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by Mike Hendrick

I still remember the feeling I would have as a boy growing up in Montreal, Canada. I would sense this awareness of a supernatural presence overshadowing my life and I would know that there was an unusual purpose for my life. As a young child, I used to line up stuffed animals, preaching and singing old hymns of our Christian faith to them. I had this uncanny ability to know the Bible so clearly. I would ask my Sunday school teachers questions and they would have to go to the pastor to find out the answers. These same teachers would go up to my parents and ask, “What is with your son? He knows the Bible so well. However, it is so unusual to see the hunger he has for God at his young age. Your son must be set apart for a great purpose for the Lord.”

This presence of God that overshadowed me had set me apart from my peers and I didn’t realize what I would face in my developing years. I didn’t know that I would go through intense rejection issues in my life; I didn’t know I would go through my most critical years not knowing true friendship or the kinds of abuse I would suffer or the deep loneliness I would face. As I grew out of my early years, I would be left out of so many circles in school and in church. When I was in school, I wouldn’t be invited out with people to hang out. No one seemed to understand or relate to what I was walking in. It seemed that no one could relate to the experiences I had as a boy of being touched by God in such a unique way. However, I never once lost that overwhelming feeling of a supernatural purpose over my life.

As I grew older, there were attacks against me in so many ways. When I was a teenager, I would come home daily in tears to my parents because I was facing such battles of rejection, of abuse from peers, and feeling such a struggle academically. It got so intense that twice I lost patches of hair. Thankfully, my praying mother would be standing with me through it all…crying out to the Lord “Why does my son go through all of these deep struggles? Why can’t he have friends like every young person needs?” A certain pastor at the church I was attending in Calgary would wake up in the middle of the night to intercede for my protection and for my life as God had shown him that the enemy was trying to destroy the Lord’s plan for my life. When I was about 14 years old, my parents received a prophetic word from another pastor that I was like Joseph: misunderstood by so many yet God had a mighty purpose through it all. Even with all that was happening to me, I never once considered giving up on the Lord. I knew that God was with me in a very special way. At this same time, I used to love watching the TV show “Star Trek”. I used to dream of being the captain of the USS Enterprise, going to Star Fleet Academy in San Francisco. I also had a memory of the 1989 Earthquake that hit San Francisco and how my heart went out to that city. Something about San Francisco gripped my heart.

When I graduated high school, the Lord started to move in me prophetically and I started to see what God was saying to people. It wasn’t very well understood by most around me and I really struggled to fit into the usual work atmospheres, yet I knew that God’s hand was on my life. I started to cry out to the Lord to bring me to a place where I would fit in and be understood for who God wanted me to be.

Little did I know the connections that God would make to send me to the Voice of Pentecost and Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks. In March of 2000, I visited San Francisco for the first time. God instantly gripped my heart for the city of San Francisco and gave me a prophetic word for the city that circulated throughout the Bay Area to many spiritual leaders. I knew that God was calling me back to the City by the Bay. So in September of 2000, I moved to San Francisco for three months. During that time, I worked with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) and although it was a very positive experience in my life, it was not where I felt a deep connection. I had gone to several churches in San Francisco and never felt the right connection either. Then one day, when I was in the YWAM library, a book jumped out at me. It was called The Prophetic Whisper by this unique pastor, Richard Gazowsky, who had gone through all sorts of personal struggles trying to start a film company based on a prophetic word he received from the Lord. My heart leapt as I read the book. This pastor could relate to me; he isn’t afraid to show his wounds. Right after I finished the book, the Spirit of the Lord spoke to me so clearly, “Go meet this pastor…it concerns your future”.

I fought the feeling for a bit but I still remember the day I walked into Voice of Pentecost Church. I was invited into the staff meeting, which I thought was odd and was introduced to the staff. I instantly felt a bond with the staff. I really wanted to join up with this unique group of people. Returning home to Canada after a three-month stay in San Francisco, I thought in no time at all I would be returning and working along side Voice of Pentecost. That journey took long years as I returned every year not knowing what God was doing but keeping the connection. God kept speaking to me in dreams that He was leading me to San Francisco. I finally got word that I could go. I was so excited that God was fulfilling my dream.

The first 9 months that I was in San Francisco working with WYSIWYG were some of the most stretching and most awesome times of my life. I saw God move in many awesome ways. I was enjoying myself so much and growing in my gifts. Then, on my way back across the US border after a visit home, the US immigration people told me I couldn’t cross as they didn’t like my paperwork. I was devastated. The dream that looked so real a few weeks prior seemed a million miles away. I ended up having to talk with Pastor Richard. He gave me a good teaching on spiritual authority and letting God send me to San Francisco…not me sending myself; and when the time was right, I would come back. For three years, I had temp job after temp job, never finding a good fit for myself in Canada job-wise. As I wrestled through the last three years, God brought total restoration to areas that had affected me since childhood. I even died to the idea of ever going back to San Francisco. Then my pastor went to San Francisco for a pastor’s conference in 2007. When he returned, he told me that he felt God had a word for me there. I went in obedience and ended up receiving a prophesy from guest minister, Victor Emenike. He prophesied about the process that I had walked through and that God was now bringing me back to the city where I would prosper and find fulfillment, although many in Canada did not understand what was within me.

Through out my journey, God has watched over me. He has covered me in my most difficult battles and been with me when I faced the darkest moments of my life. He was there during all the abuse I suffered and all my struggles, knowing that He was preparing to send a 29-year-old into a wonderful city that he would love and into a church that would embrace his uniqueness and love him for who he was in God. In Romans, Paul writes “All things work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose.” God knew ahead of time that I would face great suffering and pain but all the while, He was creating a glorious future for me that I couldn’t even imagine. God also knows how to encourage our heart and bring us into a spiritual family that will receive us and embrace us as we are. In Psalms, David says of God that He uses His word to test us. When a goldsmith is dealing with the refining of gold, he heats gold up to its hottest temperature possible and, as the gold is heated and starts to melt, all the dross and other metals come to the surface. Then the goldsmith will skim off the excess metals. The way the goldsmith knows that the gold has been refined and is very suitable for distribution is when he can see his reflection in it. So it is that God will allow us to go through incredible trials. But as the fire of His presence burns in our lives, the deep ‘dross’ will rise to the surface to be skimmed off so that He can see His reflection in us, as we reflect His glory to this lost world.

God Bless!

Mike Hendrick was an intern at Christian WYSIWYG Filmworks, and has been a great blessing to many of our projects.