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As I look back over my life, it is easy for me to see the hand of God both protecting and preparing me for such a time as this. As a young boy, as far back as I can remember, my parents were always taking me to church and whenever there was something going on there, we were there. It was in a little town in Central Illinois, and growing up in a family of both preachers and singers, there was only one way this guy was going to turn out...a singing preacher!
Being raised in a mainstream denomination, there was a history of many preachers in my family (me eventually being number 15). Great grandparents, grandparents, uncles and cousin's. At the age of 12, however, I had a very unusual event take place in my life. >
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I began to weep in the midst of this Holy Presence and I knelt down next to my bed (which was covered with a red sports car bedspread). I knew it was a very holy moment and yet I really did not have much of an idea what God was doing in my heart and soul. I had my bible there in front of me, and it was as though a wind had just opened it up to I Chronicles 15:1,2. As I read these versus, it meant virtually nothing to me, as I did not know much about David and the Levites at the time, but I knew that God was placing these versus deep in my heart and mind and He was saying to me that what I would be doing in my life, would be different than what I had seen all of my relatives do in the area of ministry. I was never the same from that time on. God was saying to me "Will you go for me?" and I said "Yes, Lord".
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When I think of this particular time in my life, I often think of Joseph in the Old Testament. After his brothers put him in a pit, sold him, he spent time in prison and then when it seemed to look hopeless, things turned around and he was positioned as a man with great favor and power in the territory of the enemies land. When his brothers spoke with him, his response to them was that what was meant for evil, God turned for good. As soon as this horrible tragedy took place in our family, the "Coffin Trio" was born and suddenly raised up in the Midwest. The phone rang almost constantly for the next 4-5 years asking for our trio to come and minister in churches, schools, camps, parks and various other venues giving our testimony of how God brought us through such a challenge in life. The greatest part of it all was that from the firsttime we went out to our very last time of ministry, the Glory of God was so powerful that we saw peoples lives change forever and that included ours as well.
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Just before Harry, the apostolic figure of the house went to be with the Lord, he called me in to his office one day and said in his broken english.."Ron, God says it is time for this". He was sitting at his desk with his finger pointing to a scripture in his bible. As he bean to read it to me, I recognized immediately it was the two versus in I Chron. 15 that God had spoken to me at the age of 12 years old. He had no way of knowing! I knew that God was still leading me. So much happened from that time on...ministry inside and out of the Capitol of California, ministry in other cities and states and capitols, worship in homes and businesses, venues both large and small. Then one day, we were invited, by surprise, to go to "God's home town", the capitol city of Heaven and earth..Jerusalem. We were there for 21 days and so much took place, both inside of Karen and I, and throughout the land. After we returned from there, two years went by and then another "surprise" with another 14 days in Israel, and so many times during this season was I reminded of "David" and the passage in I Chron. 15.
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"...and our son's
and daughter's
will prophesy."
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Having been very encouraged in the area of music (along with my two sisters) I would spend hours at a time sitting at the piano, singing and playing at my own choosing. Then, it happened! It was though a huge wind just entered the room, and I knew that I was sitting in the presence of the living God, and that something very deep was taking place in my heart at that time.
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Being raised in a small church in the mid-west, much of my life was singing and playing in church both as an individual and as a trio or family. My sister’s and I would sing at various community events both church and school. We had become very familiar with ministering unto the Lord in settings of all ages of people. Then, at the age of 15, our family experienced a tremendous tragedy that changed the course of life forever. At this time, there were now five children in our family ages 17, 15, 11, 3 and 1. On Friday, February 2nd 1973, our mother at age 36, without warning of any sickness or signs of affliction, went to be with the Lord and left us to carry on in the gifts of music and ministry that she had so faithfully trained us in as young minstrels of God. When our father came in with the news, the first thing we did as a family, now without mom, was to fall to our knees at the sofa, cried out to God from the depths of our broken hearts and told Him that we knew that we could trust Him to get us through that terrible and most painful hour of our lives.
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From this time now, we all three went our different ways and continued to minister as a young man, hungry after the things of God. In the early 1980's, Karen and I were married and we were called out to a position at a church in Southern California. It was during our move to the West Coast that God spoke to me about seeking the Holy Spirit. I was sure I already knew the Holy Spirit, but as I read the bible, I could see tha there was so much more for me to experience and I wanted to know everything I could as early in my life as possible. Two years later, while pastoring a church in Northern California, both Karen and I were filled with the Holy Spirit and our journey took a very drastic change of direction. It was in the year of 1990, we were established in a ministry in Sacramento, the capitol city of California, and we were sure this would be the house we would come and go from for the rest of our lives. God moved in and through our family greatly in those years, and hundreds were healed in that ministry of many afflictions and diseases, especially cancer. Then, one day my friend, the pastor of the church called me from the hospital and he had just had a fifth of his lung removed due to a cancerous tumor. Two weeks later, the other full time minister on staff, who was from South Africa and vey apostolic in nature and gifting, called me into his office and said he had a tumor in his mouth, and it was cancer as well. There were only three of us on staff at that time, and in a very short while, they were both gone and that seaon of our life was quickly coming to an end.
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I could have said so much more about then, and now..three beautiful daughter's, one married to a man after God's heart... friends all across the nation and in Israel...blessings immeasurable. But we are most assuredly on a journey that has been in many cases, "beyond words" to say the least. We are more than ever, hungry for all that God has for us, and wants to do through us, that the lives of people will continue to be changed forever, some how, some way, by the working of the Holy Spirit. Our lives have been all about others. I wish I could say we have never made mistakes and have always been right in the exact place God would have us, at the right moment. We see through a glass dimly. But what I can say to you today, is that God's throne is still the Throne of Grace, and His Love is still the Love that will never fail, and His blood is still Pure and Holy and washes away ALL iniquity and cleanses from ALL sin, and God still has a plan for our lives and we will fulfill that plan as we continue to listen to His voice and follow His Spirit. You too can know this Grace, Love, cleansing power and leading of the Holy Spirit and I pray that if you don't know Him today as your personal Lord and Savior, you will just ask Him to come into your life, right here, right now. Let Him be who He is, in you. You are a blessing, you are worth everything Jesus went through when He came to the earth, and He wants you to know Him today. Thanks for taking the time to get to know us a little better. Ron
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