The Continued Journey! ;)

      God has truly blessed me with blessings I can't even begin to imagine or express!!! A few days before coming back from IMI, the Lord confronted me with the opportunity to lead a Journey to the Heart with IBLP. At first upon hearing about this open door of ministry, I was hesitant and did not really want to do it because for a number of reasons. But as I sought the Lord through prayer and His Life Giving Word, God gave me CLEAR direction to do it! It was a stretch but my Heavenly Father was walking beside me all the way! 

      Looking back on last week and even into this week with finishing the "10 day Journey" (it's a life long journey), I can say without a shadow of a doubt that I have never seen the Lord work so mightily when I was in a leadership position than on this last Journey!!! All God needed was me to be willing to surrender and to allow His Spirit to flow out of me...that's it!!! :D God did the rest! Even in the early days while I was up at Northwoods with these young men on my team, I had seen God working in the areas of salvation, regaining surrendered ground and true lasting freedom!!!! Even now the fruit continues to be born from last week as I just heard from the one young man on my team that had received Christ while he was on the Journey, saying that on his trip back home he was able to lead someone else to Christ...THIS IS LASTING FRUIT!!!! Praise the Lord!!!! :D Here is a couple pictures from my trip:

" Man's goings are of the LORD; how can a man then understand his own way?" Proverbs 20:24

The Rewards of Abiding in Christ ~ John 15 ~ A Spirit Filled Life!!!

If it wasn't for a Father above, I would not be the man that I am; if it wasn't for the love I have experienced from Him, I would be so hard hearted and if it wasn't for His tender care, I would not be CHANGED!!!!

      I don't know how to express what the Lord has done over the last 3 months...but one thing I KNOW, God has changed me and I will never be the same! Spending the last 3 months at the International Ministerial Institute has been one of the most blessed experiences I have had yet in my life time! Why? Because I found God and He found me!!! Yes, I was saved before I went and I had a "casual" Christian relationship with Him, but I really didn't KNOW my Daddy!

      There is somthing unexplainable about having such an intimate relationship with the Lord that you become who He is and that He becomes who you are. The saying "lost in Christ" comes to mind...that is what is happening with me. Dieing to who I am, what I want to be and what I care about and allowing the power of the Holy Spirit to radiate out of my life as I TOTALLY let it go into my Father's hands!

      I wish I could come out to everyone of you who are reading this and try to tell you how special your relationship with the Lord is and can become, I don't even understand this. One day I was walking on the campus property of IMI spending some time with the Lord in prayer and meditation, as the Lord was talking with me and I was talking with Him, when a thought came to me (or I guess you could say the light bulb came on). I realize I had found a relationship with the Lord that I been longing for! I needed a friend with whom I could share intimate burdens with and that that friend could share their intimate burdens with me. I FOUND THIS WITHIN MY RELATIONSHIP WITH THE LORD!!!!

      But, how did I get there...? The first couple weeks of IMI was the experience of being taken through God's loving, caring and just refining fire! It was extremely painful! The Lord had exposed several areas in my life that I had not dealt with, confessed and that I had not surrendered to the Lord; I had no choice but to make these things right before God, before those whom I had offended and before those who I am accountable to. I now see one of the reasons why God took me through that purging process and why He continues to, it is because He wanted me to be able to hear His voice in a way and to live a life style that I had never known and that I am still barely scraping the service of.

     After this purging process had begun, it was then that I could seek the Lord and find Him if I searched for Him with ALL my heart! The Lord began to speak to me in a way that I have never known and a new form of intimacy started being evident. I can now say that the relationship with the Lord that I have found and am continuing to find, is worth more to me than life itself and it fulfills me in such a way that NOTHING else can match. This is imprinted on my body, soul and spirit and NOTHING can wipe it away!

      Now coming home on my off semester, I can continue this intimacy with the Lord through seeking Him through His Word and prayer! This is abiding in Christ through meditation and delighting in His Word and He abiding in me through the power of His Spirit, has given me the keys to true and lasting fulfillment that I have been longing for! Therefore I can continue to say by God's grace that I am: TRUSTING, RESTING and SECURE IN MY SAVIOUR! 

      Lastly, I want to thank you ALL for your prayers...right now it is so overwhelming that is bascially brings me to tears... I don't think you understand what you have done by praying for me, because I KNOW God answered your prayers in ways you could NEVER imagine! God bless you all and as you have been a blessing to me by being apart of my life as a prayer partner, may God open the storehouses of Heaven and pour out a blessing that you would not even have enough room to receive it!

"I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing." John 15:5