It was April and I was on my way to the airport to catch a plane to Dallas, Texas.  The Lord was calling me there, I knew it! Yet, my familiar panic attacks had gotten hold of me; the enemy was determined to keep me from meeting my destiny.  My mom and sister were sitting with me in our car parked in the Walmart parking lot by the airport and I was still in the throes of a panic attack.

My Mom and Kristi were so patient and loving. I was trying to go for a long weekend at an event in Dallas called The Mix, a taste of what Master’s Commission was all about. These wonderful women finally turned to me and asked the big question, “What do you want to do Zach?”  

Wow! What a question!!  ‘What do you want to do?’ It was a huge question!

I had to tell them what had been consuming my heart.  Trembling, I opened my mouth and the words started tumbling out!

“ I feel that God is saying that I have to go to this thing in Dallas, that something is going to take place there that HAS to take place. I feel like God is saying that if I don’t do this, my calling – God’s will for my life – is going to be altered. It’s all going to change. At the same time  I feel like I could go back home, become a Pastor in my hometown and still do great things but my heart knows it will never be what it could have been. I feel this so strong in my spirit!”

My sister and mother listened carefully to every word.  “Well, lets pray about it  Zach. Let’s pray.”   We turned towards each other and just started praying.  My family are true warriors in the Spirit and my mom and sister are such incredible women in my life!  They started praying with fire over me, powerful prayers that lined up to God’s Word! Straight up pentecostal praying!

These women of God were truly feeling for me, feeling my anxiety and my fear.  They were breaking apart with me, but they were calling down every angel to help me and encourage me.  They pleaded with God,  “Please show him God!  Show him that he can do this!  Please! “  My sister Kristi was praying up a storm and then just stopped! Everything grew silent for a moment. Quietly she began to talk to me, “Zach , I believe God just gave me a vision.  In this vision I saw two cliffs that were a distance apart from each other and there was this old, rickety, wooden and rope bridge connecting the two.”  I listened intently, “ Zach, you just said that if you go back home, if you go back across this bridge, your very destiny that God has called up for you to do; His perfect will for you is going to be altered. You’re here now.”  I was holding my bible, my hands gripping for dear life.   “So Zach,”  her voice began to get louder and louder, “Don’t even give yourself the opportunity to go back!  BURN THAT BRIDGE!  BURN THAT BRIDGE!  BURN IT NOW!  DON’T EVEN GIVE YOURSELF THE CHANCE TO GO BACK!  BURN IT NOW ZACH! “ The fire in her voice told me these words came from the Holy Spirit. “BURN IT ZACH!!!  BURN IT NOW!!!”   Peace settled over the car.

My mom softly looked at me, knowing that I had to make this decision for myself. Both my mom and Kristi knew that whatever I do in life, it has got to be ME that does it. This decision could not be “mommy’s” decision anymore.  Mom gazed at me and asked the question once more,

“So Zach, what do you want to do?”

I remember looking down to the floor with so much fear.  I answered as best I could, “Drive to the airport. Lets just go to the airport.” I had my Bible out and dove into the Word.  The same darkness that had come after me my Junior year was creeping up on me once again, trying to keep me from what God was calling me to do. Once again, I wasn’t going to let my face outside of the the Word of God.

As we were leaving the Walmart parking lot,  there was a stop light with a restaurant on the right. As we were turning towards the stoplight, my Mom again started to pray.  “God, please put your Angels all around my son and please God just show him that you are with him!  God, please, just let Zach know that you are here and that you care.”

After saying Amen, I looked over to my right at the restaurant.   We were sitting at that stoplight and my gaze fell on a car directly to my right. On their license plate, in abbreviated form, were the words, “GOD CARES”.

“Look!!”  Kristi and my Mom were as stunned as I was.  “See!  See Zach!  God is here, God is with you!  He Cares! ”

I believe one of the most important lessons I have ever learned on this supernatural walk with God was the absolute fact that God will send you signs and uses everything in the universe to send them.  We tend to believe those signs are complicated but they are usually pretty simple.  When you need an answer from God, when you call upon Him for help or compassion or healing, He will be there. He will show you if you look.  The sign that day, a license plate saying “God Cares” showed me that God was in this battle with me.  I felt it; I knew it.  That sign was the rope I took hold of.  It stopped me from falling, but now I had to fight to get myself back up on the mountain.