John Wimber wrote to me and told me to go see Ken Gulliksen, that he would have a “word from the Lord” for me. At the meeting with Ken, he said he had talked with John Wimber, and that the “word from the Lord” was that He was calling me to be a Vineyard Pastor.
In early January of 1990, I had communications with Ken Gulliksen about going to Anaheim to receive some additional training and coaching for six to twelve months, and then being assigned to plant a church. I left for California, and Sharon stayed to sell the house.
“Land of Anointing”
The first day in Anaheim, Ken Gulliksen took me to lunch, and after a short conversation in the car on the way to eat, he stated that I should find “the land of my anointing”. I could not believe what he was saying. Sharon and I were trying to sell the house and here I was in California after all of the conversations with Ken, and now he is talking about finding the “land of my anointing.” It sounded like gibberish to me. “We need to go see John Paul Jackson”. Ken called from the restaurant and made an appointment with John Paul Jackson for the coming Monday morning.
John Paul Jackson had recently been brought to the Anaheim Vineyard from the Kansas City Fellowship for further training and to be on the staff under John Wimber. We talked about the prophetic being introduced to the Vineyard, and the conflict it was stirring up. So the night before my meeting with John Paul, I was concerned and nervous about laying all of my plans into the “hands” of Ken G. and the new prophetic types of the Vineyard. Before going to sleep that night, I asked the Lord to let me dream and have a good nights sleep.
The Lamb is Born
What a great nights sleep! I woke up in the morning thanking God for two dreams. In the first dream, I was standing watching a lamb being born. It was beautiful. After being delivered, it was nudged by its mother and it stood up on shaky legs, walked shakily, and then began to leap for joy and run around. It was an incredible and beautiful sight to be able to witness this event. The second dream involved my skiing down this terrifically steep hill with lots of moguls. What fun, leaping over and around, with big jumps in the air. At the bottom of the mountain, I realized I was in a valley with no ski lift to take me out. I would have to climb out of this deep valley with my skis. I thought, obviously, that the dream seeing the Lamb born was from the Lord, and that the ski dream was, well, just fun.
On my way out the door, with my hand on the door handle, I asked the Lord, if He wanted to say anything to me through John Paul, to have him use the image of the dream.
Ken introduced me to John Paul and all three of us sat down in John Paul’s office at the Vineyard in Anaheim. I was immediately put at ease. John Paul was a regular guy, and the three of us chit chatted for about five minutes. Then John Paul shifted the conversation and related that over the weekend he had what he described as several instances of “holy remembrances”. He said that several times the Lord caused him to stop what he was doing and think about and remember a time in New England, north of Boston, and very near the New Hampshire border, sitting in a car with a friend, praying that the Lord would raise up a people in this area that would worship Him with their whole heart, soul and mind. He said that this “divine remembrance” was from the Lord and for me, and that the Lord was releasing me to plant a church and that it would spring up like a lamb being born: up and walking and running right away.
I was devastated. I could feel an incredible wave of God come over me. I could not speak and was weeping that God would speak to me like this, confirmed from the dream the night before. Ken began to explain to John Paul that I was coming to Anaheim for training for a period of time. John Paul stated that he sensed the Lord was releasing me right away, but if I wanted to come to California, it would probably be real fun. The only problem, he said, was that it might be a long climb out of the valley after getting here.
The Lord had used both dreams!
The following are recollections of the rest of the meeting. I felt waves come over me as John Paul and Ken talked and prophesied over me. At some points feeling as though I would pass out. He said that the Lord had this call on my life and had saved me from death when I was 21 years old, bringing holy people into my life, and setting me on a course to meet Sharon at the same time having prepared her.
Waves came over me again thinking about my miraculous healing from a car accident when I was twenty-one, Father Ermilich praying for me every day in intensive care, and one year later introducing me to Sharon at Mt. Snow in Vermont at the Smoke Rise Inn while on a ski week.
“You have been anointed to call people together …to give birth to what the Lord has called you to. All of this time and all of this frustration, you are now coming into the time the Lord has been preparing you for. There is no doubt the Lord’s anointing is on you…and has led you to this point. There is a divine pulling you toward this. Paul Cain and Bob Jones would see the same thing…the Lord’s anointing is all over you… it would be visible to anyone with this gift ..” John Paul said three times that there was something the Lord really liked about me and was very pleased.
I can’t remember exactly what he said, but I think it had to do with frustration with church leadership, love and transparency…something like that, but I am not sure. I was so overwhelmed with the reality of Lord speaking to me like this that I could hardly breathe for the weeping. Both Ken and John Paul thought my weeping was quite humorous. They did not know about the dreams and my asking the Lord to confirm if He was speaking through John Paul.
I checked out of the hotel and went to the airport to get a flight back home to Newburyport. Every half hour or so another “wave” would come over me and I would have to sit down, incredibly weak and weeping. I called Sharon from the airport to tell her what had happened and that I was coming home to Newburyport, and that was where we were to plant the church. Sharon said, excitedly, that she knew that all the time.
During our conversation, I collapsed, again, weeping in the phone booth.