How I Lost my Keys

I’m not sure if you’re aware of what the ministry ‘Keys for the Journey’ is all about. But I want to finally share something that has been close to my heart (literally) and impacted me so greatly; something I was wearing for the last 5 months.  It’s a long story, but a beautiful one where I questioned God numerous times and saw how God spoke to me directly.

 

It all started at the beginning of the race.  I ordered a key from the ministry ‘Keys for the Journey’.  The way it works is that this person who makes these keys doesn’t know us.  He prays over the key, and writes a word on the key that the Holy Spirit gives him.  It can be a word, or a bible verse.  The idea is that the key’s word will speak into your life deeply, and when the Holy Spirit prompts you to give it away, that key is now a new blessing to another person.  When we receive this key, sometimes it clicks right away, and you’ll see a huge impact that brings a person to tears.  That didn’t happen to me. In fact, it was a bible verse I knew nothing about.  I read it once when I received the key, and had friends read it to me a few more times.  All my friends said it was a powerful bible verse, but that day I received it, I didn’t get it at all!

 

The word on my key was: Psalm 91

 

It took all of Month 1 in Colombia to start to grasp what this bible verse meant.  Even to this day I get more meaning and depth as I meditate and memorize this chapter.  What I learned in Month 1 of the race was that when we dwell/abide/rest in God, when we have those quiet times and really sit in his presence, his promise of protection against ALL things is super powerful.  When we are faithful to call on his name, he will send his angels down to protect me, so that I won’t even strike my foot against a stone.  This wasn’t just some wishful thinking, this was real power, especially when we battled demons and spiritual forces of evil. 

 

Month 1 was a heavy month of facing demons.  See my blog post if you want the full scale of it.  But as I entered in these battles, I would mediate and pray over Psalm 91 to rebuke any demons in the homes, or anyone who was possessed.  This promise God has given me has grown more and more in my life, knowing that He is with me where ever I go, and when things get sticky, he will come and rescue!

 

Over the months, I prayed for who this person should be that I will give my key away to.  I’ve had thoughts of people as we journeyed over the many countries, but none of them felt like it was prompted by the Spirit.  Come month 5, in Argentina, I had a ministry friend name, Karianna, notice my key and asked me what it was all about. I explained the mission of the ‘Keys for the Journey’ ministry and told her what my key said.  She didn’t know it either, so she said she’d investigate it that night.

 

The next day she came up to me being super excited how cool that verse was! Later that evening she brought that bible verse to her devotional and shared it with the group.  She said that sometimes she would bring a bible verse to devotional and not have much of a response, but that night it was different! She had people express the effect the chapter had on them, but specifically one lady more than the rest.  She told me that this one lady had been going through family problems and the bible verse leapt out at her with much impact. In that moment, I had that feeling that I recognized in the past. The deep sensation in my heart, tingles in my neck, the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  I felt Him tell me that I should give this key to this person.  But being a skeptic and still learning to hear God’s voice, I said… “Ok God, if its really from you, since I don’t know the name of this lady, let me find out without me directly asking”. 

 

A few days later, Karianna, Sarah, and I were going into the city to help out with the soup kitchen to feed the poor/homeless.  During our ride there, Karianna and Sarah started conversing about a woman in our ministry team named Carolina.  Sarah asked what was up with her, and Karianna said, “oh she has family problems.”  My eyes got wide because it sounded like the same person that got affected by the bible verse the night before. So I slowly turned over to Karianna, and asked her, “…Psalm 91..?”.  She looked at me puzzled, gave it a second of a thought, and said ”Oh ya, Psalm 91 person!”.  God gave me my 2^nd confirmation.  But I still questioned Him.  I said, Ok God, if its REALLY from you, you must have her ask me about the key. 

 

Now I want to clarify, the reason why I asked God to show me so many signs is because I didn’t take the key lightly.  I wanted to make sure it went to the right person.  What if this key was meant for someone in India? What if it was meant for someone later on the race?  I don’t want to just carelessly give it away because of some one time feeling. 

 

So, I told my team all that had happened.  We believe that to grow in unity in our team, we should share all that we are walking through.  So they can pray for me and help me through this.  After that day of revealing it to my team, nothing happened.  Weeks went by, and she never asked me.  There were times when we were sitting close and I was wearing the key nice and clear, but she didn’t say anything about it! I almost thought I needed to give this key to this boy who was struggling with spiritual warfare at the summer camp (story here), but it turns out that it wasn’t the case, the time never revealed it self nor did I get any confirmation.  

 

But one day, at our last week of ministry, I went to get more hot water so that I could continue drinking Mate (a traditional Argentina drink) during my quiet time with God.   As I entered the kitchen, Carolina was there preparing lunch for us.  We started having a conversation.  I asked her how she was doing.  She started telling me about the struggles she was going through that day.  She shared about her family problems with her separation of marriage and the complications of their kids.  It had a lot of relations to my past, so I shared with her what I used to struggle through and how God had saved me in the past of so much pain.  She started crying because of the difficulties and in that moment, I prayed for her, all in Spanish.   It was that same feeling but so much stronger, that the Holy Spirit was telling me I need to give my key to her. 

 

I told this story to my team, and I said that I believe even though God didn’t give me the confirmation I wanted, he gave me my 3^rd confirmation pretty strongly.  Sarah Oliver, my teammate, looked at me and laughed.  She said, “I didn’t know if this was something to share, but I think this is the time to share it”.  She told me 2 days after I told the team about waiting on my 3^rd confirmation, Carolina was with Kariana and Sarah, and she asked about the keys. She asked what the significance was about the keys, and what was mind blowing is, she knew what was written on my key! God did in fact give me my confirmation but through another person! 4 confirmations in, I knew I had to give it to her.

 

On the second to last night before we had to leave our ministry and Argentina, I had Karianna there to help me translate as I needed to explain to her the full extent of the story.  I shared with her the significance of the key, how it affected me, how God’s word helps me battle demons, how I asked for so many confirmations, and how it lead me to finally give up my key to her.  At this point we were both tearing up.  Then she told me something that just made me cry.

 

She said when she heard about the key, she thought how cool would it be to receive a key, but she didn’t want to ask anyone.  She thought maybe the key Sarah had would be given to her since she felt Sarah was the only World Racer she was able to actually talk to and connect.  But, Sarah had given her key away (Check in Sarahs Oliver’s blog in a bit to see the story!). And so, when she received this key, it was even more powerful.  It wasn’t just any key, but a key that had the bible verse Psalm 91, that no matter what she is going through in that moment of the immense pain of family issues, God has covered her under his wings, and under his wing she can find refuge.  That she will not fear the terrors of the night or the dangers of the day. It was yet another confirmation that this key needed to go to her!  Both Karianna and Carolina received a key with a word that was specially designed from God for them.

 

Karianna told me after that it was the sweetest thing she ever got to be apart of translation for.  She was tearing up for us.  Karianna told me that this was really sweet because this was probably the first gift she ever received in the last 4 months.  Carolina was so focused in raising her kids and that no one had blessed her.  Oh my.. I cried so hard.  I was so deeply touched.  God used a simple inanimate object, a key, and put me on this wild ride, where in the end, it blessed the two of us so greatly.  I learned that God can work in all things, and in such a wild way.  That his actions are unpredictable, but his character is predictable.  That he never changes his promise and loves us so greatly in the midst of life, especially the more painful times. 

 

My mind is blown.  My heart is so full.  God is so good.

 

 

Psalm 91...