It’s crazy to think that in less than a week we will be leaving Nepal, and headed to our third country on the World Race. Time has passed by so quickly, but God has taught us so much.
This month here in Kathmandu, Nepal we have been ministering to a church in a village about an hour bus ride outside of Kathmandu. Each day we would wake up early to go with our ministry contact to go to church members houses where we would preach to encourage and challenge them to go deeper in their relationship with the Lord. The passion that these people have is incredible! We would have about 20 people in these extremely small rooms, where the rooms sometimes would be there entire house. Their beds, dressers, kitchens, etc… would be in this one room. They would pray in unison, all together at the same time and much of the time you could feel the Holy Spirit rush through you as the body of one would intercede for each other and often times for the country of Nepal. Our team would go to about 4 to 5 houses per week, and then on Saturday they would have church and they wanted us to preach to the congregation and lead the youth service that followed. I had the opportunity to preach 6 times throughout the month, which was a very humbling experience for me. Many of the sermons that God put on my heart to preach to the people really brought me to a different place in my walk with God. These messages really challenged me with my walk with Jesus. A couple of the messages were on the life of Peter and how God had to bring Peter to a place of depth in his relationship to Jesus before God was able to use him to his full potential. God challenged these people with where they really are on the depth scale with REALLY knowing Jesus. Peter was asked by the resurrected Jesus 3 times after he had denied Jesus three times if he loved Jesus. Peter responded of course I love you Jesus, but what many people don’t understand is the type of love Peter responded with. Peter told Jesus all three times that he (Phileo) loved Jesus. This type of love is a brotherly love, and arrangement of sorts and Jesus had to break Peter of this. Jesus wanted Peter’s EVERYTHING before he could use Peter to his full potential. This was very difficult to preach on, because not only did I look all these people in the face and ask them the question…..If Jesus would look into your eyes and ask you “Do you Love me?” How would you respond? I had to look at my own heart before I could ask these people the question, and it brought much growth, and much challenge to myself and to the Nepalese people. Through this month God has really brought me to a new place in my preaching as well. It’s been incredible! He gave me a boldness and a confidence that I haven’t had before.
I had the opportunity to go by myself to a rehabilitation center for people struggling with drugs and alcohol. I was so pumped because this was my life before Jesus met me where I was and changed my life. I went asking the Holy Spirit to do a work in me and He answered my prayer way more than I thought He would. I shared a short version of my testimony and then preached a message of hope and deliverance. The Holy Spirit pressed this verse on my heart the entire night, which is 2 Corinthians 3:17 “Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom”. My message then became a message of FREEDOM!!! These people needed the chains in their lives to be broken by the blood of Jesus in the same way, 7 years ago my chains from drugs and alcohol were broken. I stared at these men with tears flowing down my face and I told them how much I loved them, yet not even knowing them and I believe that love is what allowed what then took place. I needed to know if these men felt these chains that I had talked to them about. I asked them to be bold enough to come up to the front of the room if they felt this way in there lives and 18 men came forward to receive prayer from me. See we have the authority in Christ to cast out demons, to break the chains of sin, to raise the dead, to heal sickness, and these people needed these chains to be broken. Lives will never to the same because of what Jesus did in the hearts of these men that night. “Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Freedom” The freedom of Jesus came to that place that night and chains were broken by the blood of Christ! I can’t believe that I get the opportunity to write a blog such as this to you.
