God has brought me full circle to Winnipeg, where He called me to 30+ years ago (and if you want more background on that check out ElaNaDeis.org) . Back then, I went with an all-about-me mindset, which has lasted much of the last 30 years, until God finally started to tear that down in the last couple of years. Yet even as I left everything to come out here, as I got here two weeks ago and have been looking for a church to get involved with and minister through, and work to pay my bills, God has convicted me more than once of pushing my agenda rather than listening and responding to His call each day.
Some six or seven months ago, shortly after my 7-day fast that some of you may recall, God put a vision in my heart of reaching the hearts and minds of those around me by simply being a reflection of Christ and calling them to “come and see” (Ela Na Deis in Greek) what Jesus is doing. It initially began as posts on Facebook, then some structure on ElaNaDeis.org.
The vision is simple and based on John 1:46 where Nathanael asks ‘Could anything good come from Nazareth” and Philip replied “Come and see”. The phrase "Come and see" captures the essence of a genuine, open invitation to experience Jesus' works and presence. “Come and see” lets Jesus do a work in their lives and puts the focus on Jesus and what He can do. Perhaps most importantly, “come and see” takes the pressure to perform off, and allows us to rest in Jesus arms, knowing that He would leave the 99 to rescue just one soul. And in that, my hope rests in Him because part of humbling myself to God is realizing it is time to just yield to Him, relax, and believe that He can do what He has planned. He has told me to just get to work, and He will provide the resources. So, it is time to just listen to His voice and let Him guide my steps, my actions/responses, my words, my texts/posts, and my prayers. Simply watch and trust Him to transform lives.
Yet as I came out here, my mind went to finding a church to ensure that I have oversight and stay on the rails. Yet churches seem ill-equipped to respond to a heart that is fully abandoned and says such things as “God has told me just put me to work, and He will provide the resources…” Yet God is doing such amazing things here in Winnipeg: 200 baptisms in one church in the last few months, prayer and healing calls where a few hundred people come forward. And when I shared my story with a couple different people from different churches, their answers were almost identical, “It doesn’t surprise me” and one said “God is doing amazing work” and the other said “there is a massive amount of work to be done in Winnipeg.” Then, yesterday, when I was praying about finding a church and a ministry to plug into, and then praying for God’s provision that he might find me a job or a sponsor to pay my bills and fund the work that God is leading me into, the prompting I got was: "What about the Ela Na Deis ministry I gave you? If you want a sponsor, a supporter, why not trust Me and grow the ministry I have given you?"
Wow 😮
So this email is a pray request to pray into Ela Na Deis, how you might be involved and for wisdom if this ministry is really going to achieve God’s vision.
And yesterday, as that started to sink in, I said, "God, I will need to build a board, and a group to surround it in prayer. I will need a board to be responsible to and to be mentored by, and to focus the passion You have given me—a passion that I haven’t known for a very long time. I will also need an admin; otherwise, I foresee this being a train wreck of epic proportions, because I may be good at many things, but day-to-day administration just steals the life out of me."
Also last night, as I was going home to my friends’ place, I was praying that God might send me to a church with a Thursday evening prayer meeting. So I typed into Google Maps, "churches near me." As I was driving down Lagimodiere near the perimeter, it gave me a bunch of city churches. Then I panned out towards Birdshill, and Pine Ridge Church came up. So I clicked on the website link, clicked on events, and up pops prayer and worship on June 27 at 7 pm. And a note said that the service had been changed to the 27th. And I laughed and said, “well done, God!”
P.S. I was just a passenger when I was doing all the research. God was driving... 😊 He's a pretty good driver. Occasionally, He likes to take you off-roading to build your faith...
And as I was praying about going to their prayer service, I really wanted someone to pray into my life and confirm my call. But it was so much more amazing than that. I got the opportunity to build into someone else’s life. He was a young man, maybe 28, with a young wife who was clearly struggling, so I prayed over him my Father’s Day post.
Later, as he heard my story, I heard him pray that God would make him more like Erik and give God everything and just follow Him. I was speechless and humbled. What I heard was God is a God of transformations.
What was truly amazing was everything I wanted confirmation on from God’s Spirit. As I prayed into a couple of men’s lives last night, the confidence with which I prayed over God’s ability to rebuild relationships for one and to lay our skills and abilities at His feet and let Him lead for another – spoke into my own life.
"Stop trying to force My (God’s) agenda and just be available, humble, and useful to Me. That is the ministry that I have called you to." You can find more here.
All that to say, if God is calling me to make Ela Na Deis a real ministry, I am going to need dedicated prayer warriors, a formal board, and to build a real organization. I will also need an admin 😬. Admin is not my skill set—I mess it up all the time, and I don’t want to start something that is going to struggle because it missed paperwork. So I need admin too.
So, I am asking you to consider where and if this is a ministry you can get behind.
There are four things that I would ask you to pray over regarding Ela Na Deis:
Building a Board: Being a board member and mentor
Helping with admin: I will turn things into a train wreck if I am the admin
Financial support: unless God gives me a job or my shares in my AI company allow me to self-fund then Ela Na Deis will need financial support. Yet, I believe it will be a greater blessing to invite financial support, so that I am not trusting in my strength, since the whole point of Ela Na Dei is to be able to point to what Jesus is doing, and be a living testimony. Anything less would put me back to where I started 30 years ago.
Tech support: I might also need someone to clean up and fix the website and build proper mailing lists etc. (kind of admin)
Prayer Group: if you would like to be added to Ela Na Deis prayer group simply send me your email address
If God is placing any of these items on your heart to pray over or support, please let me know. I am simply placing it in God’s hands and laying everything at his feet. I have launched many businesses focused on making gold, but this would be a business focused on finding the gold in people’s hearts and that is such an amazing different undertaking, that I want to give it fully and completely to God, and there is a gold rush for people’s hearts and minds in Winnipeg.
And I want to close this prayer request with my take on Pastor Scott Lanigan’s statement about the number of people in church on any given Sunday and every number representing a person.
To me, it is not the number of people in church that is important because every number does represent a person. More importantly, every person has a story, and that story is either one before meeting Jesus or after meeting Jesus. My call is simply to introduce people to Jesus, to “come and see” what Jesus is doing, and then, most importantly, let Jesus do a work on their story that they too will be able to say, “come and see” what Jesus is doing in their lives. And for me, it does not matter if my call only results in one person coming to know Christ, I will count it a blessing, because I know Jesus left the 99 to come and get me.
In Christ,
Erik Lindquist
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