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.
My journey to get to IHOP was amazing. I was introduced to IHOP through a friend who wanted me to come to the onething conference that IHOP puts on annually at the end of the year. This was at the end of '04. I could not go because I was still at Outback at the time. Some other friends tried to get me to go the next year, but once again I could not go because I was broke after leaving my career. Then in March of '06 some friends of mine knew I was wanting to find another school to go to after the Berean school shut down. One night after a home group meeting, they told me about a regional conference IHOP was doing in Dallas. They said they had paid for the conference, hotel, and gas for the weekend. They said they felt like I was really suppose to come. It was an offer I could not pass up. I came across some teaching from IHOP on the way to Dallas, and I already had a burning in my spirit. The conference only threw gas upon the fire. I began to make plans of coming to Kansas City as soon as I got back to Ruston.
I met with some people to find out more details about IHOP-KC. All was in the works during May, and I was about to tell my pastor when I got a word at a home group meeting. The guy who had no clue who I was told me that the Lord said I was to stay put for the time being. I was crushed, but I knew I must be obedient. I decided I was to just stay in the school of the Holy Spirit. I did this for about seven months, and at the end of '06 I got my first chance to go to the national onething in K.C. It was AWESOME. Once again the desire to move rose up in my spirit. I spent the whole month of January praying and fasting desiring to hear from the Lord about what to do. I wanted to be for sure before I talked to my pastor. At the end of January, I was at a church praying before a meeting. There was a prophet in town holding a meeting at a local church. I had an opportunity to have this man prophesy over me if I wanted. I had been praying in the Spirit for about six hours, and I decided that I did not need a word from this man. I felt I knew for sure what the Lord was saying. He was telling me to move in the summer sometime to IHOP-KC to start FSM. I told the Lord in prayer that I knew what He was saying to me, and that if He wanted me to go see the prophet He would have to tell me directly. I opened my eyes and the pastor of the church's wife was standing in front of me. She asked me if I had made an appointment to go see the prophet. I told her no. She said she had just heard from the Lord that I was to go back so she had already scheduled me in. I went back and the prophet confirmed everything on my heart. I was so excited.
I told my pastor the following Sunday I was leaving. The meeting did not go very well. We will just leave it at that. The following Monday I became very ill. I believe it was an attack from the enemy. Wednesday I was taken to the hospital with a 93 degree temp., a 1200 blood sugar level, and I was completely dehydrated. I had been vomiting for two days straight. The doctors thought I had a collapsed lung and a tear in my esophagus. They put a chest tube in me, a cathador, many needles to hydrate me, and told my parents that I probably would not make it. They flew me in a helicopter 60 miles. By the time I arrived, I was completely healed. God had healed me for the second time in 23 years. I spent five days in ICU, and accrued about $70,000 in debts. I have been back in the hospital four times since (once when I first arrived in K.C.). The total in bills came to around $100,000. I had no insurance at any time. The Lord has paid for it ALL!
I quit my carpentry job a month before I was to move, and I was fired as youth pastor two months before I left. The firing happen for reasons not to be discussed except to say that my pastor and I had a difference in opinion on how I should spend my time. I was spending every spare second in study and in prayer and refused to budge. He wanted more time spent with the youth. Enough said about that.
He has also put me in a place that provides me with FREE health care. The Lord is SO good.
That year I was not allowed to move became such a major blessing. The Lord prepared me to come to IHOP in a major way. He really took my spiritual disciplines to a whole other level during that year. Fasting and prayer and study have been my primary focus since I became saved; but for the year to year-and-a-half before I came to IHOP, the Lord really gave me grace to go hard after Him.
It was seen when I got to Kansas City. I was basically put on staff for the second half of the internship I did. This was a huge honor. The leadership saw enough in me to not only ask me to do that, but they also asked me to consider not going to school in order to join full-time staff and leadership. After months of prayer I decided to go to school instead, but for the leadership to see enough fruit in my life to ask me such a thing really touched my heart.
So far FSM has been everything I hoped for. 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 is what excites me so much about IHOP-KC.
I look forward to having more to write soon!
