Fear of the Lord

"There can be no intimacy without painful passion." -Ken Helser.

For those of you who heard my testimony, you may remember me talking about the Fear of the Lord. It was a lecture topic that changed my life and flipped my world upside down. Of course, it wasn't the lecture that changed my world, it was the One whom the lecture was about, Jesus Christ.

This last week's topic was the Fear of the Lord taught just as last time by my mentor, Nathan McGill. I was expecting to see break though-- I was expecting to see things happen. I think all of us on the staff team were. I think it's because when conviction comes two choices-- obedience or disobedience. And we were just aching to see conviction come to our school and to ourselves so that we could go beyond what we knew of God and into higher places and more intimacy with Him.
Nathan had 3 days. He always gets shorted because he's not an 'out-of-town' speaker.. But 3 days is enough. It was enough for God to move and alter my life completely, so why shouldn't I expect Him to do a similar thing in the lives if my students?

The first day was hardly a lecture. We all came, knees bowed, worshipping, crying out to God. Some entered in and some didn't. But the focus wasn't on that-- it was on Him. He called us to worship, so we worshipped. I remember Nathan was leading out in prayer much of the time and at one point, in tears he screamed out, "Oh God! I've never started a class like this! But I want so badly to have your will done, I will lay my agenda aside!"
I kinda laughed at that actually.. He didn't realize he was saying that out loud. ha.. anyway.

The second day we spent more time in notes and in defining what fear of the Lord is: to be in awe of Him who holds everything together.. and as a result of a revelation of that power and everlastingness, we submit to hate what he hates and love what he loves.

The third day we came to the thing that keeps us from fearing God most of all other things-- fear of man. We didn't finish the notes because the Spirit of God began to move and we wanted to co-operate with it. We put a chair up their and a microphone and began to repent of being motivated out of fear of man rather than God in all the different areas of our lives.. A student would repent and then we would gather around them and pray, prophesy and speak out what God was saying and doing. Most of us staff went to the chair and repented of being motivated by the fear of man (including myself) as well as 3/4 of the students.. and we began to see SO much breakthrough individually and corporately as we continued to worship God even as we ministered to one another.

3 days. God can change and transform you in a minute if you allow Him to. But so often, we hold on to that which is most dear, that which is comfortable to us. That sinful life of living in fear of man (which is pride) rather than allowing the fear of God to be the purpose and motivation of everything we do in our lives.

Oh God, thank you for moving in the lives of these students! Continue this work in our hearts God. But more importantly, to all who read this, meet them in such a way that all fear and shame will be chased out by your love, for your perfect love casts out all fear. Move them to repentance Lord that they may find more intimacy and that they may know You for who You are, not for what You do. Praise you Lord.

"Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man." (Ecc. 12:13)

Prophetic Deal-yo.

So, for those of you who don't know, one of the foundational values of YWAM is 'Championing Young People into the Kingdom'-- which is a long phrase that means we release, encourage and help fuel the dreams of visions of young leaders who are with YWAM and to disciple those who come through our DTS.
What does that mean for me? I have leaders who believe in me. Not because they have to, but because they see something that God has placed in me that they want to fan the flame and help further me into advancing the kingdom of heaven in the lives of others. I have mentors who keep me accountable, base directors who dream dreams with me, and school leaders who back me in every decision I make-- and work through the good and bad consquences with me. How awesome is that?

I have been asked to teach and lead the first day of a Prophetic Workshop for this DTS. The first day is all about the basic understanding of the prophetic, and then second day is prophetic in the Arts.
This is something God has really stirred in me consistantly-- to prophesy-- to speak from God's heart so that people may be turned to their true identity in Jesus Christ.
The privilege!
But as I was walking home I humbly confessed to God... "Lord, I don't even know where to begin to teach the prophetic. But I surrender this to you. I know you have placed a prophetic voice within me, so I believe you really show me exactly what to show from scripture, and how to verbalize prophetic principles.

As I began to study the word God was downloading revelation and understanding of what I had been walking in for this past year and a half -- the prophetic. He showed me scriptures through Elijah which portrayed beautifully prophetic principles, understanding of Paul's instructions to the Corinthians and proper guidelines for we who are in Christ Jesus and choose to co-operate with him in this awesome gifting.

I prayed a lot over the students, and began to prophesy outloud in my time with the Lord over their lives and the prophetic voice he was abut to place inside of each of them.
When they came, I could feel in the presence of God.. He was waiting to crown His children with this wonderful birthright-- to hear the voice of their Father.
I taught. I taught a lot longer than I expected. But the Holy Spirit brought up stories, and brought up new points as I began to talk that were awesome. Really, I was in awe. The students ate it up. But really, it wasn't me. I don't have much to offer other than the willingness to serve God. And even that I can be pretty bad with at times. But the Spirit spoke through me (don't worry there were other staff their to keep me in check).. And then we did some exercises.. And we began to see God speak through each that was there!
Hearing God's voice is so easy! It's following it that is the difficult part.
After a good 30-45 minutes of prophetic exercises, we prayed and left encouraged, exhorted and comforted-- As we all should be.

How great is our God!