THIS I'VE LEARNED... The spirits of fear and intimidation actually have a weakness.
If you walk straight IN to them, THEY RUN AWAY!
With all of the challenges people face in the world today, this is the
perfect time to share how Keith "pressed through" fear and
intimidation, to enjoy a sweet reward of blessings lasting a lifetime!
We pray Keith's story encourages you to overcome intimidation and fear in every area of your life, so you can walk victoriously in...
We pray Keith's story encourages you to overcome intimidation and fear in every area of your life, so you can walk victoriously in...
* your family.
* your calling.
* your career.
* your greatest
heart's desires.
“To him that overcomes will I grant to
sit with Me in My Throne, even as I also overcame, and Am set down with My
Father in His Throne.” (Revelation 3:21)
This personal testimony is about the first time I was asked to perform my songs as a solo artist in a good-sized concert. In January of 1981, I was at a Bible study at a new friend’s home in Winston-Salem, NC. One of the guys there, having heard that I had been in full-time music ministry, asked if I would share a couple of my songs. I replied, with a bit of relief I might add, that I had not brought my guitar with me. At that, the young lady who was hosting the meeting said “wait a minute,” jumped up, ran down the hall, came back with her guitar, and handed it to me! So, I took it and tuned it up as best I could (not having played the guitar very long at that point!) and played two songs that I had just scribbled down a week or two before. A few days later, unbeknownst to me, the same young lady who hosted the Bible study called her brother, the President of the Christian Student Organization at the University of North Carolina (UNC) campus. She told him about me and my songs. A few days later, he telephoned me and asked if I would agree to be the featured musician at a concert on the UNC campus in Greensboro the following month. Immediately intimidation attacked me. I knew that I was standing at a fork in the road regarding my ministry’s future, and, by the intensity of the attack, I knew that something big was looming. What was I to do? On one hand, I could believe the intimidation that was telling me that I was not good enough, and perhaps miss out on something that God wanted to do with me. On the other hand, I could trust God, and crawl out onto the end of the limb.
It was quite a limb! Though I had toured professionally as a drummer for a number of years, I had very little understanding of how to play the guitar, much less sing and play at the same time. To say the least, I wasn’t prepared to do a public performance of any kind! So you see, when the fellow from UNC asked me to do the concert, only God and I really knew that, by all natural reasoning, I was incapable of it. Not only that, but all I had at the time were six unfinished original songs, and they needed me to do at least fifteen. To add to the intimidation, he then told me that one of the area’s most well-known Christian rock bands would open for me that evening.
So, there I was, standing at the threshold of a major decision. Was I going to walk into the roar of this extremely intimidating situation, or turn and run away? All of a sudden, in the midst of the storm that was raging in my mind, I realized that I was being presented with a priceless opportunity to glorify God, not only for that evening, but also for many years to come. With all of the strength that I could muster, I threw my shoulders back, gulped real big, and said to the guy from UNC, “I would be honored to serve you in this way!” I thanked him for his trust, and we prayed and hung up the phone. Within seconds, it felt as if the intimidating spirits that were pounding on my head during the conversation had called in all of their big-mouthed brothers, sisters, aunts, and uncles to convince me that I had just made the biggest mistake of my entire life. There I sat facing the greatest step of faith that I had ever taken, with only six unfinished original songs to my name and an old cheap guitar I had paid forty-five dollars for at a local pawn shop.
Accepting the offer to do the event had been a huge battle, but not as brutal as the next struggle would be: preparing for and doing the concert itself. The five weeks leading up to the event were some of the loneliest and most trying times that I had ever experienced. My pastor, his wife, and myself had recently moved to that area and were heavily engaged in the first few months of a new Church plant. Six weeks earlier, I had taken a job selling boats, in the dead of winter, working no fewer than fifty mandatory hours a week. Further adding to the difficulty, I had not made any friends in the area as yet, and was having to do this with very little to no support from anyone. As you might imagine, I asked God regularly to anoint me with the wisdom to finish up the songs that I had and to write the other nine songs that I would need. Now these could not be just nine more songs; they had to be nine songs that ministered life to people, drawing anyone who heard them into oneness with their Heavenly Father. Writing those songs took many hours of prayer and hard work to complete, but God was faithful. When the night of the event finally arrived, I placed my guitar into its handle-less cardboard case, climbed into my trusty Ford van, and headed for Greensboro. With every turn of the wheels on my truck, the war that was raging in my mind grew. Pulling up to the concert hall that evening is a memory that I will never forget. After finding a parking place, I decided to sit in my van for a short while and pray. With what felt like the proverbial stomach full of “really big” butterflies, I lifted my hands toward the heavens, let out a big sigh, and said, “Lord, let’s do this!”
I then climbed out of the van and headed for the building. As I was almost to the door, I looked around and noticed that there were already many cars in the parking lot. There would be a big crowd in the concert hall that night! With my Bible in one hand and my guitar in the other, I took a deep breath and proceeded through the door.
Inside the hall, people were frantically running around getting things ready, and the opening band was on stage doing their sound check. It was all rather overwhelming. When the promoter saw me, he immediately walked over, took me by the arm, and began introducing me to people and showing me around the place. Shortly thereafter, one of the audio guys shouted from the stage, “Keith, sound check in five!” Do you remember my telling you earlier about the intimidating spirits that had dropped in on me with all of their relatives? Well, they were back and doing a bang-up job of portraying the stage and growing audience as being Goliath himself. Five minutes later, shaking like a leaf, I made my way onto the stage, struggled through my sound check, and went backstage to pray while awaiting my time slot.
Once the opening band had begun playing, I decided to make my way through the crowd toward the back of the hall and hang out where the sound guys were. As the band announced that they would be playing their last song, I started making my way backstage to get ready to go on. Man, were those guys good! And frankly, that did not make things any easier for me. I was staring into the eyes of a “Goliath-sized” situation, knowing that only one of us was going to step off that stage, one hour from now, the victor. As impossible as the whole thing seemed, I decided then that I was going to win the fight or die trying. As I was waiting for the announcer to introduce me, the intimidation reached a fevered pitch. All of a sudden, with only seconds to go, one of the sound crew guys walked up to me, leaned over, and whispered, “Keith, I loved what you did at sound check. And by the way, the guys said that they can’t wait to hear the rest of your stuff.” Praise God, there they were, the five smooth stones that I needed to win the fight: the testimony that God was with me!
The announcer introduced me, and I walked out on stage to roaring applause. With a tremble in my voice and my hands shaking, I started to play my first song. As I was about half way through it, I can remember thinking to myself that it sure was a good thing that I was wearing long pants because my knees were quivering pretty much uncontrollably. As I finished my first song, I could not believe my own eyes and ears. The entire crowd rose to their feet and broke into thunderous applause. The mountain that had stood in front of me for five long and grueling weeks was removed in seconds, and I knew then that I had pressed my way through to victory. Not only had the intimidating voices been defeated, but I began playing, singing, and speaking with an authority that I had never experienced before.
The testimony gets even better! After the concert was over and I was mingling among the crowd, something happened that further exceeded my greatest expectations. People started asking when I could come and minister for them. For example, in the crowd that evening was a lady who managed a local Christian night club. They had just purchased an old Assembly of God church building in the very same community where my pastors and I were in the process of starting our new Church. She walked up to me and asked if I would come and minister for them the following week. I accepted her offer and, as they say, the rest is history.
A few weeks later, I was asked to play there one night a week, and shortly thereafter, the club’s board of directors invited our fledgling congregation to meet in their building as often as we would like. Not only was that in and of itself a huge miracle, but they allowed us to rent the entire facility for the “whopping” sum of only one dollar a year. God opened a flood gate of blessings in all of our lives, blessings that continue to this day!
A few weeks later, I was playing at that same Christian club when I was approached by two local musicians asking me if I would be interested in their accompanying me whenever I was invited to do concerts. To make a very long and miraculous story short, that would be the beginning of The Keith Shealy Band and other fruitful outreach groups. Since then, thousands of lives have been changed for God’s glory, and so many wonderful miracles have taken place that we could not even begin to count them, all as a result of my accepting that one challenging invitation on that cold winter night in 1981!
The good news for all of us is this: if you will only work as God’s partner to press through the intimidation that has held you back from receiving God’s best for your life, the same kind of results await you. Selah!
IN Christ Jesus,
I then climbed out of the van and headed for the building. As I was almost to the door, I looked around and noticed that there were already many cars in the parking lot. There would be a big crowd in the concert hall that night! With my Bible in one hand and my guitar in the other, I took a deep breath and proceeded through the door.
Inside the hall, people were frantically running around getting things ready, and the opening band was on stage doing their sound check. It was all rather overwhelming. When the promoter saw me, he immediately walked over, took me by the arm, and began introducing me to people and showing me around the place. Shortly thereafter, one of the audio guys shouted from the stage, “Keith, sound check in five!” Do you remember my telling you earlier about the intimidating spirits that had dropped in on me with all of their relatives? Well, they were back and doing a bang-up job of portraying the stage and growing audience as being Goliath himself. Five minutes later, shaking like a leaf, I made my way onto the stage, struggled through my sound check, and went backstage to pray while awaiting my time slot.
Once the opening band had begun playing, I decided to make my way through the crowd toward the back of the hall and hang out where the sound guys were. As the band announced that they would be playing their last song, I started making my way backstage to get ready to go on. Man, were those guys good! And frankly, that did not make things any easier for me. I was staring into the eyes of a “Goliath-sized” situation, knowing that only one of us was going to step off that stage, one hour from now, the victor. As impossible as the whole thing seemed, I decided then that I was going to win the fight or die trying. As I was waiting for the announcer to introduce me, the intimidation reached a fevered pitch. All of a sudden, with only seconds to go, one of the sound crew guys walked up to me, leaned over, and whispered, “Keith, I loved what you did at sound check. And by the way, the guys said that they can’t wait to hear the rest of your stuff.” Praise God, there they were, the five smooth stones that I needed to win the fight: the testimony that God was with me!
The announcer introduced me, and I walked out on stage to roaring applause. With a tremble in my voice and my hands shaking, I started to play my first song. As I was about half way through it, I can remember thinking to myself that it sure was a good thing that I was wearing long pants because my knees were quivering pretty much uncontrollably. As I finished my first song, I could not believe my own eyes and ears. The entire crowd rose to their feet and broke into thunderous applause. The mountain that had stood in front of me for five long and grueling weeks was removed in seconds, and I knew then that I had pressed my way through to victory. Not only had the intimidating voices been defeated, but I began playing, singing, and speaking with an authority that I had never experienced before.
The testimony gets even better! After the concert was over and I was mingling among the crowd, something happened that further exceeded my greatest expectations. People started asking when I could come and minister for them. For example, in the crowd that evening was a lady who managed a local Christian night club. They had just purchased an old Assembly of God church building in the very same community where my pastors and I were in the process of starting our new Church. She walked up to me and asked if I would come and minister for them the following week. I accepted her offer and, as they say, the rest is history.
A few weeks later, I was asked to play there one night a week, and shortly thereafter, the club’s board of directors invited our fledgling congregation to meet in their building as often as we would like. Not only was that in and of itself a huge miracle, but they allowed us to rent the entire facility for the “whopping” sum of only one dollar a year. God opened a flood gate of blessings in all of our lives, blessings that continue to this day!
A few weeks later, I was playing at that same Christian club when I was approached by two local musicians asking me if I would be interested in their accompanying me whenever I was invited to do concerts. To make a very long and miraculous story short, that would be the beginning of The Keith Shealy Band and other fruitful outreach groups. Since then, thousands of lives have been changed for God’s glory, and so many wonderful miracles have taken place that we could not even begin to count them, all as a result of my accepting that one challenging invitation on that cold winter night in 1981!
The good news for all of us is this: if you will only work as God’s partner to press through the intimidation that has held you back from receiving God’s best for your life, the same kind of results await you. Selah!
IN Christ Jesus,
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