So… God Spoke to Me Through a Lost Dog

I'm running after a dog. Oh Lord Jesus, have mercy. And then there goes my bed. Oh Lord Jesus, help me. Michael's running after her cuz she can't she doesn't want to come in the car. And so we're leading her to the fire station. You don't follow it, man. >> Come on, girl. >> And my wife made a statement this morning how this reminded her of God. How when we're off track and we're not in our own lane, the lane that God puts us in and we try to get off track, a lot of times we're at risk of getting hit by something we were never meant to get hit by.

We end up going astray. We end up falling off. But it's not in his will, okay, for me to end up lost. It's not in his will for me to be wandering. My leaders, ladies and gentlemen, you are now tuned in to Ja Mike, home of the world's toughest leaders. It's a pleasure to have you. Okay, if you're joined today, you're watching this video, you're making a declaration that you are a leader. Okay, my name is Mike Jaja. I'm your chairam. I'm a certified life coach. I get the privilege of coaching individuals one on one. Okay. And what I found is that leaders like yourself need to be poured into.

And that's what this platform is about. Okay. I got a special message today and the word that I want to read and the story that I'm going to share is is quite short but it's to key in on this scripture today. And I want you to open up to Proverbs 3 verse 6. Proverbs 3 verse 6. And it reads this. It says this, "In all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy paths." Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Lord, Father, we come to you today to honor and glorify the name of Jesus Christ. And we just want to say thank you for this day.

Thank you for this time. Thank you for this hour. Thank you for this moment. Thank you for this message. Thank you for this seed. And father, I just pray that you prepare the soil of this leader that when they get this word and they hear this story, it stirs their faith. It stirs them leaning on you even deeper. It stirs them just acknowledging you and everything that they're doing, Lord. And we just ask that you would just continue to increase us in our trust in you, heavenly father. So lead me today. Use me to speak and pour into your leader today.

We love you and it's in Jesus mighty name that we pray. Amen. Amen. My leaders, this message today connected connected with me and my wife because yesterday we had an encounter with a phenomenal husky, husky, a beautiful dog by the name of Shadow. We had just came from church service and we went to eat my favorite food on the planet, shrimp fried rice. If you love me, cash at me, Venmo me a zelling me some money for some shrimp fried rice. So, we went to go eat my favorite food on the planet, man. After church, man, it was a busy church service today, um, yesterday.

And after that, we went to to the park. We went to the park to hang out, chill, call my pops, man. My grandmother's birthday today. She's 84 years old today. Shout out to you, grandmother. And we were having a great time at the park. And we left. And once we left, we saw a dog that was lost. Beautiful husky. No dog tag. And if you're like any dog lover, you're going to want to find out who's the owner of this dog. Why is this dog lost? Why does this dog have no no tag? What's going on here? So, we're following the dog and the dog is filled with energy.

It looks healthy. It looks like it does have an owner. It's healthy, but it's crossing the street without looking left and right. Cars are about to hit the the the dog. And we're just panicking like, "Yo, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Somebody got to tame this dog. What's this dog doing? The dog is going on everybody's yard at this point. He's going in people's backyard. He's going on people's yard. He's He's taking a dump, man. He's just doing whatever. And we're like, "Yo, we got to follow this dog.

We don't want this dog to get hit." And so, we're following the dog and we try to find a way to gain the trust of this dog. Now, my wife, she joined me in my shrimp fried rice meal and she had her own that she had not finished. And so, she took I don't know, I wouldn't have done it. I love shrimp fried rice too much. But she decided to take a L. my leader. She decided to take her leftovers and let's say feed it to the dog. >> We just wanted to gain the trust of the dog. We sensed that the dog was hungry.

So, I took her food, opened it up, and we put the shrimp fried rice down, he begins to eat the shrimp fried rice. Now, the moment the dog ate the shrimp fried rice, I said, "Yo, if this dog ain't got to own it, it's about to be my dog, man. That's family." Now, if you can enjoy a plate of shrimp fried with your boy and get and and truly and truly enjoy it, we probably family, man. The dog's eating. The dog's enjoying the food. And mind you, we make a friend cuz now the dog's not going all over the place. The dog is not lingering too far.

The dog now begins to decide it trusts us. Okay. Now, the thing about this is we still didn't know whose dog this is. My wife goes on Facebook. She's looking to find out if anybody lost a husky before. Lo and behold, this dog has been lost before and it came to the same park that we and my wife were chilling and hanging out at. Still no information for the owner. And we just decide, my wife makes a decision say, "You know what?

Let's take this to the the the firefighter department." We learned that you can take a dog to a firefighter department and they can see if the dog has a microchip. So, we said, "Let's go." Mind you, let's get this dog in the trunk. Mind you, the dog, it was following us, but it didn't trust us enough to get into the trunk. So, we're like, "Dang, how are we going to get this dog to the to this fire station that's like 10 minutes away, a few miles from here? How are we going to do this?" And so, we make a decision to say, "You know what?

I'm gonna get out the car and I'm just gonna start running. I'm gonna start running because it was following us. It wouldn't get in the car, but at least it will follow us. So, we just I'm running. My wife has a blinker on. She's driving very slow next to me and I'm on the sidewalk and the dog the dog is following. We found out that the dog's name was Shadow. So, Shadow now Shadow's following us now. I'm running. I'm running. I'm breaking a sweat. Shadow's following us. And we're like, "Yes, man. We're making progress. We're making progress." But every now and then, the dog would decide it wouldn't follow us.

It would do its own thing and start running into the street again. Cars are trying to pass by. I'm waving the cars now. Hey, hey, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Hey, hey, hold on. Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait. Shadow would come back on this side. When Shadow came on this side, I would wave the cars down. Hey, y'all can pass now. Y'all can pass now. My heart was beating cuz I didn't want Shadow. I was invested now on Shadow at this point. I don't know this dog, but this dog, me and this dog were homies at this point.

I I felt like this was family and I didn't want this dog to get hit. And so I kept directing the dog, "Hey man, let's let's go. Let's go." I took my phone and I put my the light on cuz it was kind of dark at night. And I would put the light next to me while I was running on the floor so the dog could just keep on coming. And then I would continue to give the dog affirmations. Good boy. Good job, Shadow. Come on, Shadow. We're almost there, Shadow. Come on. Let's go, Shadow. Oh, you're doing a great job, Shadow. Continue to give the dog affirmation.

The dog was answering to the name Shadow that we found on Facebook. That was his name. Okay. And he's following us. And for miles on miles on miles, we're we're making this thing work. And then an obstacle comes in the way. A lady, we don't know if this lady was trying to kidnap this dog. We don't know. But Shadow did not like this lady that came in. Okay. This lady was like an example of the enemy. I don't know. I ain't gonna call her the enemy, but Shadow sense something. Dogs can sense some things. And this lady came in trying to get the dog in the car.

We tried to get the dog in the car. The dog wasn't going, you know. So, she stopped my journey. She stopped what I the motion I was doing. And Shadow had to make a choice. Shadow, was Shadow going to go with this woman and stop where we were heading the dog to? Shadow made a decision. He wasn't going to go with that lady. He didn't trust that lady like that. And Shadow stopped. Okay. And I told that lady, "Ma'am, we're almost to the fire station. We're going to continue what we're doing cuz this has been working." So the lady leaves and here I go again. I'm running.

Shadow's right next to him. He's following me the whole time. There was this trust that was built, okay? He was acknowledging me. Okay. And we finally make it to the fire station after going over several downhill and uphill. I'm sweating. I'm talking about I'm sweating bullets. We get to the fire station and that's where everything starts to go uphill and we end up finding how to get this dog to the owner. One of the neighbors came to pick the dog up. Okay. She knew that this dog frequently gets out of the house or the backyard.

Um, and it was so beautiful to have this experience and this encounter cuz you you we saw how God God really does care about the birds in the air. God does really care about his animals. God cares. And I thought, man, how much more does God care about us? And the whole time I'm thinking about this proverb of today, Proverbs 3:6. It says in all thy ways acknowledge him and he shall direct thy path. And in this version of KJV, that word direct actually means to make smooth or straight thy path. So, and when we acknowledge God, he's able to make our path smooth. Okay?

He's able to get on a straight path. that my wife made a statement this morning how this reminded her of God. How when we're off track and we're not in our own lane, the lane that God puts us in and we try to get off track, a lot of times we're at risk of getting hit by something we were never meant to get hit by. We end up going astray. We end up falling off. But the moment Shadow decided, hey, he was going to acknowledge me. Hey, I don't know this man, but you know what? I'm just going to decide to trust him.

Okay, I'm going to decide to trust him. Maybe he thought at the end of the dang journey he was going to get some more shrimp fried rice. I don't know. Okay, but he started to trust and as he trusted us, okay, he was able to get to safety and reminded me that in all my ways I need to realize that God, he understands where I'm at. He has compassion on me. Okay? And if he's directing my path, he's trying to make my path smooth. And if he's directing my path, he's trying to make my path go into a place of safety.

God is not trying to make me go to a path of of all these trials and tribulations. This is just something we're going to go through in life. But it's not in his will, okay, for me to end up lost. It's not in It's not in his will for me to be wandering. It's not in his will for me to be in a space of confusion where I don't know where I'm going. That wasn't God's will for me. That's not God will for you and that definitely wasn't God's will for Shadow.

God has so much compassion on just the dog that he he desired for the dog to find his way back home. And this is what happens when we get Jesus Christ in our life. My leaders, when Jesus Christ comes in our life, we now have a space that we can call home in eternity. We're not lost no more. In fact, one of the scriptures mentions in the book of Mark when before Jesus Christ feeds the multitude of 5,000, he says that very, very simple. I'm going to read it to you cuz it's very profound. Jesus when he came out saw much people and was moved with compassion towards them.

Now we're going to see why he was moved with compassion. He says because they were as sheep not having a shepherd. And he began to teach them many things. They were as sheep not having a shepherd. God has compassion on those who are lost. The scripture talks about how God will leave the 99 just to go out for the one. one. God's intention and design is not for us to be lost. He wants us to have a home. He wants us to be in part of community. All right? He wants us to be in the in the space of safety. He wanted that foreshadow yesterday.

And so I wanted to share this because it's a reminder just, hey man, if you're feeling lost, okay? If you're feeling like, man, you were once going down the straight path, the narrow path, and it just seems like you went off to the left and you about to get hit by oncoming traffic. You don't know what lane you're in. My my thing is to say this, just repent. repent and just to turn back to the Lord and allow the Lord to be the leader, the shepherd that looks over every single thing that you're doing and just acknowledge him in everything. Like, God, I'm about to do this.

I'm about to make this leap. I'm about to make this jump. I just want to acknowledge you. Like, God, I'm giving this to you, okay? This is yours. I'm trying to acknowledge you in all my ways cuz God, I know that you're the one that's capable of directing my path, Lord. So God, if this is you, I'm bringing this to you. This choice, this decision, these desires, I'm bringing them to you. And Father, I ask that you direct my path today. Let us begin once again to allow the Lord to be acknowledged in everything we do. Okay? Okay? It's for your smooth, okay? Your smooth path.

He wants your path to look smooth. That means if it's smooth, when there's a smooth path and I'm driving down a smooth road, that means there's a peace. There's not peace in being lost. Okay? God doesn't want that for your life. Heavenly Father, in the mighty name of Jesus Christ, Lord, I pray that this leader today begins to acknowledge you in all their ways. Father, that from today moving forward, we're not going to be lost. And Father, we acknowledge that in any area of our life, we've been lost, Lord God. Father, we're giving this area to you and we're acknowledging you. It's now we're now in your presence now.

We're now saying God lead us. We're now saying, "God, guide us." We're now saying, "God, even for those that don't know how to acknowledge you, Lord, we ask that you give us the strength. You give us the wisdom on how that looks like so that we can walk this thing out. Heavenly Father, no more being lost. We ask that you will find us direction. Lord, let somebody come in our life that's going to lead us like shadow, Lord. So, we just want to acknowledge you right now and saying we love you. We thank you for literally saying that and declaring you're going to guide us today if we acknowledge you.

And we love you. And it's in Jesus mighty name that we pray. Amen. Amen. Amen. My leaders, I love you, but Jesus Christ loves you more. All right, my leaders, go ahead and tune in to this video or this video. Whichever one speaks to you, I want to pour into you more. All right, and make sure to subscribe to leadership. I love you. We out.