The Faith Hunt
The “Faith Hunt” story shared in the video above (filmed by Keesee Ministries - FaithLifeChurch.org) is a chapter in a much bigger story.
I’m not a deer hunter and neither is my husband Craig, so I wouldn’t have expected a book about deer hunting to become part of our faith story. But when I lost something precious, the faith hunt began.
After 20+ years of singing and writing songs, one day I suddenly couldn’t sing anymore. A series of health issues led to me trying some natural hormone therapy that went awry in my body, and my vocal cords became a casualty. My singing voice…quite literally…croaked.
I could have done what I always did before… tried to fix things. Figure it out. In this case, find a way to restore what was lost.
But I realized that if God gave me this precious thing to begin with, He must have had good reason for letting it be taken away. So, in the midst of my loss when He whispered, “Be still and know that I AM GOD (Psalm 46:10), “ I surrendered. I said, “OK.” I decided to trust that this was for my good (Romans 8:28), that His way is better than my way, and I prayed for His next steps.
It was the genesis of a faith hunt that continues to this day, starting with two surprising things brought into my path:
1. Beginning to use and learn about therapeutic-grade essential oils (my favorite part of the learning was exploring the Biblical history!), and
2. A book about deer hunting.
You’ll have to read Gary Keesee’s FAITH HUNT book yourself to find out why, and how, it opened my eyes to new understanding that’s waaaaay above-and-beyond deer hunting. But you’ll get a glimpse in our story video (above) of its faith-forging “Kingdom” revelation that led our family to the land we now live on.
I say “a glimpse” because there is a lot more to our faith hunt story than what you see in this short video. There’s only so much of a story that can be captured in 8 minutes…so in this blog, I’ll dig a little deeper to share more of the story-within-the-story.
From Dream House to Dream Home
While we were very blessed and fortunate to be able to build and live in our dream house shown at the beginning of our video story, the process of our faith hunt actually expanded our thinking to dreaming beyond our dream house. And it wasn’t because we wanted more stuff, a bigger yard, or a better location (although as Craig mentioned in the video, the growing traffic where we used to live was definitely a factor!). Simply put, our dream house was perfectly dreamy.
But there was a different kind of dream expansion happening in our hearts and minds through the Faith Hunt we had entered into. As we both (first me, then Craig) came into agreement with where God wanted to take us, He began leading us to reach beyond ourselves, our family, and our little bubble of life we lived in. We began to think about our dream home as not just a place with all the dreamy things we wanted for our family and for our life, but more importantly -- how it (and we) could be a part of a faith hunt in other people’s lives. When we both came into agreement over the prayer I wrote (shared in the video story), we were essentially saying, “God, If this idea of finding land and creating a completely different type of home is really from YOU and it’s what YOU want us to do, we are both open to it…give us Your confirmation.”
Within days, Craig was suddenly open to the idea without me saying another word about it. The Holy Spirit touched his heart and shifted his thinking. When you make a choice to “seek first the Kingdom of God” (Matthew 6:33) — emphasis added on first — in any situation, putting what GOD wants first and foremost is a key that opens the door to HIS way of thinking. We both began to understand that we actually have a Kingdom purpose. What’s more, we began to care about our Kingdom purpose and the Kingdom purpose of others!
Kingdom Purpose Building
Our old dreams began giving way to new ones. Dreams built on God’s blueprint and plans for our life, with greater room to grow beyond the borders of our self-focused limits, became our unified intention. As we explored new real estate potentials, God brought a new vision into focus which became, eventually, our new land and our new build…with uniquely special spaces now being used for “Kingdom purposes” (examples of which are shared in our video story).
It was not easy. It has come with much hard work and many challenges. When you begin living your life with Kingdom purpose in mind, you can expect the adversary of God and His Kingdom to suddenly bring fierce roadblocks. But we’ve learned that Kingdom purpose building goes hand-in-hand with Kingdom character building, and in Him we can be overcomers of anything we encounter (John 16:33)…. so that His Kingdom [will] come, His will [shall] be done, on earth as it is in heaven. (Matthew 6:10)…right here, right now, in our little corner of heaven on earth.
At the end of our video story are the words LIVING THE GOOD LIFE. Our faith hunt has taught me that living the good life is living the GOD life. It is not without its ups and downs and obstacles. But through it all, God is GOOD and when we’re living our life with Him in charge, His GOODNESS is with us no matter what. And there is nothing more adventurous, more fulfilling, or more rewarding than living the life God created us for! I hope our “Faith Hunt” story inspires you to begin living the GOD life, too!
reSOURCEs:
Gary Keesee’s FAITH HUNT book
Faith Life Church (home of Keesee Ministries)
Essential Oils that helped heal my singing voice
Voice from the Vault: More about my lost-and-found voice
Kingdom Vision Quest: How God led me to create a NEW kind of vision board in order to begin ‘seeing’ my Kingdom purpose.
Connie Nichols, Realtor - guest blog Q&A interview