Uncharted Waters

By Samuel J. Villa

God wants to speak to us

In life, sometimes things arent as they seem. The harbor looks so peaceful, so comfortable, but is it? We search for satisfaction anchored in the harbor, but God has called us for a life of bold adventure out in the uncharted waters. In opposition, the world distracts us with the illusion that material possessions, prestigious titles, and superficial beauty will deliver satisfaction. This distraction creates an insatiable thirst for peace that cant be quenched without a close relationship with God.

When we leave the seemingly safe confines of the harbor and explore the deep, life-giving waters, we find truth and fulfillment of our identities in Him. Reducing the distractions of our busy lives, while connecting with God and other believers in community, will transform and transport us to our God-given destinations. These revelations provide us the peace we have been seeking all along. Are you ready to answer the call?

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Oct 19, 2017
• ISBN: 9781973602255

Samuel J. Villa

Sam Villa is an author and communicator with a nationwide ministry of discipleship, teaching, and serving. God has assigned Sam roles of elder, leader, preacher and teacher within the Church. Early on, his curiosity for the physical world led him to study and teach Chemistry and Physics. Salvation changed the course of his journey. God led him to twenty-three successful years in corporate America. He acquired postgraduate degrees in Business (MBA, Canisius College) and Executive Leadership (CPD, University of Pennsylvania, The Wharton School), fueling sales and leadership roles to the Executive level. Sam and his wife Cindy currently reside in McKinney, Texas. They have two grown children and three grandchildren.

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Copyright © 2017 Samuel J. Villa.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the author except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

NLT: Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright © 1996, 2004, 2007 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois 60188. All rights reserved.

KJV: Scripture taken from the King James Version of the Bible.

NIV: THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

NKJV: Scripture taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

NASB: Scripture taken from the NEW AMERICAN STANDARD BIBLE®, Copyright © 1960,1962,1963,1968,1971,1972,1973,1975,1977,1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission.

This book is a work of non-fiction. Unless otherwise noted, the author and the publisher make no explicit guarantees as to the accuracy of the information contained in this book and in some cases, names of people and places have been altered to protect their privacy.

WestBow Press

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Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0224-8 (sc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0226-2 (hc)

ISBN: 978-1-9736-0225-5 (e)

Library of Congress Control Number: 2017914859

WestBow Press rev. date: 10/19/2017

This book is

dedicated to what is to come; my grandchildren, Logan, Laci, and Allyson; and to Crystal, the bearer of these gifts.

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Contents

Acknowledgments

Prologue

Chapter 1:     True Religion

Chapter 2:     Empty the Fear from Your Heart

Chapter 3:     Revealing the Way

Chapter 4:     Words

Chapter 5:     Who Am I?

Chapter 6:     Precious Resources from the Perfect Steward

Chapter 7:     Abide with Me

Chapter 8:     The Desire of Intimacy

Chapter 9:     The Vision Revealed

Chapter 10:   We’ve Opened the Gifts … Now What of the Enemy?

Chapter 11:   The Discipleship Is Mutual

Chapter 12:   Where Are You?

Epilogue

Study Guide Questions for Individual or Small-Group Use

Notes

Acknowledgments

FIRST AND FOREMOST, I am grateful to God for His love and guidance in my life; my wife, Cindy, for the critical role she has played in my life and in writing this book—no man could have a greater life partner; my daughter, Samantha, who provided inspiration, as well as editorial and creative advice; my son, Michael, who provided words of encouragement; and my mother, Annette, whose quiet belief is a source of strength.

I am grateful to my friend and brother Dan Mortimer, who provided poetry (Into the Deep) from his heart specifically for this book, and my friend and brother Jim Herrmann, for inspiring the title of this work. I am also grateful to Pastor John McKinzie, Dr. Gary Stewart, Cleburne Smith, Jack Ledbetter, Tom Connolly, Oswald Chambers, and many others who have been teachers, leaders, and mentors in growing my faith. Finally, I thank Jack Minor for his editorial advice and the team at Read Scripture for their simplifying video messages.

Prologue

Yet God has made everything beautiful for its own time. He has planted eternity in the human heart, but even so, people cannot see the whole scope of God’s work from beginning to end.

—Ecclesiastes 3:11

GOD IS LIMITLESS. A bold explorer may understand this more than a careful enthusiast. Our walk with God contains some unknowns for us, uncharted waters, if you will. If we haven’t charted an area of our lives, does it still exist? What appears to us as uncharted waters, He knows intimately. God desires to take us to places we’ve never been or seen before. He may reveal the meaning of a single verse or impart the full power of a spiritual gift; it’s His pleasure.

God has called me to walk out my faith and belief in Him through full-time ministry. Part of that walk is to care for others and share His truths. In 2013, my life changed dramatically. During the most robust and successful role of my tenure in corporate America, God provided the revelation that I needed to get Jesus Christ back into the center of my life. Upon hearing this message from the Father, I found myself in uncharted waters—an area I’ve truly never been.

The Father quickly introduced me to experienced explorers who discovered the places to which He would have me journey. Over the past three years, God’s calling for me has been revealed in a much more meaningful way. He has shown me much, and I desire to share my growth experience with others that may be reluctantly considering uncharted waters of their own.

God has placed on my heart to engage His people, so they might know that He desires to communicate with us through revelation. God reveals who He is and His plan for us through Jesus Christ, our Redeemer, and the Holy Spirit, our Comforter. This revelation comes from His spoken and written Word, which is God-breathed and useful for sharing and teaching His vision. A vital, complementary aspect of His vision is discipleship, which strengthens and brings unity to the body of Christ.

That is what the Scriptures mean when they say, No eye has seen, no ear has heard, and no mind has imagined what God has prepared for those who love him. But it was to us that God revealed these things by his Spirit. For his Spirit searches out everything and shows us God’s deep secrets. No one can know a person’s thoughts except that person’s own spirit, and no one can know God’s thoughts except God’s own Spirit (1 Corinthians 2:9–11).

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CHAPTER 1

True Religion

On this thirsty desert ground, in a dry and barren land, I bow down. I need You now.

—Matt Redman, I Need You Now¹

And since we are His children, we are His heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory.

—Romans 8:17a

HAVE YOU EVER ADMIRED a certain person’s spiritual connection to God and said to yourself, I’m just not there yet? How do we navigate to that place of spiritual understanding? We can learn a lot about who Christ is from other mature Christians whom God has placed in our lives. We may have become so dry and so thirsty for the real adventure of life that we see mirages while walking it out. We continue to walk through the desert toward what appears to be water, only to find when we arrive that there’s just more sand.

Anyone who is thirsty may come to me! Anyone who believes in me may come and drink! For the Scriptures declare, Rivers of living water will flow from his heart. (John 7:37–38)

Christ’s vessels (Christians) are filled by rivers of living water, the Holy Spirit of God. A river is victoriously persistent, overcoming all barriers.² Like the river, we shouldn’t focus on the barriers; they will be broken down by its flow. The river is blind to obstacles; instead its power resolves the challenges that come against it. The same is true of us as we stay connected to the Holy Spirit of God. Out of us will flow rivers of living water in mighty torrents, providing blessings for others and powerfully dissolving the distress-declaring doubts of the devil.

Those vessels that have been blessed by God, who have been chosen for His purpose, and who operate in their calling, are awe-inspiring to observe. So many sojourners look to arrive at that special place of operation. It is a lifelong process whereby life’s many challenges may distract us—and even bring duress. The Bible refers to those who may be experiencing distress as the orphan and the widow.

Through unexpected events in their lives, they may find themselves in a difficult place. The orphan loses the guidance of his or her parents, while the widow experiences the loss of her husband. Through this loss, their understandings of love, companionship, and resources may greatly change. They now find themselves in a place they have never been before—uncharted waters—where they need care from God and others to help with these sudden changes. We see God’s heart regarding orphans and widows as He speaks to Jesus’s half brother, James, inspiring him to write the following: Pure and genuine religion in the sight of God the Father means caring for the orphans and widows in their distress and refusing to let the world corrupt you (James 1:27).

God places great emphasis on caring for the orphans and widows—those without a covering in this world. Lacking a covering can cause wear and tear on us physically, emotionally, and spiritually. The world can be a very hard place for those who have lost their protection. To be of good use and provide this care, we must refuse to let the world corrupt us. A sound approach to avoid the corruption of the world was spoken by God to His prophet Micah regarding what is good and His requirement of us—to act justly, love mercy, and walk humbly with Him (Micah 6:8).

Like the orphans and widows, God our Father wants to care for us, know us, speak to us, provide us salvation, and give us His inheritance. Those who have accepted the free gift of salvation through Jesus Christ know the transforming power of that action. But is it possible to have accepted Jesus as our Savior and still be spiritual orphans? The Father so loved us that He gave us Christ, making us sons and daughters of God. Will we choose to act as sons and daughters of God, claiming and living in our vast inheritance from God our Father? When we don’t claim our inheritance, we act as if we were spiritual orphans.

Boldly Claim Your Inheritance

The movie Secondhand Lions is a touching coming-of-age comedy about Walter, an adolescent boy abandoned by his self-centered, troubled mother. Unannounced, she drops Walter off at the door of his two eccentric uncles, whom he has never met, Hub and Garth McCann. This is not the first time Walter has been abandoned by his mother; he has spent time in an orphanage. Walter has felt the distress of not having a parental covering.

Hub and Garth live on a sizable Texas ranch in an old, dusty country home, and they are rumored to possess a great fortune. Initially the two older men, being set in their ways, have no interest in taking care of an adolescent boy, and they find Walter to be a nuisance. In many aspects, his uncles have stopped living and have bought into the lie that they weren’t what they once were; they believe that they have lost their usefulness. But Walter endears himself to his uncles, and they become less guarded, more trusting, and communicative.

Hub and Garth begin to reveal, story by story, their true, unbelievably adventurous life—the life resurrected by the presence of tenaciously curious Walter. The uncles share their worldwide adventures and dark romance fighting for the French Foreign Legion. While searching through an old travel chest in the attic, Walter discovers a picture of a beautiful woman, and he connects this picture to the story where Hub meets his true love, Princess Jasmine. Some of their heroic stories border on the unbelievable, requiring a degree of faith to accept. Inspired by Walter’s enthusiasm, the uncles buy an old zoo lioness—a secondhand lion, if you will—to stage a safari and relive their youthful exploits. The lioness is hardly game and won’t even venture out of her crate. Walter names her Jasmine, nurses her back to health, and keeps her as a pet. Throughout the summer, Walter learns what it’s like to be a man, to live a life of boldness, and to share, care, and love.

Prompted by young Walter, Hub and Garth recapture their vitality. Through revelation of what a life of boldness looks like, Walter is transformed, unveiling his gift as a writer. The end of the story finds an adult Walter sitting at his drafting table and writing a comic strip titled Walter and Jasmine. The phone rings. It’s the sheriff, telling him to come to his uncles’ ranch. As Walter arrives, the scene shifts to Walter and the sheriff looking at the barn where an upside-down single-engine biplane has crashed and is embedded in the wood structure. The two uncles, now ninety years old, tried to fly through the barn doors—upside down! Walter and the sheriff smile and laugh, both knowing the story had a fitting end. The next scene finds the sheriff reading a hand-written note left regarding their fortune. It simply says, The kid gets it all. Walter smiles, chuckles, and chokes up in rapid succession, fondly remembering his uncles.

Walter built on the foundation laid by his uncles. The kid did get it all—a wonderful inheritance. All the boldness, life lessons, love, care, and things he could only dream of before he met his uncles were now his. They taught him to live life to its fullest.

The reason I have such an affinity for this movie is that I know what it’s like to live as a spiritual orphan and a secondhand lion. In my distracted state of being, I needed spiritual uncles to help me see what God’s purpose was for my life. Then,