Surrender!..

First, I would like to start off by saying “Thank You!” for all your prayers and encouragement! Byron Bay has been quite an experience. It was the last thing I expected from here because it is so laid back and unstructured, but my growth and walk with the Lord has grown exponentially and the Holy Spirit has rocked my world!!! To not have a scheduled agenda and to be able to just slow down has been such a blessing. It has enabled me to daily seek after God, to listen, feel and hear His Holy Spirit! Every day I long to hear His voice for guidance and direction in whom I should talk with, where I should serve, what I should do?… I’ve had so many questions and every day He has answered me!   

 I love giving up my control to the His Holy Spirit and watching Him work! My main goal in coming on this race was to completely surrender everything to the Lord and become one with Him! So much so that He is all people see when they look at me- the Holy Spirit inside of me! Basically, I wanted “Acts.”  

 

Everywhere in the Bible we read how ordinary people like you and I, who love and long for God, hear His voice and talk with Him daily. They get visions to share with others, they perform miracles, they heal people, and they do things that can only be achieved by God the Holy Spirit who lives inside of us! So in the past, I would pray and ask God, “Why isn’t this happening with me… why am I not experiencing or seeing it?”  Well, as faithful as God is, he began to answer my prayers!  Basically, I was afraid: afraid of giving up my control to Him, afraid of being out of my comfort zone, afraid to feel convicted, afraid of what people might say to me or what they would think of me, etc. But slowly the Lord began to take my fears away and fill my void with His truth and His Spirit! He began to show me that His Spirit does live inside of me and because of Him, miracles can happen. All I needed to do was to surrender all control to Him and allow His Spirit to work in and through me! No, I haven’t seen anyone physically healed yet, but I have seen people healed and freed from their addictions- freed from generational lies and depression! I have heard God’s voice and talk with Him more and more! A dialogue with the living God! How great does He love us!

 He has now given me visions and truth to share with people! One was for one of my squad mates, Jenae, when she was getting baptized. To make a long story short, I was in the middle of singing praises to the Lord and He began to give me a visual of the beach (sun, beautiful sky, sand, waves crashing, etc.)  and all I kept seeing was a butterfly that kept flying out of the water! He told me to share that with her and to express He viewed her as the following… that her old self and ways have passed and that she was now a new and beautifully free creation! How awesome is that!!!!!!!! Also, I have seen so many miracles in regards to just this trip alone: a man, who had to take public speaking 4 times in college because he kept dropping the class, boldly preached the gospel in front of an entire church congregation… and $16K was pledged to my account just two weeks before my trip deadline!

When things were in my control, I tried everything I could think of for 5 whole months and only raised $2k…So, Me=$2k in 5months… while God=$16k in less than 2weeks!!!!!! Why did I even worry?… It’s because we are human! But in the end He still loves us and He’s always there waiting for us to allow Him to show up big!!!! I mean think about it, how can He show up if we don’t allow Him to or we don’t give Him the opportunity to???

 

So, Thank You LORD for your Spirit and the Love, Joy, Peace, Patience, Kindness, Goodness, Faithfulness, Gentleness and Self-Control that you produce!!!

Until next time!!

In Him,

John