Hearing the Voice of the Father - Salimbaa

I know some people with tend to service that both services here if you don't attend both you know it's different all the time isn't it and so again we're not scripted here the Lord just told me this morning during this time of worship he told me to read this scripture and it says in the last days God says I'll pour out my spirit on all people your sons and daughters will prophesy your young men will see visions your old men will dream dreams and I just heard the Lord say this morning as we were worshiping that there are some of you in here that are dreamers and your fire has burned out and this morning he is going to relight that and there's going to be a fire burning in you the dreamers in this place this morning so just give God all of your heart and your intention this morning we're going to be three men standing up here saying a few words I would prefer you listen to what God says instead of just man and so with that caleb lead us this morning okay good morning everyone everybody good good my name is Caleb this is my wife over here Gladys can you stand up just real quickly and I actually have my parents here with me as well so can you stand up please Mike and Cheryl so I just want to honor them because I want to honor them because they are the biggest influence people in my life and a lot of what I'm going to talk to you about today they are a big big big big part of it so just to give you that's where I'm coming from I'm a I'm a very family-oriented person and I get that from my parents but let's just open it up in prayer first father we honor your presence here we we honor what you're doing we honor your leadership and as we walk with you this morning we ask for you to open up people's hearts help us hear your voice and not just do that but also respond to what you're speaking to us and know how to respond yeah we love you Jesus we honor your presence amen yes so I just wanted to tell you a little bit about me and my family's background before I get started I want to tell you a story today about something that has happened to to me but I'll first kind of back you up a little bit on some history so I grew up actually in this area Trinity is where I grew up in and together with Joshua and all of our buddies growing up but we I just grew up in a really kind of good family good Christian home I would say is just we my parents are both believers and they grew all of us siblings up in that home and I just was I was I really like the way that my parents grew me up because I'm I was always sheltered in the sense of I was in a very good Christian family but my parents did not control me and I was they kind of let me do what I needed to do in order to grow up and then then you know I was able to you know get into some really bad situations where I was able to learn and the Holy Spirit taught me things throughout my childhood and and I was able to learn a little bit about hearing God's voice and what that meant what that looked like and one thing that really motivated me is my parents that's why I wanted to honor them earlier it's because I would hear my mom speak the name of Jesus under her breath and she probably didn't hear me so she didn't know that I heard that but I would hear it all the time I knew she was a worshiper and she communicated with God throughout the day and the same with my dad he would do the same thing I would see things in through my dad that were reflected the nature of God and I think so growing up I was I kind of I was grew up in that and then when I was 20 actually the day I turned 21 I flew out I left my family I flew out to Israel and I lived in Israel for almost a year and I was kind of grew up in the the art world the musician's world as well as the craftsman world so I kind of grew up in that my mom's side her musician and my dad side are craftsmen and I ended up becoming an instrument maker so that's kind of my profession but I was in Israel working on an art project over there called the fountain of Tears with Rick Winn icky and the Lord just kind of ripped me out of my Christian home basically and I was put in the Middle East and this basically totally by myself working out in the desert for almost a year and the Lord was was just like speaking all these things to me and through that process the Lord had had given me a heart for the nations a heart for the unreached people the heart for the the lost and the broken and the needy and those who don't have an opportunity even hear the name of Jesus so I said the Lord spoke to me and said you're called to the indigenous people and I didn't know exactly what that meant but from that from Israel the Lord started leading me in to live with indigenous groups and tribal groups all around the world I've lived in far-flung islands of the Pacific Ocean I've lived in jungles different jungles throughout Southeast Asia and past ten years learned different tribal languages and it's just been a been a joy for me just to be able to live with them and and see God move and miraculous ways the truth is that let me just read this real quick passage to you it's in Revelation chapter 7 and I like to prep when I'm getting ready to tell you with this verse this is chapter 7 verse 9 and we'll go down a little bit this is talking about the you know the return of Christ after this I looked and behold a great multitude that no one could number from every tribe are no sorry from every nation from all tribes peoples and languages standing before the throne and before the lamb clothed in white robes with palm branches and crying out with a loud voice salvation belongs to God who sits on the throne and to the lamb I just want to point out one little short thing it says every nation every tribe people group and language and I believe we as the church we have a commission right everybody knows our Commission go into all the world preach the good news but we believe I think there's a mindset on us that thinks all right we're gonna go that God's gospel the gospel of Jesus Christ has already reached all the nations therefore we've completed our work but the truth is that's not true if you continue to read it says every nation all tribes peoples and languages so let me give you a short example in the Philippines Philippines is one nation right but within the Philippines there are a hundred and seventy eight different languages and tribal groups and they're still unreached people groups in the Philippines as well as all over the world though we have not even recognized so I think this verse is key to where we are we've done the nations but we still have a commission to go into other places and see nations see languages tribes and people for the gospel of Jesus Christ to go to them you hear me everybody good there so this is where I'm coming from today and I'm just going to tell you a short story about something that's happened to me and my family and a tribal group and this started about five years ago I was woke up from a basically woke up from a dream one morning and I go through seasons where I would dream a lot and then some injury some seasons where it's like totally dry I just do not get any dreams and this season's particularly five years ago I was not dreaming much at all it's kind of in a dry season and I woke up one morning from a extremely vivid dream and I take I carry my journal with me everywhere I go every day I either keep it beside my bed or in my like right when I wake up I go straight to like this my quiet room and I just spend time with the Lord I process things and so anyway I woke up from this dream and I journaled everything that I had in the dream so let me tell you a little bit about the dream I was standing on top of this mountain and I saw kind of a multitude of people just a bunch of people and it was a tribal group and as I told you earlier I do I've been to many different tribes so I'm just like all interested in tribal groups and so in my dream I saw these this tribe of people and I was like who are you like where did you come from where do you where do you live and they said we're the thin and onion people and I'm not sure about you guys but I've never heard that word thin and onion and I've never heard that before the dream so I heard that word thin and onion and then after that I I saw the chief there was a chief to this tribe and he was carrying a musical instrument and he carried this musical instrument up in front of the people put it on a table and he he he had these two sticks that that he he was going to play that the instrument but then right then in the dream I I kind of had his pause and I zoomed in to the instrument and I got kind of a full download of everything about this instrument and I saw all the dimensions I know what material is made out of I know how it was made I know how it was tuned and how it was played and so after that zoom back out and the the chief grabbed these sticks and he began to play and as he played this kind of heavenly music began to just feel the the atmosphere and everyone began to worship male what is this it's like this is the sound of heaven but it's also a sound of a tribe what is this and anyway I woke up after that and I like I said I pulled my journal out and just recorded everything I remembered from the dream I wrote that word thin and on and I didn't even know how to spell it at that time I was just like Ti and I don't know I just tried to spell it out and then I also drew pictures of this musical instrument and I you know did little side marks you know seeing this this is the dimension or this is the material this is how it was made and put together all that kind of stuff and then I just left it at that and I was like okay I'm just going to pursue this thing with the Lord and see if this is from the Lord and the way I process that usually is what I do is if I because a lot of times I'll either get a dream from from the Lord or I get like an interpretation or I get something I know that I'm supposed to deliver a word to someone or a people group or whatever I just kind of process it with the Holy Spirit first and the way I do that is I say okay I'm going to go as far as I possibly can with this word and if it's from God he's gonna meet me he's gonna meet me halfway he's gonna he's going to show me signs and wonders along the way to show me that it's it's a word from God and if it's not what I ended up doing is they okay turn around go back to my closet spend some more time with the Lord processing these things but anyway I was like okay I'm gonna go for this and see what happens so I contacted all my anthropological researches all around the world and I asked them about you know you know these anterior anthropologists know all they do research on all the tribes and languages you know they know everything about the tribes and languages of the world you know and so surely they would know right so I contacted them and I said do you guys happen to know Dean and onion if there's a tribe in this world caught in an onion and they said let me look in my book you know so they got these big thick book and they you know they they have all the tribes and languages and the people groups and everything in their research from the past you know five hundred years and all this stuff and they told me that there's not there's not such thing as a tribe caught in and on in so I was kind of like okay all right well maybe my dream was a little off because sometimes I have these Pizza dreams you know it's like I actually have more of those than than any other dreams but I thought maybe it was a Pizza dream and then I was like okay well another thing I'll do I'll just I'll just get in my shop cuz you know I'm an instrument maker I'll get into the shop and I'll just make it I'll just put it together right well I got into my shop and I tried to make it and I just kept felling like I just kept messing up and breaking things and snapping things and I tried to get all of my materials together and I I would go up into the mountains and find these you know specific types of wood not just the specific type of wood but the part of the tree where that wood comes from and the way to process it and see all this stuff and I was like so eager to do it but I could not figure it out I was like man just I just can't do this I was getting so frustrated something that one day I actually got so mad I just broke something I was like man I'd grab my clamp I just threw it across the shop you like hit the wall and I was like man sorry about that look he was with me all along the whole journey of making this thing and so I ended up just kind of giving up on the instrument and gave up on the the word thin and I'm in and I was doing a lot in that season Gladys my wife was pregnant with our first son and so we were busy preparing for that and then we were doing missions work all all through the Philippines at that time so I was actually in the Philippines and I was on this I was on this public transportation called a jeepney and I this I was on this jeepney and as some you know people that I didn't know or in there and the in the in the bus it was like a it's like the bus of the Philippines which is pretty pretty different but we were going up into the mountains and I'm traveling out into this one tribal group that we have missions work going on there and there's this guy across the seat from me and I'm noticing that he's staring at me he kept looking at me I'm like man what's this guy doing looking at me and I would look at him and as soon as I look at him he look away and I'm like well what's this guy doing so finally I started talking to him and I it turns out that he's a believer and so we're talking about Jesus and talking about all this cool stuff and he I don't know we're just talking small talk and then all of a sudden I hear the Lord speak to me and and say I want you to ask that guy about the thin and onon and I was like no I'm not doing that I'm not no I'm not doing that and but I heard again the Lord speak to me and when I say can I stop you there and I want to I want you to tell them like so you say you heard the Lord speak to you to tell this gentleman on the bus the Lord said to you Caleb ask him about the inn and on who people or the tribe what did that sound light was that an audible voice from the Lord or what did what was that like well for that time and moment it was it was not an audible voice of God saying you know Caleb asked this guy about the thin and onion no it was like it was like the best way I could explain it was like a an impression in my heart like I need to ask this guy and but then it was it was hard for me because my myself so you call it an impression in the first service you said it was like just a light bulb went off and it was just that this clicking moment that you knew that this was God anybody out here ever had that experience where would you raise your yeah so there's some of us how many of you are like him and you just said no God that makes me feel better I mean the highlight of my first service was the fact that I heard he threw a clamp in anger am I on me uh yeah but I like to mention that and you know what I'm telling this story cuz it's like we're all humans I know like what you're about to hear is like whoa but like tell the truth it's just just walking step in step with with him anyway I I was you know so I was talking with this guy the Lord Lord said asked him about the thin and onion and then I was like all right I'm just gonna do it and so I said I'm sir do you happen to know thinning on in and when I said that word thin and onon you know his eyes got really big and he he just leaned into me he was like and he said hey how do you know my people he said how do you know my tribe and I was like speechless really I was like I don't what do I say moment so I almost like tell me as much as you know about your people group and so he starts telling him about this people caught that then and onon and he is he was actually born outside the tribe but he knew that he was a thin and on in person and so the the tribe that is actually located in a very mountainous area in the Philippines and it's it's actually cut off from from the modern world and the reason I say that is because there are war camps that surround this tribal group and so it makes it very difficult for them to go outside and for also for you know foreigners or for other people from the outside to come in and so this man that I was talking to is actually he was born in the city he was raised up and he came to know Jesus and then God spoke to him and told him to go to his people that then and I known to bring the gospel and so this was years many years back and so he went to the thin and on it and he was like trying to tell his family and his you know neighbors about about Jesus and everything but they were just giving him the hand and he was he was not getting anywhere with it and he kept struggling struggling so I met him and I said hey I don't know where you're where you're going today or what you're doing but I just I have something to show you and so like I took him to my the house that I was staying at and I pulled out my journal from like you know six months before or whatever and I pulled to that entry you know and showed him that that entry from the dream that I had and when he was reading it they were just tears coming down his face and he was like oh my goodness he said you know earlier I kept you know I kept looking at you before we started talking and I said yeah what was that all about is that yeah the reason why I was looking at because I've seen you before I was trying to recognize you know where did I see you at but then I just realized that I've seen you in a dream he said three years ago three years ago God gave me a dream and in that dream you came to my tribe and you helped bring the gospel to my people group but then an Dunnan and at that point we were like oh my goodness alright let's just drop everything where we're doing here let's just get on our knees and just worship and just put all this stuff before him so we ended up spending like three or four days together praying and worshiping and just putting everything talking about it he tells me more about the tribe it turns out this tribe is a tribe of between 70 and a hundred thousand people yeah that's a that's a lot of people to be located in a mountain rage that are cut off from the world and not even recognized as a tribal group that's a lot and so so anyway we're talking about this and he invites me to his tribe he said I want you to come with me can you come tomorrow and I was like I'm not ready I'm not ready first I need to talk to my wife and then also I need to really I need to get back into my shop because I I just felt in my spirit that I needed to do something I needed to make that instrument I don't know what it was but something was telling me that I needed to make it so I went back home I talked to Gladys about it obviously we prayed about it and I got back into the shop and I just asked the Holy Spirit for wisdom and revelation to help me get through and figure this instrument out I started getting all the materials back together and the Holy Spirit gave me gave me insight on it and after about three months with Gladys's help we ended up getting it and I just remember putting the strings on this this instrument was just to give you a little bit of description about it and actually we I have a replica of it one that I've recently made and I'm gonna show it to you here I was the most nervous I've ever been pulling oh yeah let me let me tilt it a little bit so you can see it my fire out so a little a little better to see yeah so it in this one's a little a little bit different this one actually has geared tuners on it like you would have only guitar that's for me because this is the most recent one I made that I travel a lot and and I play it and so I need geared tuners so they can stay in tune a lot more but but the original one had you know wooden pegs of all indigenous materials and but this is the basic setup of what it looked like and I you know it so I was like let me just get back into the shop I did it figured it out I ended up putting those strings on for the first time and tuning it up and as soon as I I tuned it up I struck the strings it was that same sound that I heard in the dream and I was like oh I was like okay I've I felt like I've done as much as I could do and I was like I'm ready I'm ready to go out there whatever that means and so I I ended up buying a plane ticket and this is I mean this just lets you know this is not easy just to buy a plane ticket to this to travel out there into this remote tribe this was one month before our first son was born I mean my wife was pregnant like really pregnant and she was like hey if it's if it's God which we've already seen the signs and wonders this is God you need to go so it's not just me taking a step it's it's my wife as mom I give so much honor to her she's the best for me she's the best woman in the world I could cry sometimes talking about her but anyway I love I need to sit closer to him see if that works I think you're supposed to rub a little better already so yeah I bought a ticket that actually the next morning we flew I flew out there by myself to this island and I took the instrument with me not knowing what it was gonna happen I asked one of my best friends who was actually from a neighboring he's actually from a neighboring tribe and he's a good friend of mine so he actually probably I was thinking he probably understands the language of the thin and onion so he could help translate for me so I asked him to go with me we traveled out there we finally got to the border of this of this tribal group and as we got there we met this man you know the man that I was telling you about from from the bus or from the public transportation we met there and he met me and we we all jumped on this little tiny motorbike and I mean this thing was just hilarious it was like a a little basically a like a 100cc little I mean we would buy that for like our our teenagers here to ride around the backyard but we're like we all three of us jump on this little motorbike and I've got this music instrument that size above my head I'm like alright let's go and so we're like going up into the mountains and it's not like our little North Carolina mountains here which some people call heels I mean this is like the real mountains like the Southeast Asian mountains like super up there kind of stuff and so we're like going up there a little tiny trail and it's really muddy because it just rained the day before and then I look up into the sky and this this big like rain clouds coming in I was like oh no I know what that is I know what that's like so like five minutes later you know just downpour and so we're actually have water coming down the side of the mountains and it's like you know it's you know between our ankles and need that height that high so we're actually having to go up into the into the trail a little tiny trail at this water gushing down the side of the mountains and then we get to this cliff it's like a drop off cliff and there are these two little ropes going across from this you know from this cliff to that side of the cliff and they're these like wooden planks coming parallel to the to the rope so that's our bridge to get across and we like do we go across this thing or what you know and so like we just we made that decisions we're just gonna go we're just gonna go for it you know and then the driver was like the best way to do this is to go across on the motorbike all of us together I was like wouldn't it be better like you know walk across or something like that and he's like now we need that we need to ride across like alright you're the you know you're the driver out here so I'm gonna respect that but alright let's go for it so we start going and and this this you know this bridge is like swinging to the left and right we're we're trying to balance you know and everything and I'm holding this instrument across my head and we thank the Lord we got across but as soon as we got across the the driver the the motorbike popped in neutral and he lost control and we ended up hitting this stone and like flying in the air and praise the Lord I mean there were stones around us there was that drop-off cliff and we just dropped into this like fluffy green grass I I cannot explain it but we just all this danger around us when we landed in this just fluffy grass so we were like all right okay let's get back on let's go for it so we got back on the motorbike and we we went in and we ended up as we were going into the tribe I heard that impression that we were talking about earlier I heard the Lord speak to me again and it was the Lord said I want you to take the instrument to the chief and I was like okay well where's the Chiefs house and so we started asking and it turns out the Chiefs house is on the other side of the mountain like three and a half hours away and we had already traveled ten and a half hours so we're just like oh okay okay okay here we go again so he backed back on the motorbike and we finally got to his house and we just like you know we get out there's mud all over our bodies even on this instrument mud everywhere would come up to this house we just knock on the wooden door and there he was the chief he opened the door and he just uh just looked at us and then he looked down and saw this instrument and I said you know we are from outside and we are you know you're traveling to your your place for the first time and we hear that we heard that you were the chief of the tribe and before we go to different parts of the tribe we actually want to give this as a gift to you and so I just handed the instrument to him and he took it and he was like almost like he was scared and you put it we went came into his house we put it down on a table and he stepped back and he was not even really talking to us he was just like focused on this instrument and he said where did you get this instrument from and I said you know I just kind of made it you know put it together and he was like no no no no where did you get this instrument from I said yeah I'm serious I just had some ideas I just put them together and made it he was like no I I'm serious where did you get this instrument from and I said okay well if you really want to know I was trying to beat around the bush really but I was like if you really want to know yeah it is I said well last year I am I had a dream and in the dream I saw your people the thin and onon for the first time and I heard the name of your tribe for the first time ever I said I also saw this musical instrument in the dream and I am an instrument maker and so I ended up making the instrument I said so I believe that my God had had given this in this dream to me and I said so so I ended up making the instrument and I met this guy who was actually from this man was sitting beside me so I said I met this man who was actually from that then and on in people and he he led me out here to meet you and so Here I am to give this as a gift to you I just kind of left it there and he was like shaking his head plucking the strings and then at that same time there were these other Chiefs that came into the room and they're like they're also elders or Chiefs of the tribe and this tribe is so big you know a hundred thousand people so so they actually have to have Chiefs all over the place but then there's the chief of those Chiefs and the guy the guy that I was at his house today he was the chief of the chief and so I ended up ended up you know there were there were those those other chiefs from the different locations that came in and as soon as they walked in the house they saw the instrument and they came up to it and they said Oh Salemba Salemba and that's all I heard it was Salemba Salomon I was like what's Salemba and they were plucking the strings and talking about it in their language and I didn't understand it and I was kind of confused but I kept hearing this word Salemba and so they looked at me and they said we have to show you something and so they took me out of their house and took me down this path and there was this little kind of little house kind of thing and we ended up walking into it I thought it was a house but turns out that this place was actually the most holy of holies of their tribe it's the place that they worship the the different gods of their of their tribe and in in their tribal belief system they have the God of all gods and they believe in one true God but they also believe that God has sent down these kind of smaller guides to steward different parts of the earth so like there's the God of the tree the god of the of the river and the God of the stone and so he takes me into this room and this place is where they worship the gods or the worship God and then his his angels and so he they have all these different musical instruments in there and they began to explain to me this this instrument is the instrument that worships the god of the the tree and then there's this kind of drum thing that that worships the god of the stone and so they're telling me all about you know they're they're different artifacts of their tribe and and musical instruments and then there's this one actual blank area it's like this spot in the Waal that's just not nothing there and then they points it there and they said a hundred or a hundred and fifty years ago there was a tribal war and there was another tribe that came and battled with the thin and onion people and when they battled the the tribal the the the instrument maker you know there's an instrument maker that that makes all these instruments for worship and he was killed he was killed during that battle and he never had the opportunity to pass down the art of making these instruments for worship and then he said he also said there was our our instrument our most valuable instrument that we worship the God of all gods and he said that instrument was taken away from them during that battle and he said that time when it was taken away from us we have we have believed that the since the enemy has taken that that the instrument away one day God is going to restore it back to us and they said that instrument is the Salemba and today you have brought that instrument back to us and I was like speechless and and they said they begin to tell me more about their their history and what's happened you know since that tribal war there's actually been a like a really sad song or like a lament that has come out about time of war and it goes like this the enemy has taken this Salemba away from us therefore God is going to redeem it and the Salemba the time when it is going to be redeemed back to us it's going to come down from heaven like a like an aircraft and and they said when it comes down from heaven God is going to be riding inside the Salemba I know this is kind of out there but this is their belief and and so the suck that God is going to come down in the celeb it's going to rest on top of the mountain and then God is going to call all the righteous people to him so all the righteous people are going to go to him then they're going to go back into heaven that's that's their story that's that's their story that's been passed down from generation to generation and so they said today you have brought the Salemba back to us and so they ended up having this dedication where they brought all the tribal leaders and all the Chiefs together and they dedicated this instrument back to the God of all gods and there's been a continuous worship to God of all gods since then and they also ended up giving me a headpiece of a chief and they and I didn't know what that meant at that moment but when they gave the headpiece to me they gave it to me and they said Caleb you are now one of our Chiefs and they said wear whatever you feel like God is leading us into that's where we're going to go as well and so I was like totally humbled at that time and I was like you know what do I do you know so I went to the Lord and I said what do I do and the Lord said ask them how you can help them and so I went back to the chief and I said okay how can me and my family and my tribe help you but as I was asking this I was like oh man why am I asking this because like they know that I'm American they know that like where we are one of the richest nations in the world I think they could have asked for anything they could have asked for money or to help build a highway through their tribe they could have asked anything but you wouldn't believe what they asked for the chief said he thought about it for a long time and then he said okay Caleb if you can do one thing I want you to help us with this I want to you to help us translate your book into our language yeah and I was like in mime in the back of my mind I was like oh man I know what that means like to be truthful I know what that means because I work me and GLAAD just work hand in hand with Wickliffe Bible Translators some Summer Institute of linguistics we know what Bible translation is we know what it looks like it's not like okay let's just translate the Bible all right let's go for it this is like a at least a 20 year project and so since that time I've been able to stand in front of all of the the leaders the CEOs of Wickliffe truck Wickliffe Bible Translators and Summer Institute of linguistics and translators Association of the Philippines and those three organizations have decided to start a Bible translation project for the thin and onion people actually three years ago I took them and these founders of these organizations actually met the Chiefs face-to-face they went all the way out there the same journey that I took and they met those Chiefs face-to-face and the Chiefs were asking we want this and and and at that time that the translation organizations were saying this is not even a tribe there's not a tribe caught in an onion because we'd done all the research but when they saw him face to face they were like convinced they were like oh my goodness this is a people group we have missed this is an undocumented people group in the Philippines that we've the Philippine government is not even recognized and so ever since that time the people group have been recognized and the Bible translation is started they're working on the Book of Luke right now they're also actually forming their alphabet because they don't even have a in language and this is probably going to be at least at least a 20-year translation project just to get the New Testament done but we're in it until until we see it and there's also just amazing things that the Holy Spirit is doing across the whole tribe there have been salvations there's been churches developed different fellowships now that are just forming God is doing amazing things miracles I mean I could just go on tell you so many things but it's been incredible I just want to share that story with you guys [Applause]

Channel: HopeCity NC

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Id: -fiQIEXI2Yo

Length: 45min 4sec (2704 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 12 2018