Pulling into Durant, Oklahoma, we could all sense the hard dry spiritual ground, and sheer lack of hope. BUT GOD had plans, and we learned so many things this weekend! It was truly the best weekend we've had! We always ask the LORD to get us out of His way, and to have HIS WAY in everything, but this time we saw Him execute every single aspect of every last thing with precision, and it all unfolded in a way no person could ever orchestrate!
From the beginning the crowd was small, but we could see particular hearts were wide open to the LORD and ready to receive whatever He had for them!
For some reason, this weekend in particular, we experienced even more fully how God really wants to pour HIS PERFECT LOVE into the ones who are broken and hungry FOR HIM! The Holy Spirit led us all to take MUCH TIME, and POUR OUT His compassion and love into these the LORD was drawing.....
God doesn't need us, yet He chooses to walk with us and partner with us in bringing His Kingdom near to others! The reconciliation Jesus accomplished on the cross truly restores us to walking with our Father God, and He walks so closely with us when we are finally willing to SURRENDER COMPLETELY TO HIM and simply LET HIM HAVE HIS WAY IN AND THROUGH US FULLY!
We didn't really have a schedule at all. Each day we started somewhere, and then watched the Holy Spirit unfold worship, teaching, and ministry into strong Bible truth and tangible evidence of God bringing light into the darkness, restoring "what the locusts have eaten", and turning ashes into beauty!
Throughout the weekend each team member and others shared things from the LORD's heart. Every word, every song, every prayer... flowed together as the WHOLE, UNIFIED, SURRENDERED BODY OF CHRIST illustrated a POWERFUL message of REDEMPTION and LIFE!
This is what REVIVAL is - it's bringing what's DEAD back to LIFE! When God moves, there is REPENTANCE and SURRENDER to HIM! In return, He fills us with RIVERS OF LIVING WATER which then spill over to others!
This is what WORSHIP is too.... It's a LIFESTYLE, an EVERY DAY thing, not just singing "God songs" up on a platform. It's giving the LORD our EVERYTHING, and bowing our ENTIRE SELVES down before Him with our faces to the floor because HE IS WORTHY!!
The first few days it seemed the LORD was focusing on HEALING hearts and making His people WHOLE. The last day, He met with us during worship in a powerful way. His tangible presence could be felt and a holy hush filled the room. All who were sensitive to Him (from the platform to the back of the room), were bowed down on the floor in His presence. People wept before Him, one cried out in holy fear (reverence), one spoke a powerful rebuke and exhortation from the Father's heart to His people for such a time as this.
It was a time none of us will ever forget. LORD, YOU ARE WORTHY OF IT ALL!!!!!
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There are people who believe they're doing alright in their own strength, and then there are those who know they are broken and desperately need the LORD to take over.
In this illustration Jesus gives in Luke chapter 14, the people who thought they were doing fine in their own strength ignored the "servant's" invitation to the wedding feast given by the "master".... So then the master invited the humble and broken ones instead.....
Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, "Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.... Then the master said to the servant, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled...." "(For) whoever does not bear his cross and come after Me cannot be My disciple.... (And) whoever does not hate his own life also.... (And) whoever of you does not forsake all that he has cannot be My disciple.” (Luke 14:21b, 23, 26b-27, 33b)
We always pray the Holy Spirit will compel people to come in. This weekend, He brought this passage to mind about the "highways and hedges"! It is always AWESOME to see the LORD bring in those who NEED and WANT HIM ABOVE ALL ELSE!!! There is NOTHING like this!
Now when they heard this, they were cut to the heart, and said to Peter and the rest of the apostles, "Men and brethren, what shall we do?" Then Peter said to them, "REPENT, and let every one of you BE BAPTIZED IN THE NAME OF JESUS CHRIST for the remission of sins; and YOU SHALL RECEIVE THE GIFT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT. For the promise is to you and to your children, and to all who are afar off, as many as the LORD our God will call." (Acts 2:37-39)
Stephanie
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Trey
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Shannon
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Philip
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But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth; for the Father is seeking such to worship Him. (John 4:23)
Jesus answered and said to her, "If you knew the gift of God, and who it is who says to you, 'Give Me a drink,' you would have asked Him, and He would have given you living water..... Whoever drinks of the water that I shall give him will never thirst. But the water that I shall give him will become in him a fountain of water springing up into everlasting life." (John 4:10, 13-14)
Time is short. We have two choices - HIS WAY or our way?
Which will you choose?
Thank you Lord Jesus for the miraculous transformations through your love we experienced in ourselves and witnessed in the lives of others.
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