Costa Rican life is full of laughter and color, and it’s all from the Lord. While there may be a lot of opportunities for photos and adventure days, He has been teaching me so much in between it all! There has been so much, but I wanted to share some of the bigger things with you all!
First off, leading up to leaving for Costa, there was a lot of fear in my heart about evangelism. I was too caught up in worrying about being rejected by someone on the street to be willing to let go and choose to see how God is going to move through me. With that said, *fast forward to getting here* my squad mate Kaylin had a tattoo pen, and one morning she told me to pray for a word really quick so she could draw it on me. I did, and immediately I heard “walk.” I thought, okay, that doesn’t really mean a lot to me right now, but I’ll allow the Lord to move and see what happens.
At the time, I was going through the book of Joshua, and seeing how the Lord continually provided for the Israelites in the most impossible ways. The references back to Exodus when He parted the Red Sea, the crossing of the Jordan River, Jericho, and all the other multitudes of armies that God’s people were victorious over every time. And as I was going through all this, the Lord was asking me what all these things had in common, and it hit me. All the Israelites had to do in these situations was have the faith to walk. The literal ocean was split, and they walked across it. They walked around Jericho, and the freakin city crumbled. They walked across the Jordan River, they walked into all these battles, and over and over again, the Lord said, “fear not, for I have already placed them into your hand.” So connecting that with what I’m doing in Costa Rica, why should I care about fear of man? The Lord has already made my path straight, and fought the battle for me. All I have to do is have the faith to walk. If I get rejected, I just have to know that the Lord is still moving. He’s already put the people we’re going to touch with His love in the right place at the right time. So yeah. Walk. That punched me in the face very quickly, but thanks God cause wow, that was good.
Another thing the Lord is walking me through is prayer and how that creates deeper intimacy with Him. Back in Georgia, a lot of my squad mates were raised up into leadership positions, and I was discouraged because I wasn’t. At the time, I was told that the Lord has something else for me, but I was still confused as to what that could be. So later in Costa, one night our mentor Madie sought me out to tell me that another squad mate and myself were being offered the position of leading prayer and intercession for the squad. So of course I said yes, cause this is clearly what He’s been waiting to give me. The leadership positions I wanted originally I could have stepped into easily, but prayer is an area of struggle in my life, so this is the Lord’s way of allowing me to grow in it and fully dive deep into what the gift of prayer is. Already, it has been so good. I used to think that people who were good at prayer always had beautiful words, so before I prayed I would think about what I needed to say to sound “good.” But the Lord has shown me that prayer isn’t about performance. I’ve started to think less about it, and instead let the Lord give me the words to say, and already that has created deeper intimacy with Him. I’ve even been able to take prayer and apply it to even the smallest things, and it works. I prayed against sunburns once, and it worked. I pray for the capacity to eat the same foods every day, and it works. As stupid as it sounds, God LOVES to show up in the little things as well as the big things. As I move forward with this, I absolutely can’t wait to see what else He reveals to me.
Spiritual warfare! That’s a big one. Already there’s been some crazy stuff that has happened. But what I’ve learned through it all is that we have authority. Luke 9:1 says, “And he called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases.” That authority is not something that the Lord’s people had to earn. We are given that just by being children of God. There’s nothing that can stand against that power. Nothing.
One of the more recent things is water! I decided to have only water to drink for a week because I wasn’t getting enough. Not a spiritual fast or anything like that at all. However, at the end of the week the Lord asked me to go another week. So I did, reluctantly. Then throughout the week, I was reading Isaiah 43, (!!!) and He brought back a vision that I had a couple weeks before of a flowing river, moving around boulders. I had a feeling that the boulders represented challenges or hardships in life, and then I thought about the characteristics of water. If you put a boulder in front of a solid object, it crashes into it. Then water. If you put a boulder in front of water, it will go left, right, all around it. Nothing can stop flowing water dead in its tracks. And that’s why the Lord wanted me to drink only water a little longer. So I could actually press into these things. Not only was I filling myself up with water, but also living water. With living water, no boulder can stand in my way. The river will keep flowing. It’s always moving in the same direction, and that direction is the father. A river doesn’t flow in one way and then all of a sudden flow the opposite way. I can see His living water as enough, and all I need, like I’ve been able to go two weeks without coffee, juice, soda, etc. And it’s been so good.
Here’s a short one! God’s love! If you’ve ever struggled with what God’s love looks like or struggled with truly feeling loved by God, read 1 John. Seriously. Go through the book, and circle the word “love” every time it comes up. It’s so overwhelming, you can feel His words coming off the pages. It’s really cool.
I have learned so so much just being here for a month, and I can’t wait to see what else God has in store for me and my squad! As always, I’m so thankful for all the support from you guys!
