Than Chasing Down Every Temporary High To Satisfy Me
-Stacie Orricio
I’m so frustrated with this sickness thing! I had wanted to be ‘All In’ and give the rest of the race everything I had in me, so that I’d be fully prepared for whatever God had next. Well, it’s now been ten days since I came down with typhoid, five with malaria. I feel so isolated from whats going on with ministry and at times even my team. I did NOT come to Africa for this. I want more of Kenya than just being stuck in my tent.
As I’ve continued processing things from the race this week, I’ve realized that this particular longing is just surface level to something deeper within. Up until going to the WR training camp a couple years ago, I was a classic checklist Christian that treated Christianity as this spiritual formula. I went to church every week, was apart of every program or ministry available, attended a Christian University, and was in full-time ministry for over 5 years, all because it was the ‘Christian’ thing to do… but yet I was so stuck in this performace-based, legalisitic lifestyle that I was completely dying inside.
And this was NOT what Jesus came to the earth for. He came so that we could ‘have life and have life abundantly’ (John 10:10). Over these past two years, by following my J & K squad friends around the world and then experiencing the nations myself, I’ve seen that there is more to life… and to God… than I ever imagined. By hearing stories of people’s limbs growing in Ireland and the dead being raised in Africa… and then seeing a little boy healed of Mulitple Sclerosis in Nicaragua and a miraculous birthday party in Malaysia, I’ve gotten a glimpse of the Kingdom. And because of that, I want more of it than just with what the church has shown me before.
Now, don’t get me wrong, the church did an awesome job in teaching me reverence and respect for God, but I know there’s more. In His book, ‘More‘, Simon Ponsonby describes this “More” as ‘a deeper, fuller, richer, more powerful, more joyful, more fruitful life in the Spirit, often precipitated by a dramatic experience or deep revelation.’ This is exactly what I want. I want a constant outpouring of God’s Spirit so that I can experience the fullness of Him, so that I could walk in the annointing and gifts that come with the call on my life, and so that His love would overflow as I claim the nations as my inheritance!
As I continue to go ‘All In’, I want more…
and I won’t settle for anything less.
