A pastor once said that a sure fire way to know what you are doing is the will of God is gauge the amount of opposition the enemy throws at you and how God continues to lead you on. In other words, OPEN DOOR + OPPOSITION=GOD'S WILL. If there's an open door but no opposition or if there is heavy opposition but no blessing, chances are pretty good it's not God's path for you. Well, such was the case of the 168 Film Festival. We prayed and felt God leading us to produce a film this year. We gathered our team and began our preparations. Everyone who had entered this competition before kept saying that the "fun" begins on verse night. So Tuesday evening February 2nd we gathered at the church and when our team was called we picked up our rock. Our verse was Isaiah 40:4-5.
Every valley shall be raised up,every mountain and hill made low;
the rough ground shall become level,
the rugged places a plain. And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
Well, to say the least, we were puzzled on how we'd make this into a short film. But by the next morning God had given us a seed idea and I began the arduous task of writing a 10 minute screenplay.
During this time the enemy was near, shooting doubt arrows, stirring up dissension in the camp and generally making life miserable. But God gave us a marvelous story and when the time for camera roll on Friday Feb 12, we were ready . . .
Late on Thursday we found out there was a funeral scheduled at the church where we were to shoot our film. So we had to push back production to the late afternoon. Already before we even started we were several hours behind schedule. No worries, we'd make it up. After all we have a whiz-bang crew and 4 cameras. We got word early the next morning that my sister's car had died and my car had been broken into and my purse (that I had accidentally left in my car) had been stolen with all my money, ID and credit cards. Later that day, our producer discovers that someone had gotten her credit card number and went on a shopping spree in Atlanta Georgia.
Those are just a few of the stones the enemy threw. But God at every turn gave us a bigger blessing. God gave us more time by allowing the church that was to have services on Saturday night join someone else thereby giving us much needed time to make up our sadly behind shooting schedule. We originally planned to move our set for certain scenes but would have not finished our shoot when God provided another location for those scenes just a few hundred yards away! We finished ahead of schedule and got all of the shots we wanted.
Editing problems came and we were certain we weren't going to get the film edited on time. Our producer's brother, a seasoned editor and head of a post production house, stepped in and lent a much needed hand. Our composer wrote the theme song in two hours, record time even for him. But God saves the best to last.
The deadline was 2pm Friday, February 19th. One second past 2pm and we would be disqualified. Our film was 2 minutes over the allotted running time and it was now 1 pm. We left for the church knowing that we weren't going to make it. Heartbroken we drove the long road there and waited. But God had a blessing even then; an interview with the LA Times.
The interview finished at 1:50. We called our executive producer who was in charge of getting the finished film to the church drop off point. She was still on the road with the film, a DVD which was not the format we thought we were supposed to have. She arrived at 1:56 with DVD in hand. I told her to go ahead and submit it though I was sure it would be rejected. She came running back out waving a piece of paper with a time code written on it. 1:59:43. Seventeen seconds before the cut off time. WE HAD MADE IT!!! We screamed and jumped around like kangaroos. God had done it again!
So we're in the competition despite the stones the enemy threw because a great big God is in control. We have no idea if it will win anything; in fact we haven't even seen the finished product but who can doubt God now.
And the glory of the LORD will be revealed,
and all mankind together will see it.
For the mouth of the LORD has spoken."
4 comments:
The opening quote from the "pastor" is astonishingly self agrandizing.....The belief that "god" is "directng" one's actions is the world's single most dangerous--resulting in millions of deaths over thousands of years. God leads all people equally-- your opposers and your supporters, muslims and christians, evangelicals and agnostics. Your actions are not any more "special" to god than that of a suicide bomber in the middle east.....
Wow, I must be doing something right . . . here's a sign of more of the opposition I was just talking about. Since you were too afraid to leave your name, you'll never know how you were used of God to encourage me. Thanks.
Rita, I was very encouraged by this Blog and by your interest in my project Hear God Speak...After seeing your interest I decided to check you out and your Blog here is right on the money...and I agree, if everything is going wrong right out of the gate you can for certain bet that the enemy is paying attention and trying to discourage and defeat your desires and hopes that God planted to begin with.
If anyone doesn't believe that God is leading us, and specifically people who have callings that are indisputable in terms of their life's accomplishments, then they are just fooling themselves and limiting our God. (putting Him in a box) as it were...Ha!
Nevertheless, everyone is at their own level of understanding and communication with Him so...Mr/Mrs. Anonymous has every right to voice their opinion. Even though i must totally disagree because my life has been a perfect example of what you speak of...
God Bless -- Allen (Co-creator of Hear God Speak) the music-video that changes lives...even anonymous ones!
Rita, thanks for the update. I've been wondering how the 168 Film Project went and wow, what a ride!
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