“A Part of My Story” by Mrs. Wilder

Hi, I’m Philip Wilder’s wife. I know what you’re probably thinking—where’s Philip? Currently, he’s using power tools. But in general, you can usually find him hanging around me. I’m one lucky lady! But today it’s my turn, and I want to share a story about a time when God spoke to me.

I hope my story brings you peace knowing that we can trust God has good things in store for us. He is our portion. He gives himself to us so long as we allow Him to. What an extravagant savior He is.

My Background

My freshman year of college was the most challenging, exciting, and pivotal year of my life. I grew up believing in God and accepted him sometime in middle school, but I thought that faith stopped there (turns out it doesn’t—thank God).

When I went to college, I had a completely open mind. I wanted to test God in a sense, to see if He was truly there and if He actually cared about me.

Pretty early on into my first semester, my roommate invited me to a college ministry event. I’m a bit of a yes-woman, and I couldn’t reject the offer of free non-cafeteria food, so I went with her. Little did I know, some of the people I met that night would become life-long friends. We enjoyed the food, people, and atmosphere, so we continued going each week.

My Story

Fast forward to the winter retreat at Beaver Creek Camp—it was a beautiful, snowy, and spirit-filled weekend in the mountains with food (that once again, wasn’t cafeteria food), friends, and studying the book of James.

God convicted my spirit with James 2:17-18, “So also faith by itself, if it does not have works, is dead. But someone will say, ‘You have faith and I have works.’ Show me your faith apart from your works, and I will show you my faith by my works.”

I realized that I had dead faith. I wasn’t living a “Christian” life. Instead, I was living for myself and trying to have the coveted “college experience” that in the end left me feeling unfulfilled, ingenuine, and unworthy.

This is where the story gets a little goofy.

If you know me at all, this probably won’t surprise you. But I was taking a solo evening stroll at said retreat, singing, and following a bird. I felt like I had to follow that bird for some reason, so I did.

Then, I reached a decision point: I could continuing following the bird, or I could split off and keep walking the way that I was going.

I decided to stop following the bird, and see where I could lead myself. The path soon opened up to a clearing and there was a really nice view of the beautiful pink, orange, and purple sunset. I stood there for a while taking it all in . . . until I got curious and followed the path that the bird had taken.

When I got to the clearing that the bird would’ve lead me to—had I followed it—I found an even more beautiful view of the sunset. Grand mountains, snow-capped trees, all tucked away in a breathtaking valley.

This moment was significant for me because I knew the Lord was telling me that He will lead me to places far more beautiful and impactful than anywhere I could take myself. He was telling me to trust him.

Letters In the Clouds

I decided to sit down at the camp entrance and felt a very powerful presence over me. It said to my soul, “Be still.” My body fell limp as I sat and folded myself in half on this chair-sized tree stump. I knew what I was experiencing was powerful and unlike anything I’d ever experienced before.

As I laid over my knees, I prayed a test prayer to make sure that God was really with me. “God, put in the clouds the initials of the person I’m going to marry.”

(Once again, if you know me, this isn’t that surprising. I just thought the whole dating thing would be MUCH easier if I knew which initials to look for.)

I peeked up at the clouds and saw a very distinct “JC.” At that moment, I knew that God was telling me to focus on Him. So, I prayed again—I can’t remember exactly what I prayed, but I’m sure it went something like “reveal yourself to me.”

At this point in my life, I hadn’t read much of the Bible, so I’m glad that He didn’t show me his face because I would’ve likely died. However, he did show me a faint face in the clouds. I couldn’t make much of it, but it was definitely a man, and kind of resembled Jesus.

At this point, I was FREAKING out. What are you supposed to do when God shows you something like this?

I sat and waited for the sunset to dissipate, but I couldn’t stop thinking about what just happened. I ran back to the lodge and told my friends.

God is Good

I’m so grateful for this intimate sunset with our savior. He showed me these things because He loved me. Nothing I did deserved it. I was living in sin while putting on my church face. He saw my need and gave me Himself. In word and action; faith and works. My prayer for you is that our God would reveal Himself to you in a way that causes you to lean into Him and trust Him more.

Do you have any special God moments like mine?

 

 

If you liked this post, you may want to check out my husband’s God story, which is much like mine: The Beginning of a Long Journey

If you’d like to hear God’s voice, but don’t know how, you might like my husband’s post How does God Speak to Us?