When I was a child I remember sitting my stuffed animals around in my room and doing performances for them. I remember twirling around and singing songs to them. Often those performances would turn into a time where I would open my bible, reading scriptures and preaching to the stuffed animals. I remember a time when my parents were having an argument one Christmas and my siblings and I turned to scriptures reading the Christmas story and having our own church service. I remember as a child loving Gods word and wanting to share with everyone what was in the Bible.
While here in Peru I have had the opportunity to see God’s word come alive. My life has been renewed with an excitement like when I was a child about the power that is written on the pages of the word of God. This week I have had an awakening to that power which I knew was real but was brought to remembrance.
At team time with TEAM SOZO earlier in the week, our team leader asked if anyone wanted to give the message. I knew it was my time to speak so I said “YES!” to the experience. God has been speaking to me a lot about the power of our words and especially about how he wants to speak through my life. I feel like He has empowered me to speak specifically in reference to preaching. I believe that this is a new season in which God will use my life not only to speak to children but to people of all ages in multiple countries and beyond!
As I prepared for preaching in “EL YO SOY” I spent extra time asking God specifically what He wanted to speak to the people. As I prayed I felt like God wanted to declare over the people and the church VICTORY.
The passage that God put in my heart was Matthew 16: 13-19 But specifically I felt He wanted me to focus on Matthew 16:19, which in the message says:
“And that’s not all. You will have complete and free access to God’s kingdom, keys to open any and every door: no more barriers between heaven and earth, earth and heaven. A YES on earth is a YES in heaven. A NO on earth is a NO in heaven.”
God put three points on my heart:
1) He is our SOURCE
2) Who is the; I AM to you?
3) He is your Identity
The church was responding in a way I never anticipated. They were ‘AMEN’ing’ all over the place. The best part was connecting the message that Jesus had put on my heart with my story. I shared the story with the church at “EL YO SOY” about growing up and praying for my dad. That I was just like the community kids they were trying to reach out too. It was because of God moving in my heart and the church that I came to have a relationship with Jesus. As a small child that preached to my stuffed animals I also prayed for my father to come into a relationship with Jesus. I remember crying out to God that He would save my father. The amazing thing was that about 5 years ago God began to work in my father’s life. God did the impossible! I never thought I would see that day, but God did it! There was victory!
After sharing my story and connecting it to the scriptures, we had a time of prayer. TEAM SOZO lined the front of the stage and we asked that if anyone needed prayer we would be praying specifically for victory in these areas:
1) If you have never started a relationship with God, today is your day! The Bible says that we all have sin. Sin separates us from God. But God loved us so much that he sent his son Jesus, to die on the cross and rise on the third day so that we could have victory!
2) If you have someone that you have been praying for, just like I prayed for my dad for a very long time, we would like to pray that God would move and we would see His victory. That they would come to know Jesus in a personal way.
3) Situations in your life that God needs to show up and do the impossible. God wants to declare in your life His victory!
As we spoke the things we were praying for over the church they came running to people for prayer. We had very few translators, but we prayed and even though we didn’t know their language, we believe that God brought victories! It was an amazing time of prayer and we believe that God moved, that we saw doors opened and barriers removed in heaven and on earth!
The story doesn’t end there. Pastor Solomon, the pastor at “EL YO SOY” was so excited about the victories we were declaring that he put together an outreach and many times where we could pray for people in the city. From the victories that we saw at the church service we have seen it spread to the city. This week we went to a market to pray for people and invite them to the event and seven people prayed and asked Jesus to have a personal relationship with them. We also prayed for multiple people who were sick. We sent members of TEAM SOZO and the F SQUAD to pray for people in the hospital. There they saw God move in dynamic ways through prayer. We went to a prison and prayed for the ladies waiting to go see their husbands and family members. We saw dozens of woman accept Jesus as Pastor Solomon spoke about Jesus and His love for them. We prayed that husbands would be set free. God is moving and lives are seeing victory!
God’s word is powerful. It is active. It has been amazing to see God move through it this week and even more amazing that He chose to use my life as an instrument of what He is doing in Peru. It was amazing to see Jesus bring victory in my life and through that victory bring victories to others! Thank you to those who have partnered in praying, sharing and giving towards this journey. God is doing things that are HUGE, in my life and those I have the opportunity to pour into. Without you this victorious experience wouldn’t of been possible!
What victories do you need to declare today?
Sending love from Peru!
<3
Ash
PS! Pictures coming soon!
