"I Got Next"

This has been burning in my heart for a few months. Many times it's come to the forefront of my mind and I've desired to share it with you, friends. And I'm excited because I know today's the day!

"I got next!"

A little over a year ago, when Roosevelt Hunter passed away, my heart was deeply affected. I remember a message he preached when I was 16 at youth camp. He talked about the "PIT" or "Prophet in Training". It stuck with me...and will stick with me forever. In fact, Roosevelt's passion and zeal for Christ have invaded my soul in a quite permanent way. A burning desire to reach the lost. To preach the Word. To be ready in season, out of season. And to be obedient whatever the season.


Roosevelt and Eileen originated a phrase which the Holy Spirit planted firmly in my heart, "I got next!". The Hunters' burden has been to inspire and pour into my generation. They knew the baton would eventually be passed from theirs to ours and they challenged us: when the time comes, rise up and say, "I got next!". When the generations before us have run their race, catch the baton and RUN! Run and don't look back!


Several months ago, I began to feel a surging in my spirit. An anticipation. As my grandmother grew sicker and weaker, I grew stronger and more determined. I looked upon her feats in life, her undeterred confidence, her resiliency, the fact that she seemed to "Take no rest and give God no rest". And as the time was approaching that she would rest from her work, I became keenly aware that my work had just started. Though our paths are quite different, the gait, the posture, the determination is the same.


As I sat beside her and our time together drew to a close, I was singing "Tis So Sweet," and "Peace, Peace". I could feel the power of the Holy Spirit in my own life in a brand new way. And, though right before my eyes a mountain was falling into the heart of the sea, it was a fact: I had no fear. More than that! I had a great sense of peace, resolve and deep, deep encouragement. "I got next!"


I've been clinging to Psalm 46 and Isaiah 6 through this time. Isaiah 6 begins with Isaiah's commission. He says, "In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord..."

When the King (the leader, the one who brought confidence and inspired dreams) died, Isaiah saw the Lord.


In Psalm 46, David says, "God is our very present help in time of trouble...therefore, we will not fear though the earth give way, though the mountains fall into the sea and the waters roar and foam with their surging".


"Uzziah" may have died. A mountain may have fallen into the heart of the sea. And now, I walk through grief. I deal with waters surging and receding over my heart, beckoning me into sorrow to which I will inevitably give way from time to time. And, as C.S. Lewis says, "Spread over everything in my life is a vauge sense of wrongness. As if something is amiss." (And, I might add, may always be). Even though these things are true...


I see the Lord. I hear Him more clearly than I feel I ever have. I feel Him more closely than I thought possible. I sing and dance and praise in the desert, for one of the sweetest things in life is to find that He truly is all you need. And the moment in which the faith you have spent your life believing was real surely holds you firm. For me, a defining moment. Is my faith made of the stuff I had hoped? Far more! Is my God true in the things He has said? Beyond measure! Is there a message burning in my spirit that the world must hear? You bet!

"I got NEXT!"