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How I Wrote an Award-Winning Novel by CLU Grad Brenda Savella

Mark Virkler's picture

I am proud of Brenda's award-winning book, Chaff on the Wind. She has used divine flow to write it, and it made it to the top of the list. Read her testimony below and realize you can do similar things as you tune to the Holy Spirit's flow within!


Some years ago, I was waiting to have tea with a friend in the food court of a local mall. An elderly woman came up to me and said emphatically, “You need to go fishing!” I smiled and replied that I’m a vegetarian so I wouldn’t likely go fishing. She continued, “I’m a fisherman. I’ve always known I’m a fisherman. When I was six years old my father took me deep sea fishing. No one caught anything so I told the captain to let me fish. For a joke the crew strapped me into a chair, and I cast the line into the sea. Within minutes I caught the biggest Marlin they had ever seen. They told me to keep fishing, but I knew I was only supposed to catch one fish. The captain and I split the proceeds. My share was $10,000 U.S.D. I’ve gone fishing every year since, and I’ve caught one each year. You need to go fishing!”

My friend arrived, and I said farewell to the lady. I didn’t know what the encounter meant. Two years later, I was at the same mall waiting to pay for a purchase at the grocery store. The person in front of me turned around and said, “You need to go fishing!” It was the same lady! She paid for her purchase and left. I asked God what it meant. There was a faint impression in my heart that it was related to writing, but again I did not pursue the meaning.

I began CLU’s doctoral program and took the first course on how to use the four steps to hear God’s voice and how God uses vision and the six pillars to confirm what He is saying. My ability to hear God’s voice deepened. In December 2022 I was praying and pondering what my goal should be for 2023. I set only one goal each year. I clearly heard the Lord tell me to complete a novel I had begun and abandoned years earlier. 

Although I loved writing, I didn’t really know how to write a novel, but I told the Lord I would do it. Several weeks later a friend asked if I wanted to visit a church online I used to attend. I didn’t have the internet but she did so I listened to the service over my phone. There was a visiting speaker. The first thing she said was, “I’m a fisherman. It’s time to go fishing.” I knew in my spirit that God was confirming that writing was my ‘Go fishing’ as I had agreed to finish the book.

The draft was 14,000 words but I needed 45,000 words for it to be considered a novel. How would I do it? I used the four keys to hearing God’s voice. I got into a quiet and comfortable place and focused on Jesus. As I began to write God showed me visions like a movie in my mind. I saw characters and heard them interacting. I wrote what I saw and heard. I described the setting He showed me. And over the next few months the novel took shape in ways that were totally unexpected to me!

When the draft was finished, God introduced me to a national book award and directed me to enter my manuscript. I said to Him that I had never written a novel before and this might be humiliating. He showed me that I could ask for feedback. How else would I get my book in the hands of an editor/judge to know how I was doing? I obeyed.

I heard nothing for a few months, but the Lord kept giving me little signs of encouragement. The word ‘fishing’ or other things that related to the book would appear in unexpected places. Otherwise, God was silent about it. Then in June 2023 I heard that my book, Chaff on the Wind, was a finalist in the national Braun Book Awards for excellence in Christian writing! I was stunned but I could feel the Lord’s pleasure. The editor gave me great positive feedback.

Chaff on the Wind is now published and went live on August 31, 2024. It’s for sale on about 40 sites in various parts of the world and is coming to various bookstores. The editor called it a great story that he couldn’t wait to get off the press. This is all God.

Here are links to purchase the book, Chaff on the Wind: Amazon US or Amazon Canada

 

I tell you, readers, “Go fishing!” It is time. Don’t let unimportant things hinder you from starting. God has made you for a purpose. Find out what it is. Nothing is impossible with Him!

Journaling application

Lord, what would You like to say to me in light of this story?

 


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Decoding Deception DVDs

Mark Virkler

This eight-part training series takes you through the key biblical principles you need to know so that you can walk in the truth, and be aware of the techniques satan uses to seek to deceive people. Ideal for personal or group study. You shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free!

Price: $39.95
Divine Healing Toolbox CD/DVD Set

Divine Healing Toolbox CD/DVD Set

by Mark Virkler | 1 CD, 1 DVD

Jesus healed all who asked Him and our goal is to be like Him! He commissioned His disciples saying, "Heal those...who are sick, and say to them, 'The kingdom of God has come near to you'" (Lk. 10:9).

We begin with the assumption that we agree that it is God’s will to heal. Having prayed for healing for people for years, Mark has seen many wonderful miracles and also seen times when it appeared that very little happened. This short teaching describes some practical steps he has learned which make his prayers for healing more effective.

Price: $15.95
Fulfill Your Financial Destiny DVDs

Fulfill Your Financial Destiny DVDs

by Mark and Patti Virkler | 22 Video Sessions

Newly recorded for 2023! Though the economic system (mammon) of this world is under a curse, we have received instructions for how to move out from that dominion and into the blessing of the Kingdom of God. God’s promises to His children have not changed with the whims of government or Wall Street, nor have His directions for how to walk in those promises. We can “choose not to participate” in the economic recession that is around us if we instead choose to obey the logos and rhema of the Lord and enjoy the blessings that result.

Price: $59.95

How Do YOU Know? DVDs

by Mark Virkler | 12 Sessions

How do you know? What is the process you use to discover truth? I did not ask that question during the first 25 years of my life. I used eleven different methods for discovering truth including: if my parents said so, then it was so. If my teacher said it was so, then it was so. If my pastor said it was so, then it was so. If my theology said it was so, then it was so. I have discarded them all and adopted a twelfth method, which is in harmony with what the Bible teaches. We teach you this method in this series.

Price: $59.95
How to Speak in Tongues CD/DVD Set

How to Speak in Tongues CD/DVD Set

by Mark Virkler | 1 CD, 1 DVD | Produced 2010

Speaking in tongues involves a miracle wherein you yield your vocal cords to the flow of the Holy Spirit, trusting that God is forming the syllables you speak into a language. It may be a language of men or of angels (1 Cor. 13:1). You choose to speak (Acts 2:4) but you choose not to form the syllables consciously, and instead let the Spirit give the utterance (Acts:2:4).

Price: $15.95
How to Walk by the Spirit DVDs

How to Walk by the Spirit DVDs

by Mark Virkler | 6 Discs

Are you like many western Christians who have been taught little about how to sense their spirits? Do you have trouble even defining what spirit sensations feel like within you, much less recognizing them? This training was birthed from Mark’s passion to live out of his spirit, and thus release the anointing of God. The problem he faced was lack of clear biblical definition as to what his spirit felt like. So Mark looked up every verse in the Bible on heart and spirit.

Revised & Expanded 15th Anniversary Edition

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Mountain-Moving Faith CD/DVD Set

Mountain-Moving Faith CD/DVD Set

by Mark Virkler | 1 CD, 1 DVD

God is our Dream Maker! He has placed a dream within the heart of each of us that only He can supernaturally bring to pass. God gave an impossible dream to Abraham, our Father of Faith. In this powerful message, Mark will show you how God filled the five senses of Abraham’s spirit with His truth and birthed a miracle out through him. And you will learn how you can walk in the same faith while you hear, see, ponder, speak and act out of the Father’s initiative, allowing Him alone to fill the senses of your spirit.

Price: $15.95
Naturally Supernatural DVDs

Naturally Supernatural DVDs

by Mark Virkler | 13 Sessions | 4 Discs

BRAND NEW Revised & Expanded 30th Anniversary Edition DVDs!

A step-by-step guide on “abiding in Christ” or how to let go and let God live naturally and powerfully out through you. Disarmingly simple. Mind-blowingly powerful.

Price: $59.95
Overflow of the Spirit DVDs

Overflow of the Spirit DVDs

12 sessions | 7 hours | by Mark Virkler and Charity Kayembe

Mark and Charity have teamed up again to create a training series on how to easily manifest the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit. It took us several years to break through all the confusion and present a clear, simple understanding of how to release the nine-fold manifestation of the Holy Spirit everywhere you go and with everyone you touch. It is not hard! It can’t be since these are gifts of the Holy Spirit, not things you have to work for.

Price: $49.95

Rivers of Grace DVD

by Mark and Patti Virkler | 5 Sessions | Total length: 3hrs 18 min

You can be the parent God wants you to be: loving, encouraging, trusting and able to raise up your children in the way they should go, fulfilling their own unique destinies. Parenting was not intended to be a burden, and anyone who tells you differently has bought into a lie. You will learn to enjoy parenting as an exciting, joy-filled, divinely-ordained opportunity, not a wearying responsibility.

Price: $19.95

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