Leisa's Testimony

  The Cross

A testimony by Leisa Spann

 

 

 

 

 

 

In May of 2000 God had laid on my heart to open up an inspirational gift shop here in Oak Grove, La. At that point and time I thought that was a crazy idea, because it seemed like everyone who opened up a small business in Oak Grove just couldn't make it and closed down within a year or two. Then I began to think and pray, "God if this is what you want me to do then you give me a sign." I was working at Wal Mart and had been there for thirteen years. I had all the benefits and was making almost $10.00 an hour. That is a very good income for Oak Grove, La. I had a retirement plan and all kinds of insurance I would ever need. I knew how much I would be drawing every week and I knew how many hours I would be working every week. It was like, why would I want to quit a job making that much money and benefits to open up something that would put my family in hardship if it didn't work.

I just asked God, "You just give me a sign and if this is your will then I will do whatever you want me to do. It won’t matter how much I make and what benefits I don't have, because I know that you will take care of me." So I started praying and I asked my friends to pray about the store. About five weeks later I walked into Gayle’s restaurant in Oak Grove where I was supposed to meet someone to pick up a package. As I drove up, I noticed that the person's car was not there. At three o’clock in the evening Gayle’s is already closed because they are only opened at lunch. Thinking I had missed the person I had planned to see, I got out of my vehicle anyway. I went to the door not expecting it to open, but it opened up and so I walked inside. Instead of the person with the package, there was someone I knew named Jenny.

Jenny knew that I also compose poems, frame them and sell them to Christian Book Stores and other gift shops around Northeast Louisiana. Jenny told me that she had seen my framed poems. She told me they were beautiful and asked me how they were doing. I shared with her that God had opened up all kinds of doors. I told her that it was just awesome. I told her, "What's crazy is now God wants me to open up a Christian gift shop and to put a waterfall in there and not a just a table top waterfall but a big waterfall." I told Jenny, “I haven’t figured that one out yet.” Then I noticed that Jenny's eyes got really big, and then she said, “Oh, my, you are Leisa.” I thought, "What a strange thing for her to say." She ran to the counter and got a little spiral black notebook and began flipping through the pages. She said, “God gave me three things to pray about the other day and I put them in this book so that I would not forget to pray for them. She said that one of them was Leisa and she had no idea which Leisa she was to pray for. Then tears began trickling down my cheek. She looked at me and she said, “And as far as the waterfall goes, you know, Jesus is the Living Water, and the well never runs dry.”

By that time, I had really started crying and the hair stood straight up on the back of my neck and I thought, “Okay, God, that is all the sign I need. I know this is what you want me to do. I will quit my job at Wal Mart and I will open up this Christian gift shop because I know that this is your will and your will is what I want to do."

So I opened up my Christian gift shop on December 1, 2000. On the day I opened up, a friend named Liz gave me a cross as a gift. It was about a thirty inch silver cross. I thought how beautiful it was, and how wonderful that would look on the wall behind my register. And at that point in time, God told me I would have a cross on that wall, but that one was not it. He said, "Your cross will be bigger and you will have a spotlight on your cross at night." So I thought, "Okay, God, whenever it's time, I know you will tell me where I am supposed to purchase this cross."

After December, Wal Mart always runs a sale and I got my spotlight for 50% off. So I saved it, thinking to myself, "When it's time to purchase my cross, I will already have my spotlight." I was sitting at the small table next to the waterfall God had told me to get, the first week in February reading my Bible, when God told me that it was time for putting up His cross. God told me the cross could not be just two 2x4's nailed together, that it had to be big and it has to look old. God also told me to hang a robe on the cross. The material of the robe had to be purple velvet or velveteen and it had to have trim around it. With a crown of thorns at the top and a sign that said "THIS IS JESUS, KING OF THE JEWS." 

He told me which carpenter to call. This carpenter was different from the one I had hired to build my office in my store. The carpenter's name was Mike. When I called, I got no answer. I thought to myself, "God, I'm sure you knew that he was not at home, so why did you have me call him?" I didn't know that the carpenter, Mike, had caller ID. He called me back to asked what I needed. I told him I had a project for him; that I wanted a large cross on my wall. So he came to my shop to see and ask exactly what I needed. So I said "Okay, I am going to tell you just like God told me. It can not be just two 2x4's nailed together. It has to be big and it has to look old." He looked at me with a sarcastic attitude and he said " How do you make a piece of wood look old?" At this point, I was thinking, "Okay God not only did you tell me that the wood had to look old, you told me what carpenter to call, and now he's asking me how does he make the wood look old. So what's your plans?" I looked at the carpenter and said,"I have no idea how to make a piece of wood look old, you 're the carpenter." He said, "Okay well then how big, 4x4 or 6x6? I said "I have no idea I would have to see it." So he went home to get a piece of 4x4 and a piece of 6x6. All this time, believing God would let me know the size, because I didn't know. He came back with the wood and I immediately pointed to the 6x6 and I said, "That's it." He looked at me and he looked at the wall. I have sheet rock through my whole store. He looked at me and said, "There is no way you are going to get a piece of 4 feet long and 6"x6" in diameter to hang on this wall. It will be entirely too heavy. And you would have to have something to bolt that thing to."

Well I knew that God didn’t tell me to do all of this for it not to work. So I said, "You go get the material, and you make the cross and we won't worry about how we are going to hang it until later.” So he left and went to the lumber yard. He walked back in the store about an hour later and he said, “You're never going to believe this. You have to come look.” I said, “What?” As we were walking outside he said that someone overheard him say that he was going to have to do something to the piece of wood to make it look old. They told him they had a piece of wood, 16 foot long 6x6 cedar that had been laying outside for over twenty years. 

When I walked out there and saw that huge 16 feet long 6x6 piece of cedar, it had cracks, it had holes and it looked old. And once again my hair stood straight up. He looked at me and he said, "Now, it's 16' foot long, so I can make it 10' feet tall and make it go from the floor to the ceiling and the floor will support the weight.

I looked at him and said, “Don’t think that was just a coincidence, that you went to that lumber yard and found that piece of 6x6 cedar laying out there aging for twenty years. God knew where that piece of cedar was going to be twenty years later, right here on my wall in this store." I told him that the wood would have to be stained a darker color. Well, all this happened on a Thursday and I called the company, The Crown of Thorns, to order the crown of thorns to put on the top as God had told me to do.

On the following Saturday morning when I drove up to the store, I saw that Mike was waiting for me. He had finished the cross and it was ready for the wall. Looking at the cross, knowing that it had been aging for twenty years just to be on my wall here at the store was just awesome. I paid him and he went on his way.

I had a customer in the store and I asked her to guess about how many yards of material I would need to buy for the robe I was going to hang on the cross. She told me about 5 or 6 yards. God told me that the material had to be purple velvet or velveteen. I pulled out my big telephone book and looked up every fabric shop in the yellow pages within a 100 mile radius of where I lived. I had a feeling I was going to have to call everyone of them before I found purple velvet or velveteen material.

The first store I called was in Monroe, Louisiana. I told them who I was and that I was from Oak Grove and that I was looking for purple velvet or velveteen and asked them if they had any. I was going to say that I needed five or six yards but the lady had already gone searching for it. She came back and said, “Ma'am we have exactly five yards on a bolt.” I said, "Oh, my Gosh, that is exactly what I need!" You should have seen me. I was jumping up and down for joy. The very first fabric store I called had just exactly what I needed. So I told the lady to please save it for me and that I would be over there in a few days to pick it up.

So the following Monday, I asked a friend of mine to watch the store for me while I went to Monroe to pick up the fabric. Monroe is about 60 miles from where I live. When I got over there, they pulled out the fabric from under the counter and it was the most awesome, richest looking color I have ever seen. It was gorgeous. Let's not forget God said that it had to have trim, so I headed to the trim department. I picked up a gold filigree type trim and I carried it over to the lady. She said, “Hon, that is not enough trim to go all the way around this material that you have picked up." So I went back and looked again. That was the most trim that they had. I thought, "God, I don’t know what to do." I looked around and saw a round roll of rope. It was entertwined with gold and purple. God told me to buy the whole roll. I was thinking, “Now, God, I did take Home Economics in school and I do know that this is round and it is a rope and it can’t be sown on there for trim. I don’t think that is going to work.” He said, “Buy it; the whole roll.” So of course, I took it to the lady and when she asked how many yards I needed I said, "The whole roll." Well I got a funny look as she was rolling it off and measuring it out. I bought both material and the whole roll of decorative rope and went to my car.

When I got into my car I called my friend who was keeping the store and she told me she was swamped and would I please hurry up and get back. I told her, “Well I haven’t found my trim yet and I have to do this today. I am going to another store and look for some trim."

When I got to the next store, I walked in and opened up a McCall’s pattern book. As I was flipping through the pages I saw something purple that had some black and gold trim with the Greek key pattern on it. How awesome! I thought, "Yes, God, this is what you want me to get." But when I checked, there was only a small amount of the trim on the roll. By this time I was really getting frustrated because I hadn’t found any trim for the robe that God told me that it had to have. As I stood there near to tears, I was thinking, "I don’t know what you want me to get, God."

Just then I looked down and they had a whole roll of the same pattern made with white and gold with the Greek key pattern. All of a sudden I knew that was what I was supposed to get. I bought it and back to Oak Grove I went. The next morning I took it to my seamstress. I told her how I wanted it and she said that she could do it. Later on that day my Crown of Thorns came in and I put them on the cross.

That evening the lady who was doing the sewing finished with it and brought it to me. I climbed up on the ladder and I put the purple velvet robe trimmed with white and gold on the cross. It was awesome looking. I looked down and I saw the rope. I was thinking that I would take that rope back. I didn't know why God wanted me to buy that rope anyway. But for no reason I picked up the rope and I rolled some off and I kind of flopped it over the middle and let some of it fall down in the creases on the robe. When I did that I thought , “Oh, my gosh, how awesome that looks.” It was like the finishing touches on the whole thing. I used the whole roll and had about 3 ½ inches left over. Again, I marveled at how God let me buy just enough. 

Several days later I was wondering why God had me buy such expensive material and why he wanted it that way. I already knew they had put a purple robe on him but that was all I knew. I wanted to study what kind of robe had been put on Jesus. I pulled my King James Bible out and read it. Matthew stated that they had put a scarlet robe on Jesus. Mark stated that it was purple and Luke said that it was a gorgeous robe. I did not know the definition for scarlet in Bible days, so I looked in my Smith Bible Dictionary. I looked up scarlet. It said to go to colors. Colors said: "artificial mixtures which were employed in dyeing or painting. The purple and blue were derived from a small shellfish found in the Mediterranean, and were very costly, and hence they were the royal colors. (We are talking very expensive.) This was exactly what God had me make, an expensive, gorgeous robe of royal colors.

I was overwhelmed with the outcome of the wood being over twenty years old, the robe being gorgeous and expensive. After studying the Bible I understood all that God wanted me to do. From time to time I have people in my store, who just stand and stare at the cross. I saw a lady staring at the cross one day and she said, "That is the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen." She said, "I see seven ropes hanging on the robe." I had not realized that I had seven until she brought it to my attention. I remembered that in the Bible, seven was often referred to as the perfect number or the number of completion. Seven was mentioned numerous times in the Bible. John spoke of the seven miracles that Jesus performed, and Jesus said seven things while he was on the cross.

I think this whole testimony that God has given me is not something I want to keep to myself. I tell those who come in my store that I need to share the miracle of this cross. You know, sometimes I feel that God has me do some crazy things and through this, He wants to see how obedient I will be and how far I will go for him. I have different testimonies to share about other things God has told me to do and the outcome has been overwhelming.

From day one, after opening my store, God has given me testimony after testimony, miracle after miracle. Not only has He given me a successful store, but I feel it is as much a ministry as a gift shop. He has evermore blessed this place. I feel that if we walk in the perfect will of God every day and ask Him every day to use us in whatever way He chooses, He will continue to bless us and use us.

I ask him daily to use me to minister to others. I think we should share the everyday miracles that God does in our life. For the miracles he performs in my life He also has given me a poem to share with others about the cross. (See Poem: "The Cross") I hope that everybody who wears a cross around their neck, on their arm, or in their ear, will realize the significance of the cross and how it came to be.

In August of 2004 the Lord told me to close down the store after Christmas and to go into the world with what He has given me. I know all the poetry He has blessed me with will comfort, encourage, and minister and even bring those that are lost to the Lord.

Leisa, “A Servant for the Lord”

The Cross

Do you remember the cross and how it came to be,

that God's only son Jesus died on Calvery?

The stripes they put upon His back, were not made of clothes.

But scars from strikes that day were awful painful blows.

He wore upon his head a crown not made of gold.

For His was made of thorns, with cuts the blood just rolled.

The robe was purple in color, gorgeous in every way.

The soldiers mocked and spit on Him, oh what a price to pay.

With nails in His hands and feet hanging from that tree. We were on His mind that day, He died for you and me.......

Copyright 2001 Leisa Spann 

 

Copyright 2001 Leisa Spann