Christ For The Nations – Part 1

A Dream that thrusted me into my life anointing!

Just two years after I had been “Spirit-filled” on a Sunday afternoon I laid down to take a nap, and immediately I had a dream.  In the dream I saw a large auditorium with hundreds of people standing with their hands raised.  They were worshiping the Lord of Glory, Jesus!  Above their heads were lights glowing in the shape of a cross.  It was huge!  I’d never seen anything like it.  That was it!  That was the whole incredible dream.

In just a few weeks, my Pastor’s wife invited some of the ladies in our ladies Bible study to a women’s conference at CFNI.  I asked her if I could go and she politely said “yes”.   I’d never heard of the place, and didn’t know anything about it.  I had only been Spirit filled for a couple of years and all of this was so new to me.  I was thankful to go.

When we walked through the door to the main auditorium at CFNI, I immediately thought it was so familiar.  Then when I looked up at the ceiling, I was stunned!  There were the huge glowing lights in the ceiling in the shape of a cross!  This was the place I had dreamt about!  Wow!  This was an actual place!  I thought it was just a cool dream.  It was so amazing, because I had never even thought about going to a Bible School, and then I knew that was the Lord’s plan all along.

That following fall semester I was there!  It was so wonderful being in an atmosphere where everyone was there for the same reason, to grow in God!  Everyone was in love with Jesus, and all they talked about was Jesus and the Bible.

After we all got settled into our residences, I quickly found out that before I could get my schedule for classes, I had to have a “ministry” to major in!  Ministry?  The idea of being a pastor’s wife or a missionary living in a grass hut in a jungle somewhere was not something I wanted to aspire to.   I think I heard the Holy Spirit chuckle when I asked Him in prayer about it.  He said, “pick up your flute”.  I had played my flute in public school band for 6 years.  I signed up in the music/worship leader ministry.

In order to be in the band/orchestra you had to try out, in other words you needed to audition.  I signed up to be last on the list and played my flute for Ken Coleman, and I was in the band!  Then I heard there was going to be a choir, so I thought that might be a fun thing to do too.  I made sure I signed up last on that list as well.  I didn’t want anyone to hear me.  Since I was last on the day I was scheduled to sing, everyone had left except for a couple of people in the music building.  I was thankful.  There was one guy there to hear me sing and a student that played the piano for me, Sondra Corbitt.  I closed my eyes and sang a short hymn.  When I opened my eyes, I was surprised.  There were about 6 to 10 people standing there with big smiles and they applauded me!  I was so embarrassed!  What a great group of people trying to encourage me.  Then Bob Mason, the director of the Music Department, asked me to be a part of a traveling choir called “Living Praise”.  He totally caught me off guard.  I had no idea what he was asking me to become a part of or do.  I quickly thanked him and asked him if I could the next year.  I felt like the Lord wanted me to play my flute.  He was so happy and wanted me to know I was always welcomed to come be a part of “Living Praise”.

The music department was wonderful!  I quickly picked up the “flow” of playing my flute under the anointing of the Holy Spirit, and I loved it!  There was no music.  It was all improvised.

While I was at CFNI, I pursued the Lord with all my heart: getting up early every morning to be alone with God, spending my afternoons in the newly built Library Chapel, praying and meeting with the faculty to know how to hear and follow the leading of the Holy Spirit.  One visit I remember was with Dan Marocco.  He was a large man with a big voice.  He actually was an opera singer when he got saved and then became a missionary with his wife, Esther, in the Philippians.  He told me, ‘One day my prince would show upon a white horse and sweep me off my feet’.   He obviously was a hopeless romantic. Ha!  He was great.  And it turned out he was Bob Mason’s father-in-law.

In the picture below are: me (Judy Block), Mrs. Freda Lindsay (Pres. & Founder with her deceased husband Gordan Lindsay of CFNI), and Kimberly (Keech) Douma.  We are at the National Day of Prayer in Washington DC where Living Praise performed.

In my second year, I was one of eight ladies chosen from hundreds who tried out for the prestigious Living Praise traveling choir and band.  I have since learned that my class was the largest class to graduate at CFNI in its history to this day.  Bob and Debbie Mason, the directors of the Music Department and Living Praise, became lifelong friends.  It was the experience of a lifetime!  We ministered in a church almost every Sunday and Wednesday.  We also went with Mrs. Freda (Mom) Lindsay to several of her banquets to raise funds for the international students and the school.  During the summer we went on a tour of the United States and Canada in our very own “Living Praise” bus.

In the picture below is Me and Natasha Curry while on tour in front of the Living Praise tour bus.

Yes, CFNI was a totally unexpected lifetime experience.  It was a gift from the Lord to me.  I grew so much.  Now, over 43 years later, I cherish the memories of those meetings and the prophetic words spoken over me.   The dynamic presence of the Holy Spirit was beyond anything I have ever experienced to this day.  I quickly became totally submerged in following, believing and walking with Jesus in the Holy Spirit.  I am thankful to have been a part of something that amazing in the Kingdom of God.

The picture below is our Living Praise group on tour in Canada on a Christian TV program.