Weekly Journal #5

God Time

This past week has been a crazy ride! They definitely keep us busy here in Brisbane! We had one day of relaxation before the school put us through an awesome but extremely tiring mission simulation. We boarded a virtual plane to a made up country to work as an outreach team. The volunteers go to great lengths to make it very realistic for us. It was an intense journey! From teaching an English lesson to illiterate children or bartering in the marketplace for a better price or shoveling down waaay too much food to not offend our home family to sleeping on a tarp with three sleeping bags split between six of us, we had a crazy ride. It was a difficult but extremely rewarding experience.

Basically, my God time was a little less this week as it was very busy unfortunately. Once the week began and we started our Lordship section with Mark Parker, I was able to get back into my routine of quiet time with Jesus in the mornings and spending more time showering in living water every morning.

Filling the Gap

As we have been progressing through this week, many people (including myself) are being fed a handful by Mark Parker on Lordship. This man is truly a man that doesn't care what others think of him! He's not afraid of being truthfully offensive. He cuts to the chase and his words are sharpened with the spirit to cut off any heart issue any one of us may be having.

I've honestly just been interceding for my classmates! I've been praying that pride, independence or rebellion not be an issue and that they can see that Mark is doing what he knows needs to be done. Tomorrow is a big day as we are preparing our minds and hearts for a mock tabernacle participation. Giving the Lord what He is due is not easy and I pray for everyone of my classmates.

Listening to God

This week there was a very impressionable time when I heard God speak to me.

The first time was just last night when we had a night of corporate worship. I was given the awesome opportunity to play the keyboard to facilitate worship and let me tell you, the Holy Spirit was tangible. If I could bottle what happened in that room last night, the world would be so different! There was such a supernatural joy and excitement that it couldn't be of this world. Nothing in this world provides that much peace, that much freedom, that much worth. In the quietness of my heart, God spoke. "This is only a drop of what heaven has to offer. Tonight you bring heaven to earth but there will be a time when I bring you, on earth, to heaven." I hope this encourages a lot of you! It definitely has me.

Life Application

In a previous post I said that I was beginning to be given a heart like David. Well God has definitely been showing me extremely practical ways to start transforming. I believe He has told me I am to memorize parts of the bible. To be exact, God has told me to memorize the Psalms. I know... I thought the same thing! But all I am to do is obey and lean on God's strength, not my own. I'm very pleased to say that as of today, I have memorized four psalms already.

It has been extremely practical and helpful to know just four psalms. From moments of worship when I can quote a psalm when my words fail me, to speaking life into people by declaring what God has to say, I am beginning to understand just the tip of the iceberg. I feel God is going to use these psalms in mighty ways in my life!

I hope everyone is doing well back home and I pray for a constant renewing of your mind. Grace is sufficient for today, walk in that.