United with Dan on a Mission

I knew that another chapter of my life would begin this year as the end of my BA degree drew near. It had gone exactly as I had planned, the BA box would soon be ticked and the next stage would begin.

Then on my 22^nd birthday, a guest [Ryan Denlinger]  arrived. My mother [Diane] had seen him once before at Church and for some reason decided I should meet him. Nonetheless he left South Africa before the opportunity arose, but more than a year later, my brother [Nathan] invited him over. Little did he know that the date corresponded with my birthday.

That day I bid him welcome and consciously sat down to entertain our guest. We spoke briefly, until Ryan asked whether he could pray for me. Then he proceeded to tell me things which God revealed to him about me. Thoughts like, “Ag man, it’s just going to be a vague blather of things based of rational judgement and impression,” ran through my head. Ryan said: “I see leadership” – the likeness of that statement would be a stun grenade. (I have always seen leadership as an integral part of who I am). Then he went on to predict that my favourite colour was blue. (Spot on) Then he said that he saw a bird, an eagle, and asked whether it had any significance. I was gobsmacked, of all the living creatures the eagle had always been my favourite. For me it was a symbol of strength, elegance, grace and being on top of the world. Since two years old, the pinnicle of my dreams involved becoming a pilot, the freedom of the air, soaring above the clouds with wings spread strong and wide. But a time came when everything came crashing down, and I was forced to bury that vision in despair. A song called: Bird with Broken Wing – Don Francisco (Link bellow) catches the essence of most of my life; the significance, meaning and relevance are still being fulfilled today! I love the song, and it’s been an incredible source of strength! It will make me teary-eyed every time without fail. Next: “God wants to restore your trust in people…”. My immediate reaction was, “Oh yeah, right… like that’s going to happen! Besides, Christians always say stuff like ‘trust God not people, they will let you down.’ That doesn’t seem right.” Since 2011-ish till that point, I wasn’t attached to anyone, I didn’t care about anyone, most human beings were pretty much parasites to me. Being hurt by people wasn’t even in the picture anymore; there was just a lot of animosity and scepticism, which made day-dreaming about world destruction a fun pastime. Ryan said he saw 2 racing cars: red vs blue, and he described the race to me – it was a spine chillingly accurate metaphor of an intense rivalry with one of my peers. Also he saw a female who had hurt me greatly. After thoroughly probing him about her appearance, there was no doubt in my mind as to who he saw.

Ryan also prayed that the Holy Spirit fill me and show me something, to convince me of His presence. I just went with the flow, incredibly sceptical, but considering the accuracy of the predictions about me, it was just enough to rekindle a glimmer of hope. But nothing happened. I just sat there praying intensively hoping that if this ‘God’ is real He would do something. But nothing happened, and again I was torn between angry thoughts of, “Argh! This is the last time I’m making a fool out of myself for a FAKE GOD!” vs teary thoughts of “What is wrong with me!!!!? Why is it so fun to mess with me, God!!? Why are you so @#*%! sadistic, God!!!?” Then went on to thinking, “Meh, this always happens; how many people have confidently prayed for me, for healing or something to no avail…” The poker face went back on and I was angry at myself for making myself vulnerable like I did, when suddenly Ryan said that he felt God say: “There’s nothing wrong with you.” I guarantee that there was nothing else he could have said to bring me back from that state and make me reluctantly try again.

Then suddenly I saw it: White / grey stone stairs. I looked up and they led up to something which can only be described as an accident Greco-Roman temple of sorts. I went in and it was like an endless library. It reminded me of a dream from years before: “As the Great Royal Library in Alexandria Egypt (A major centre of scholarship that produced many of the most famous thinkers of the ancient world) was a centre for ancient cultural knowledge; I would like to start an international chain of universities, centred on the study and preservation of language and culture.” That was a contributing reason, or hope, to my choice to do BA Sociology; I wanted to study languages and cultures.

(To give an idea of imagery)

I still don’t really understand what the relevance or point of that part of the vision was, except maybe to get my attention… but next, I suddenly zoomed out as if on google maps or something, and a sequence of different countries flashed, geographical, together with architectural imagery, moving eastwards: “Scotland, France, South Korea, Japan Colombia, Cuba, Portugal, Sweden and Russia.” Ryan’s interpretation of this was travel, which he explained as the imagery was going through my mind.

By this point the sequence of events from almost a year prior, had just become too much for me to write off as ‘coincidence’. Later, after he had left, it slowly dawned on me that there could only be one explanation: “God must really have revealed that stuff to him!” There was no other way that he could possibly have known all those things. We had just met, he knew NOTHING about me. Before this point in time, if I look back now, I had 5 close encounters with God, all of which I had written off as coincidence. Now, from that day, 1^st of March 2018, things started to change, and I began to realise that God was not only real, but was also concerned about me personally. God had not only planned this meeting, but had planned it for my birthday, adding to the significance of a ‘New Beginning’.