ClarkStory is a family publication from the nations, inspired by Psalm 96:3, and serves as the personal support site of the Clark family. The Clark's are based in Southeast Asia laying foundations for the multiplication of disciples, establishing works of frontier intercession, and opening new roads to unreached peoples on the final frontiers of the Great Commission.
“The gospel of the kingdom will be proclaimed throughout the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come."
Matthew 24:14
From Our Neighborhood to the Nations
By Drew Clark
The Lord pursued our family with fury. Almost daily, he would apprehend us with encounters in Him that were so intense we began to wonder about our sanity. We were being awakened, renewed, and transformed by the unmerited grace of his presence made available through the imputed righteousness of Christ, his Son, who sits at his right hand in unrivaled glory, power and honor - now and forever.
The light of the full moon bounced off the fresh blanket of snow covering our neighborhood. Its beams illuminated our master bedroom with impressive brilliance. The howling wind of winter whistled through the streets stirring the snow as it blew, in all of its rage and fury. It had been three and a half years since I felt the warmth of God’s presence. My heart, like our street, was blanketed with a bitter cold that long winters often bring. Lying in bed, the nightly waves of hopelessness and despair again began to crash mercilessly. Flashbacks of intense traumas that my family and I sustained through our last church plant tormented my mind. My life felt as though it was wrecked, like a ship dashed upon the rocks, abandoned to forever rot in the crags of some rocky coastline on the far side of the world. Unlike the hundreds of nights of torment that had passed previously, this one would be different.
As I lay there listening to the winds of winter howl, I felt something strangely familiar that had long since faded from memory. My heart began to warm and I was filled with an electric tingling that surged throughout my body. Suddenly and without warning, like a dam that burst from the weight of an unbearable load, God flooded our room. The next thing I know, I found myself on my knees pounding our bedroom floor with my fists. From some undefined place, seated between soul and spirit, three and a half years of bitter pain billowed to the surface. In a vicious rage I shook my fists at God, screaming at him in fury and tears. I accused him of not being a good Father.
Bitter tears, cries and unspeakable groans gushed from my soul, like pus from a festering wound. The overwhelming power of Jesus’ presence was turning my soul inside-out, surfacing what I did not even know was resident within the depravity of my depths. When his rending was over, what was left of me lay silently crumpled into the carpet. It was in that moment of calm, after the electrifying storm of his presence, when I heard the voice of the Lord whisper to my heart. “Now, you have finally been honest with me, son. This is what I have been waiting for. Do you not think my Spirit searches and knows the secret thoughts of your heart?” (1 Cor. 2:10). As his love and grace flooded, he told me, “your family will not be in Colorado much longer.”
Over the following four months the Lord pursued our family with fury. Almost daily, he would apprehend me with encounters with Him that were so intense I began to wonder about my own sanity. I was being awakened, renewed, and transformed by the unmerited grace of his presence made available to me through the imputed righteousness of Christ, his Son, who sits at his right hand in unrivaled glory, power and honor - now and forever. He existed before anything; he is supreme over everything.
Through Him, God created the heavens and the earth. He made the things we can see and the things we can’t see - such as thrones, kingdoms, rulers, and authorities in the unseen world (Col. 1:16). He would draw me up, and I walked with him in the Spirit constantly. During this season, the beauty of his presence and the power of his voice terrified me. I found myself living somewhere between the earth and the heavens, in constant revelation of Christ. During these months, many miraculous signs of his presence and wonders of his working occurred.
God has his ways of getting our attention. It has been my experience that when Jesus reveals himself in power, there is absolutely no room for anything other than him, and the preeminent rule of his will. Saul witnessed this wonder on the road to Damascus, and John the Revelator writes about it in Revelation 20:11 as he said, even “the earth and the heavens fled from his presence, as there was no room for them.” What? No room for them in his presence? Jesus, give us eyes to see the absoluteness of your sovereignty, the severity of your holiness and the outright rule of your Kingdom in our lives! When Jesus steps in, everything else must come under the supremacy of his authority or be gone from his presence - forever. God is both rich in grace and power. He is both beautiful and terrifying.
I am writing the account of my experience to encourage you in the greatness of the one true God and the life giving mercy that he makes available to all who call on the name of his son, Jesus Christ. If you have been shut up in a long winter of the soul, let me assure you, there is a red river of mercy and grace flowing from Christ that is available to melt even the most bitter and coldest of hearts. It is not over until he returns, and as a result, to the final frontiers of the Great Commission my family must go. He alone is worthy.