Ministry is made up of mostly two things: a choice to serve, and a flow of the Holy Spirit through you, in order to meet a need.
We learned soo much this week that I can't even begin to write it all here, but one of the topics we covered that really impacted me was learning that there is a difference between what God is doing IN me, and what God is doing THROUGH me.
What God is doing IN me is my personal relationship with Him. It's what is He speaking to me personally, like how He comforts and reassures me to speak out against the enemy's lies when I feel overwhelmed. It is also what area's of my life is He growing me in. Right now that would be killing my pride, and teaching me about healthy confrontation and communication in relationships.
What God is doing THROUGH me is when the Holy Spirit gives me an encouraging word or tells me to pray for someone, and I act in obedience and give them encouragement, or pray for them. Or if He prompts my heart to serve, and through His strength I pick up trash, or teach children about how to share the gospel, or lead worship on Thursday mornings.
This week there were two specific times where I could really tangibly see the Holy Spirit using me and the rest of my team to meet needs in the body of Christ.
Wednesday nights are usually crazy. We have class all afternoon, go straight to dinner, we quickly put away all the tables and chairs to get ready for worship the next day, then run and grab our dirty clothes from the week and pile into the vans headed for the laundry mat. These nights can be hectic, sometimes stressful, and even frustrating if we allow the enemy to sneak into our thoughts and conversations with each other. This particular night I was getting frustrated, and I could feel an ugly complaining and stressed-out spirit in me. We arrived at the laundry mat and I quickly prayed, "Father calm my heart and mind, and let me glorify you".
Not even 5 minutes into the laundering process, we met our new friends; Scott, Monica and Brandon, and Kayla and Justin. They are homeless people living in tent nearby, and were washing their clothes at the same laundry mat as we were. We spent the next two or more hours pouring into them, speaking life and encouraging them, singing "Amazing Grace" with them, and praying with them. God through us broke down lies, and built up truth and hope in them, and even restored relationship between Scott and his mom. I got the opportunity to pray for his mom over the phone and Scott requested I sing Amazing Grace again for her, so I did hah.
God built unity in His church and in His children that night as we left them with our love, and with the $30 or so dollars we had on us that God told us to give to meet their immediate needs. We hugged them, and prayed hand-in-hand one more time before our team had to leave. We hopped into the van with an even greater fire in our bellies for speaking out the gospel than we had before, and with a joy that can't be explained.
Two days later, Friday night rolled around and our class of 7 along with 3 of our school staff headed to the One Thing Conference to help out with whatever they needed. We were assigned children's staff and we had an incredible opportunity to pray over and just talk and encourage the next generation. It was a huge blessing. But it was the worship time before children's church that really highlighted that night for me.
Our SOMD team stood in the back of the packed out church so we could leave quickly to get to the children's center when the kids were dismissed. Worship was amazing, the music was awesome and the lyrics were powerful, but most of all, I could absolutely feel the presence of God in that room. I knew He was breaking chains and changing hearts in that moment. As I was sing-screaming, dancing, and jumping my heart out in worship, I glanced over and saw a young guy standing in the back with crutches and could feel the tug of the Holy Spirit asking me to pray for Him, I happened to look over at my friend Wyatt and he pointed at the young man and I nodded, "yeah, let's do it."
So we walked over, got his name, and then asked Moses what had happened to his leg. He told us he had torn a ligament in his knee and we could see it was incredibly swollen. Wyatt and I asked him if we could pray and Moses said yes. We prayed simple prayers, those of children who know they are loved by their Father and know that He loves to lavish His love and to heal. As we continued praying for him the worship band began playing the song, "I believe in the God of miracles" and I could feel that God wanted to heal more than just this guy's leg.
Pretty soon the rest of our team joined in, and we laid hands on him, praying for healing not just for his leg, but for his heart and spirit. We told him that God wants to heal him from the inside out, that he is so incredibly loved by His heavenly Father and that Jesus paid the price for everything in his past; it is finished, it's done! By this time Moses was hunched over weeping and our team began just praising God for who He is. Moses was able to take his knee brace off and slowly walk around, and his pain dramatically decreased and we are believing that God will continue to bring Moses complete healing. But more exciting than the healing God does in the physical, is what He does in the spiritual. We serve a God who cares for every soul, He doesn't just bind up physical wounds, He is the healer of our hearts; and Moses' heart was one of the many healed that night.
I also had the opportunity to pray for Moses' girlfriend, Genesis, and encourage her in her faith and her identity as a daughter of God. Then the worship band confirmed what God was doing, not only in Moses and Genesis' lives, but in the lives of that whole room with "Hallelujah it is finished, hallelujah it is done, hallelujah King forever, and we thank you for the cross." AMEN.
So I know this post was a long one, but this week was exciting and I wanted you all to experience it with me. Keep praying for more opportunities like these to further God's kingdom on earth. God is alive and on the move and it's amazing!! Thanks for reading. :)
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