Everyone has a calling to ministry, the service to which God has called all men, women, and even children. It is a tragedy that so few ask, seek, and knock on God's door to discover it when all He wants to do is blow our minds away with what He has prepared for us. From an early age, I dreamed of a day that I would hear God's voice and answer His call just like the men and women of the Bible. I yearned for that day, never knowing when it would come.
That calling did come, but at the tail end of a wilderness experience, one literally in the desert. After the Lord called me from Oral Roberts to the University of Arizona in the Fall of 1996, I fell into near depression. It was partly from suddenly being all alone and partly from a recent break-up at Christmas. It was such a shock to my system going from a place of constant fellowship to a place where I knew no one and where it seemed God was just as unknown.
I tried my hardest to maintain the appearance of keeping it all together. My parents who were pastoring in Bisbee at the time asked me to help them in leading worship. I obliged and was refreshed each weekend. But the experience was short-lived, because as soon as I returned to my Tucson studio apartment, I was reminded of my loneliness. By the time I got involved with Chi Alpha Campus Ministries at the U of A, I was already a shell of what I used to be. I let the depression get the best of me and let it run its course as if I was on a rudder-less ship at the mercy of the doldrums.
My boat sank deeper and deeper into the abyss of dark emotions. When it seemed like all was lost, I felt a tug at the end of my rope. It happened when the Lord opened my eyes to my soul mate, when I met Martha truly for the first time.
If it had not been for the Lord blessing me with Martha, I do not know where I would be today. The Lord's balm worked through her love and dedication to me during the darkest days of my life. May the Lord bless her for putting up with me during the early years of our relationship where I dragged her down it seems just as much as she and the Lord pulled me up.
During those years, I was in no condition for ministry, so I stepped down from leading worship at the former Templo Estrella (now New Life Assembly). Even though I prolonged my restoration by concentrating solely on my young family and schooling instead of my relationship with the Lord, He was true to all of His promises.
Those promises were made clear to me by my Spirit-filled mother several months before coming to Arizona. She reminded me of my calling to ORU while in High School, where I felt certain that I would only be there for two years. Now those two years where reaching their completion. She then told me something I would never forget, "this is what the Lord says, I will give you opportunities, open up doors and bless you beyond your wildest dreams if you come to Arizona." This was significant because my scholarship money had run out and if I stayed any longer it would put my parents in the hole.
At the end of my summer Calculus course at Tulsa Community College, my parents and our friend Mary Louise came to pick me up for a few weeks in Arizona. Somewhere outside of Oklahoma City, I told my mother and Mary Louise that I felt that God was telling me that it was time to leave Oral Roberts and to attend the University of Arizona. I also told them that the time was coming that I would finally pursue my childhood dream of the Navy. So there in the van, I made them witnesses to a fleece before the Lord. The Lord answered my fleece shortly after returning to ORU for what would be my last semester, with a "go home."
True to His word, He blessed me in miraculous ways. First with my greatest blessings - my family of whom I have written so much about. Then came the opportunities and the open doors, all beyond my wildest dreams.
He gave me employment at the Arizona Cancer Center as a student research assistant, at the U.S. Geological Survey for a winter break as an editorial assistant, and then finally at University Medical Center's Department of Pediatrics Lung Injury Lab as a research intern. He blessed me with a minority research grant from the NIH, a scholarship from the American Chemical Society Scholars Program, a fellowship from the U of A Graduate School's Summer Research Institute, an internship through the Undergraduate Biology Research Program, and even a Nasa Space Grant Internship.
He blessed me with good grades and favor with my professors in the Biochemistry and English Department. I had failed both subjects in my junior year in High School, but ended up graduating summa cum laude with a major in Biochemistry and a minor in English Literature and induction into Phi Beta Kappa. The capstone blessings of my educational experience came when the Lord blessed me with a management position in the Lung Injury Lab while still under the NASA Space Grant Program and with acceptance into the U.S. Navy's Baccaleaurate Degree Completion Program.
All of these blessings were nothing short of miraculous. Yet in the midst of God's blessing my obedience to come to Arizona, I exiled myself at the fringes of a deeper relationship with Him. For one thing, I grew despondent of my failure into getting into the Navy's Medical Service Corps in spite of the fact that I God had moved mountains for me to even join the Navy. So there I was imposing a desert in the midst of an oasis, dumping sand into the God's springs and rubbing salt into my old sores. Looking back, I made excuses to be depressed because God's will had not unfolded in the "perfect" manner I had conceived.
As the time grew closer for me to graduate from college, like a prodigal son, I began to look all around me and finally realize just how much I was loved by my Father and how much I had strayed from Him. I took in how much time I had wasted wallowing in my own self instead of spending time with the one who had lavished me with so many gifts.
Sometime in the early Spring of 2000, I repented of my selfishness, disappointments, and "losses." I wasted no time in throwing out those things that did not please God. I began to pray fervently and dig deeply into God's Word. I begged forgiveness of Martha and Danny Boy for the lack of spiritual leadership in the home.
I told Martha that I wanted to drive down to Douglas on the weekends to attend First Assembly of God instead of attending a church in Tucson. First Assembly had enormous sentimental value to the both of us. It was the church where my parents were married, where my Dad was once a deacon, where I had gone to first grade, where Martha had attended through her last two years of high school, and where she had taught Missionettes while attending Cochise College. It had been the youth ministry of First Assembly that brought us together in the first place.
Around that time, I visited the Gospel Supplies Bookstore in Tucson and ran across a book entitled The Mountain of God: The Discovery of the Real Mt. Sinai. I looked at the cover and was intrigued by its claims. I decided to buy it and read it in my spare time at night when Danny Boy and Martha were asleep. Spare time was hard to come by that last semester, because I was working almost full-time, going to school full-time, seeking God full-time, preparing for Officer Candidate School part-time, and making the most of Family time; and all the while driving to Douglas two hours away every weekend to attend First Assembly.
In one of those spare moments, I ran across a couple of paragraphs that made a huge impression on my spirit. That moment will go down in my personal history book as a seminal one, the first flicker of a burning bush experience that has grown in its brilliant significance to this day. Those paragraphs are now quoted as an Amazing But True Story.
In the midst of this personal transformation, the enemy made a last-ditch effort to curb the turning tide in our home and in our walk with God. The Lord revealed this spiritual attack to my mother one night. He awakened her around two or three o'clock in the morning and gave her a vision. In this vision, she saw me covering my head with something that looked like a towel or sheet to pray. The Lord then showed her His glory coming down upon me whenever I did this.
She called me that morning to tell me that the Lord had revealed to her the attack without me saying a word of it and had told her to instruct me on praying with a covering. I had long ago learned that whenever my mom says she has heard from the Lord, I should listen. She has been spot-on 100 percent of the time. The idea was totally foreign to all of us, but I followed her words and began to pray under a towel or sheet.
The Lord was true to His word. After several minutes of humbling myself before the Lord and seeking His face in this manner, He poured out His Spirit upon me and I could feel the hand of the Lord on my head even as He waged war on the enemy. We have since learned that what the Lord showed her was a Jewish prayer shawl (a tallit) and a powerful representation of the Atonement. I may never be able to fully explain this, but then again, I will never be able to explain how the uplifted hands of Moses defeated the Amalekites or how handkerchiefs that touched Paul healed the Ephesians and delivered them from evil spirits.
The Spirit of the Lord was preparing our family for future visitations, spiritual battles, and acts of faith. This was confirmed a month or so later when the empowerment of the Lord thwarted a spiritual attack against my mother and returned to her the power of joy.
Then came the calling that had one of the greatest impacts on my life. As I was praying in the living room of our Tucson apartment, the Lord spoke to me. It was not audibly but in what I would call an "Instant Message." Instant in that it came and was understood instantly and Message in that it was a fully formed idea communicated to my spirit.
It happened on or about the evening of August 4th 2000, two weeks before I was to board a plane for Pensacola Florida where I was to report on August 20th for Officer Candidate School. We had half of our house packed in boxes. We had an apartment waiting for us in Pensacola, electricity scheduled to be turned ON the day my family was to arrive, and our mail scheduled to be forwarded to our Florida address. To my knowledge, I had my orders and my plane ticket waiting to be faxed to me from the Naval Recruiting District in Phoenix.
As I was praying for the Lord's will and strength to make it through the arduous program, the Lord stopped me in mid-prayer. Such a strong electrifying presence filled the living room, that I could not continue praying. The only thing I could do was bow my head down and worship the Lord with everything I had. After a few moments, He said very simply "I am calling you to help the youth in Douglas." That's all He said. Instantly, I understood that He was calling me to lead the youth of First Assembly and to reach out to the youth in Douglas. The message was so clear and unmistakable. All I said was "yes sir, I will do what you have called me to do."
After the manifest presence of the Lord left the room, I quickly ran to the bedroom to wake Martha up to tell her that the Lord had just spoken to me. I managed to get her to sit on the edge of the bed without waking Danny Boy. I said, "Babe, the Lord just spoke to me." Rubbing the sleep from her eyes, she replied "uh and what did He say?" I took a big gulp and said "He is calling us to help the youth in Douglas!"
I was so caught up in the rush and presence of God that I somehow thought it would translate instantly to Martha. Instead, she thought I was absolutely out of my mind: "DANNY, WE ARE MOVING TO PENSACOLA IN TWO WEEKS! HALF THE HOUSE IS PACKED AND WE HAVE OUR MAIL FORWARDING. WHAT ARE YOU TALKING ABOUT? YOU'RE CRAZY. YOU JUST WANT TO BE CLOSE TO YOUR MOM SO YOU CAN EAT HER TORTILLAS."
I told her "Babe, I am not kidding you. The Lord just spoke to me and He is calling us to Douglas! It has nothing to do with my mom's tortillas." She was fed up with the whole conversation and said "I WILL ONLY BELIEVE IT IF THEY CANCEL YOUR ORDERS." With that and absolutely sure of the Lord's calling, I replied "you have said it with your own mouth."
We both went to sleep confident in our positions. Now some people may say that's not how the Lord works. Well, Barnabas and Paul, both mighty men of God, were confident of their positions on a certain young man. Thank God for their disagreement. I believe it has much to do with why we have the Gospel of Mark today.
The next day, we drove down to Douglas so that we could attend First Assembly on Sunday August 6th. As soon as we arrived at my parent's Douglas home, I went to Mary Louise who was then First Assembly's Secretary Treasurer (she lived with my parents who were pastoring in Bisbee at the time). I told her that the Lord had spoken to me and was calling us to Douglas. As crazy as it sounded to my own ears, I told her that if God only wanted us to help the youth out for even just a week, we would do whatever we could to the best of our abilities. However, I told her that I was believing the Lord to move one of the biggest mountains I knew - the U.S. Government.
She said "ok, let's believe God for a miracle" and then told me that she was going to let the Pastor and the Head Deacon know right away that we were willing to help the youth. She also let me know that there was going to be a scheduled board meeting after the evening church service where she could bring it up before the full church board.
That Sunday night I waited anxiously to hear back from Mary Louise. She returned to my parent's home and told me that the board was excited to hear that Martha and I were willing to help the youth. It just so happened that the church board as well as many of the church members were expressing interest to re-launch a full-fledged youth ministry in the church, but were hoping that someone within the church would lead the youth.
Even though I was confident of the Lord's calling, I continued to ready our belongings for the move. Martha and I had even gone to Walmart that weekend to purchase all the personal gear that OCS required of its incoming candidates. I never thought the Lord would cancel Officer Candidate School outright. In my mind, it was only a matter of when He wanted me to attend. So I prepared for an eventual move whenever the Lord would allow.
A week later we were joined by my niece, Cindy Torres, now a missionary in Thailand, to help us in our move and to watch Danny Boy. We had purchased her airfare months before and decided that it would be great to have her visit no matter what God had in mind.
Two days before I was to board a plan for Pensacola, Martha and Cindy were in the kitchen wrapping up the last of our silverware and Tupperware while I was playing with Danny Boy in the living room. The phone rang and Martha answered it. After a couple moments of her talking to the Admin Officer, she called over to me. "Danny, it's Phoenix," she said with an astonished smile. I ran up to the kitchen counter. "You're not going," she said as she passed the phone to me shaking her head. Cindy was in shock as well, giggling an "oh my God..."
I spoke with my friend Dave who gave me all the details. The District Commander was at a total loss. No one understood why at the last minute my orders had been pulled because of medical reasons. Despite the flurry of calls made to process my orders, no one could move the medical review process which was now automatically set in motion. He explained to me that I would have to undergo tests and a physical review board at Naval Hospital Balboa in San Diego. It could be anywhere from six months to a year before I would attend Officer Candidate School and only if I was found to be fit for duty.
I hung up the phone and looked at Martha and Cindy and said "well, I guess the Lord is calling us to Douglas to help the youth." I called my parents and Mary Louise to give them the news. Mary Louise then in turn called the Pastors and the Head Deacon to let them know that we were coming.
Within a few weeks, we had assembled a staff of young adults, started up a full worship band, and come up with a name for our group - Light the Fire!. The Lord had given Martha and me a powerful vision to go with the name. We were to train up the staff and to win, build, and send the youth in Douglas for the Lord. Within a couple of months, we would be a part of an outreach ministry to orphans in neighboring Mexico, would air a television commercial in the Douglas area on several channels, and launch www.lighthefire.com. We designed staff t-shirts and invitation tracts that looked like rave fliers to pass out near the High School, which was just two blocks away from First Assembly.
Our services were full of powerful worship, drama skits, illustrated messages, recreational activities (like laser tag) and food fellowship. Most important of all, the Lord visited us in those services and changed all who were a part of Light the Fire. Today many of our former staff are now leading their own ministries.
So many awesome and supernatural things happened in the span of just six months that it is hard for me to record them all. That was the amount of time, the Lord had given us to "help the youth in Douglas."
Sometime in late December, I sensed that our time was coming to an end. I was shocked at the amount of progress we had made in just a few months, but saddened to know that our part was coming to an end. One afternoon, I went before the Lord under my prayer covering in the same living room He had called us to Douglas. His hand came upon me and I cried to the Lord under a strong anointing. "Lord, how much more time do I have?" I asked. The Lord instant messaged me again, "five weeks, make the most of it with your family."
The next day at the very same hour I had prayed the day before, the Naval Recruiting District called and gave me a report date of February 2nd 2001, just over five weeks from that day. With that, came the end of one chapter and the beginning of a whole new volume of God lighting fires in our lives.
There is a God who answers by fire and there are such things as supernatural callings. Everyone has one. I pray that you ask, seek, and knock on heaven's door to discover it so that He can blow your mind away with what He has prepared for you. Here's to God's hand and call upon your life. Here's to your fire from heaven...
~Cheers!
