Set On Fire

What an incredible past week and a half I have been brought through!! I apologize for not updating the blog, it's literally been non-stop it feels like. Work duty (where I am now) seems to be the only place that I can cool down and reflect, so I am taking advantage of this next hour and a half to inform you on some awesome stuff the Lord has been doing in my heart :)

Week 7: Holy Spirit Week... More like "See God in ridiculous ways, break peoples boxes, make me feel so at home, bring me closer to His heart, and confirm His love over and over and over" week.
Amy Sollars came to speak to us this week. She is from Alaska, went to school at Morning Star Ministries (in Fort Mill for all you people back home) and is here in Kona now running the Fire & Fragrance schools. She is - aaaamaaazing. The first time she spoke to us, she basically instantly became a friend. She isn't forceful or over-bearing, she really is so close to the heart of God... and a friend of Jesus, and best friend with the Holy Spirit, that it spills into every word she spoke. I immediately felt a connection with her. And then when hearing she went to Morning Star, I had to find out more. So I asked her about it and found out she was room mates with Melissa Helser (with A Place For The Heart) and is still friends with her and Johnny. That really blessed my heart, and honestly made me feel at home (which was one of many times during this week). The 6 weeks prior to this week, I was having a really hard time, as you can see in my last few blogs ... and God really showed up in the midst of it. So going into this Holy Spirit week, part of me was excited and ready for whatever God had... and then the other part of me was kind of doubtful that it was going to be all I wanted it to be, haha. Being in an interdenominational organization, you really learn to love people for who they are - and not what they believe, and honestly this is something that continues to stretch me. It is so easy to think you are so strong in what you believe when you have only people who believe the sames things surrounding you... but when you are challenged by people who believe the direct opposite, things can get a little funky. But I thank God He did it the way He did because I need to be challenged and continue to ground myself in truth, and not emotions. ANYWAYS.
So the first day was good. Second day was better. Third day... day of resurrection it felt like, haha. Friends of mine who completely put some of the gifts of the spirit in a "heck no" box... all the sudden were being filled with the gift of tongues... Friends who struggled for the past 6 weeks with questions and finding truth in what God thinks about things... began to experience God in those places... breakthrough was happening all around me. I not only saw it with my eyes, but I was hearing with my ears the testimonies, I could feel the joy of the Lord rising up inside of me, and my doubts were being turned into beliefs. Wednesday night came and we had ministry night with Amy and "Phase 3" students (part of Fire & Fragrance ministry here at YWAM). Call 2 All (another DTS going on right now) also joined us as we went after the heart of God. From 630 - 930 (when we got kicked out of the building for being too loud), we worshiped... Singing, Dancing, Shouting, Interceding, Laughing, Praying in tongues, Joining with Angels in loving Jesus and being loved by God... fully walking in the Holy Spirit. For me to explain what happened this night, would not even come close to the breakthrough that each one of us felt. Like I said before, we were joined by Angels. Worship was a little rough in the beginning, but then we asked God to come down in our midst and take over - and He did. We started singing this melody and you could feel the atmosphere shift. There were voices that were not earthly, and the volume of the singing could not have been from our small group. It was incredibly ridiculous how beautiful that sound was, and how it could never be replaced by anything earthly... Heaven invaded earth last Wednesday night.

The day following was great. We got to hear amazing testimonies. Here is the one I shared.
While laying on the ground - I saw 2 visions. First one: I saw this huge box. It was an old brown looking color, and just gross. And it was wide open - and then all the sudden, the Lord shut it. The second vision: A dove came to me, and on the top of it's head was a ring. And it gave me the ring... and the dream ended. In the past, I have had several visions of birds coming to me and giving me something. The one before this I had on a Wednesday night @ River Life and an Eagle flew out of my chest as a lion came charging back into my chest. And I have also had one other vision of the Lord climbing off of the cross and laying down in my arms and handing me a Ring, telling me that it was the Ring of the Nations. So... as you can see these two things are very significant and something the Lord wants to get across to me. The box, I fully believe is just my past. A moving forward into the will of the Lord out of the will of myself - which is awesome! Wednesday night was very significant for me. I had another prophecy (I'm up so many I can't count) on being prophetic, and Amy told me that I carry the Glory inside of me. These words and visions are wonderful, I'm all about it. But something shifted inside of my heart on this night. I can't describe it fully, but I know that the Lord brought me into a new season with Him. A season of not striving for anything, but really resting in Jesus' love, and diving deep into what He has for me. A season of walking in Truth, a season of walking in Newness, a season of Faith and Trust and fully relying on God for e.v.e.r.y.t.h.i.n.g. and a season of constantly hungering for more of Him and longing to be in His presence, doing everything out of Love. A quote that I just recently found by C.S. Lewis I feel describes perfectly how my heart has been reacting lately, "It was when I was happiest that I longed most... The sweetest thing in all my life has been the longing... to find the place where all the beauty came from."

Every day I discover more about God. Every day I feel a new sense of love, for myself from Jesus and through that a new love for people. And every day, I invite the Holy Spirit into my life - and it's amazing what a difference that has been making in everything I come upon.
So needless to say, this week was wonderful. I feel like The River has flowed from home to here, and it definitely makes this place feel more and more at home - which is something I've definitely been needing.
God is awesome. His power is so much more than we can comprehend. I wonder how I could ever doubt, when every time He shows Himself worthy of all of me... all the praise, faith, trust, hope, love... all of it. He's so good.