Today, we officially complete our “Launch” and leave the United States for our first country, Kenya. It’s hard to believe the time has finally come to say goodbye to U.S. soil, but as I sit on the beautiful lawn of the Virginia Theological Seminary, I couldn’t ask for a prettier day to say farewell. The cicadas are singing to a blue skied day, and I’m hoping the light breeze will help dry my few remaining articles of hand washed clothing. My team and I are heading out to the capital (Washington D.C.) in a little bit before we head to the airport.
The past four days have been filled with exhortations, impartations, and all sorts of other really big words that I’m still processing, but the main gist of it all has been that we are as ready as we are ever going to be, and I can't fully grasp that the day has finally come to head out on this next great adventure.
Two nights ago, we were powerfully challenged with one thing… to carry the manifest presence of God to where His omnipresence already is. Simply to say, even though God is all-present, we are called to bring His power, through His Holy Spirit, into each place that we go, knowing that He will lead us to give a word of encouragement or a word of knowledge to others.
I’ve always wondered about that… if God is everywhere, why does He still send His children out to the world? Isn’t He already there? So why should I be going? And what did Jesus mean by saying, “You will do much greater things than I have done”? Wasn’t He the one who turned water into wine, who raised the dead, who healed the sick and made the lame to walk again? Why would God want me to do the things that Jesus did? Wasn't He GOD's Son?
After hearing Michael Hindes, the director of the World Race, speak about the difference between God’s omnipresence and His manifest presence, it all suddenly clicked. God’s presence is everywhere, but in His grace and love, He fills His children with His manifest presence…giving us hope, peace, joy, love, and all of the goodness of the Holy Spirit… and then He sends us out to the world to be vessels of His power to those we encounter on our journey. From the villages of Kenya, to the brothels of Thailand, and from the hill people of the Philippines to the human trafficked victims in Romania, I am excited to see how His manifest presence will…well…manifest. 🙂
I honestly can’t imagine healing the sick, raising the dead, and being a witness to the miracles that the Holy Spirit so lovingly does in the world, but I hope God will enlarge my imagination through His reality. I hope that this coming year, I will be transformed into a vessel that boldly carries His presence across the world.
Today is the day… and we go to the nations, to bind up the broken hearted, to set the captives free, to bring hope to the hopeless, and to be a light into the darkness of the world. May God be glorified as we learn to walk into His omnipresence and carry His manifest presence wherever we go.
