I just have to take a minute to praise and worship God for this moment today.
This will be a short blog—but I just really felt it necessary to share with you all!
Today, two of my teammates went to the hospital in Kigali (yay parasites!), and two of my teammates went into town to work on finances for our team and squad. Since I’m on a team of five people (with the addition of a raised-up squad leader), that meant Jenny and I would be the only ones going to ministry this afternoon.
On Wednesday afternoons, our team walks to the church for 4 hours of intercession with some incredible PRAYER WARRIORS. Today was our first time going to this ministry program, so we didn’t know what to expect other than how they wanted us to share a message.
Since Jenny preached yesterday, it was my turn to preach.
The Lord has been speaking to me SO MUCH through Ezekiel lately. To be honest, it’s so random. I was reading through the book of Acts in the Philippines, and He randomly brought me to Ezekiel. As I try to go back to read out of Acts, He keeps telling me that there’s more He has for me in Ezekiel, and encourages me to read on.
Well, a few days ago I read Ezekiel chapters 7-12. Before I started reading it, I read the “chapter names” at the start of each chapter to find: “The Day of the Wrath of the Lord,” “Abominations in the Temple,” “Idolaters Killed,” “The Glory of the Lord Leaves the Temple,” “Judgement on the Wicked Counselors,” and “Judah’s Captivity Symbolized.” Pretty fun titles, am I right?!! So it’s plain to see, in all honesty, I wasn’t really pumped to read scripture that morning, but God told me He had revelations for me ahead. So I proceeded to read on.
He spoke to me in Ezekiel chapter 12, with context back in Ezekiel chapter 8. He gave me a super random revelation, and I was into it. I felt the need to share it with one of my teammates, but the Lord told me I would be speaking on it soon, again. Although, I didn’t feel like I would share it in the pulpit in front of the congregation. It was a message for a small group, but I wasn’t sure when I would get the opportunity to preach to a small group.
Well then, today happened! As I was preparing a different message in Ezekiel (Ezekiel chapters 2 and 3, with a connection to Acts 9), the Lord kept giving me more content and it was becoming a 30-minute message (and with translating time, 1 hour)! I just felt it in my Spirit that I wasn’t going to share this message today, but I felt like the Lord wanted me to prepare it anyway. So in obedience, I prepared it.
We got there late, due to the lack of buses running and some miscommunication, but God knew what He was doing. When we walked in, we found a small group of 5 women sitting on a mat. They asked us to share a message, but that we would be ending the program in less than 1 hour. Since my “prepared” message was going to be an hour, I flipped open my Bible to Ezekiel 12 and told them I had a message to share (without any preparation).
As I started preaching, I felt the Spirit take over—per usual because He’s our Mighty Counselor. I started by telling them that the Lord gave me a random revelation about a random passage in Scripture, and I was just going to teach them about what the Lord was teaching me through it.
To make a 30 minute, translated sermon short, the Lord gave me a revelation about the vision God gave Ezekiel.
Basically, God was showing Ezekiel all of the ways Israel and Judah were rebelling against Him—and how their own deeds and desires were leading them to lives of destruction and misguidance. God gave them clear instructions to be in alignment with Him, but they didn’t want anything to do with God, so they turned to idols instead. God warned them before—as He is good and patient—and was sending Ezekiel to warn them again.
In Ezekiel 12:1-7, the Lord was telling me that we all have baggage—brokenness, sin, and our past lives. It’s baggage, and we carry it around with us, but we try to hide it from the people around us. God told Ezekiel, “You shall bring out your baggage by day in their sight…” The Lord revealed to me to bring our baggage into the light for others to see it. Then God instructs Ezekiel, “In their sight dig through the wall, and bring your baggage out through it…” The Lord revealed to me back in Ezekiel 8:1-13, the hole in the wall led to all of the abominations Israel and Judah were committing—all of their sin, false idols, and brokenness they were hoping to keep secret in the dark, behind the wall. God called Ezekiel to take his baggage out so they could see it, dig through the wall to meet them in their brokenness, and bring their baggage out through it.
The Lord was telling me that in this, we are called to take our brokenness and our sin, and expose it into the light so others can see. We are to enter into other people’s brokenness and meet them where they’re at. Though they want to hide their sin/shame/brokenness, we have to show them ours. In humility, we are to share with them the brokenness and sin that once entangled us, but that we have been delivered by God to walk in freedom.
And then it says, “In their sight, you shall lift the baggage upon your shoulder and carry it out into the dusk…” The Lord revealed to me that when we are walking with the Lord, our baggage (our past/brokenness/sin/shame) doesn’t control us—we put it on our shoulder because we have control over it. It doesn’t control us like it did when we were hiding in the holes in the wall—in the darkness. We put it on our shoulder—acknowledging that it happened, but that the Lord has delivered us through it—and we walk into the light. It was an encouragement for the women to be vulnerable with their stories—with their brokenness—and share it with people who are struggling with their own sin—to invite them into freedom, into the light.
After sharing my heart with the women, they clapped. It kind of threw me off, to be honest. We had no idea what they were praying about before we arrived, so I just shared what God was teaching me. One of the eldest women told me that my message really resonated with them because ALL DAY BEFORE WE GOT THERE, they were praying for the brokenness and sin within their congregation, and they were praying and asking the Lord for ways they could minister to their congregation in this time.
Y’all—I can’t make this stuff up. God—who breathed the revelation of Ezekiel over 2,000 years ago—who gave Ezekiel a straight up RANDOM vision, that He would later give me a revelation about, and somehow (unprepared) decided to share with a group of women who were asking the Lord for a sign for how to minister to their congregation.
The Lord spoke to them—through me! SO RANDOM but the Lord answered!
I just say all of this to say… no matter how strange the things the Lord may be speaking to you or teaching you, SHARE THEM! You never know how the Lord may use it to glorify Him!
Also, Holy Spirit is the best. I freaking LOVE the Holy Spirit. Life with Jesus is the most WILD and beautiful and life-breathing.
Okay, that’s it.
Peace and grace,
Kels
