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Part 3: Why Florida | Seashells
October 12, 2021
Part 3 may be my favorite of the story… it is where all the puzzle pieces start fitting together. Yes, it is my favorite, but it is also the hardest for me to share because it is so personal.
As we entered 2021 I knew we were supposed to move, I just couldn’t figure out where. God gave me a word, “Go Time.” I laugh how creative God is to write this story in a subtle way. I soon began looking at cities, researching, and praying. Usually, when God is calling you to something I think it’s due diligence to do our part and explore and not just sit and wait. We’ve always loved Texas, so we talked and explored opportunities in the Dallas area … we even really thought Arizona may be where we should land, it was logical for many reasons.
The searching only made the angst intensify and what we were being called to felt weighty… there was just this sense of holy weightiness that would sit on me day after day that would often lead me to tears. I continued to wait, pray and listen. I continued to get vivid visions that I was documenting… I could see a thread of a story be woven, but some parts were still foggy.
Branden earned a trip to Greece for the Spring but due to covid, the trip was canceled so we decided to take a trip somewhere together as this is a favorite thing we love to do together. Florida was a state I sensed the Lord drawing my heart to, though I was really unsure if this is where we were called, there was affection and curiosity stirring up. When deciding to pick a location for our trip, I thought Florida may be a fun place to visit and simply explore. I didn’t know where in Florida though, and the only time I visited Florida was 15 years prior in Orlando… and I hated it. But one stretch of Florida kept tugging me. I remembered one time hearing of this place on social media called “30A” and it was a seed planted in my heart that I thought why not, let’s see what God has?!
So we booked a trip to this beach town in the Florida Panhandle that we’d never been to.
The time between booking and going became an explosion of clarity for me… yet I left Branden in the dark about this. This is an important part of this story later on.
I remember the day the Lord clearly called, it was after a day of fasting and praying– I saw it, like a download in my soul the entire call and location was laid out before me. I was shaking, I couldn’t focus. I spent all day fighting what I heard and saw from God. When I got the courage to finally write, those first words at the top of my journal said it all, “I am scared, I don’t even want to write this down because I know the implications if this is true.”
What did I see?
I won’t share all of it, there is too much for now, but a few key parts: I saw the emerald coast in map form, there was a rainbow connecting Pensacola to Panama City and up and down the coast I saw lighthouse. These lighthouses were houses of hope and light to the world. The homes were full of people, meeting to pray. Then the people in the homes came together on the beach to worship in a large gathering. There is some deeper symbolism I will share later on what lighthouses and emeralds may mean.
Image: from 30a mama
We landed down in Panama City Beach airport in early April, Branden still in the dark to what I believe God was calling us to. As soon as the plane lands, my heart begins stirring and I spent the first 3 days weepy. I was fighting God. I really thought I would land, see that I had misheard God, and enjoy my vacation… but the Spirit took my heart and wrecked me the minute my feet hit the ground. I couldn’t even enjoy my vacation because I was full of emotion. There was one point we were driving down the highway and I saw a Publix grocery store and in the quiet of my heart I mumbled to God, This will not be where I grocery shop with my family one day, I am not moving here. Wrestling was overtaking me– I was losing.
The first three days on our trip it stormed, poured rain…even a tornado! HA! It was adventurous, to say the least, but because of the storms, we didn’t make it down to the beach until the third day.
I was feeling conflicted and the Spirit would NOT leave me alone… so I went on a walk alone along the beach to clear my mind, pray, and work through the emotions overwhelming me. Little did I know I was going on a life-defining walk.
Walking along the beach by myself I started noticing little shells and I started reaching down and picking them up and exploring the shells. As I kept walking I kept noticing different colors, different sizes. Some were sitting on top of the sand, some were poking out so I had to reach down and dig a little bit to pull it out. I noticed how many footsteps were right next to the shells or the footsteps was right over the shells, almost breaking them because no one saw them. As I started bending down, one by one, collecting the variety of shells I feel like God kept saying so loudly, “These shells are like my people. Go get them in the same manner you are collecting these shells. The shells are different shapes different sizes, different colors, all like the kingdom of God. And they’re sitting on top of the sand waiting for you to tell them the Good News. “I carried them to shore for you.” The harvest is here. They are sitting right on top!”
As I held 50 or so shells in my hand walking back with them so gently, I was thinking about what I heard every time I reached down and pulled one shell out. But as I was meditating on those words I then heard in my soul the spirit saying, “and carry them home to me, just as you’re tenderly carrying these shells in your hand. People are walking right by my harvest, they don’t see the shells sitting right on top. I’ve brought them to shore for this moment— I need an obedient, faithful, spirit-filled eyes to look and see.”
I heard,
The harvest is plentiful the workers are few.
You are my worker, go.
You don’t see what you aren’t looking for, look for souls. Revival has come to shore.
I held those shells pressed against my body as I strolled down the beach, singing out loud, all the way back, “ Jesus loves the little children, all the children of the world. Red and yellow back and white they are precious in his sight, Jesus loves the little children of the world.”
A few days later I was walking along the uninhabited beach called shell island. Its watercolors were aqua blue and the sand was white as sugar. I walked alone along the shore once again and began picking up shells, one by one, but this time as I reached down and brushed off some of that white sand on a shell, I heard so loudly in my soul, “these shells are like my children, I’ve already bought them with my blood. They are covered white as snow, like this white sand, but they don’t know it yet.
Who will tell them their sins are forgiven?”
I knew I had to confess to Branden everything. God would NOT stop talking to me, It was loud and clear. I felt the presence of God in a way I hadn’t before. I had to tell Branden what was happening and I was scared to share the story…because I knew, I knew there was no going back. After one of our beach sunsets, we headed out to dinner where I would begin to share, I was sobbing, shaking, and fearful. I really didn’t want to tell him because I wanted to pretend this wasn’t happening… and then I secretly prayed he’d hear it all and say No and I could go back home and forget about this.
My prayer was answered, he listened, said No, not a chance, we aren’t moving.
Phew! …. But then…
Part 4 coming soon.
