I come to you from Gap L’s training camp. I have been here in Gainseville, Georgia for about a month now, and the racers just finished their 3rd week of training. I like to say that the Lord has been shaking us in our boots as He has come to reveal Himself to us in new ways. Even with this being my 3rd time through a training camp I feel like the Lord has taken me even deeper in the basic topics being taught such as “Prayer”, “Worship”, “Walking with the Holy Spirit”, “What is the Bible”, etc. During worship the Holy Spirit has been meeting me with the fulness of His comfort. God is showing me His love in a deeper form than I ever thought I would be able to experience from Him. One could say that my heart is being awakened to love people the way that God loves them.
For a while now, I have had a hard time in sharing my testimony and life story with people because it is not one of crazy transformation. But just in the last few weeks God has been revealing more on this topic. I was sitting underneath a tree one random afternoon and God revealed to me that no matter what my testimony looks like, He has continued to work on my heart in sanctification. Plus it is a blessing that He has given me a “boring testimony”. In that moment God gave an example of how this has looked. Even in following Jesus, I used to be so specific in choosing my friends that I would make judgements on the people who were different than I or “weird” in order to be friendly but not close. That is not real love, that’s stiff arming them. But God has changed my heart. Now I cannot help but look at those people without love and compassion and long to know who they really are. I haven’t been looking to be changed in such a way, but I have walked with God and been met by His love. Through this it has been a natural thing to truly love those people well. I am not saying that I have done this perfectly, but I want to testify exactly what God has done in me by the Holy Spirit! All praise be to Jesus!! When we let the Lord touch our hearts great fruit comes from it.
This is not something just for me, but for the squad as well. My leadership team (who I love and am so grateful for) keeps talking about how it is often in leadership that what God does in the leaders is paving the way to what He wants to do with those under them. I keep getting visions which represent people’s hearts on L squad, and God has been showing me how to pray for them. The racers keep mentioning on separate accounts how they have felt God’s love and comfort in a way they have never felt before. Thanks Holy Spirit!
Furthermore, what happens in our group directly affects ministry. About a week ago we took the squad out to evangelize for the first time. We split up into groups of 2 or 3 and I was with 2 girls who are on my team. Neither of them had any experience evangelizing before, so we set out with our minds set on knowing that we have the Holy Spirit and that’s all we need. Before we left I felt like the Lord was prompting me to bring a fun pair of kid’s sunglasses that I had in my tent. I thought it was silly but figured that I would bring them anyway. I gave them to one of my girls to carry around to lift her spirits a little (because evangelism can be nerve-racking but she slayed the day with courage). As we walked around a Hispanic supermarket, the same girl saw a little girl picking out a piñata. We walked over to the little girl and her mother and found out that it was the girl’s birthday. The conversation did not go far, but we decided to try to find a little gift in the store to bless the girl. We couldn’t find anything worthy of giving a 4 year old, but the Lord gave me the idea to gift the fun sunnies to her. We found the family again and gave the sunglasses to the girl for her birthday, and her face LIT UP. She was shy but so excited to have them. We explained a bit of why we had the sunglasses with us in the first place, and the mother immediately asked us where we go to church. She explained how she had seen the Lord pursuing her and her family constantly, and that this was another form in which God was doing so. The mother was touched that God was doing this and wanted to bless her children by taking them to church. We got to pray for the family and send church recommendations over to the mother. Wow. To think that this all happened because of obedience in bringing kid’s sunglasses…. And to think that we have been experiencing God’s pursuit of us as children of God, and He used us to pursue other children of God?! Like what?!!! Thanks Jesus.
This is just the beginning, and I am so encouraged in how God is moving. That His character is so consistent, yet He is doing a new thing in taking us deeper!
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