Last night I went with three of my friends to the church service at DSMI (mentioned in a previous blog). It was even MORE amazing than last week's. [Of course there are always things that make each one separately awesome!] But anyways... the worship portion lasted for TWO HOURS! How many songs did we sing? FOUR. Just FOUR SONGS lasts us 2 whole hours of WONDERFUL worship. It was amazing. Doug Stanton was reading scriptures during parts of it...and then a good portion of it was improv and just sitting in God's presence. It was so calming, and amazing. [I know I say amazing a lot...but it's because no other words can come to mind to describe it.]
After worship, Doug Stanton (http://www.dsmi.org) got up and preached. He talked about evangelism. Specifically though, he talked about how as Christians, we need to deny ourselves. We HAVE to belay our lives/needs/wants. Because if we don't deny ourselves, we are denying God. It is important that we pick up our cross, and follow God. What does denying one's self mean? It means that you are giving up your own will. It's to deny one's desires and pleasures that don't lead to God. It is impossible for someone to follow his will AND God's will. They must choose one or the other. Don't settle for a self-focused life....choose to follow God's will and MAKE AN IMPACT! Don't get up to Heaven and be before God, and not have done what God called you to do while here on earth. Long to be in the thickness of God's glory and live out your potential to the best of your ability. ["Here am I! Send me!"] What will happen if you let God consume your life and you shine like a BRIGHT light on a hill? ANYTHING! Don't minimize God's will/plan for your life. God wants us to go out and do what He has called us to do for His glory. Whatever it may be. But not only are we supposed to do what God called us to do, we have GOT to be lights for people who are still stuck in darkness. Whether that is doing your job [accountant, pastor, missionary, construction worker, cook, WHATEVER!], or going out purposefully and sharing God's Word with the lost... we gotta do it! 99% of the world doesn't lead someone to Christ on a regular basis. Are you part of the 1% that does? That doesn't mean you have to lead someone to Christ DAILY. But it means that you are making an effort to save someone's life by sharing the hope of God's salvation to them whenever there is a chance. [haha Sorry for that rant. But those are things I learned last night.]
After the sermon, Doug invited everyone up to the front. He had people come to the very front if they needed prayer for healing in their lives. It was incredible. The Holy Spirit was REALLY working in that place. It was GREAT! I loved it. Whitney, Chelsea, and I got to pray with a woman that needed prayer for restoration in her life with family and relationships. It was such an indescribable experience. So I won't even try to explain it on here. [Ask me sometime.] Then once the service was "officially" over, Chelsea got a call from her mom. All she was calling for was to ask Chelsea where she was (because it was 10:40pm, and the service started at 7pm), and asked her to bring her grandma to the doctor in the morning. I guess her grandma was having neck pain. So Chelsea, Whitney, Emmanuil, Jeremiah, and I formed a circle and prayed for her grandma for healing. Even though that was the initial reason for our prayer circle, we started praying for our generation, and a revival, and for God to just work in this world, and Christians would rise up. It was so intense! You could just FEEL the Holy Spirit among us while we were praying. It was INCREDIBLE! [I found another word to use! haha] Once we were done praying, we left. But let me just say....God DEFINITELY knows how to show up and work. :)
That concludes this blog post. Hope you enjoyed it and learned something from it!
God Bless!
<3 Becka
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