Eight days ago I was Baptized. It was not planned in advance. On that Sunday I let a lot of things go that I was holding onto to and that were holding me back. I handed God, with the help of friends, ALL of my burdens, ALL of my sin, ALL of my shortcoming, and ALL of my fear. As I handed him things, one by one he took them. One by one they disappeared. He took them with mercy and love in his eyes. When it was all over I was weak enough that I let myself fall into his arms. Through Callie's arms I felt the true embrace of the God who can look at me now because I have been covered in his only Son's blood. Not to sound morbid. But honestly. At that point I knew it was time to make that public statement that GOD IS REAL. And I want my life to be a testimony to that fact. As we started to drive towards the ocean there was an EPIC rainbow. I have never seen one so wide and bright. As I looked at it in the middle of this drizzling dismal dreary day God said "Don't worry Hannah the sun will come out." We drove to the ocean with a hand full of my YWAM family and accidentally ended up at the exact place I first touched the Australian ocean. God is not cheep, he appreciates the details. I was baptized in the name of The Father The Son and The Holly Spirit. As we left the beach the sun came out.
Right before I started to write this I asked God where I should read in the bible I closed my eyes expecting to have to wait for an answer. Before they were even shut for a moment I got Titus 3:5-6 and it says: "He saved us, not because of the righteous things we had done, but because of his mercy. He washed away our sins, giving us a new birth and new life through the Holy Spirit. He generously poured out the Spirit upon us through Jesus Christ our Savior." The reason I think that is so cool is because that is a summery of what I have learned here. It is also a conformation of what I saw only an hour ago while I was praying with my friend. I saw God standing in the laundry mat waiting for me to come wash my one pair of clothes. I wondered why do I only have one pair? And he answered "So you keep coming back Hannah."
Last week was jam packed with information. They squeezed Spiritual warfare and Jewish roots into four days. Honestly I think that is almost criminal but our speaker Joel did a fabulous job.
Spiritual warfare:
I learned that in Jesus name I have authority over fear, over bad moods, over negative thoughts, over lust, over bad dreams, over disappointment, and even over demons. I learned that we need to be aware and alert. The world is a battle ground, but we are not alone. We have the most powerful God living inside of us. We bring the presence of God with us everywhere. Therefore we have no reason to fear. I also was reminded that our enemy is not flesh and blood so if we find ourselves fighting amongst ourselves like a lot of American churches do. That means the devil is winning. He is sitting on a beach somewhere drinking a cocktail just stirring the coals every once in a while. Devision in the church makes the devils job way to easy. This is the time we need to band together as the church. We desperately need to restore unity. In church history the best way to restore unity is to be persecuted. Do you want that? Do you want the police to start arresting christians? Is that what it is going to take to bring us back together or do you think we can pull it together. I have faith that we can pull it together. I believe the church has way more potential than it gets credit for. But it has lost its first love. Christ. Lets bring it back around. Lets refocus and let the fire burn in us. "From the days of John the Baptist until now, the Kingdom of Heaven has been forcefully advancing, and forceful men lay hold of it" (Matt. 11:12) Lets be forceful. Lets be intentional. Lets be unified. I am going to soak America in prayer until it is dripping wet. We need it. We need to admit that we are not ok.
Jewish roots:
One of the coolest things he said was what we should all be saying to the jewish nation. "Thank you for this wonderful book. If it was not for you we would never have it. I pray for your nation, And I love you." I have never in my life thought to thank them. But without God's people we would never have to word of God. I just think that fact is so precious. Another thing he described that I thought was cool was how the gospel has gone around the world in a westerly direction out of Israel. And that it how God wanted it. He actually wouldn't let Paul go into Asia. He had to go west. God wanted the Gospel to go west and make its way back around to Israel. You can see from history how it burned across europe and into american and now the cutting edge of the gospel is in china. We are seeing the greatest numbers of Chinese coverts in these recent days than ever in history. And in time it will get back to Israel and the first will be last. I think that is such a wonderful picture of God's order and faithfulness.
One of the most powerful things I learned though, is that as a christian our inheritance or job is not only the great commission. "Go into all the world and preach the gospel." We are also commanded in the word to do greater signs than even Jesus did on earth. We are commanded to "Heal the sick, raise the dead, cast out demons, and cure the lepers." No one ever told me that it was my job to heal the sick. I was always told pray and read the Bible and maybe you could be called to be missionary work. But NO that is not good enough. We are told to HEAL THE SICK! Have you ever seen a healing? Well you better because that is our calling. Our job is to do signs and wonders to make the people wonder. Cool huh?
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