A lot of Christians probably don’t like to admit it when they feel like they’ve missed out on a lesson that God has for them.
Hi. That’s me. I’m one of those people.
I especially don’t like to admit this when I’ve been avoiding this lesson for the past 4 months. The hard truth is that if I hadn’t listened when God was speaking to me (very clearly) 3 times within an hour, I would have probably wasted my entire Race. If I hadn’t accepted this lesson then I would have been robbing God of the opportunity to change me.
I would have been robbing Him of so much Glory.
The Philippines wasn’t exactly the easiest month for Team Ratsah. I was just trying to keep my cool long enough for team changes at the end of the month and then I knew the rest of my race would be perfect.
When I got my little green sticky note with a red scribble mark on it, I was shocked to look around and see Ana, Lucy, Rachael and Ana-Lisa with the same red scribble marks on their sticky notes.
“We were still together… how could this be possible?” The last thing I wanted was to be on this team again for who knows how many more months.
I wanted something new.
I wanted change.
I should have expected that the change I was going to get was change that I wouldn’t expect.
This change was the lesson that I had been pushing away.
One of the ways I connect most with God is through worship. I shouldn’t have been surprised when He spoke to me twice in a row while I was singing Praises to Him with my squad.
1) “Give me faith to trust what You say, that You’re good and Your love is great.”
God, if You’re keeping me on a team with these girls, then I have to trust You. This bad attitude has to go. I have to love them.
2) “You won’t relent until You have it all, my heart is Yours.”
Alright God… I’ll give you my bad attitude. I’ll give you the little things that I didn’t think mattered. I’ll give you everything.
Every now and then at debrief our squad will get together and do listening prayer.
Listening Prayer: Praying to God and asking Him to give you words, pictures, scripture, visions, etc. for you or for someone else in your life. This is a way to let God speak to you or to someone else through you.
God used my squad mate, Joe, to speak to me during our latest listening prayer session, the day after teams were changed. He said that He felt like God wanted Him to talk about how the Holy Spirit is powerful, but not only powerful in big, miracle moments.
Ephesians 3:20 says “Now to him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think, according to the power at work within us, to him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations, forever and ever. Amen.”
The Holy Spirit works inside of us. The Holy Spirit has the power to break us, shape us, and transform us.
I was broken when I was choosing not to love the women on the team that God handpicked for me. I was broken when I had an ugly heart towards them.
I was being shaped when God kept speaking to me. Over and over again.
I was being transformed when I finally gave all of me to God and embraced what He wanted me to hear. I was transformed when I made the choice to love my team and realized that the change God is calling me to is in myself and the way that I love people.
“The power that raised Christ from the dead, that’s the power that the Spirit wants to use to transform you.”
–Joe De Leon
When I heard Joe say this, I knew that this word was for me. This was when all of the pieces came together, and I knew that my Race was going to be vastly different from then on out.
I will no longer choose myself. I will choose the women on my team. I will choose to see them as Daughters of The Almighty God. I will choose to walk alongside them in this thing we call life. Most importantly, I will choose to love them and serve them every single day that I am blessed to have with them.
