3ABN Spring Camp Meeting 2013: Showers of Blessings

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Three Angels Broadcasting Network (3ABN)

Dwight Nelson

I Will Do a New Thing

Nobody knows me like you do, O God." What a God.

Because He knows us the way He does and still loves us.

That's the amazing, amazing truth, in spite of what He knows.

Sometimes the Holy Spirit calls an audible.

It's when you change the plan on the spot.

I was doing some reflecting and studying and had some time to pray this afternoon, late afternoon, And the Holy Spirit called an audible, said, I'm changing your plans.

So I'm gonna go with what he's laying on my heart.

That last piece in this little miniseries, you can get it.

There'll be a few others there in the archives, as well.

Oswald Chambers was the 1 who wrote, When God gives a vision, you must transact business along that line.

And I'm in the middle of a five-week-old story right now.

And so I'm going to pray with you and then just pick it right up where we are at Andrews University and the Pioneer Memorial church as we speak.

There's nobody that knows us like you do, and you love us.

We are not worthy of Calvary's outpouring.

You have paid an infinite price to win our minds, our hearts, our bodies, our all.

But we cannot forget, as the theme of this camp meeting on the backdrop behind me reminds us, there's not only an outpouring that came at Calvary.

There is to be 1 more outpouring at the end of time.

Connect those 2 outpourings in these few moments together and pour out into us, we humbly pray.

We just finished a school year at Andrews University.

Had a great school year, another busy 1, and the reality of, I've been on that campus now for 30 years.

I'm gonna tell you very, very much up front, I love that university.

If you trace it back, you can go Andrews University, Emmanuel Missionary College, Battle Creek College.

It's Battle Creek College in a new location.

So it's been an honor, a humbling honor, to serve there these past 3 decades.

But after 30 years, A restlessness is bound to stir up your mind and your spirit, and you're saying, God, what else would you like to do?

We got a big church board meeting that night.

We finished our staff meeting, and our youth pastor is in my office, Michael Goetz, who preached for me today at Pioneer.

I forget what led us into conversation, but he stuck his head in the office, and we're talking.

And somehow the conversation turns to, what is God going to do next?

What could God do to raise the bar so high that Nobody could say, I have my fingerprints on that.

It was Daniel Burnham, the great Chicago architect, the World's Fair back at the turn of the century.

You remember 1890s, the Chicago World's Fair.

Daniel Burnham, who made the statement, Make no small plans, for they do not contain the magic to stir men's souls.'" When it comes to God, you need a God-size vision, don't you?

We're standing in a ministry that was raised up because of a God-sized vision, aren't we?

So, Michael and I are talking, and he says, you know, Dwight, wouldn't it be something if there's some way we could turn this campus into missionaries who are reaching the lost right here, and, yeah, boy, wouldn't that be?

And a split second later, there's a knock at my door.

Now, our plate, The offices are shut like Fort Knox because it's 6.40 in the evening.

And the door opens, and in comes a college kid.

I got a board meeting in 20 minutes, and I'm chairing the board.' I said, "'What are you thinking about?' He says, "'I've just been walking on this campus, thinking, we need God to do something big at Andrews University.' And boom, I'm thinking, Michael, I'm thinking, this kid named Jonathan.' I said, "'What are you thinking?' He says, "'Well, you know what?' He says, "'I think we ought to call for a day of special prayer on this campus.

I said, Jonathan, we are 4 days till exam week.

I want you to find 12 friends, 12 of your classmates, 12 of your peers, and you band together, the 13 of you, and you pray all this summer long that God will do a new thing at Andrews University.

You just pray for God to do what He's already laid the burden on your heart to do.

For our worship that night, we just shot right into this conversation.

We had a very open board meeting, very candid conversation about life at Pioneer and Andrews University.

The next week, so that was exam week is the week that came next, and then there's graduation.

The next week, it's a Monday, And I'm meeting with our campus, 1 of our campus chaplains, Jose Borgia, who's on our staff at Pioneer.

5 of our pastors, our senior leaders, are 32 and 33 years of age, and it's such an honor to work with a bunch of sharp, young pastors.

Jose and I, because at Andrews University, the moment the graduation is over, you are immediately planning the new school year.

It's just, we got June, July, and It's here.

We bring in the TV producer, our media director, Nick Wolfer.

We're thinking, what can we do that's new?

And it's just, you know, you can change the wallpaper and the backdrop so many times, and it's no longer new.

We're back in my office, and Jose's saying, you know, Dwight, I just had to interview for some student chaplains.

I'm telling you, he said, there is a vacuum of moral leadership among the young.

I said, Jose, what would it look like if God just poured out showers of blessing?

I picture if the Spirit got poured out on this place, that students would be pulling off the sidewalks, pulling into dormitory rooms, pulling out of a classroom, huddled in prayer, praying all the time with each other.

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I Will Do a New Thing

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