Eternity Focused: Taylor Talking about Jesus Weblog

My name is Bobby Taylor.

I am a full-time ministry, intecessory missionary at the International House of Prayer.  I am also pursuing a degree at the Forerunner School of Ministry in the Apostolic Preaching Program.

IHOP in K.C. is a 24/7 prayer and worship gathering center.  IHOP focuses on radical christian living with an emphasis on growing in intimacy with Jesus Christ through prayer, fasting, studying God’s Word, and living a Sermon on the Mount lifestyle.

Before I came here I was a youth and young adult pastor for 2 & 1/2 years at an Assemblies of God Church back in Louisiana.  I really enjoyed those years, but the Lord has now called me to a different season in my life.  Just like that season I really am enjoying this season of my life.

 I am supported like any other missionary by friends and family back in Louisiana.  I am sooo blessed by God through these loving and giving people.

My Testimony

My name is Bobby Taylor. I was born April 18, 1979. I grew up in a fairly small town in Louisiana called Ruston. When I was about four years old, the town pediatrician told my parents that I would never walk again (at the time I could not walk due to what they assumed to be Rheumatory Arthritis) and would never live to be the age of thirteen. Turns out they were WRONG Hallelujah! I received a healing from the Almighty God through the laying on of hands at a local church, and suddenly the doctors discovered I was allergic to mosquito bites (and a pool with chlorine would fix me right up!). That was music to my ears at five years old, and soon after my family got a pool. This made me believe all my life that there was some reason and major purpose for my life for God to have healed me. But I just figured that meant lots of money and fame in the world!

My grandparents and my parents followed closely to the Lord for about the next ten years of my life, so of course that meant I did to. During that time I learned a little about speaking in tongues and other Godly stuff. But because of a bunch of different reasons my family began to slow down in church attendance and so did I; and that was the end of my church experience for the next ten years, except for the required Sundays of Easter and Christmas and maybe one more a year. Maybe?

In high school I wanted to be the cool guy, and by my junior and senior year I had pretty much accomplished that goal by worldly standards. I played football and baseball, grew taller and slimmer, had a decent after school job, made great grades so my parents would be happy, developed pretty good social skills with the popular girls, and began to experiment with alcohol. When college came I stayed in Ruston and attended Louisiana Tech University (not sure why but I did have a couple of academic scholarships so it worked). In college my social status exploded. I was your typical fraternity guy. There were lots of parties and alcohol and immorality, and I began to experiment with drugs. My junior year of college I actually tried to give it all up for God, but after a few months of not ever reading my Bible, not praying, or going to church I went back to the old ways and a good bit worse. In the middle of my junior year, I began to work at Outback Steakhouse where I would work for the next five years; and after two-and-a-half years (after graduating) I became the manager. I was the front and kitchen manager and was about one-and-a-half years from owning my own 10% of an Outback.

During these five years all of my sinful activities really picked up, especially the drugs. I have come close to overdose two times that I can remember, was arrested for the second and third time (fighting, DWI, possession and resisting arrest), took the HIV test twice, blew all the money I was making on booze and drugs and court costs and fines, and had at least two near death encounters in a vehicle. All this time few people knew these things because I was so successful. I had graduated college on time with a good G.P.A. (considering how little I went), had a good job, made great money, and had a bright future. I was the poster boy for sin.

I really had no problem with any of this. I would say I was as happy as I could be. But after the third arrest, I wanted a change. I had talked about quitting, but I had never been successful. So I went to my younger sister (who is a wonderful woman of God and is a missionary to South Africa right now) and asked her to take me to church and show me what sober people did on say, a Tuesday?. I began to attend church five days a week. It was the most attendance possible considering I was working 65-70 hours a week. I only went to church to get away from my friends. But after about two months, I fell in love with Jesus. After another month the Lord revealed His call on my life, and three months later I resigned from Outback. I left so I could begin to study the Bible and the Berean courses my pastor signed me up for (they only lasted six months and the school shut down) , and so I could begin spending time with the youth of the church. Right away my friend Josh and I started a young adult group at our church, and two months later I was the youth pastor at my church while working as a carpenter. For the past two years I have lived pretty radically for God trying to find out everything possible about God and building a relationship with Him, and I can say right now I am more on fire for God than ever!

My goals in God right now are just to grow in the knowledge of who God is and His love for His children. Eventually I feel led to some sort of evangelism/apostleship work in the future, and I feel that IHOP and FSM will provide the best environment, over the next four years, for me to be prepared for that future. The place of prayer is where every man of God is formed. Prayer is one of those funny things that can’t be taught but MUST be learned; and the more you do it, the more you realize how little you do it because you see how dependent upon it you really are and should be. I can’t imagine myself going to a place to be trained in the ministry of Jesus Christ without that place putting a HUGE emphasis on the Word and prayer. IHOP and FSM emphasize the importance of prayer in the lives of Christians the way it should be, and that attracts me to and excites me about coming to Kansas City.

Through numerous Godly events I have come to know about IHOP and led to join the church and FSM. I AM STOKED about entering into a disciplined lifestyle of prayer, fasting, worship, and study leading into full-time ministry. Sorry I went over two pages, but God has been too awesome and done too much in my life for only two pages. My thoughts are to do the Fire in the Night Track 1 in June, the Fire in the Night Track 2 in September, and start the Apostolic Preaching Program in the Spring of ‘08.