The Rest Of The Story on Benton aka GOD

On one of our trips to Vermont we did an outdoor festival with a local church. One of the folks we met was a man named Benton (Not his real name) and his wife. Benton saw our bus and was very moved by our ministry. He asked what needs we had and so I mentioned that we could use a generator for our bus. He said he would do that but wanted us to dream bigger! Mary Ann had a check in her spirit as we talked with them throughout the day. (A “check in the spirit” is a 6^th sense about someone)

The next day Benton showed up at church. I introduced him to Pastor Art, who also had a check in his spirit. After the service we tore our gear down from doing their Children's Church service and were on the bus talking with Pastor Art. Benton come over so we invited him onboard. Pastor cordially said he needed to tend to something and left. Well, Benton said he'd give us $300 for the generator and wanted to partner with our ministry. So we asked what that meant. He went on to explain that we'd come under his company and that he would pay all our expenses. We would simply send him our offerings and he'd pay our bills. Well it sounded great to me, but Mary Ann and the older kids didn't feel right about it. So I said we'd pray about it and keep in touch. Well after he left, I talked with Pastor Art who cautioned us and said he'd heard some not-so-great things about Benton. I asked if he thought it was ok to take Benton's gift for the generator? To which he thought that was safe but admonished us to pray for wisdom and get everything in writing.

Well we hit the road and started heading north up along Lake Champlain taking Route 2 along the causeway onto Grand Isle to cross over to Ticonderoga, New York up near the Canadian Border. While we were traveling along admiring the beautiful scenery one of the kids said...

“So Dad, are we going to start working for God?”

I replied, “Well we are working for GOD! What do you mean?”

They replied, “No I mean the other God! The one who was on our bus today.” We all looked at each other dumbfounded.

Then Mary Ann asked the child to clarify, and they said, “You know that guy and his wife who gave us money for the bus.”

Then someone asked, “Do you mean Benton?”

“Yes! Benton!”

So we all laughed and from that moment on, the kids referred to Benton as "god" in a odd way.

We did keep in touch with Benton and met up with him several times before coming to the conclusion that it wasn't GOD's will that we yoke with Benton AKA “god”. It took me the longest time to come around because Benton's idea sounded so sweet which essentially was to have a for-profit company take a ministry under their wings and fund them for non-profit goals. This way a ministry is free to minister rather than spend time asking for money to keep the ministry going. It's a great concept and I can see GOD using it to bless many ministries. But it wasn't what GOD called our ministry to do. We were to be a family of eight that lived by faith on a “Venture With GOD”.

About a year later I was still communicating with Benton. One day he called and one of the children answered the phone. I heard the child yell, 'Hey Dad, telephone! It's 'god'!”

Benton invited me to come visit and see if we could finalize some things. So I borrowed a car and drove about six hours from Maine to his home in western Vermont. It was dark when I arrived. I met with his family and spent some time interacting with them. They were able to share some things on their hearts and I went to bed thinking we're not on the same page theologically. I spent the night in their guest room which was part of a very old stone house dating back hundreds of years. I encountered some dark spiritual things that woke me up and I quickly went to prayer to come against it by taking authority in JESUS Name over the room. I then went back to bed but couldn't sleep of course! Eventually I drifted off with one eye open if you know what I mean!

The next morning we ate breakfast and I told them that I would go home, talk to the family and make a decision in a few days. But I knew the family would say no, and now I knew that GOD didn't think it best either.

I say all this because you, the reader, may encounter something similar in your ministry. So please know that what may be good for someone else may not be GOD's best for you. It was hard to say no to Benton because he wouldn't take no for an answer. So we eventually had to block 'god' from our cell phone and emails...

Lesson learned – the hard way...