The Aftermath

     Now part of what made coming home a little easier is
that I felt that God had already tasked me with something.  While at camp I felt
God put a burden on my heart for a little girl I know, who has been suffering
from consistent night terrors.  It had never crossed my mind before I started
learning about spiritual warfare, but I felt that this might could be caused by
a demon.   So I had already arranged to go over to her house one night once I
got home, but of course that morning I was lacking faith so I simply prayed that
if God wanted me to pray over her He would cause her to have another night
terror while I was there.  So I get there that night and I put one foot on the
front porch and I hear her scream from her room.  I get in the house and tell her parents what God’s layed on my heart and about my prayer that morning.  Without
hesitation we got her out of bed and layed hands on her and prayed over her. 
I’m not gonna lie, I’ve never rebuked a demon before so I didn’t know what to
expect.  But she went back to bed and was night terror free for about 6 nights,
and then they returned.  Disappointed, but still strong in my resolve that God had
laid this girl on my heart, I began asking questions about demons and the
spiritual realm.  Since then we came back with another guy and prayed over the
house and had the father pray over the little girl.  Currently I haven’t gotten an update yet on how she’s doing, but the most important thing is that God is moving and wants this girl to be free.

    Oh, but don’t you think that for a second that’s the only place that God is moving.  As previously stated, one of my concerns was coming back to church after the awesome worship at training.  But, God is doing something new and amazing in our church.  Last Saturday we held a small all day youth conference at our church.  We had a little over 50 youth come from NC, VA and SC to hear Lost and Found perform and for a series of three break out sessions.  Jess and I led a session in the first 2 breakouts called missional youth ministry.  This session was awesome because we looked online and got the idea to break them into groups and give them some cash and release them for an hour to impact their world.  My first group was pretty cool, they had the idea to go to the store and buy a bouquet of flowers and pass them out at a nursing home and talk to the residents.  In the next session we had more kids so we were able to split them up into 3 groups and we got some adults to chaperone.  In this group they had the great idea to go across the street and hand out crackers and water to the people waiting in line at the library for early voting.  So we ran to the store and got a couple cases of water and some nabs and when we got there we saw that one of the other groups had the same idea we did but they didn’t have enough!  It turns out the line was massive and people had 4 to 5 hour waits in the hot sun.  Luckily we had enough to give to the rest of the line, but our hearts broke for these people.  So some of the youth ran back to the church and got toys to play with the little kids who were standing with their parents, and others of us went and filled coolers with water and brought a table and cups over and kept giving them water.  We also ordered a bunch of pizza’s since it was getting close to dinner.  It was just a major blessing seeing those kids playing with the youth and bringing comfort to these people who were standing in the hot sun.  Several people came up and talked to us and thanked us and asked where we were from.  Unfortunently I had to leave becuase it became time for the third session but I encouraged the youth to stay out there and serve if thats where they felt led.  In the third session Jess and I were leading a class on transitioning from high school to college and obviously this was for the seniors.  But it was just a really great time for discussion on how to make following Jesus a life style and the importance of knowing what you believe and why you believe it.  It was also very encouraging to see them open up to us and be honest with issues they had with their faith.  I’m sitting here amazed at how God used us that day but more then ever I am in awe of our youth.  Everything they did was their idea, our world might be getting worse but I have a very good feeling about this next generation that God is bringing up.

     To fill in the cracks about the rest of the week, the enemy did launch some severe attacks.  He was throwing everything at me to get me to lose my focus on God and lose sight of my mission.  But I can’t thank God enough for the people He has put in my life to encourage me and give me a place to vent.  And as hard as the enemy may try they can’t undo the work that the Lord has done in me.  I’m done just trying to survive.  I am a prince of the kingdome of God and am of great worth.  Not becuase of who I am, but becuase of who Christ has made me.  He has given me a power, authority and a crazy and relentless love to carry around with me always and I refuse to let the enemy feed me lies and allow me to forget that.  Our God is an intentional God who is lavish with His power but never wastes it, so I believe it should only be natural for me to live a more intentional life.  From now on I walk with an awaremess that God may ask me to enter into someones story, but I will fear not because I’m not here to survive I’m here to claim my inheritance that God is prepared for me.