Tuesday, November 16, 2010

Week Seven YPDTS

I was very moved by this week. We were able to have another DTS group from our base in Arvada stay with us here at Eagle Rock. We took class together, worshiped and fellowshipped together and were able to just have fun and get to know some more people with the same goal of knowing Jesus as us. We did not have a Monday night outreach for this reason, but the week was full of growth and love with Dean Sherman speaking on Spiritual Warfare. I was overwhelmed with what he was telling us since it was never something that I thought existed around me, but it surrounds us all every day! We all have a spirit inside of us that has to choose daily to follow the world or the kingdom and principles of the kingdom are universally appreciated but often hard to follow through with. I realized that I am a hundred percent in the kingdom of God, even when I sin. His grace is ready to fall on me as soon as I repent and in His powerful name I can rebuke the enemy with all confidence that he has no power over me after that. I was able to really see how much power Jesus’ name holds and that I never have to fear death, because He holds the keys. His love was so evident to me this week and the goal coming in was to be able to feel the intimate relationship that Jesus offers us, when we are willing. This week I was finally able to feel some of that real intimacy. Each day with Dean Sherman reinforced that as a believer of Jesus I never have to worry about not being worthy to spend eternity with Him, He is the redeemer and was absolutely perfect in His sacrifice. There isn’t a level of holiness I need to reach because He already gave me that when I decided to choose Him as my saviour. I feel like I’m reiterating the gospel, but I think this week it really came alive for me again so I am excited to share it in any way that I can. Not only were the teachings and everything great, but being able to hang out with the Musicians DTS (MDTS) was also really great. We were able to just enjoy each other through games of volleyball, worshipping and just getting to know each other. I am thankful to the Lord for blessing me with so many friends and allowing me to be surrounded by so many people who encourage me to continually get to know Him more and choose the Kingdom every day. I am blessed beyond what I could ever imagine. Not only with my new friends here but also all of you back home and of course my family, every week that I spend here I realize the blessing that they are to me and God must have something pretty amazing planned to have allowed me to live in the greatness I have been.
The MDTS left that Friday as well as Dean Sherman. We were able to have an amazing worship time where Jesus performed a miracle in our midst. My roommate has been suffering from intense, chronic back pain for the last two years and has seen about every doctor that she could. She was still in pain and found it uncomfortable to just sit and worship. By an act of obedience another girl here began to pray over her during worship and another girl and I felt called to join in, in praying over her. Each of us felt a specific direction from the Holy Spirit of how to release her from her pain and after much praying and allowing the Holy Spirit to penetrate and release familiarity of pain, she was healed! Her pain was gone for the first time in two years and though we were expecting that it might come back, four days later she is still free of pain and each day we are thankful that she can go through the day painless. It was amazing and surreal to me since healing was something that I thought of as only a Jesus and disciples thing, but He always comes through and shows me that He is more powerful than I had contained Him to. That night I was also able to go to Kingdom Night and here I paired up with three boys, one whose fire for God was something of a spectacle to me. The confidence he went out in and just the assurance that God was with us the whole time, gave me special confidence and I spent a lot of time watching and learning. I was able to talk with a few people and generate a few smiles with Jesus’ love, but most of all I learned. It was really great and I am excited to be able to get back out and continue to learn and share the love of God. I was also able to go the infamous Tijuana Taco’s which everyone around here talks about and I was pleasantly surprised. Authentic Mexican food is great I would like to say and if you ever decided to come to the Denver area, I would highly suggest hitting this place up. Also order yourself a horchata (don’t pronounce the H, I was laughed at by our Mexican student) since it is amazing! I also ate cow intestine here, which was kind of gross I’ll be honest, but it didn’t taste that bad. I was told that heading to Thailand I better start getting ready to eat whatever was put in front of me no matter what it was, so pray for me.... if you know me at all you’ll know how picky of an eater I am and how easily my stomach reacts to EVERYTHING! I’m going to need some major transformation ha.
Anyway, Saturday was the day that really made me realize a ton about myself and my relationship with Jesus. We were able to have a worship time with United Pursuit band (AMAZING! Get there music as soon as humanly possible).  There was just a room full of us, packed into our worship center down at the base learning these new songs and allowing the Holy Spirit to penetrate the room like I have never felt before. Everyone was so all consumed by Jesus, that they didn’t even look at each other or care about how badly they were singing. Here is where I realized that Jesus is the only one who can wreck me. I generally don’t cry, most people know that since I have an extremely hard time doing it around the people closest to me, never mind others, but here I could not even contain it. I have found throughout worship times that I cannot hold in the tears, but here was especially strong. After about five minutes of trying to fight it back, I just let it flow and the amazingly real presence of Jesus in the room was so evident to me that my worship experience was much more than just singing. I was prayed over here and even though neither of us really knew what was being prayed about I felt the Lord working in me and I was able finally relinquish my trust to Him. Not only was I touched, but I had the most amazing image of intimacy given to me that I can truly say that I understand the type of love that God wants to give to us, in fractional form. I was transformed. I was excited to hear that many people had the same sort of experience as me and that throughout the whole school, there was a new hunger for knowing more about Jesus. I love it and I am excited to see where it takes us up till outreach as well as when we go out into the world to share the truth that we have been immersed in for the last three months of our lives, 24/7.
This week was really a God week. Though class and other weeks have been great, I was able to really feel the intimacy that God is pumped to have with us as well as to really be confirmed of how much he loves me. There will never be a way that I can earn myself into heaven, and I am so grateful for that because grace is the most amazing gift that I could ask for. His provision and grace was shown this week when the launch of Jesus Freaks happened just yesterday.  Over three years and just under one million dollars was put into this YWAM documentary, but mostly just about how Jesus transforms and is in constant pursuit of His people. We are praying that this goes absolutely global and that the world can be touched by the story of a few students and a girl who died, loving Jesus the whole way. Please go to the link that I have posted below and watch the webisodes. If you are loving if, attach it to your facebook status, blog or whatever other internet option you have because when people search Jesus or freak on google, we want this to show up and just show the world that they are never too far gone to experience the grace of Jesus. “..but where sin abounded, grace did abound more exceedingly”, Romans 5:20. I was so blessed this week and I hope I know that there is a lot of Jesus stuff in this one, but I think that’s what this whole experience is about.

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