One of the very first mornings I was sitting on the roof of my new home just taking it in. Taking in that I am in Cambodia and watching the sunrise realizing this is my life. As I was sitting with Jesus I asked him “where are you right now” in the background of this whole time I could hear the Muslin call to prayer happening. Jesus told me he was sitting with the people participating in the call to prayer. He was loving them even though they were ignoring him. This really hit me. Then I went on to read my bible and I am reading thought Act right now to study the early church. I went to Act 5 (go give it a read). It is about the apostles being persecuted and thrown in to jail. God miraclously took them out and said,”Go and stand in the temple and speak to the people all the words of this Life.” This was very powerful to me because for the first time there was actually temples around me that I could go into and do the same. It was so cool because the day before I had rode my bike through a Buddhist temple, so I knew I was going to go there. I was so excited of how God spoke to me so clearly that morning so I told so many people my story (which is a great accountably).
That weekend five of us girls went down to the temple with no expectations other then to pray. Our plan was to pray before we enter the gates and then just do a prayer walk all throughout the grounds of the temple. Even before we entered God spoke of how this was just one battle in His big war and he equipped us with Isiah 42. This time was so powerful and beyond meaningful. As we each walked our separate ways God spoke to us the same words. We prayed for freedom and deliverance from the evil presence that lived there. It was very impactful to me because I have never felt so much spiritual warfare. Leaving there we had so many thoughts. God reminded multiple of us of the story of Jericho. Jesus told Grace to walk around one of the smaller structures seven times and Jesus called Kat to come back for seven days in a row. We decided we were going to combine the two and go everyday that week and walk around the temple seven times! I was so flipping excited to see what God had in store for that place.
I continued to go everyday and it was so great because everyday different people came with me and everyday God showed and did new things. Here are some things God did:
The whole time I struggled with what to pray. Was I supposed to pray for the freedom of everyone who was practicing the Buddhist religion like for the monks living at the temple or was I praying for destruction of the whole place. Like am I praying for freedom or the nine plauges, truly a hard balance. God gave me such a simple verse to answer me in that question. Haggai 2:7 “I will shake all nations, and what is desired by all nations will come, and I will fill this house with glory,’ says the LORD Almighty.” The Lord will shake the ground beneath our feet and the temple will tremble and shake in his glory! The best of both worlds! So after that I started praying for an earthquake lol.
One night my team and I were going for an ice cream run and I realized I hadn’t gone to the temple that day. So I flipped and basically forced them all to come with me. That night was insane. I have never felt so much spiritual warfare ever. The temple doors were open and we could see the huge idol the monks were bowing and chanting to. We walked pretty fast that night (lol). But like how cool is that in that extremely dark environment we can praise Jesus and pray for freedom to flood that place. One really cool part of that night was how meaningful it was to my team and in that God told me I need to start inviting people in on the journey He has called me to.
Inside the temple courts it is absolutely beautiful. The structure and the landscaping. In my nine plagues stage of praying I was praying that basically everything would be covered with a black ink and all the plants would just wither and die. But God showed and reminded me that all of creation praises and worships Him. Like how powerful is that. In this place that is so dark and worshiping everything wrong most of the things that make it look so so beautiful are worshiping my God, like wow thanks God!
It was an amazing week of daily meeting with God in this place He is not supposed to be. The last day was this last Friday and I woke up with a lump in my stomach. I was so so nervous. Which was not right. So I asked Jesus why I was so nervous and he showed me that I thought this thing relyed on me (which is so prideful). But I thought that if I didn’t do everything right that “it wouldn’t work”, which like lol what does that even mean. This was a very large revaluation for me because this is something I have always struggled with thinking like my prayers didn’t work because some thing I did. So thanks God for showing me that in this.
Friday morning I invited my whole squad to join on this big day! About 15 people joined us and on the walk over I got to talk to some of the first day pals and just started recapping the amazing things God had shown and taught us through this whole time. We got there prayed before we entered the gates then then walked. It was such a sweet powerful time. Some thing really cool that happened in that time was the devil literally spoke to me saying, “see I have this place so much stronger then your God and he will never get it.” But literally I was like frick no my Jesus already won the war and this tiny little temple God has. It was a very powerful moment of just like slapping the devil in the face with his lies! Walking around this last time was so cool and just really taking in the freedom that the Lord has already brought this temple.
So thanks God for inviting me in on this journey and thanks to all my friends who hopped on this call with me. I prayed for an earth quake, a flood and the whole temple to fall, which didn’t happen before my eyes but I know he is doing something big. God moved in that temple and I know he is going to do far greater then I ever imagined.
Ephesians 3:20,21
Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be the glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen
