An Ahava Adventure - Steve Martin - Bog

It all started back in October 2018 when I made, what I thought was going to be the finishing one, my last trip to Israel. Since my inceptive journey in 1987 with the first ministry I served with, Mahesh Chavda Ministries (living at the time in Fort Lauderdale, Florida), I had since that time made 19 trips to the Holy Land, the Promised Land of the Jews. This October 2018 trip was my 20th, and just prior to going I had decided it would be my last. A few months ahead of this trip, discouragement had come upon me, and I felt I could no longer continue the work of the ministry, Love For His People, which my good wife Laurie and I had founded in April 2010. That had been, quite literally, following the inspiration of the Lord Jesus, after I had continually cried out to Him for many years, wanting "my own vineyard." It was a dream of myself, like others, to be "fulltime" in ministry, but after the longevity serving under the leadership of others, I longed for my own.That can happen to one after serving long and hard for and with three other well-known men (and their wives) in their ministries.Oh, how the Lord loves us. Oh, how He leads us in His paths of righteousness for His Name's sake. Oh, how He directs our steps and leads us in the way we are to go. He is Faithful, and He who called us is ever True. He does not ever give up on us.Sometime during the latter part of those 10 days in October 2018, walking by myself down the ancient streets of Jerusalem's Old City to visit friends and familiar sites; traversing the bustling sidewalks and side streets of the newSometime during the latter part of those 10 days in October 2018, walking by myself down the ancient streets of Jerusalem's Old City to visit friends and familiar sites; traversing the bustling sidewalks and side streets of the new portions since 1948 when Israel's declared its independence as a nation once again; or riding the light rail train from Jaffa Street to the end-of-the-line drop off point, near the Yad Vashem's (Holocaust Museum) entrance, the Holy Spirit spoke to me. It was a clear word, though not audibly. But being His friend too, I knew it was Him."This is not your last trip to Jerusalem. In fact, from now on you will be coming twice a year.""I will?" I responded skeptically, internally. "And if so, then You are going to have to help me pay for it. I cannot.""You do as I say out of obedience. I will take care of the provision." He made sure I understood what He had just said, with a firm, "make sure you get this" response, but with plenty of hope, faith, and love covering His words.That was then. And today, as I write these first words of my next prophesied book (#25!) on September 11, 2019, Wednesday early morning at my home near south Charlotte, North Carolina (the day when Americans remember the attack of 9-11, 18 years later), the plans have been tediously put together for my 22nd trip back to Israel, and our Lord's beloved city of Jerusalem, it's capital, and His chosen people dwelling there. And coming along with me this time are three other men.I will tell you that story as time goes by, as you read of the "rest of the story" - as Paul Harvey, the Chicago area radio and TV man, liked to say decades ago. But what follows is just an inkling of what is yet to come.