Who is bringing Shekinah Fellowship into the spotlight?
I attended Shekinah Fellowship only. I used to fill my hippie van with anyone that would come with me to the services.I first met Brant Baker when my spiritual father and personal friend, Lonnie Frisbee, introduced us at Brant's clothing store in Costa Mesa CA. I thought Brant was a bit odd at that time. Lonnie didn't seem to care.It wasn't until six years later that I encountered Brant once again. This time he was in a strip mall on 7th street in Long Beach CA.
He was on a makeshift stage with the lights dimmed except for a few lights that were trained on him. He was speaking on the topic of, "Sir, we would see Jesus." A sentence from the gospel of John.
John 12:21The same came therefore to Philip, which was of Bethsaida of Galilee, and desired him, saying, Sir, we would see Jesus.
Now this is a simple enough topic you would think. Somehow there was a different dimension that everyone crammed into that little space was experiencing. While Brant was not saying anything worthy of the deeper life club the words that he was saying were powerfully anointed and had great impact.
The crowd was mesmerized and hung on every word. I knew that this was the evidence of a man of God who was anointed to preach.The difference between the Brant I met in a clothing store and the Brant in this strip mall store front was incredible. This guy was on fire! His words were alive! We were being stirred up inside by the Holy Spirit.
I left that place glowing in the Holy Spirit. The next day I woke up still in the Holy Spirit. I thought to my self that this has got to be God at work. So I determined to go back the next Saturday night.You guessed it, the same thing happened. I began to notice an increase of divine encounters with others who were getting saved through me telling them about Christ. I felt like my "spiritual batteries" were getting charged up at Shekinah Fellowship on Saturday nights. And would deplete slowly through out the week. There began a pattern of charging up on Saturdays and lots of wonderful street ministry throughout the week.That was the extent of my Shekinah experience.
Brant told me in 1973 that I belonged in the ministry of Shekinah. At that time I got a check in my spirit that I was to remain in Laguna Beach where I lived at the time. Then in 1992 I got a phone call at 3:30 AM. It was Tilson Schumate the pastor of Shekinah Fellowship. He told me that God had told him to ordain me. Apparently Tilson, after visiting me ministering in a park on a Friday night, could not get to sleep. God was telling him to ordain me.
He struggled with it for quite some time before his wife told him to call me.I felt the Lord wanted me to go along with it. Even though I wasn't seeking it nor did I need it for what I was doing. But I had learned to listen to the Spirit of God.
Ok, so there I was ordained, and no marching orders from on high to speak of. Nothing. And to make matters worse a close friend got very jealous that I had gotten ordained. Great. Sigh...
I never did anything with that ordination, never needed it. My ministry always took place to the body at large, outside the organized church.
Fast forward to 2006. I had saved a few of Brant Baker's sermons on cassette tapes. I was feeling like I was to share them with others. I kept putting it off. Then you know how the Lord will persist in leaning on you until you respond. After a few people telling me that I should share my Brant sermons, I start to get the picture.
I decided that the best way to go about this is to make a sort of video that I could upload to Google videos. That way an unlimited amount of people could have access to them.
Now I know there are some who would read this and think...gee...you could have made them into MP3's and sold them or transcribed them and sold them as books. That is what I find wrong with the "Christian" world of today. Everyone wants to make a buck it seems. When I got saved in 1967 you had to go to a Catholic Bookstore if you wanted to read Christian books. There just was not any other Christian bookstores around. I was a frequent visitor to Sacred Heart Treasure House in Costa Mesa...LOL
So I finally figure out how to get audio from a cassette tape and into my computer and clean it up enough that you could understand it. Then I have to hook it up to a video so I can be accepted as a video by Google. It took me days to do this. The big moment comes to upload the results to Google video. As the slow process of uploading is taking place, unexpectedly the Holy Spirit falls upon me in my chair. I start to cry as He reminds me of Brant Baker telling me, so many years ago, "David, you belong in this ministry." I cried as I became aware that what I was doing at that moment was directly related to Brant's statement to me.
Now the fruit. I get an email from a friend who tells me he had just spoken with Paul Cain. Paul tells him that someone had forwarded that Brant video to him and he watched it. Paul remembered having once seen Brant at a North Hollywood church and felt that Brant was anointed. Paul was stunned when a few days later he attended a pastors conference and the head speaker starts talking about that first Brant Baker video that I uploaded!
You know, as of this very moment that particular video has been viewed 608 times.
Then I start getting emails from people who were in the choir or the ministry of Shekinah. Some sent pictures and some sent tapes of Brant's preaching. I have posted the pictures on my website and am currently making more videos as time permits. So check in with Google video search engine from time to time.
A few people were holding me at arms length...as if I was trying to start something or profit from Shekinah's name.
No! Never! I loved Shekinah Fellowship. Those people were all unique and played a part in making Shekinah what it was. God's Spirit moved in answer to the people who dedicated their efforts to Shekinah.
I got an idea to have a blog where people could interrelate about Shekinah. This is it. You can leave comments and you should. The Spirit can work miracles among us. Pray it in and be a part of it...
Surfer51
