The current state of things

First of all, I want to start out with a prophetic word I received back in December 2006 from Ivan Allum. Everyone can read this, but this blog is specifically for people from Hope for Homeless Youth to read.

Ivan Allum: Lord, father, I thank you for Joey, Lord, the heart and
the passion of this young fellow, Lord, the stirring that flows from
him, Lord, the passion that you have birthed in this young man. You
know, Joey I see all around you, I see a wonderful heart, I see a
wonderful passion, I see a young man who has just cried out, saying
"God, I want more, I want more, I want more, I want more, I want
more". You know Joey, I'm gonna help you out here. You know, I see
what this is like, you know you've been in this place, it's just like
spinning the bottle saying "Lord, where do I go, what do I do? Lord,
how do I get to the next place?" You know, Joey, there's a call of
ministry on your life. You've known that. You have felt that inside
you and you say "God, I don't know what to do next." Joey, I've got a
number of things for you. FIrst of all, you need to go to a school of
ministry. You know, I want to suggest Bill Johnson's school. You
know, you have been crying out saying "God, I don't know where to go"
You know, Joey, I need to tell you, you know what, the Lord says "I
want to provide finances, but" the Lord says "son, you've got to
ask." You know, not just the Lord, the Lord says you've gotta start
going around and you've got to say "Hey God, I'm gonna be accountable
to my finances, I've got to talk to somebody that's going to help me
get my finances together, but then I'm also gonna go to my church,
and I'm going to ask them 'Hey, would you be willing to write me a
letter to say Hey, could you help me, could somebody be willing to
sponsor me for a year, would somebody want to sponsor me with 50 bucks
a month." You know, Joey, I just see all around you that there's
desire, there's call on your life, the lord is saying "I want to birth
these things out of you, but there's been fear of rejection around
you, there's been a fear of stepping forward, there's been a fear of
"God, I don't know what to do'" and I see all around you, Joey, that
the Lord says "You know, son, I've got to pull a number of things
together, and you've got to pull some too. Number one, son, you've
got to become a good steward of your finances, you've got to become a
steward that is putting stuff away, you've got be be, you know,
banking it in". Son, I don't tell everybody this word, ok, I don't
tell them how to do, but I'm just sharing with you what God is saying,
God is saying "Son, I know that you want to go, I know that you're
willing, and I know that you have desire." The Lord says " Son, if
you're going to get other people involved" because you know the Lord
wants to bless you, but the Lord says "if you want to get other people
involved, you've got to show them that you're going to be a steward of
what's God's. Amen? Son, I see all around you, I see music all over
you, you know, I saw you playing the guitar, and, you know, I'm a firm
believer that God has anointing and you know, somebody's going to
pick them up. You know, and a lot of times the world picks up God's
anointing in music, you know Jimmy Hendrix was one of those guys, ya
know, he'd play guitar with his teeth, and you know, that wasn't his
anointing, that was an anointing that was put out there for the
worshippers of God and you know, son, I see that anointing over you,
and the Lord said "Will you pick it up?" It doesn't matter how bad
you suck or how good you are. The Lord says "it's a matter of the
heart and what you will put into it" and the Lord says "Son, you know,
I want to raise up that worshipper out of you. I want to raise up
that young man that's going to allow the Lord to sing through his
instrument." You know, I know this young fellow and he plays electric
guitar and when he's playing in his own ability, eh, it' s not so bad,
alright, but when the spirit of the Lord flows on him, man, Hendrix
himself couldn't keep up. It's absolutely amazing! And I've heard
God sing out of his instrument, and the Lord says "son, I want to draw
that out of you, I want to draw passion out of you, I want to draw
that heart of worship that flows from you,, okay? And I don't know if
you play yet or not..."

Joey: I play synthesizer...

Ivan: Ok, well that might be your instrument
Joey: I've been wanting to learn guitar

Ivan: I want you to know this, it doesn't matter if it's guitar or
synthesizer, the Lord says "pick up your instrument, son, and call
down the heavens. Allow what flows in to flow out." Son, I see all
around you, the Lord saying "Press in, start making the steps to go
into the next level." Okay? How old are you, 19? 20?

Joey: I'm 26

Ivan: OK, the Lord says "son, it's time to start moving forward now,
alright? Get the finances in order, start selling off stuff, whatever
it costs. It's going to cost you something. " Alright? I know you've
been there and you've been floundering around like a fish in a boat
that just got pulled out of the water and saying "God, where do I go?
I don't want to go back there, but this isn't good either." The Lord
says "son, I want to start raising you up." Okay? I've given you a pretty
direct word, you know, and I usually hold those off, alright? So,
keep pressing in, alright?

This word had confirmed, just a couple of days after my pastor had suggested it, that I was supposed to go to Bethel. And then in March of 2007 I have a prophetic word from someone from Zadok House of Prayer that also confirms this.

Fast foward to today. I move to Redding, go to school but have to drop out due to the finances not working out. Then I get a job for a short time, intending on saving money to go back to school in the fall, lose the job, and decide to go to Los Angeles to help out with Hope for Homeless Youth because I'm not sure I can get another job in Redding soon enough.

Wait a second! I moved to Los Angeles? When it was confirmed several times that I needed to be in Redding to be trained and equipped?

I really don't believe God would have me go to school to not complete it. And I've been convicted. The Holy Spirit has told me I left out of fear and didn't want to fight. Yes, God allowed me to but it wasn't what God wanted for me. Yes, God has forgiven me and I've repented. And part of that repentance means I need to go back to Redding and do what God had put on my heart. Maybe I won't be able to go back to school this fall, but definitely the next.

And now people here at Hope for Homeless Youth are trying to convince me to stay here now that I've made the decision to go back to Redding. The pastor hasn't done this but other people in the ministry are doing this. I beg of you, please stop! However, I know you will continue to do so anyway. It's all a waste of time though.

Some people will say I need to stay in and go through the warfare, and will say that in Redding I didn't have the warfare that they do down here. Oh, there's warfare in Redding! It's a bunch of BS if you say there's not warfare. It's a different type of warfare in Redding. It's trusting God to provide, and not running out when things go wrong like loosing your job! I haven't had a challenge here at the Dream Center as far as that goes. Yes, there's warfare in other ways, but I have no problem handling that warfare and I want people to know that the warfare is not the reason I want to leave Los Angels. It's because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit.

Speaking of spiritual warfare, you know one reason why the warfare is so difficult here? Because we keep mentioning it. The focus is on the spiritual warfare that's taking place in the first and second heavens. But we're called to live in the third heaven! Our focus should be on God, not on the warfare. Yes, we do warfare. However, we should do it from the third heaven. One mistake people are making here (and many other ministries as well, so I'm not singling out Hope for Homeless Youth) is that people do warfare from first and second heaven, thus pulling down strongholds but pulling them down on themselves. If we do it from the third heaven, we're above the strongholds and we don't pull it down on ourselves. Focus on God, not the warfare!

Back to the original intent of this blog, though. Basically, I have made the decision after praying about it to go back to Redding. Hope for Homeless Youth is a great ministry and I don't mean to speak negatively about it. They're very open to the supernatural things of God. They want more of that. But not everyone is called to Hope for Homeless Youth. Not everyone needs to be there. And right now, I need to be somewhere else. I need to be back in Redding where God had planted me in the first place.