Adventures WorldRace SethBarnes Sponsorship Giving

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 Thank you for your comments on my last blog, in regards to my grandmother’s death. I wept reading your words but with the good kind of tears. The kind that sweetly remind my heart why God created us to live in community. We need each other.
 

I got to read your comments the day after I posted that blog. At the exact hour my heart needed them most. As I was reading your words, I got a message informing me that my aunt had just passed away. Those layers of brokenness that I was talking about just got a little deeper. My greatest fear of coming on the race was losing a family member. I hated even the thought of not being with my family during that time. This is the third family member that I have lost on the race. Through it all the Lord again and again continues to posture my heart in a state of surrender. My life is not my own. It is His. I am His.

My heart wanted to go home. Just long enough to hug and cry on the shoulders of my family. I wanted to be surrounded my family, not in the middle of a village in Africa.  As I cried out my request to God that only thing I continued to hear was, “let the dead bury the dead.” I remember reading that in scripture, and questioning why that verse was even there. Thinking it was way too harsh but it was said by Jesus so I knew it had purpose, just not one that I ever wanted to live. It was not a verse that I was quick to underline in my bible. It’s funny how every word in the bible is God breathed, yet we still pick and choose what verses we want to read and hear.

The title before this passage is, The COST of Following Jesus

“Teacher, I will follow you wherever you go.”

 Jesus replied, ” Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has no place to lay his head.”

Another disciple said to him, ” Lord, first let me go and bury my father.”

But Jesus told him, ” Follow me, and let the dead bury their own dead. “

–          Matthew 8:19-22

Those things are not easy to hear but the bottom line is this, obedience is costly. It could mean that you will not have a home or a place to lay your head and it could also mean that you may not be at home to grieve and attend the funeral’s of your loved ones. Following Jesus is costly but the reward is greater than any other.

I only had a few moments to process my aunts death, until I was supposed to attend a crusade. I could have gone back to our home. Our contact and my teammates would have understood if solitude was the very thing my heart needed but I heard the Lord say GO, so I went. I walked up to this crusade broken. People from all over were dancing and praising God and the only thing I wanted to do is curl up in a ball and cry. But the Lord said stay, so I stayed. This was the third and final day of the crusade. The first night I met John. I immediately walked up to this man on crutches and prayed to myself Lord heal him. At the end of the night I felt the push to go pray over him. I did and he experienced healing. He walked off that night, carrying his crutches horizontally under his arm. Praise God.  As I watched him walk away though, I still saw a limp in his walk. Our God is a God of complete healing. So the next day at the crusade, I asked if I could pray over him again. He said he felt even more pain release but still walked with a limp. The third night, I was so broken. I was the one that so desperately needed the Lord to come heal. My heart needed to be made whole again by the Lord’s healing hands.

It was then I was reminded of something the Lord spoke into my life several months ago. Give the very thing that you need the most. Whatever you need, give that very thing away. If you need money, give money generously away. If you need encouragement, freely give encouragement. If you need prayer, go pray over others. And if you need healing, be the first to pray healing over someone.  

I was desperate for healing so I thought this was a perfect time to pray healing over someone. So, I approached John and asked if I could pray over him again. I had nothing in me to give. I was completely drained but I saw God show up in that moment more than ever. It’s in those moments were we can do nothing, He does everything. He loves the moments where we are weak because that is when his power is made perfect. It is in those times where His name gets all the glory.

The Lord was so faithful. John was healed. The Lords spirit invaded John’s body. His first response was tto weep and then his tears were turned to  laughing. The joy of the Lord was over this man. He said he no longer felt an ounce of pain when he walked. He said he has been on crutches for so long that people on the streets are even asking him what happened to his crutches. His story is the Lords story. It is to make much of his name. In that moment the Lords presence overwhelmed me and in that the healing began in my own heart. When you give the very thing you need, it it return will be given to you. To give is to receive. It is a kingdom principle that will always hold to be true.
 
 Meet John…..
 
 
 
 
 
 The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because the Lord      has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to bind the brokenhearted, to proclaim freedom to the captives and release from darkness for the prisoners…. To comfort all who mourn and provide for those all who grieve.. to bestow on them a crown of beauty instead of ashes, the oil of gladness instead of mourning and a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.  –  Isaiah 61: 1-3
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 An email I just received from John
 
 Hi Katie
By the grace of God it is my hope that you and your friends keep on well.
Katie I thank God so much that he sent you to speak to me about the problem I had,he used you as his vessel to get me out of the leg problem I had.I have nothing to give to you but my prayers that you get covered by the almighty God wherever you go.Am now free and free indeed from the severe pain I had in my right leg,I could not even sleep well but you can not believe Katie am now sleeping as a baby in bed and without any pain.
I give glory to God the almighty.
Again I say thank you Katie for all that you have done to me.(Real your prayers worked).
Be blessed.
John
 
 
The Lord is faithful. He is turning my ashes into a crown of beauty. Only Yahweh can makes something so beautiful out of ashes. There is no one like our God.