Can God Really Supply My Needs?

In 1998 I was the music director for a worship conference in Vancouver, B.C. called ‘Canada Arise’. ‘Canada Arise’ was an annual worship conference that was held in Glad Tidings Church where I was the Music Pastor. During the conference a number of people asked me for copies of the charts (brass, vocal and rhythm) that I did for my own worship band and the various guest worship leaders who came. One of the people who asked me was, Ryan Dahl, a young worship pastor who was also looking for a business to start.

Later Ryan asked if he could sell my charts. I was happy to let him sell the charts… but only if he got all the legal permissions and did the business part. I was only interested in writing music. In the beginning he would fax the music to other worship leaders but around that time, the idea of an internet business was just taking off.

Very soon after that Ryan started Praisecharts.com. He would take my charts, make them into pdf files and sell them through an ever growing network of worship leaders on the internet. Very quickly Praisecharts grew into a full fledged business with salaries and royalties for Ryan, myself and other employees.

In the fall of 1999 the Lord indicated to me that I should resign from my position at Glad Tidings. I assumed that I would just work full time writing music for Praisecharts. It was hard for me to think about not leading worship in a church but I couldn’t shake the idea that I was supposed to resign by February, 2000. So I put in my resignation.

Leaving a church is always a hard thing to do. I had built up relationships with all the musicians. And in this case, it was even harder. I had grown up in Glad Tidings and many of the worship band members had been my friends since I was a teenager. We had also recorded three original worship CD’s (‘To You Lord’, ‘God Is My Rock’, and ‘Move In This City’) while I was on staff there. But when God begins to move you, even if all the details don’t make immediate sense, I’ve learned to follow.

Through a series of events, I ended up leaving Glad Tidings a few months early. And in January, 2000 I was at home thinking… ‘What have I done?’.. ‘I love leading congregations in worship!’… “What am I doing at home just writing music?” I have got to admit that I was not a happy camper! I was having serious doubts about what was happening.

Then out of nowhere, I got a phone call from an evangelist that had ministered at Glad Tidings a few times. Charles Ndifon asked me if I would fly to Copenhagen in February and lead worship for a week of meetings he was doing there. So I accepted his invitation and the next month I was on a flight to Denmark.

What happened next was remarkable! That week of meetings are the most incredible that I have ever experienced. We had meetings twice a day and every day thousands of people indicated that they wanted to know more about Jesus. (for the rest of that story, please read my blog: ‘Can God Touch A Nation?’). At the end of the week, Charles asked me if I wanted to this some more. I, of course, could hardly wait.

For the next six plus years, I was boarding an airplane every other week to lead worship in countries like Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Holland, England, Germany, Finland, Switzerland, Austria, Iceland, Australia, the US, Canada, Nigeria, Zimbabwe and Uganda. We saw tens of thousands of people from all over the world come to faith in Jesus and thousands also healed. In Denmark alone, over 75,000 people come to the Lord.

In between meetings and when I was at home, I would write music for Praisecharts. The Praisecharts income and the income that I received from selling my three original worship CD’s from Glad Tidings were my main income. I did receive honorariums from the meetings.. but they would have never been enough to support my family at home in Langley.

God already knew about His plans for me to travel around the world, leading worship. He knew the finances that I needed even before I knew. God had setup my Praisecharts income and He had also lead me to record those Glad Tidings Worship CD’s.

God knew my needs before I did…

Question: What needs do you have in your life? Can you share a story of God’s provision in your life?

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