North Africa has been awesome. We spent about 50 days there and I’ve learned so much about myself and walking with the Lord in my time among the beautiful people and culture of the country where we have been ministering. This past week has been our debrief and I got to come back together with my team to meet up with our entire squad and share stories about the month, decompress, and process all that we’ve been experiencing. As a squad we’ve experienced the Lord in ways that for me are really groundbreaking and they make me just want to continue to grow deeper with Him. God doesn’t fit inside my box. Our squad has experienced healing like miraculous healing of people that we’ve prayed for, walking in new gifts from the Lord (some on my squad have been given gifts of tongues and everyone prophecies over one another), and there are some HUGE praises of people we’ve been pursuing coming to know the Lord. I came on the race mainly because I wanted to grow deeper in my relationship with the Lord, and I really didn’t know what to expect, but I wanted to be open to whatever He wanted to show me. I don’t want a one-way relationship where I feel like I’m talking to a wall when I pray. God doesn’t want that either.
“My sheep hear My voice, I know them, and they follow Me.”
– John 10:27 HCSB
He wants us to hear Him and follow Him. His word is certainly the default, but He’s also very personal and speaks very personally to each of us if we are willing to listen. That’s probably been one of the biggest things for me to learn as I go about this journey and I don’t always get it quite right, but man God does so much with simple faith and obedience.
***Here is a sermon by Rick Warren I recommend checking out. I watched it before my race when I was praying about my next step in following the Lord. I wanted to be sure I was doing what the Lord was telling me to do and this message was really practical and helpful for me in discerning what God was speaking to me in that time. (Check that link).
Having God obliterate the box you put Him in regards to what He can or will do opens you up to so much beauty and life. That happened for me at this last debrief. I have been walking into discoveries about the relationship between Sabbath Rest and Stewardship, and all of a sudden the wonders and works of the Holy Spirit have me confounded. Our first night of debrief started out so powerful. We had 4 songs picked out to potentially play during worship as an entire squad. Worship was free and powerful. We sang way more than was on the “set list” as Holy Spirit was moving us into deeper freedom. Jeremy our squad mentor shared his testimony, and man it was powerful. I wasn’t ready, and I was still on a spiritual high from seeing a local friend we’d been pursuing come to know the Lord on literally our last night of our team being in his town before debrief! Jeremy has gone through a lot, and the Lord is faithful and has used the things he’s gone through to produce a hunger in him for the Lord and greater measures of intimacy and gifting than I’m used to being faced with so up close and personal. He shared how and when he first let Holy Spirit out of the box He had for Him. He shared how even recently he’s gotten to experience Him more tangibly. He opened the floor for anyone who wanted to experience the Holy Spirit more tangibly and our leadership team prayed over our squad individually as we lined up to be prayed over. Things that back home we’d say are “crazy” started happening around me. The Bible seems to say these things are just normal, but outside of what I’ve read much of what was happening around me had been pretty foreign. It was truly miraculous and beautiful.
For me, I didn’t personally experience anything different this time around. It caused some questions. Doubt had tried creeping in. I talked with Jeremy and he said something that has stuck. “Anytime there is something that is truly good and beautiful and life giving, the enemy attacks it.” I realized my questions were okay, but I had to bring them to light and not let them twist me up in darkness. I had questions like “Why wasn’t I experiencing the Holy Spirit like this or that? Was I doing something wrong?” It was hard because I saw Him do things I can’t really explain and I couldn’t reconcile why this or that would happen here or there and not to me because I actually wanted it. I still do.
So, now I’m in this cool new place. I know there is more and it’s still available to me. We aren’t called to compare gifts and we certainly aren’t called to envy.
Basically check out what Paul says:
“Now concerning what comes from the Spirit: brothers, I do not want you to be unaware. You know that when you were pagans, you used to be led off to the idols that could not speak. Therefore I am informing you that no one speaking by the Spirit of God says, “Jesus is cursed,” and no one can say, “Jesus is Lord,” except by the Holy Spirit. Now there are different gifts, but the same Spirit. There are different ministries, but the same Lord. And there are different activities, but the same God activates each gift in each person. A demonstration of the Spirit is given to each person to produce what is beneficial: to one is given a message of wisdom through the Spirit, to another, a message of knowledge by the same Spirit, to another, faith by the same Spirit, to another, gifts of healing by the one Spirit, to another, the performing of miracles, to another, prophecy, to another, distinguishing between spirits, to another, different kinds of languages, to another, interpretation of languages. But one and the same Spirit is active in all these, distributing to each person as He wills. For as the body is one and has many parts, and all the parts of that body, though many, are one body — so also is Christ. For we were all baptized by one Spirit into one body — whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free — and we were all made to drink of one Spirit. So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, “Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,” in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body. So the eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you! ” Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, “I don’t need you! ” But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary. And those parts of the body that we think to be less honorable, we clothe these with greater honor, and our unpresentable parts have a better presentation. But our presentable parts have no need of clothing. Instead, God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the less honorable, so that there would be no division in the body, but that the members would have the same concern for each other. So if one member suffers, all the members suffer with it; if one member is honored, all the members rejoice with it. Now you are the body of Christ,Now you are the body of Christ, and individual members of it. And God has placed these in the church: first apostles, second prophets, third teachers, next miracles, then gifts of healing, helping, managing, various kinds of languages. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all do miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in other languages? Do all interpret? But desire the greater gifts. And I will show you an even better way.”
– 1 Corinthians 12:1-31 HCSB
Now with this I’m in Turkey. I had an over 24 hour travel day and I’m in an Airbnb with the dudes (both from my team and the leadership team) and Patrick is on the way from the big office (we are super pumped to have Him join). It’s time for a little Man-istry. It’s time to discover the gifts God is calling me to walk in more fully. I want the gifts, but even more I want more of Him. Experiencing even a taste of His love is enough. Yet, He wants to love me and you with a kind of love that is relentless and reckless. A kind that bankrupt Heaven. A kind that would cause a loving Father to give His own Son, Jesus as an offering to purchase us from our sin. He is so good.
“Therefore, since we have been declared righteous by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have also obtained access through Him by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also rejoice in our afflictions, because we know that affliction produces endurance, endurance produces proven character, and proven character produces hope. This hope will not disappoint us, because God’s love has been poured out in our hearts through the Holy Spirit who was given to us. For while we were still helpless, at the appointed moment, Christ died for the ungodly. For rarely will someone die for a just person — though for a good person perhaps someone might even dare to die. But God proves His own love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us! Much more then, since we have now been declared righteous by His blood, we will be saved through Him from wrath. For if, while we were enemies, we were reconciled to God through the death of His Son, then how much more, having been reconciled, will we be saved by His life! And not only that, but we also rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. We have now received this reconciliation through Him.”
– Romans 5:1-11 HCSB
Now here are some pics from debrief and our travel day 🙂
We arrived to the town and took taxis to where we were staying. A fun ordeal I talked with our Berber taxi driver and now we are friends.
Enjoying the view from the roof of our debrief location. Debrief was the rest we all needed!
Shela and Joelle are our squad’s logistics team. They work hard and at debrief they have fat stacks.
This is Val.
I think I was trying to steal Haley’s mandolin. Or listen to the song she wrote for our squad (it’s gonna be so lit at next debrief).
I took way more of these bus selfies than I needed to on our squad fun day… busses are fun.
Jelly is an angel.
Carla making the most of Squad Fun day. (Are fun day team was awesome).
The dudes took 4-wheelers out on sand dunes by the ocean, across cliffs, under seagulls, and by wild camels to this here river that runs into the ocean. DOPEY!
Yea. Basically. (Solomon is pictured he’s a dope squad leader.)
That’s Jeremy on the right. Also, Tyler and I are pictured.
Travel day in the North African airport. Tyler said “no”.
Eric another dope squad leader. Traveling.
So we got the this airport after being on a bus for 6 hours riding in the night. We left at 1 am. Everyone was tired. We did get to talk with our coaches for a while though. I miss Jenn and AJ already. I also wish I snuck a picture of them. I don’t take enough photos, but I’m working on it!
Take off!
Landing in Paris. (We saw the Eiffel Tower in the window. So we took a picture with it. The window.)
Early morning bus ride in Istanbul. (4am. We made it!)
Sure did.
-Daniel
