Excerpts from Chapter 3 – A Whole Lot o’ Shakin’ Goin’ On
Our lives have different seasons. Often, our dream, our vision, our mission is completed and God is ready for us to move on to the next season. We feel the chill, but we also feel a warm wind blowing in another direction. It is time to move on and it is time to battle new giants that stand in our way. Your next dream and your greater inheritance is waiting, and it will be yours, depending on the size of the adversary you are willing to fight.
I was speaking at a small church in Central Oklahoma in October of 1977. Following my dream, and flying in a small plane, I had spent the past seven years making concert appearances at churches, campuses, auditoriums and other such venues.
Lately I had been very discouraged. I had been doing these concerts now for a number of years, but I could not understand why my concentration and passion for this work seemed to be diminishing. Everything had begun to seem redundant. Each audience and every small town took on the same appearance. My creativity seemed stifled. I wasn’t writing fresh music and I needed a breath of fresh air spiritually it seemed.
Doors seemed to be closing weekly. Financial struggles had caused many of our financial backers to withdraw their support. I had signed a record contract with Word Records for a second album, but again due to economic restraints they had exercised an option to back out. I wanted my life to count for something, but I seemed to be spinning my wheels, and I sensed my concert ministry would soon come to an end.
That afternoon I prayed that somehow God would give me the grace to face this small congregation that night with a special message just for them. I asked God to reach out to someone even though I was distracted by an inner turmoil. I did not mention to anyone my personal struggles.
After the meeting, I noticed a rather shy young woman standing by, waiting to talk to me. As I turned to face her, I saw tears in her eyes.
She said: “Jim, God has given me a message for you.”
I tried to disguise my skepticism. I asked her to share God’s message with me while I prepared myself to politely listen to her.
But her words stunned me. She said: “God wants you to not be discouraged. Your life is not wasted, and soon you will minister to multitudes whose faces you have not seen, and whose names you do not even know!”
Since she had not been told a word about my current personal struggles, this message seemed totally miraculous. But just then a thought silently entered my skeptical mind: “Hmm, I bet she says that to every visiting speaker”.
But just then she added these words: “I’m so excited. This is the first time God has ever given me a message for anyone!”
As I fought back the tears, I realized that this young woman, who certainly did not fit the stereotypical prophet mold, had suddenly reminded me that God knew exactly where I was, and that He had plans for my life that I could not imagine.
I said to her: “You don’t know how much I needed to hear those words.”
I hugged her tearfully and thanked her. I would not forget how God had sent that message when I really needed to hear it, and I could not have imagined how prophetic her words would prove to be in coming years.
Soon, the whole direction of my life changed. I had been flying for several years and I loved aviation. I had also worked part time at an aircraft painting company in Waco, Texas when I was not traveling, and I had developed a fascination for this type of work. I seemed to be a natural at it. I picked up the techniques of aircraft exterior refinishing quickly and found that I had a passion for it. Somehow, this type of work brought wholeness into my life that was marvelous and unmistakable.
Indeed, doors for my music and recording ministry closed, but my new love for painting aircraft grew. A new dream was being birthed in my heart, but I resisted it. How could aircraft painting, something that I loved so much, possibly be part of God’s plan for my life? I feared that this was a distraction from what God had really called me to do.
Nevertheless, Carla and I needed an income, so in 1978, with only $120 in my bank account and no credit history, I started a small aircraft painting company. I did not have a business degree, but I did have some training and natural talents, and I was a pilot and understood aircraft. The book of Proverbs was my guide for business, and I worked hard because I was motivated.
Nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. We had to fight many battles as the enemy sought to derail my dream (detailed in the coming chapters), but through it I learned how faithful God is, and my life became like a tree planted by streams of water. (Psalm 1) My life took on a supernatural nature like never before, and the business grew beyond my imagination.
Realizing that this business, which seemed to “light up my life”, could eventually create wealth to be channeled into ministries everywhere, I finally allowed my passion to be unleashed toward my new goals. I felt God’s pleasure in i