On December 7th, we started our week of lectures on Lordship with Mark Parker. It was such a blessing to have him speaking to us! I must admit, he was one of the most blunt and intimidating speakers I've ever heard... but nonetheless, he has made one of the biggest impacts on my experience here so far.
It's hard to put the whole week into a few paragraphs. The amount of information that I took in could be made into a book. I really enjoyed the whole week- it got to the point where we'd be 1- 1 1/2 hours late for lunch and I would be disappointed to end. We had a lot of our teaching on the Temple and the idea of our bodies being a temple. There were three parts to who we are : the body (food, defense, reproduction: seeing), soul (mind, will , emotions: understanding) and the spirit (intuition, communication, conscious: knowing). A lot of times, our body and soul are open to God but we don't trust enough to open our spirit to really experience Him and His goodness. We are made in the image of God in that we can CHOOSE to be like His personality- Personality is God's gift to us. Character is our gift to God. Whoever rules our soul, rules everything. What do we hold onto more than God? What have we made idols?
These were the main things that we discussed for the week... we were encouraged to think of things that we've put above God. On Friday night, we met together at 7:30 for worship and to get a jump start on our ministry day (Saturday). We didn't get far, but rather spent the entire evening in worship- worship more powerful than I've ever experienced before. We started by giving thanks to God for the things that He has been doing in our lives since we got here. For me, I was thankful for: When I came to YWAM, I had no idea who I really was. I could see what was "cool" around me and I would change myself to be that way. During worship, God's been slowly chipping away at those layers and I can just feel Him working in me, telling me that my identity is in Him and that He loves me just how I am because I am His beautiful baby girl that He created. We ended up staying there in worship until after 11:30... No one wanted to leave.
The next morning, we started at 8:30 with ministry day. We all gathered together and started out with a shortened version of the night before. Then we dove right into what made up the rest of the day- a time of confession/sacrifice. We all brought things that we've been holding onto too tightly; things that we've put before God or things that have been holding us back from experiencing God. What I took to the cross: selfishness, jealousy, judgment and pride. I gave Him my art- because I don't want to enjoy it for myself anymore. I want it to be through Him. I gave Him my photography because for so long, I've been hiding behind my camera. When I was uncomfortable somewhere or felt out of place, that's what I would run to. I gave Him my family and friends- the people who I would run to for everything instead of going to Him. I gave him myself: because I don't want to hold myself back from what He wants for my future- I want to go where He leads me. Lastly, I gave Him the anger/frustration that I've kept inside since 8th grade with my first experience of death. We finished at 12:30 that night and I felt more free than I ever have. God is so good.
Things haven't been a breeze since then. I've had to force myself to worship on days that I just didn't feel like it. But God has been teaching me so much through that. Worship is a choice, not a feeling.
This past week of lectures was the Holy Spirit. A lot of what we learned was like what we learned the week before. Our speaker was a local pastor named Grant Windle. Something that really hit me was when he said that: We always ask God to be here- for us to feel Him with us. But He was here... He was on earth, visiting us- like a guest at your house for the week. And when he came for us, we nailed Him to a tree. That totally blew my mind to think of it in that way. I was shocked but it made so much sense!
So, God is really moving here in Brisbane :) We've all grown so much and have been growing together too. I've been so blessed to have my YWAM family. Even though lately it's been tough, knowing that I'm missing Christmas at home, it's comforting to know that I'm still surrounded by amazing people who love me here :)
Some things to pray for:
1. We had a meeting with our outreach team (11 students, 3 staff and 2 children) and discussed finances. We've decided that we're going to try to raise our funds that everyone needs before the end of January when we need to buy our plane tickets. But in order to do that, we need to raise about $30,000. I'm ready to see God do miracles! It's going to be a challenge but we trust that God is holding our team in His hands and He will provide.
2. That Christmas isn't too rough for me and missing family
3. That I would continue to strive for God and find passion when I don't feel like it.
Missing you all at home! Stay warm :) God bless!
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