The Path of Purpose Part 2 - God's Plan Revealed

To continue...
As I already said there was no one sitting anywhere near me, in fact the closest person was at least twenty metres from where I sat.
Who spoke to me?
Well you maybe would accuse me of being drunk or perhaps mad but the fact is I was totally sober and in my right mind and I heard a voice.
Who can speak and not be seen?
Additional to that I later found out that the words spoken to me were out of the Bible and I now know that the Bible are the words of God given to man. The words were spoken with authority so who is most likely to speak with words from the Bible with an authority that sounded like the author?
It had to be God Himself.
So what is the point of this?
There are two things that impacted me.
The first is that God spoke to me. Me!
Now I had never experienced a God who was happy to speak to me. This was an immense thing to me because it gave me a major indication that God wanted to have a relationship with me.
Now I'm pretty slow but I do know that communication is a vital and necessary aspect of relationship. I was stoked that the God who I thought spent most of His time in condemnation of me (for my actions I have to say) was willing to speak to me. Is it possible He wasn't who I thought He was. Had I got Him wrong. Did He actually have an interest in me? This was my first encounter with a God who wanted me in His family. I knew the theory, Jesus is the way to God so I didn't need convincing of that. I knew all the fact that this was the only way to avoid a lost eternal future but that wasn't the point, this was my moment of salvation because this was when I found a God that cared about me and wanted to connect with me.
The word He used suggested that He did care. 'I will restore' suggested that He wanted to fix it. 'I will restore the years the locusts have eaten' suggested He was prepared to put it all behind Him. It suggested that He had something else in store. Was there a plan? A plan suggested that He was interested. Did the plan suggest something better? Was there a purpose for me? This was God, if God says He would restore surely it would be something good!
Hindsight gives me the opportunity to say this here but the wheels were in motion, not my wheels but God's wheels for me. We were on our way. After so many years of trouble and strife, disappointment and frustration there was the glimpse of something better. A life with purpose perhaps?
The following six weeks were momentous. When God starts creating things happen. Within six weeks my wife, never been to church in her life, except for special or unfortunate occasions, was also a Christian. That's a story in itself.
This post is entitled Cambodia WTL Incorporated. Remember it started with me alluding to what I have been doing over the last months?
The next event was in April 2001. I went to Cambodia. The church I was connected to decided they needed to do some 'mission' and a connection had been made with the church in Cambodia. Out of that came a mission trip to Cambodia which I could join.
I had no money but what I had I used to join the trip. I didn't know why. My wife was pretty mad and had her own 'conversation' with God about it. I didn't do much on the trip except carry the bag of the Pastor but there was an incident that I need to share.
God spoke again.
We were going to visit a church in Kampong Spue (good name!) and the road was of sufficient decay to require a 4WD utility vehicle. I sat in the back. It was baking hot and our Pastor had required that we wear long trousers and long shirt sleeves. It was very dusty. I forgot my hat although I did borrow a cap.
We were travelling along and this voice comes again. Now there were people nearby but I recognised the voice this time. The voice said "I am giving you this country as your mission field".
Pardon?
Are you sure?
I returned to Australia as one confused puppy.
My mind was filled with questions...How? When? Why? How? How? How?
Four weeks later a man came to speak at our church. He was a missionary. He got up and said words to this effect..."My message is it doesn't matter How, Why or When, your only responsibility is to be available...If anyone is available then come to the front."
I went. In fact Usain Bolt wouldn't have beaten me there!
In that one moment I was released of the burden of questions and made myself available to God's life of purpose.
So what happened next ?