Anthony Evans

I am still healing from a “dead situation”. It’s not over yet. I have seen God bit by bit pick up the pieces in my life for me to start all over again. I know that God is the only one that can breathe “life” into me and cause me to “breathe again”.

You sounded wonderful the other night on TBN, Still praying for you and your ministry. Met you and prayed with you at Bethel College

AE so challenged & proud of your transparency. So thankful for the God given friendship I have with you. Love and appreciate you!! WOW!

God is teaching (although I don’t know how good a job I am doing of learning) me to maximize my “waiting period” by stretching me, maturing and growing me in ways I could have never imagined. Not that I thought I was through growing, but I didn’t foresee the testing period that would take me from “baby Christian” with little faith to someone who is learning to take God at His Word on a “whole ‘nother level” (Ed Young Jr )!

Whatever His answers are, NOW, to all my burning questions and desires, I am learning, “not my will but Thine be done”, because His ways are higher, better & more purposefully eternal than some of my tunnel-visioned selfish desires. If I continue to allow Him to make my heart like His and delighting myself in Him, surely He’ll give me the desires of my heart. I CHOOSE to believe! It WILL be greater later!!!

Thanks for the challenge to max out the wait time! I feel I am on the edge of that place where, like you, feel like God is saying “Now is the time.” I don’t see how it will be or even how it will be when He opens a door instead of doors I keep trying to open that won’t…but I know it’s coming…it’s one of His promises. It is sincerely the hardest spot to be in. To have an abundant life, live it and yet know that you have one area you MUST wait on. Ugh! It shows me my sin that’s for sure. But one verse that struck me yesterday was “Hope deferred makes the heart sick but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.” Prov 13:12. I just feel so heart sick but I know in God’s timing it will be a dream fulfilled for Him. Blessings and All for Him!

My period of waiting has been one of the most beautiful and soul-transforming experiences of my life. I’ve never shared most of the following stuff with anyone so I don’t even see why I feel compelled to do it now. But maybe it will be of help to someone reading.
My mother died 5 days after my 13th birthday and I felt so hopeless. I kept all my feelings inside. I cried yes, but the real tears were kept deep down. Since then, until about 2 years ago (I’m 29) I became hard and cold because of the hurt. I can’t remember even crying before that. I had trust issues and nobody ever knew the real me. I wanted to keep that part of me for myself as it was something no one could take away when they left my life. I somehow thought that everyone was gonna leave me. I had to take up the responsiblity of managing a family as I was the only female in the house and I was always there for everyone but was wondering who would be there for me. I gave up so much of myself for friends and family but realised I wasnt getting anything real back. After all those years, about 2 years ago I realised I couldn’t do it anymore and I decided to take me back and I felt like I needed healing. I was depressed and needed to get away and all this time I’m begging God to do something, hear me, anything. I was so impatient. I wanted things in my time and on my terms. I even got to the point where I said ‘Hey God you can handle this part of my life, and You can deal with all the others.’ Crazy.
I got the opportunity to leave the country for job purposes, and I took it. I felt so free. From the time I landed on the foreign soil I realised that this wasnt just for the job and career but for healing. God felt so real to me then. I knew it was my time, no distractions, just me.
The past two years, I’ve had a broken relationship that tore me apart, friendships that I severed because they were toxic and I couldnt be myself. I was like ‘God what’s going on?? You brought me here for this? This aint funny!!’ I ended up in the hospital with a DVT and up to this day the doctors can’t identify how or why and I had it for 3 weeks (thought it was a gym injury) and they were so amazed I wasnt dead. But that stay in the hospital was the beginning of my turnaround. I felt so at peace. I witnessed to nurses and doctors who didn’t believe in God. People were seeking me out to see who I was. My dad flew in and he was in awe, like he was seeing me for the first time and now knew who I was, the real me. That for me spoke volumes about the God we serve. He was using me and I didn’t even know but what was more amazing is that I saw the hand of God during the situation when most times I only noticed it after the situation.
All the time I was praying for change and it came when I thought I was at rock bottom. I made new friends out of the situation who are the most genuine I’ve ever had in my life and I began for the first time to trust again. All the things I prayed for came in an instant. And now my tears won’t stop cause God is so awesome!!
So to anyone reading this testimony, I encourage you today. We may not be told yes to everything we ask, but God knows better than us what He wants and has for us. So waiting on God is the best thing you could ever do. He is truly amazing!!!
Anthony, I think that you are so, in your words, authentic. But truly transparent as well. Thanks for your own testimonies, for they have been an encouragement to me. Your music too has put into words most of the things that have been on my heart for so long. My favorite songs from Undisguised are ‘Amazing God’ and ‘Could It Be’. They speak volumes. Thank you for your ministry.

I should be an expert on “the waiting” by now, sadly, I’m not but God is showing me little ways, little things that make a big difference. I’ll explain, for a lomg time I’ve been feeling as if I am waiting for my life to begin. My ministry, my family all that I know that God has called me to, promised me, feeling like I am chasing some invisable dream that God has placed in my heart. I am a problem solver, when I need something accomplished I sort out all the options tackle them in my head. I need to know the plan… And I believe that is what my waiting is about. Breaking me out of “what is the plan mode” and bringing me to the God “I’m just gonna do what you lead me to do mode”. Now the world tells us we have to do something to get what we want, but to get what God wants we have to just follow him do what he says and sometimes that mean that when he is silent, we need to be STILL. This is hard because it goes against everything our culture says. We always wanna know the plan and be filled in on God’s will so we don’t miss anything…so if we don’t hear God it out particular circumstance what do we do… Wait and follow 1Thes5:16-18 be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God’s will for you in Christ Jesus. I believe everything else will follow. Thank God we have each other on this Christian walk
<3 and peace
Pamella

wow.

what a challenging blog post. i, too, get bitter easily and have said stuff like “He doesn’t want to answer me.” of course, such an attitude illuminates my innate depravity: how can one have any bitter words at all to say about the One who loves her MOST in the whole universe, the One who condescended from eternity into the body of a smelly infant to eventually pay her sin debt in full? and still daily casts abundant love her way in many packages?

so i see what you mean, and i appreciate the challenge of finding ways to maintain & “suffer well” during dry seasons.

as i think about it, the answer i’ll give to your question (having not yet read the others) is staying in fellowship with Him through His Word. that’s how He communicates with His children, after all. His self-revelation is life to us. it’s the unchanging Word that even rejects or supports what we think we “hear” Him saying.

now clearly during times like these, it’s hard to carry on a discipline of reading & studying. so one habit to form is to make the Scripture the last thing we put down before we rest our eyes and the first thing we pick up when we open them.

at minimum, at least we’ll be growing in our knowledge of Him and increasing in our affections toward Him (through constant contact with His self-revelation) while the “silence” is happening.

and we’ll also realize the truth: that He’s never silent.

g&p, bro.

I am fully in a waiting period right now although God has graciously allowed me glimpses of what could be ahead if I just hang on and use this time of waiting to learn more about Him and grow closer to Him. He is miraculously teaching me how to lay my burdens (physical, emotional and psychological) at His feet and just trust that He will do wonders with them. The past year and a half has been overwhelmingly painful but even from the darkest moments – one’s I very well might not have lived through – I am beginning to see that He was there and blessed me with gifts from His heart along the way.

Oh, and, relearning to find joy and things to be thankful for in pretty much anything are BIG part of my “waiting period”.

Pamella, I am right there with you on a lot of what you said. As well as Jen. I have been praying for God to reveal his calling on my life and allow me to fulfill it for about 3 years now. Ever since I graduated college in 2007. I’ve tried to “make it happen” myself, and I was never able to. In the meantime, God gave me a huge testimony, when I felt like I’d never had one before – even though I’ve been a Christian since I was 11. In the past 3 months, I feel the Lord has given me an even clearer vision for my calling. But I am still WAITING for everything to happen… at first I was doing great. I had peace and was putting all my trust in the Lord. I’m still putting all my trust in the Lord, but though I’m crying out to the Lord for the peace I had just days ago, I am struggling this week. I wonder if I’m wrong about my calling, and I just cry out for desperation for the Lord to reveal it to me clearly and allow me to fulfill it, to use me for His Kingdom and His glory… but I have learned so many lessons on how to endure the “waiting” that I am determined, to the best of my ability, not to do this wrong and let these precious moments slip away due to my complaining. I truly feel like these are precious moments. Moments to spend with Him deep in prayer and trusting – because all too soon my life will become busy again, and I’ll be craving all the time I had with Him during “the waiting.” So I just encourage everyone not to forget that this time is precious, and to hold on. I’ve been clinging to Ephesians 3:20, 1 Corinthians 2:9, and lately God has really been bringing to mind Isaiah 43:18-19. God is faithful

Hello Bro. Anthony, THANK YOU!!!! for this post!!!! I am in a season of God just literally doing some deep weed rooting!!! It hurts and it is all across the board!!! in several areas of my life. I was talking to my sister-in-law, and she said, that God must have something big in mind for you. After reading your post, I realized how much more I need to start continuing to press forward. Stuff has come in hard, but now it is as if I can feel Heaven cheering for me!!!!! Many times I have wondered, “How long, oh Lord, how long???” He wants to keep me in this fire!!!! I want to stay where He wants me!!!!! Bro Anthony, keep being encouraged by His Word. Keep being a blessing to who He allows you to be a blessing to!!!! Keep engaging even when you feel you have nothing left to give!!!! He will do exactly what He set out to do and we must continue to yield to HIM!!!! God bless you Bro. I am adding you onto my prayer list!!!! Love you in JESUS!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Hallelujah!!!!!!!!

I know it is no coincidence that I came across your post. I am currently in a waiting period with God and trying to seek His face, presence, everything… patiently. I too have asked God questions like “where to you want me to go God, where are you in this storm?” All I know, is that God does everything for a reason. He takes our waiting time or down time to reveal to us His promises. I will continue to wait on the Lord and speak with him throughout my day, afternoon, night… and so forth. It’s nice to hear about someone getting out on the other side of what God has promised. Thank you for sharing your post.

Hello Anthony Evans your music is so enourage to me keep on let God using you
you are very wonderful man of God i really like you
very much you know why because you are very real with other you can email anytime you want to i love you in christ jesus i promise i am not a stalker just of friend God bless you . my email traceypq@hotmail.com

Enjoyed this morning sooo much and looking forward to worship tonight – thanks for sharing with us!

Honestly..I’m a impatient person!!! I tap my feet at the microwave , hate when people pay with checks and balance thier acct at the check outline and when people don’t go immediately when the light turn green!! Well,now that i look at it seems silly but it serious to me at times!
So, naturally i wouldn’t be so patience or eager to “wait” on the husband man : ) Not for the sake of saying he put a ring on it or he went to Jareds’. But for the simple fact feeling the from the man who loves me as much as God. To love and be loved.
But lately i’ve been feeling as if my void filler (God) was being hot and cold with me! Maybe he was teaching me that’s how i act towards him…I could not take it!!! I don’t like those inbetween times when i can’t feel God near or see him moving! Having the enemy dangle the carrot of my desires before my famished heart was starting to be too much. I could scream if i got another wedding invite or engagement annoucement..sigh!! I felt my heart growing cold & bitter just resolving to say that “maybe marriage and kids aren’t for me”!!!
Sunday i felt as if i was at my breaking point..I simply told God that i needed to feel him near and that i needed a word from him! God heard me..(tear) every song that was sung had me in crying relentlessly…And to top it all off the scripture that my Pastor read was Psalm 27. As I read each wrong i felt the weight i had been feeling for so long fall off to point when he finished i was weeping well into the message!!! O’ i wanted to scream due the relief i was feeling!!!
I will continue to run this race with PATIENCE and with a grateful heart : )\

“Maximizing the waiting time”
-k’sh

Hi Anthony -

I realise you have had countless thank yous from many people expressing how much your transparancy has ministered to them and I guess I’ll be another one, but really, I Just want to say “Thank you”. For your courage, for taking out your heart so we could see it and allowing God to use you in a vulnerable position. Wow! Thank you. Your songs are inspiring. I only discovered you a few years ago when you featured at Abundant Life Ministries Bradford, England Men’s Conference. (I wasn’t there because I’m a girl, ;o) but they kept promo-ing the event on God Channel with you singing ‘Letting Go’, loved your sound, so highjacked The Bridge album, from my brother when he got back. I then went I bought the rest of your albums. By far your lastest album ‘Undisguised’ has touched alot of nerves and healed alot of hearts. Thank you.

As for your last blog “The Waiting?” I’m thinking God has gifted you to touch people’s nerves, I read it and thought Ouch!! Severval months ago, He said, I was in a “Waiting Place”. I have to confess I didn’t handle it too well. Guess what!? I’m still there…. ) but you’ve given me fresh hope and encouragement along with everyone else’s testimonies how to wait with paitence and a better heart. Thanks.

Thanks, and keep doing what you’re doing. Your a great blessing.

PS.- When will you be returning to England? We need to experience that gift you have across the pond. ;o) Hope it’ll be soon. Take care.

Thanks for all the replies!

RG, Can’t wait to come back to Abundant Life. I’ll try to reach out to Matt and Mark and see if we can work something out.

We’ll talk to you you guys again soon,

AE

Thanks, that would be so cool….and can you make sure it’s not a Men’s Conference this time, so females can get in? lol!:o) or better still you could reach out to Pastor Charlotte Scanlon-Gambill at Abundant Life to be at the next ‘Cherish’ or ‘Stronger’ event 2011..? Look forward to it. Every Blessing.

RG, just ask Pastor Char! I haven’t talked to her in a while. Please tell her I said hi.

I understand. I just came out of a period of the same kind of stuff! It was also a period of feelin like I was in a true spiritual drought! I couldn’t even have a right prayer life during those couple of months! Finally God just dealt with it & I can finally say that I’m content! I’m still “waiting” on certain things but God has repositioned me into a place where I’m blooming… exactly where he planted me, in THIS season! Be Blessed

I am a very busy person and waiting is not one of my gifts. The demands that I put on myself are very tiring and can rob me of my joy. On the way to work the other day I felt God’s touch like I had not in a long while. “I Surrender” from BTC came up on my CD followed by “New Jerusalem.” Talk about feeling! I got to work and Vickie Yohe’s “One Moment” came up on my IPod. What a great day! It had been worth the wait to have one special day like that with God.

Hi AE, I heard you for the 1st time at HealingPlaceChurch as our 1st guest in our new Arena on a Wednesday night. When I saw you with Pastor Johnny, I thought you were a football player. But when you were on the stage and gave your testimony initially and then bellowed out beautiful words from God through your heart, I was mesmerized. Mesmerized that a man was standing in public and being so transparent and honest, which is odd to me. I researched you and read more about you and wanted to express what a testimony, a genuine one, that you have. Today, this morning I was answering a question on FB that a friend started about good girls meeting bad guys. My answer was the song you sang. Here you talk about waiting and my answer on FB was to wait on Jesus. My entire life right now is waiting on God. I don’t understand, but I’m waiting and trusting. I don’t understand why I’m isolated from friends and family, but I’m waiting and trusting on God and it’s not because of anything I’ve done wrong, it’s just a season. And I do feel like He’s forgotten about me sometimes, but I know He hasn’t, those are just feelings. But your words here in your blog are encouraging: We’re waiting for a purpose because God is preparing us for something and we just have to trust Him.
Thank you for being a true, open Man of God.

Thanks for sharing your heart with us. We really appreciate your honesty and ‘undisguised’ approach to communicating through your music ministry but I’ll be honest with you. I’m telling you this in love and with the best of intentions knowing that temptations are out there. STAY HUMBLE BEFORE GOD. This is a journey that the true will run and be victorious so long as in the waiting we focus on the task. Bro. Anthony, you’re a psalmist unlike any other because God made us all unique (no carbon copies) even identical twins have different personalities- ‘different’ and things will happen and they already did, from what you shared with us, but I partly blame US as we fail to pray for one another effectively and fervently. What do you think? I’m coming out of my waiting and into my rejoicing. I feels awesome. I’ll be praying for you. God bless. Please respond before the end of the month.

Rejoicing in Christ – Michelle.

AE…omg…remaining in, what I like to call, a holding pattern, it seems like God is forever silent and not even listening to any of your hearts desires or cry. All the while, knowing what His word says you can access and trying to do your best to live according to that. It seems like there’s no answer either way, I’ve learned that there are many answers or instructions the LORD gives without ever saying a single word! Some great friends of mines wrote a song called “And He Blessed My Soul Without a Word.” So many times, as worshippers, we’re focused on an answer or the lack thereof that we ignore the stronghold that’s developing in our hearts and minds. I appreciate you for sharing such pearls because it lets me know that I’m still human. Lol Finally, I can truly testify that while I’ve been “Actively waiting” on God, I’ve seen Him do some PHENOMENAL things in my life and in the lives of others through me! In closing, (I’m a preacher…can you tell?! Lol) the Lord spoke to me and said this simple phrase and I had to humble myself, repent, & worship….”I AM God and I do all things for my glory.” He is today, just like He was yesterday and will forever always be sovereign…AE PLEASE DON’T STOP SINGING OR WORSHIPPING!!!! God repsonds on your behalf and others when you, AE, give it to Him!
Dedicated to The Kingdom
Madd Luvv~~

I have learned to wait expectantly and in anticipation, reminding myself of who God is and His character. He doesn’t lie, he’s not like man, He’s with me and my favorite, Jeremiah 29:11. I stay in God’s face even when faced with devastation and being let down in the waiting period. I have no choice, all I have is Him and He’s the only one who is going to see me through.

Waiting is so difficult for me, because I have to fight against my flesh which tends to be a little impulsive and wants the answer NOW! But God is doing a work in me in his sweet timing and not mine. I’m learning that waiting is a season that I must pass through. And in this season God is allowing things to die, while others are resurrected or birthed. It’s not easy but I know that God is using this season to refine me and make me more like him. In this season of waiting and transition there can be peace and an assured confidence in God if I allow it into my heart. I did! Happy 4th! : )

the waiting…. it’s shown me God’s power. And it’s required me to allow Him to show me my own heart. He took me to a place where I literally felt the hardening of my heart and He told me why… then He let me feel it soften. He’s teaching me to stay connected, no matter the difficulty of the process. He answers. Always. And sometimes, it’s not a comfortable or even palateable answer. But His way is best and His purpose is soooo far above ours… Waiting is worth it – even though it’s tough to remember that sometimes.

Anthony that was so inspiring. I have both a friend and a daughter who experienced this. For 2 1/2 years my friend who serves God diligently has been waiting for a job and being threatened with foreclosure. Just the other day, I witness God say yes to her. I also witnessed her remain faithful to God. I wish you could hear a her story. But after everyone told her no and there is nothing else we can do. She said to those certain everyone’s. I’m going to put you in God’s hands. Hours later she received a I can do something and yes I will. It was amazing. Although all the work she did was necessary in trying to keep her home. After none of it worked. She instrusted it to our Almighty Awesome God! And HE shook things up. As for my daughter. She is a beautiful girl, waiting on the right mate. Struggling to accomplish her goals. I believe God has said yes and it just hasn’t come in to fruition yet. I can’t wait to witness her yes. I can tell that sometimes her heart to feels like stone and she does not feel like worshiping. But I know God is going to bless her. God Bless you and your Family. I pray for you and your family. I know you have to get tired sometimes. But I will be joining all that love you that God continually refreshes you and that are plenty of rewarding experiences for your dilegence. Thanks for living your lives out loud.

Okay so this blog post is going on a year old now (what can I say, I’m late to the game) BUT the message is still (and I suspect will always be) relevant. I am still in the “waiting room” as my pastor likes to call it. I have cried, prayed, stayed in faith, kicked, screamed, fell out of faith, cried some more, rebelled even more, and have returned once again. Each time I thought I was emptied of myself, God allowed situations to show me the contrary. It seems as if He wants me (and us) to be exhausted of ourselves–exhausted of our strength, exhausted of our energy, exhausted of everything we think we can still do on our own apart from Him. And it is when we finally come to the place of true emptiness, when even our prayer is whispered in the humble awareness that it is only by His breath in us that we are even able to utter words, that God says, “yes, know I can work.” And God encounters me, broken and bruised by the storms of life and my own sin, and he loves me right where I am. I know my failures and my lack of trust and belief in Him, yet He is there. I don’t know what all of my sufferings mean or how He will “work all things together for my good” but I gotta know that He will. He is all I have. He knows that and now I do too.

Thank you for your openness and realness. It is so needed in the Church.

Stay blessed.

I am late as well, but the message is timeless. This time is so hard, but thank God, it will not last always. Where can I get a copy of your version of the Potter’s House? It was so beautiful during the April 1-2 simulcast that I couldnt stop cryin.

They that wait on the Lord shall renew their strength…could that be the reason why I had been so weak in some areas of my life? Had i not been exercising the wait? I realized that i was not exercising the wait becaue i chose not to ask for anything. I know that is sad, but it is oh so true. I realized that the fear of rejection literally crippled me. It was easier for me to believe God for other people…but not for myself. It was not until God Himself had to allow me to be completly broken down that i could even admit this. It is a day to day process, but i have begun to embrace wait-strength for my life.

I know exactly what you mean by the “waiting process”. We get so anxious to do God’s work that we get frustrated in the waiting process. But God will only use us when He is ready to use us. I am convicted of this so much, because I busy myself with so many things for God’s work and I don’t spend enough time in my word (like I would like to)… Sometimes God just calls us to be in a season to be still and listen for Him. I really appreciate that you would be so open about this. Something that I can relate to! Don’t worry, Anthony… God will use us both as he intended to use us!
~Katie