expensive. Well, no, you can't do this.

And I was just just give me your bank account details.

Give me your bank account details.

We land in South Africa and I sent a message.

I said because of what you have done for my wife and I at

church, I want to cover all the costs, plane tickets, travel,

accommodation, food and everything like that.

I want to land. I want to show you some of the

things because we're talking about Jesus being the light.

So I wake up that morning about to take my wife into Saudi

Arabia, and I'm still there's, there's still a bit of a storm.

I'm like, I know this is like way beyond coincidence, all

these bits and pieces that have fallen into place.

But I wake up that morning and I want to show you a picture of my

Bible because it just so happened that Robert Murray

McShane, I think he lived in the 1800s or the 1700s, said, OK, I

need to read Daniel chapter 10. So if you zoom in on that, we're

Daniel 10 · chapter mention

going to. So that's my Bible reading plan

for the morning. Now, I'd only noticed this after

I sent the AV team this picture. That's how it starts.

Then he continued, do not be afraid.

And then, says Daniel, since the first say that you set your mind

to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God,

your words were heard and I've come in response to them.

But the Prince of the Persian Kingdom resisted me 21 days,

then Michael, then Michael and Michael, Lord, I've never met

this garb and he's going to take me into Saudi.

Then Michael, one of the chief Princess came to help me because

I was detained there with the king of Persia.

And now you know me. I like my rabbit holes.

So I'm like King of Persia, if you have your phone, pick up

your phone. I know you have your phone.

Hey, Siri, where would the Persian Empire be located today?

What does your phone say? Iran?

Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my beautiful

Lord. We've been detained 21 days

because of the King of Iran, Prince of Persia.

So this is OK Michael's coming. But here's the crazy thing.

I was telling the story to Nico, and he pointed something out to

me that I hadn't seen before. He's like, do you realize that

God had answered your prayer before you even prayed it?

So I was sitting there, Michael, stop phoning me.

I need to go and pray. And God's like, I'm sending you

the answer to the pray. Can you stop calling man then

Michael, there's one last thing that I want to drop in.

We're not going to show it online for those who are

watching on the stream because it is illegal.

I want to show you the name of the church in Saudi Arabia who

sent Michael to fetch us. You can't script this.

And then came a lion. We will face lions.

God will ask you, Elijah, Stephen, Rob, Suzanne, Kathy,

Antoinette, what are you doing here?

If there is the bread of life in our lives, If there's living

water flooding through the city even though we're surrounded,

His word will be a lamp to our feet and a lot to our path.

And because of that, because we laid a hold of Him, when He

passes us by, we won't be those whinging.

We'll be those walking on water. The most important thing about

you is your quiet time. It is your Ground Zero with your

relationship with your Heavenly Father, and I want to encourage

you to dig deep. Dig those tunnels in the private

place, feast on Him and let His Word be a lot to your path, lent

to your feet.