A testimony about Deuteronomy 1:6

In reading Deuteronomy 1:6, I was reminded about how loudly this verse spoke to me, back in the Fall of 1996, when I was still considered to be a "baby Christian" at the little Baptist church in Missouri where the Ruach had opened my spiritual eyes.

"ADONAI spoke to us in Horev. He said, 'You have lived long enough by this mountain...'" (Deut 1:6, CJB)

When I saw this verse as I was reading my way through the Bible, I truly felt it was "a word" for me, because I had been floundering around, wondering what to do with myself, after another broken relationship. You see, things just didn't work out between me and the guy who had "led me to the Lord" and brought me to his church, and I was - for the first time in my life - asking God what HE wanted me to do, and where HE wanted me to move....

I "got saved" in January 1995 in that little church - something that had absolutely turned my life upside-down ... and I was honestly prepared to settle down and stay there forever because I loved my pastor and his church, and I couldn't imagine ever being anywhere else.

But then everything was shattered when my relationship broke apart; and around the same time, the pastor informed me that he and his family were being transferred to some other church down South!

I didn't realize it then, but it was a nudge by the Ruach to get me thinking about moving, and I kept hearing this little voice in my mind telling me to "move to Colorado!" Well, in all honesty, I kept trying to squelch that stupid little voice, because I HATED Colorado! Colorado was where my childhood was ruined because of a sexually abusive adoptive father.... SURELY God couldn't expect me to go back there!

But He did. He bugged me for at least six months to "move to Colorado!" I could NOT believe He would really do that to me!

But He did....

Okay. And so, one day, while reading the workbook, "Experiencing God," I read a passage that said something like this: "Whenever God gives you a God-sized task, it always leads you to a crisis of belief - and what you do about it, shows how you really feel about God."

Shocked, I thought, "Well, I really love Him, and will live my life according to HIS will because MY will has always gotten me into trouble - so I guess - as much as I do NOT want to - I'll move to Colorado..."

Well, right around the same time, I "happened" to be reading the Book of Deuteronomy, when this smacked me in the face:

Deuteronomy 1:6 The Lord our God said to us at Horeb, “You have stayed long enough at this mountain. (NIV)

That's when it hit me: "How much clearer could He be? He's been shaking my whole foundation lately and 'Move to Colorado' has been stuck in my mind for months ... and now this: 'You have stayed long enough at this mountain."

AAARGH!

Anyway, that's how I ended up putting my house on the market, selling all my furniture and anything that wouldn't fit in my car; and me and my dog moved to Colorado.

It was the BEST decision I've ever made (and all glory goes to YHWH!) because it was here He led me to Torah (where I finally got ALL the answers to my questions that were never answered in church). It was here God healed me from the horrors of my childhood by causing me to end up in a church that ultimately made me a summer camp counselor for abused and neglected children. And it was here where He gave me my like-minded, Torah observant, "forever husband," Bill….

Oh, and guess what! The first church service I attended when I first moved here in 1996 was about - yep, you guessed it: Deuteronomy 1:6, where the pastor opened with, "'You have stayed long enough at this mountain!"