I’ve been thinking lately about how a little over a year ago I had just jumped off of a cliff into the Lord’s will. I decided to not take a job to wait on the Lord for his perfect plan. In that time I was considering going on the World Race and the thought of it excited me and made my stomach turn upside down all at the same time. I didn’t really think I could rough it for 11 months. I was only then growing to like the outdoors and I really enjoyed living in comfort (ie: air conditioning). When I read the blogs of the people on the race I thought they were constantly DOING ministry. I thought that from the time they woke up to the time they went to sleep (camping in the puddles) they would be sacrificing their lives slaving for the Gospel. And I thought it would somehow take a super human to live out of a backpack in 11 different countries throughout the year.
Well I was wrong about a lot of things concerning the World Race. Many of the things I am glad I was wrong about. I am glad that I did not sell myself short in how much my body can take, the Lord always sustains me. I’ve learned to enjoy camping, being in the outdoors and even going to the bathroom on the side of the road (well maybe I don’t enjoy that but it is better than many of the bathrooms in different countries). I am glad that roughing it for the Lord doesn’t always look like camping, sometimes it just looks like a house with hard beds without air-conditioning. I am also glad that the idea of DOING ministry was correct and that the Lord has redefined that my life is ministry and I live it out every second of the day. The Lord has rocked my boring expectations of the race and made my life into a full on adventure for him.
Before training camp for the race last August I really had received no teachings on who the Holy Spirit was and what his role is in my life. I knew that the Holy Spirit was what the Lord left us after Jesus left the earth but I did not have much more understanding than that. OH how the LIVING SPIRIT OF GOD HAS REVOLUTIONIZED MY LIFE! I used to laugh at people who talked about someone speaking in tongues. I thought tongues were the most absurd thing and surely no one spoke in them in today’s times. I enjoyed reading about Jesus and Paul healing people but never really thought about the fact that when Jesus says that we will do even greater things than he that he meant healing people as well. I don’t think I really knew what the Lord’s voice sounded like until last year. I did things for the Lord, but when I prayed I spoke a lot and rarely listened. I really never could distinguish what was my voice, satan’s and what was the Lord’s. And I definitely didn’t know anything about being prophetic, which goes hand in hand with hearing the Lord’s voice. I never thought about the fact that people can hear the Lord speaking about someone else and that the Lord might use them to share that message with that person. How was I so blind?
My life was so boring and quite frankly I felt that God was boring. There’s a saying that Gary Black says(that he probably stole from someone else) that “if you are bored it’s because you are boring”! Now that I am learning about the Holy Spirit it is hard to say that I am bored, the Spirit of God is so ALIVE!!! Even on the bus to the Taj Mahal the other day we played what I will call a “prophetic game” it’s not really a game but it is a way for us to practice hearing the Lord’s voice. One of our teammates said she would like for us to prophesy over her so we all spent some time asking the Lord about her and what he would like to say to her. After we heard from the Lord we all shared the words with her. It was cool because it uplifted and encouraged her and allowed her to hear from the Lord, it gave us practice in hearing the Lord’s voice and then it helped us to pass the time on the 8 hour bus ride. The Spirit of God is so incredible!
It makes me sad that many of my friends don’t know what I have learned about the Spirit, oh but how I want them to learn. I can promise you that the Spirit of God is living and ACTIVE! Talk and action of the spirit IS NOT A CHARASMATIC CHURCH “THING”, I rebuke that lie from Satan. The Spirit of God is our life our only connection to the living God. If we tap into intimacy with the Lord He will use his spirit in us to do some incredible things for the Kingdom of God, which is inside of us waiting to be brought out.
The Lord called me out of a life of boredom and routine and I listened to the call. He brought me to a place where he rocked everything in my beliefs of him. He shook off all of the old lies and boxes I had put him into and left me with my foundation solely in him. He has used the World Race to open up my eyes to who The King of Kings and Lord of Lords really is. He is far from boring, which since he lives in me so am I!!!
I have a feeling that many of you who read this may be bored with the Lord and with yourself like I used to be. Stuck in routines and “quiet times” and trying to find ways to fit God into “your” life plan. STOP trying to be in control of your life and allow the Lord to shape and mold it. Yeah that may mean jumping off of the cliff into the Lord’s will but he will surely catch you and keep you near his heart. If you are considering stepping out into the World Race- DO IT!!! The Lord will revolutionize your life from the inside out! You just have to say yes, who cares how old you are and what job you have. Many of my teammate left great jobs, cars, houses(mortgages) and loved ones to pursue the Lord, and we are all far from super human! There is so much more to life and the Lord than the United States of America, the Lord created the WHOLE WORLD(in his hands…haha). Go play and stop being BORING!
