This is the start of mini series of blogs, celebrating making it to the halfway point of the World Race. There are going to be stories of the people and experiences that Papa has shown me.
Right now I feel like I should share about a life affirming and changing experience on top of a mountain in The Kingdome of Swaziland.
We had just finished a final worship session with the children at the El Shaddai Orphanage. It was the end our time there and we were having a last worship session with the children. There were candles, guitar and a great night of closing songs with the children we were with. It was beautiful. The glow of the candles in the empty building created a great sense of intimacy where really only our faces were illuminated. We were literally family with these African Orphans, united for one month to build each other up as a church. What’s amazing is they’re no longer orphans really but adopted and loved by an everlasting Father. I think we all came into that same adoption together. That night sealed it.
After the session was over and hugs were shared. I felt like Holy Spirit was leading me to talk to one of the girls that is a long time staff at the Orphanage. I told her what I felt like Papa put on my heart to tell her. I honestly don’t remember what I said but we talked for a long time until most of the people had filed out of the room. Only our Squad leader Andrew and friends Julie, Kristin, Rachel and I remained. Within this hollow room, Andrew took out his guitar and started singing. There was no agenda, there was no specific song to sing. He just sang and worshiped. What happened next was divinely magical. There was something about the way He sang that invited me to join.
I felt something bubbling up in me. I can’t really describe it except to say it was a wave of warmth that wanted to escape. So I started to sing along with what was on my heart. The warmth intensified as song and my body became filled with a sense of glorious refreshment. It was from a depth I cannot explain, like a wave of song and wonder, straight from my heart. It felt like the song came from the very core of who I was and wasn’t about to stop. When Andrew and I’s voice came together it sounded like there was more than two voices singing. The harmonies added onto themselves creating chords that I didn’t know existed. I swear there were angels singing with us. There had to because there was no possible way just our voices were creating so a multitude of song. The very presence of God was activated on us and in us, realizing heaven was in the room with us.
It was amazing, and life changing really. We sang, and danced like this for an hour and a half although it felt like 3 hours packed into 3 minutes. We lost track of time and really where we were. It didn’t matter because we were singing with an infinite purpose where our conception of time was lost. I truly believe our voices revealed the music of Heaven. It was a sign of the Holy Spirit in us and it is in that secret place, we call home. Our worship cultivated an atmosphere where God could work and be known. His Intimacy exploded in the room. After we were done singing and worshipping. It must have been one o clock in the morning when we were done. Refreshed we came out to another wonder Papa had for us. All of us walked outside to see the most beautiful sky I’ve ever seen. The milky-way draped over Swaziland, while we saw thousands of Stars dot the sky. There was white and even a little purple lining the sky, creating a purple hue all around us. The amazing thing was how quiet it was, on top of this mountain, in the middle of Swaziland with no ‘civilization’ for at least an hour. It was still and in that silence we stood in wonder at just how beautiful creation it. It was so quiet, yet it was deafening especially in light of the loud intense glory we just experienced.
It’s funny because Papa doesn’t need to boast or call attention to itself. He just does and it’s beautiful. He’s so simple, yet so profound. The peaceful silence we experience speaks so loudly, cascading over us like the living water.
This reminds me that we can let our hearts speak for themselves. There’s nothing holding us back from receiving the experiential understanding the God wants to give us and really becoming transformed by that. Our hearts speak of the love we have and the love Papa really wants for his Sons and Daughters. From the tangible presence of God that we feel on our skin, to the stillness of night sky, God conveys his heart for us. In eastern philosophy, experience and understanding are the same thing. That is the culture of Jesus came from and how he wanted to illuminate the Father to us. Experiencing God is gaining greater understanding and revelation of Him. God simply and profoundly wants to give us Himself in new and fresh ways all the time. Sometimes we’re so busy trying to figure him out, we forget that possibly the best way to experience Him is to simply be still, sing him song, and allow Him to show you His wonders.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QGlTzH9xkXQ
