If you are in crisis, please call 1-800-273-8255 or visit suicidepreventionlifeline.org. You are not alone.
Pastor Jason Daughdrill of Gateway Church in Shelbyville, Tennessee, believes in following God—matter what that may look like.
“Sometimes He tells you to do crazy stuff,” Daughdrill says on the Jason Daughdrill Podcast on Charisma News. Early in his ministry, he says, “I was in Louisville [Kentucky]; I had just gotten there. Twenty-six years old. Started pastoring, didn’t know a lot of what I was doing.”
One night, he says, he was driving home, and the Lord spoke to him, saying, “I want you to go run at the track.”
Daughdrill’s first thought, he says, was “We’ve got to test the Spirit. This may not be the Lord. And then I thought, Is my wife praying that I’ll lose some weight?” But in obedience, he went to the track because he believed he had heard a genuine word from God.
As he was running there, he saw a woman. “And I see her there, and I’m thinking, Great. It’s the middle of the night. It’s like 10:30 at night; we’re the only ones out here. It’s dark. I may get sprayed with mace if I run up on her, so this is not going to be good.”
So Daughdrill decided he would just run past her and keep going. “I noticed she had headphones on, so maybe she [wouldn’t] even hear me. So I went to go run by her. … And I run by, and I notice she’s crying; mascara is all over her face. And I’m thinking, This is not good. I’m out here with a lady, middle of the night, no one else out here. And she may be crazy.
“So the Lord spoke to me and said, ‘I want you to go tell her that I love her. That I’m with her, and that it’s going to be OK.'”
After a moment of hesitation, Daughdrill went back to the woman, making sure she knew he was a local pastor. He then said, “The Lord just wanted me to tell you that He loves you. He is with you, and it’s going to be OK.”
The woman started crying harder, but through her tears, she thanked him. Daughdrill told her he would be praying for her and left the track.
“Three days later, I got a letter in the mail,” he says. “She wrote me a letter that I still have to this day. And it said, ‘You don’t know this. But I was walking around that track to work up the courage to kill myself, and I asked God, “Do You even love me? Are You there? Is it going to be OK?” And you answered the things I was asking God.'”
The woman ended up coming to Gateway Church and gave her life to Jesus, Daughdrill says. “I was led by the Spirit. I didn’t just go home like I wanted to. … And I did something that seems so unconventional, but I was obedient,” he says. “And on the other side of the obedience was a miraculous moment for a person. So understand, your obedience isn’t just about your miracle. There’s some people out there who need a miraculous touch from heaven. And they’re waiting on your obedience to experience it.”
To hear more of this story and how you can experience true revival, click here for the entire podcast. {eoa}
