Hello everybody! Sorry for the late post; it's been a bit of a hectic week and I've had a lot of homework to do this weekend. Nevertheless it was an absolutely fantastic week all in all, full of great teachings from the Holy Spirit.
Started off the week by going to Colorado Springs for a conference. It's called Acts 1 Conference and it's a YWAM conference that actually just started last year. The purpose for it is to lay a foundation for our lives and to have a new understanding of the Holy Spirit then to have the Holy Spirit not just in us but also on us; this, of course, is what Jesus was referring to when He told His followers to "wait for the promise from the Father." Obviously this is not a thing that can happen by following the "ten steps to being a spirit-filled Christian" so instead they, the YWAM leaders that organized the event that is, structured it around 1 Corinthians 14, specifically verses 29-33.
The result was absolutely tremendous. Everyone there, leader and student alike, laid down all sentiments of trying to maintain order in the assembly and we all just let loose and worshipped God, in spirit and in truth. During worship students and leaders would receive words from God and share them with the rest of us and these words would drive everyone there into an even deeper relationship and worship time with Jesus. We also had some specified teaching times for which there were a few speakers that flew in for the event to speak during these times. It was all really good, very powerful.
However I found myself far less passionate during this time than in the two weeks prior throughout all of our sessions and I had no idea why. God was still working things out of me, unforgiveness that I'd been harboring towards people, some things I didn't even realize that I had been until He so faithfully pointed it out to me. Nevertheless I couldn't shake the fact that I just didn't feel like I was moving forward as quickly as I was before. After one of the sessions, in which I had some good heart-to-heart time with Jesus, I talked with a leader about how I was feeling "unfinished." She prayed for me and spoke some things from her experiences that I identified with and in the midst of it God told me why I had been feeling the way I had been during the conference. He simply spoke to me "patience" and with that formed a beautiful picture in my mind of where I was currently at spiritually, a couple pictures actually.
God told me that for the past few weeks that I had been sprinting as hard as I could towards Him, which is of course a very good thing. However, you can't sprint forever because if you simply sprint through life you'll miss the subtle application of the principles that you learn when you're going full-steam towards Christ in our learning. In order to really establish what He had been teaching deep into my heart I needed to slow down and take a walk for a bit and observe my surroundings, to smell the roses so to speak. The reasoning for that He gave to me with a separate picture (inception much?). He showed me a deep cavern going straight into the ground. The entrance to it in the top used to be covered but it had been uncovered and light was shining into it and lighting up a large chamber underground. However, there were many side recesses that were blocked off that needed to be cleared out so light could get into there as well. To summarize, I was taking a spiritual walk so that I could take time to really meditate and dig deep so I would be able to apply the principle that lit up a deep wound in my heart to all the dark recesses in that wound and that way it would be completely healed with no more abiding darkness. God wants my whole heart, not just a majority of it.
At the end of the conference I got to witness and take part in some incredible giving; I really witnessed the power of simple, even seemingly insignificant generosity. Their were obviously bills that were racked up from bringing in the speakers from different parts of the country, and though they did not ask to put the burden on us to help them pay for it, we took it upon ourselves to collect an offering in order to cover all the expenses: $4500. I would say about 65% of the 400 people that were there gave, which was awesome, but the majority of them gave less than 20 dollars, but it was everything that these impoverished YWAMers could give. Incredibly though when we put it all together and did the math we actually met our goal, and then some. These 300 persons had in a matter of minutes raised over 4500 dollars. I was honored to be part of such an incredible experience and to see such selflessness. I know that God was smiling on all of us there that moment.
Next week we're having teachings on identity and the fear of the Lord. Should be awesome. Also, and I don't think I've mentioned this yet on my blog, I believe God is telling me to go to Thailand and Cambodia for the outreach part of my DTS. However, some things fell through and the money that I thought I was going to have for outreach never came in, so I'm finding myself several hundred dollars short for the first payment towards the trip, and about $3000 short for the total. It's always been difficult for me to ask people for money, but I feel God is prompting me to humble myself and reach out to my brothers and sisters for support. So I ask that any of you reading this to please pray about sending finances to me, and even to refer other people to this post or perhaps simply the following link: (http://www.ywamdenver.org/payments/?student=1). The school I'm doing is the MDTS and the dates are from Oct. 1- Feb. 15. I know that God's will will be done in this season of my life, so whatever happens I trust Him completely. Thank you all so much for reading this, and it really touches me that so many of my friends have been following my life while I've been in YWAM. God bless you all, I think about all of you, whether you're in Canada, or Russia, or the UK or in good ol' Idaho, quite often and pray for you.
Oh and I'd greatly appreciate some feedback on my posts as well. I assume since people keep reading them that it's been interesting, but I'd love to hear how it might be affecting your own walk with God. I believe I've changed the settings so that anyone can comment.
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