God Gives Me Custer
One night at Bible Study we started talking about what God was going to do in the Hills and I told them about the draught being over. At that time God said, “The farmers are going to have to hear my voice to know when to plant this year as there is going to be a very short time frame between the snows of winter and the rains of spring.” One of the women said every time we get more moisture, she gets so excited and remembers what God has said He is going to do here.
The question on my heart has been, “Why, Lord, don’t I see evidence of the outpouring of your Spirit in the lives of people?” which is what the moisture was to signify. There has been a draught in the spirit realm, but that is ending. Today, God showed me so much that I have been longing to understand.
He told me that from the day He told me that He was giving me Custer, it was settled in heaven. It was not one of those things dependent upon people and their individual wills. It was ordained of God to happen. Like He said, if the people of the region did not want to participate, He would move people in to make it happen. He told me that the snow and the rain was a sign to me that it was settled and that the words that I have spoken over Custer and these Hills will not return to Him void, but will accomplish the work He desires them to accomplish, just as the rain comes down and waters the earth. IT IS SEALED! I said, “But, God, I almost turned my back on this and walked away.” His reply was, “But, you didn’t and I knew you wouldn’t. I could not let you proceed at that point, because your attitude was wrong. You were not walking in faith. You were disappointed with your pastors leaving, but I knew in the end you would seek My face until you knew My will for sure and then You would do it. Now, you have done what I have asked.”
In March of 1992,before I moved to Custer, I was driving from Custer to Hill City and praying over Custer. I had attended a Women’s Aglow meeting. I was serving as the president of the Hill City-Custer chapter at the time. It began to snow. The snow ended at the Custer County line. It only snowed in Custer County. That was a phenomenon that caught the attention of news reporters. It was God’s way of telling me He had heard my prayers concerning Custer and would give me what I was asking.
My job has been to prepare the ground and to plant the seed in cooperation with the Holy Spirit. I have also torn down some things that have held back this from happening. The hardest lesson I have been learning is dealing with the times and seasons of God. When I see things in the spirit, I expect them to come into being right away and often there are other things that have to happen before we can see the end result. I am learning this slowly. Just like there is planting time, and then watering and growing time, and then finally there is harvest, this is the way it is with the things of God. He even told me that now is the growing season and by the time the harvest takes place, very few people will even remember that I had declared those things. That’s okay. God said in heaven, my name is written beside the city of Custer and that is all that matters. This is not to imply that my name is the only one written beside Custer, because there are many others down through history who have also played a part in this, as well as others in the here and now who are praying for a release of God’s Spirit in this area. It is still mine even though I may not reap the harvest. It does not nullify the word of the Lord declaring that He was giving me Custer.
I had a vision of the Hills while still in Minnesota before moving back to the Black Hills. The army of God was marching over the Hills and on each hill they would plant a banner of red and lift their hands in praise to the Lord. And as we climbed another hill to do the same thing, I looked back to the Hill we had come from and there were angels standing guard. And the Lord told me, “What my people take, will not be returned to the enemy”. Praise God! He told me not to be alarmed if I did not see or hear of anything happening during this growing season. Just as God said through the prophet Jeremiah that Jerusalem would be desolated by Babylon and be in captivity for 70 years, this is a sure thing. When the 70 years was almost up, God found a man (Daniel) who read His word and understood God’s timing and Daniel prayed and what God had prophesied earlier, happened, Jerusalem began to be rebuilt. When the time of harvest for Custer is nigh, God will find a person who knows the timings and seasons of God who will cause the seed that has been planted, to be harvested.
He also told me that I had been looking at current events in Custer incorrectly. He said that the moving of people from one place to another and the splitting of factions of the church was a sign that there was a restlessness and a searching and a hunger for more of God being developed. That hunger for more of God was causing people to do things that looked on the surface like just the opposite. I would never have put that together. We need to learn to always look through the eyes of the Spirit or we will miss God.
Today as I drove to work in Rapid City, the roads were extremely slick. I told God that I loved the snow and what He was saying by it, but did it have to be so slippery and hard to drive in. He asked me, “Do you want everything to be easy?” He said, “Even in the rain of My Spirit, it is not going to be easy. There are going to be things that are not easy. The enemy does not want it to be easy. He will try to slow down the move of My Spirit by placing obstacles in the way.” All the way to work He gave me an object lesson. There were cars and pickups going in the ditch everywhere. God says, “Even as the rain of My Spirit falls, there will be those who will go in the ditch. They will want to go too fast and not pay attention to My ways and they will end up in the ditch. A lot of this comes from having too much confidence in their ability to handle any situation rather than depending upon My Spirit for direction”.
Then I got up by Bear Country and the road was very slick. There was a car directly in front of me and I needed to slow down, but there was also this car on my tail and if I slowed down too much, he might hit me. I began to panic. I felt pressured. God again began to speak to me about the coming move of His Spirit. Another tactic of the enemy would be to try to pressure us. People would tell us, we’re not going fast enough and others would tell us we’re moving too fast. We must not succumb to pressure, but always listen to the Holy Spirit. As I breathed a thank you to the Lord for the lesson, I looked in my rearview mirror and the car behind me had backed off giving me some breathing room.
Then as I got closer to Rapid City this car was on my bumper again. My tendency was to speed up, but he stayed right on my tail. God said, “The devil will entice people to follow you around, to try to get you to slip up, watching every move you make. Do not be alarmed by this and do not change your tactics because of it”. I decided to test this out. I changed lanes three times going down that hill and every time I did, this guy followed me, even when I changed lanes when there was no one in front of me. I sensed God was teaching me some very valuable lessons for the days ahead.