02/04/18
Anyone who knows me knows I love worship. I love hopping behind my keyboard or grabbing my guitar and just singing my heart out to Jesus. Here on the race, worship is something very powerful, as there are many people coming together to do one thing – praise Jesus. Tonight, we had worship. We sat out under our tin overhang with the small twinkle of Christmas lights hanging over our heads, confined in a compound with stone walls. We started with taking time to be alone to speak with God to see if there was anything He wanted to speak to us about. Afterwards, we got in groups and pairs to speak those things to others and to pray with one another.
As for me, God reminded me that I need to take these 11 months slow. I need to be present. Someone I met at training camp recently said that the world needs me, not the perfect me. That is definitely something that has stuck. So that is what I am focusing on now. Being who I am and being present in that.
After sharing our hearts, I grabbed my guitar and we began to sing “Good Good Father”. I wish I was lying when I say spiritual warfare started immediately. Just as we began to sing, we heard the whimper of dogs just on the other side of the wall. As they cried and whined, we continued to sing, because it is just satan attempting to distract us. The volume of the world outside of our stone walls began to get louder and louder.
During the second song, a few of us heard chants from people outside. Let me remind you all that the battle is not between flesh and blood, but the good spirits and the evil spirits in the heavenly realm. I sang my heart out, for no other spirit has dominion over us. I felt the battle. I felt the devil screaming at me telling me to stop playing. I knew he hated my guts, but I didn’t care.
After we finished our time of singing, one of my teamates was having a hard time with the spiritual warfare, and HOW satan was attacking us during that time. Another person on my squad, Tee, began praying and proclaiming the victory we already have in Christ. She prayed that whatever evil was trying to get into the walls, and into our hearts, that it would be binded from us. There was a sense of relief simply in my life, although I cannot speak for the others. A heavy weight was lifted off of me during this proclamation.
At this point, no one wanted to leave God’s presence. We just sat there as soft music was playing. No one spoke. No one looked around. We simply sat in our places as the power of God saturated us all. Nothing of this world has power over us. We are more than conquerers through Him who loves us. God does not give us a spirit of fear, and the only reason for that is because the battle is won, and we have victory through Him. I urge you to walk freely in that victory. No matter what distractions come up around you, continue to worship the God who gave it all for you. We did, and will continue to praise God to the top of our lungs, with a smile on our face, and freedom in our hearts!
In Christ,
Preston
