MY MARATHON - Part TWO -1987

Well last time I mentioned how Mark Chironna came into the house after the meeting and gave me a private word, which was connected I think, to the public word he gave me during the meeting. I have concluded that this Saul/David thing he prophesied has a long term rather than a short term application.  Particularly because I have experienced a series of experiences that line up with this word first given in October of 1987.

The purpose of this blog post is to lay out the manifestation of this word that came to pass 3 weeks later in November of 1987. As I drove Mr. Chironna to his in-laws' house that night, my mind was swirling with all the words and the corresponding concepts that I had heard.

• Was I really in a David/Saul relationship? 
• What were the spears I was supposed to dodge?
• How do I keep from throwing them back? 
• Was I going to use my newly prophesied skills to negotiate?
• Was my boss going to try to kill me?
• physically? probably not
• emotionally? perhaps
• spiritually?  not possible
• financially? it appeared so 
• What about all these good things to look forward to? 
• Why did I have to work so hard?
• Why do people misunderstand me?
• What does it mean the days ahead?
• next month?
• next year?
• 5 years? 
• 10 years?
• 20 years?
• 26 years?
• All of the above?

 I returned to work the next morning, things seemed okay, I was probably looking for a Saul spirit to manifest, right off the bat. There had always been a sense of control at this company. The owner stated on more than one occasion, that before he was saved, they called him the tiger. He seemed proud of that, he didn't take no for an answer. Of course now he was saved, but he still kept the tiger suit, at the ready.

A quick time line of my life during this season.

• Hired in February of 1985
• Worked without a regular salary from - Nov 86-Apr -87
• Closed on our first house in Rosemount - Oct 22, 1987
• Mark Chironna gives the word - Oct 25, 1987
• Exhorted to leave and go to the church full time -  November 15, 1987
• No income, a brand new house, first ever mortgage payment December 1, with no income...

Gary came into the office on November 15th and said he had a dream and it reminded him of a project, several years previous in his garage, where he poured new cement next to old cement and it didn't bond to the old cement.  He tried it three times and it never bonded properly, He said, God told him you are trying to cast David in your image and I will not allow that. He prayed about what to do and said the Lord told him, that I should be going to work full time at my church.

While that had been in my heart, the pastor at my church had never invited me to come on staff. I was an elder, there was no money in the budget to pay for an associate pastor. But I had a witness in my heart, even though I felt there was some manipulation in it on Gary's part. I immediately went to my church office and walked into pastor Bob's office and told him what had just happened... remember the pastor was there when Mr. Chironna delivered the word in the first place just 21 days earlier. 

The pastor were very close at that time and I thought I would bounce the idea of of him, he said a few things that surprised me:

1. Bob's wife had received a prophetic word from the Lord, that I was coming to the church, sooner than they thought, and in a way that they could not imagine. I was to be their associate pastor. 
2. Bob said with tears in his eyes, he didn't think God loved him enough to send me to work next to him

He mentioned that there was no salary in the budget, I told him the confirming prophetic word was good enough for me. After all I had just lived six months of the previous year with little compensation and no steady salary. In the middle of that God told us we were going to be in a house the following fall and we laughed at the thought. But we also went looking and as soon as we did I started receiving a regular paycheck again. We saved 10,000 in four months and we were in a new house that fall. 

Now only four weeks after closing on our miracle house we had no job, no income and I went to work at the church for nothing. I paid my own gas to get to work and home again. 

So that was my first hand experience of a Saul/David relationship. No one could have convinced me that I would be going through the same process with my pastor only three years later... Continued in part three.