Freedom In Christ - Week 4.

This is a recap on Week 4 (which I did not update you guys on!!). I will make another post of what has happened this week (Week 5)!!

Andrew and Faith Dutton, who are two of some of the staff over the YWAM Kona Campus, came to speak to us. Their message was "Freedom In Christ". And that's DEF what the week was!! They warned us the first day to just be willing to let the Lord change our hearts, and be ready to step our in order for the change!! "Don't wait to engage" was one of the first things Faith told us... and it was true. During the week we would go through a book of the bible (we did Colossians and Philippians) and we would pick out things as we went through. Things such as, commands (the do's and don'ts), & the character of the one writing and that person living what they were speaking. It is amazing to see how clear the Lord is on things! As we went through the week we talked about Repentance, Sin & Law, Getting Free, and then we practiced Walking It Out. The week was focused on going to the deep places... recognizing sin in our lives, asking God to renew our minds, and strengthen our conscience to see things and experience things the way HE did... not how the world has created us to. We went to the Lord and asked Him to reveal unrepented sin, and then we would get it right... and we did exactly what I said, walked it out.
We talked about Judging... which was a wonderful thing to touch on for me. People always say "you can't judge me, God is the only one who can judge me." And part of me believes that... But I still had such a trouble with that because people in authority will rightly judge you, and how is that suppose to look. Andrew talked about how judging comes with accountable. And accountable is only invited, you cannot force it. Judging your brothers and sisters come within your community, and ultimately is for your well being (when done the way it was created to be done!). When there is accountability, it creates a community of people, and that creates submission and allows those around you to speak into your life FOR YOUR BENEFIT. This is such a beautiful thing, but it has to be done in completely LOVE and submission to the Lord as well, or else it will not be done rightly. Faith spoke on the second day about Discipline and Will. I think more than ever this has become so so real to me... the importance of it that is. Little things count!! Things that seem like such a little deal to me now, is what will ultimately form my character and integrity. We have to learn to engage our will to do what we know we need to do. It isn't easy, but the reward of the Lord is SO wonderful!!
Another question that came up in this part was "What are you willing to give up to get the fullness of God?" This hit me really hard. I have a lot of stuff in my life, and you probably do too, that doesn't seem like it's bad... and you know what, it probably isn't too awful!! But the point is not how bad it may or not be, the point is... Is it pushing you to go to the Fathers heart, is it challenging and encouraging you in your relationship with Jesus? Is the over all thing in your life bringing you closer to God, or is it bringing you away from Him? I was met with some challenges during the 4th week of things in my life that I knew weren't necessarily bad things, but if I laid them to the side in obedience to the Lord... He was going to meet me! AND HE DID. That was the amazing thing. I didn't let go of something and just wait around hoping to feel the faithfulness of the Lord, it IMMEDIATELY fell on me... and I literally felt the presence of the Lord crash down, hard on me, and for the first time during my DTS I KNEW 100% that I was in the right place, and that God was going to change my life drastically... and that feeling hasn't stopped, it has only grown! We will live with the consequences we make, good or bad. We will see fruit of what we are planting, good or bad. I want to be one that is constantly reaping amazing things... because I am allowing the Lord to plant inside of me amazing things. I want to eat of delicious and healthy food, because I am living in the destiny of what God has called me to live in.
When we began to "walk in the light", we started feeling the benefits of it. We started seeing freedom from shame, guilt, fear. And we started experiencing transparency. We learned that trust is a beautiful thing... and not something to just give to everybody in your life, but to be vulnerable and transparent with your leaders, mentors, and those you know can be trusted - is such a gift from the Father. The week ended beautifully. Some chose, some did not, to make ourselves vulnerable to the class... to express things in our lives that we were ready to let go of... to be transparent with those around us - and what freedom it brought! One by one, we got up and spoke out things in a prayer to Jesus of what we wanted forgiveness for, and we declared who we now are without all of that crap on us. And then we were bombarded (in a wonderful way) by those around us, covering each other in prayer and protection, and deciding to fight for each others hearts. And then, we ended with some worship - All going after the heart of the Lord, rejoicing in each others freedom , standing up and declaring new found joy.

God is good! God is good! God is good!