Saturday, January 14, 2012

Dancing with Jesus

      During out time with Donna Jordan, (our speaker this week who is amazing and who was called to te the mother of all nations) she asked us to imagine ourselves in a garden with Jesus. SO everyone in the room quieted their hearts and asked the Holy Spirit to come and reveal Himself to us so we could imagine ourselves in a garden with Him. As I closed my eyes and prayed, I began to imagine myself in a garden and as I continued to pray, the Holy SPirit revealed himself to me and painted me a picture in my mind.  So I will do  my best to repaint this picture for you so you can see what the Holy SPirit revealed to me.
    The picture started with rolling hills and a green pasture. I was alone walking in this garden alone just for  a few minutes. Within a few seconds, I saw the Lord walking towards me from the distance. He was clothed in white, radiating brightly as He continued to come towards me. His hands were extended towards me as if he was waiting for me to take hold of His hand. He met me and He took my hand and began to lead me through the pasture. I looked down at his feet and He was the one leading me with his feet set first.  He was guiding me and leading me through life. With his other hand, he motioned at the trees, creatures and His creation showing me His beauty. All of a sudden, He stopped, looked at me and grabbed both of my hands. He began to dance with me while twirling me around like a princess in His arms. I was laughing as joy completely immersed me while being in His presence. Complete joy as I was being clothed in a white dress dancing with the Lord, my King. I am His bride.

Thursday, January 12, 2012

Miracles in the Making

I must say that God is absolutely amazing and that He continues to Rock my world in ways that I didnt think possible! So many things have happened here on campus and the Lord has revealed so much to me in a short period of time. I'm honestly very thankful that the Lord brought me to this place of Revival and Rejuvenation! It has not been easy in some senses but the Lord has a way of calling us from out of our comfort zones and placing us in a new territory that is unfamiliar to us. He does this by speaking to and through us and speaking Life into us.
   For example, the Lord has really showed me His power these past few days. For years, I have struggled with doubt in knowing the power of the Lord and His mighty strength. I have heard many stories of the Lord healing people miraculously through using other fellow believers as His tools to help heal or just radiate Christ's glory and the Holy SPirit. I have personally not seen a person healed in an instant but rather have seen the person heal over a period of time, but not really known it was the Lord's power in healing them. The story I am about to share is very interesting and might be kind of confusing for some of you to believe or understand but i want to share the powleaer of the Holy Spirit.
      Just some background information to precede the story. About a week before I left for DTS, my leader, Joanna put a status on our Engage DTS facebook page asking if anyone would be interested in helping to lead worship for our DTS. WHen I saw that status, I immediately responded in saying that I wanted to help lead worship because  worship and leadership is something I have always been passionate about. I was able to help lead worship in middle school and high school and at church. In addition, when I was in high school at a prayer room in Spokane for missionary training, I was prophesied over that I would develop to be a worship leader and write songs to glorify the Lord. I have longed to get back into worship leading. Anways, two days before I left for my DTS, I was struck with an awful and sudden sore throat. THe intersting thing is.. is that there were no other symptoms that came along with it. No cough, no cold, no running nose or fever.. just a sudden really sore throat and my tonsils became very enlarged. I tried to ignore it because I was trying to focus on getting prepared for DTS. For days, it continued to get worse and it affected my sleeping patterns, my talking, my breathing and most importantly, my WORSHIP! I was devestated because I know that the Lord wanted me to use my voice to worship Him and that is one of the ways that I zone in during worship..is singing my heart out. I feel as if I can connect with the Lord so much more if I am worshipping aloud in song, mind and heart. I tried to take care of it by using herbal throat spray, taking Emergency airborne, vitamin C, vitamins, and I used aleve once. I really felt as if I didnt want to take medicine..and eventually it got to a point where I was almost positive I had strep throat. THere were white dots on my tonsils and my tonsils were HUGE! THey were driving me crazy and for days, I prayed that the Lord would begin to heal me in His name and that Satan would be binded from the lie that the Lord could not heal me. In fact, I felt as if the Lord wanted me to completely RELY on HIM! Therefore, I wanted to see the Lord's power. I decided to wait on going to the nurse here on campus because I knew that she would probably prescibe antibiotics for me if I had strep. I truly wanted to see the Lord's power in healing.
        Anyways, as I was walking up from frozen yogurt a few nights ago with a group of friends, I was talking to one of my friends, Carleen about my really sore throat. As we waited for the rest of the people to join us, more of my friends joined us and asked if they could pray over me. A group of about 10-12 people gathered around me and some placed their hands on me. THey started to pray over me and ask the Lord for healing on my throat because its been a major distraction for worshipping God and devotion to the Lord in my quiet time. The praying continued as one of my leaders showed up. A girl from another DTS named Kailey also approached us and told us a story that she had witnessed of the Lord healing a man from spinal injuries. She actually was the one to pray over him and with her praying over him, he was also deaf and able to hear once again. He actually regained at least 75& of his hearing. Anyways, Kailey started praying over me as well. THe praying continued and all of a sudden, Heidi, my leader began to ask if anyone felt as if they had a word of wisdom or word from the Lord for me. A few minutes passed and my leader Heidi spoke up. She felt as if the LORd had told her to tell me that I was maybe struggling with doubt that God could actually heal me. that was completely true because Faith is a challenging thing:believing without actually seeing. I had been doubting that the Lord could absolutely heal me. Then my friend, Jacklynne spoke up saying that she felt the Lord was saying to her, that everyone should lift me up towards the sky so that I am closer to the LOrd and that its just me and God. So they picked me up and held my entire body up towards the sky. It was very interesting in the moment because I have never relied on a group of people to lift me off the ground and into the sky..extending their arms to lift me up tot he Lord. THey continued to pray as some prayed in their own language and in tongues. After a few minutes, they set me down and continued to pray, Every 10-15 min of so, they would ask me how my throat was and if my tonsils were feeling better. Amazingly, over those minutes, I began to feel a relieving feeling in my throat. THe pain was lessening through all of our prayers and through the power of the LOrd. After a few minutes, I felt like the song with the lyrics, "Holy, Holy, Holy, is the Lord God Almighty, who was and is and is to come.. with all creation I sing,,praise to the King of Kings.. you are my everything,,,and I will.. Adore you.. yeahhh I will adore you..oh Jesus." THese lyrics from this worship song began to pop into my head at least 4 times while we were praying,,I felt as though the Lord wanted me to proclaim the words of this song aloud.. but I was honestly a little hesitant too. The words continued to run through my head and all of a sudden, a guy named tomas who was praying over me spoke and he began to say that he felt as if the Lord was telling him to tell me to proclaim my favorite worship song aloud to the LORd. At this moment, I was blown away by the Lord because I had just had this thought a few seconds earlier and then tomas just confirmed it byt the LOrd speaking through him. After a few seconds, I began to quietly sing the words of the song and everyone else joined in with me proclaiming those lyrics. It was probably quite an interesting sight for everyone to see passing by with them holding me up in the air and then minutes later a group of us are worshipping and proclaiming those lyrics!!! It was amazing and so God oriented. we praised Jesus for at least 10 min in song! I felt such a peace come about me in mind, body and spirit. I felt as If I jsut really needed to humble myself to Him and give up all pride and doubt and just believe in my heart that He is God and that He can do miracles. I cried out to GOd literally! It was getting late.. and I felt as if the Lord really wanted to just reassure me of His provision for my life and security in Him. Like I said, the praying contined for at least an hour and my throat began to feel much better throughout that time. It was literally 75% better  by the time I went to bed that evening. As I got in the shower that night, I felt the Lord whispering to me saying, "In the quiet, in the stillness, you will know that I am God." I knew it was the Lord speaking to me and saying that even though he didnt heal me completely that evening, that He was going to prove He was God and that He was going to heal me in His time. In fact, two days went by and each day I got better. TOday I feel completely sore throat free! I am healed of whatever I had and Satan has no stronghold on me. I definitely learned that GOd can use wierd circumstances to teach us his trust and faithfulness! He is GOod and I am well!

Sunday, January 8, 2012

These are some pictures from the YWAM base here at Kona and downtown Kona.







Adventures Begin!

      Well the adventure has surely begun here on the YWAM base. Students are always busy finding things to do whether it be meeting new friends, walking to the pier to explore downtown Kona, taking a swim from a near by beach or reading their Bible in a hammock on campus. You may think, "man, sounds like a rough life being in hawaii.." because believe me, I have heard that numerous times. But our days have been long but they have been nice because it is the weekend and classes actually start tomorrow. Along with classes, we also have work study which is basically like volunteer community service to which we have to do on campus. My work study is actually every other weekend in which I have to work in the open air cafeteria for 10 plus hours. It will be split up between saturday and sunday. My general schedule is basically going to be on weekdays:
-wake up at 6
-Breakfast at 6:15-7
-quite time with the Lord until 7:45
-worship at 8
-class from 9-12
-lunch
-Class, intercession, small group time 1-4 or so
-Dinner at 4:30
-Worship, outreach, devo time or commuity outreach
-Free time until bed or so.
Weekends- I will be working 10 plus hours volunteering in the cafeteria every other weekend

So folks! thats basically going to be my schedule for the next 3 months! They are definitely full days full of Engaging with the WORD, the LOrd and His plan for our lives!!! It should definitely be a journey!

This weekend has been amazing!! We have had lots of orientation things on friday so we could be introduced to the campus, the leaders, the students and the different DTS' going on. Friday night we had a presenting of the flags of the nations to which ywam bases are located. THere were around 50 countries that had flags presented to all of us which was very encouraging!! There were also some hula dancers and a fire dancer that performed to introduce us to Hawaiian culture. Loren Cunningham, the founder of YWAM also spoke to us about how he felt God calling him to start YWAM decades ago! The story was literally amazing!!
Saturday was an adventure as well! We woke up and had to meet as a DTS for some get to know you games and a big scavenger hunt around Kona and the campus! we had to do some pretty crazy things but it was awesome! I have been able to meet so many amazing people and the girls in my dorm room are wonderful! Its amazing that everyone here is here for the same reason! Each one of us was called here distinctlly by the LORD to be here! To finish off the night, we drove to a beach in which we had a BBQ and watched the sunset as a DTS. Sunday has been a day of rest and catching up on sleep. I will probably be heading to the market to buy some fresh fruits later this evening and hopefully be going to the beach for a little while to enjoy the sunshine! Its absolutely gorgeous here :)


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