God Loves To Show Up! [First 2 weeks of the Summer Quarter]

One of my favorite things about being on staff here in Kona is that every 3 months we start a new quarter.  This holds so much excitement in the days previous and especially the first couple of weeks in.  We experience a whole flood of new students who are desperate for change and hungry for God, people who have laid down everything they've ever known to have Jesus & discover the Truth, some for the 100th time, and some for the very first time.  The level of faith & expectancy is high, and not only do we love it, but God loves it.  We get to go to new heights every quarter, we get to see lives changed every 3 months, we get to experience a new side of God and go deeper in what He's already taught us.  If ever I forget the purpose of why God has me in this place, I am quickly reminded by the sweet Holy Spirit when I see lives absolutely transformed & laid down before the only who is worthy… and it compels me to go to that place of surrender again and again.

Just 2 weeks ago we started this wonderful process again.  5 DTS' were started: Awaken, Ships, Trailblazers, Island Breeze & Market Place, many 2nd level schools began, and over 80 people have come in to join the Awakening Leadership Track to be trained to lead over 3 DTS' next quarter.  And we have had an incredibly fun & fruitful time, to say the least.  Here's a couple of things that have been going on!

-- Every Monday night we gather together to worship for 2-3 hours, and pretty much just make space for Holy Spirit to take over our night.  The first one that we held, two weeks ago was amazing!  We saw over 20 instant hearings!!  One guy lost hearing in his ear, and instantly it popped and he could hear better in that one than the one that was fine!  Another girl was 100% healed from herniated discs all down her spine, while another one received healing from a headache & toothache!  Another crazy one was a torn ligament in a leg, causing a guy to not be able to jump.  We were amazed as we watched him jump up and down so high with no pain!  God really does love to heal, and loves to see us get so pumped again and again at the ways He moves!

-- The other day we got word that one of the schools Kona sends out, The School of the Circuit Riders, just finished in Fiji and they saw over 250 salvations in ONE WEEK!  Now they are headed off to California, Pennsylvania, Kansas City, Hawaii, Texas and ending in Norway!

-- Just in the past 2 weeks in the Track, we have seen people get set free from fear, break off life-long addictions, find family for the first time, and discover even greater the love of Jesus for them.  We have been gripped with holiness and laying down every part of who we are for the fullness of what God has for us.

We have seen miracle after miracle, a handful of salvations and have even baptized people right in the ocean downtown Kona just in the past 2 weeks… it definitely hasn't been a boring start, for sure!

(( Most of the things I have shared have only been a very small part of what we are involved in here.  If you would like to know a bigger perspective of what we do, please visit the University Of The Nations website at:  http://www.uofnkona.edu and http://thecircuitrider.com/school-of-the-circuit-rider/ ))

I want to thank all of you for praying for me & supporting me.  You are such a powerful people and I am really thankful for your friendship and all you've done to invest in me whether it be through finances, prayers, phone calls & pictures and sweet little updates.

It is always a little hard to be so far away from the ones you've grown up with and have gone through so much with.  Please know I miss you guys a lot and cannot wait to see those of you in NC in October when I make a visit home!

I pray that this update leaves you with joy, excitement, and fresh faith to see what God wants to do around you!  The thing I love about Jesus is that He loves to "wow" all of His children and to do amazing things no matter where we are at in our own lives and no matter where we may reside in the world.  So I would challenge & encourage you to really seek the Lord on what He wants to do in your life this week!  He is just waiting for hungry, faith-filled children to ask and say yes to what He has!

Me and some of my best friends here leading a worship & prayer set on Revival in America together!
[Grace (leading intercession), Tyler, Miriam and I singing, and Carly (leading worship)]

I will let you go with a fun little picture of Loren Cunningham, who is the founder of YWAM, and I… At our weekly staff meeting with the whole base 2 days ago, Loren shared an amazing word with us and I thought to myself, "I've been under this mans leadership and benefiting from His obedience for 3 years now, I really should get a picture!" and so I did.  He proceeded to pat me on the head and ask me what I wanted to be when I grew up, because I am so short… then he chuckled at himself and called me cute.  It was a great moment, haha.  He is such a sweet man and I am so honored to be here bringing the Kingdom to earth and seeing lives radically changed for God's glory, and having a blast doing it.  

Thank you again!

Current Need:  In just a few short weeks The School Of The Circuit Riders starts in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.  During this week some of my friends are also getting married there.  I have really felt it from the Lord that I am suppose to be there for this week, and am in need of finances to be able to go.  Someone has pledged me that for every $1.00 I raise, they will match it!  Which is absolutely amazing!  Currently I have raised $70, which brings me to $140.  I need to raise $730 more to meet my goal of $1600 by the end of this week.

I ask that you would prayerfully consider supporting me, whether it be $100 or $1... every penny counts!

Freedom From Fear - Testimony!

What an incredible month it has been!!

Just a short testimony of my Amsterdam fundraising - I RECEIVED ALL OF MY FUNDS!!!  So it is officially official, I am headed to Amsterdam in a short 8 days!  I am so expectant of this trip, and in my spirit feel a lot more is going to happen than our team is expecting, and I cannot wait to see how it all unfolds!!
Thank you to every single person to gave, whether it was $5 or $200, every single dollar helped me make this dream a reality and I am so extremely grateful for your support!!

This past month for me has been absolutely FULL of breaking free of fear.  Well, let's just be honest, this past year has been pretty intense is overcoming fear, haha.  But this past month especially I have broken through so much, and I was just so excited that I had to share a little bit of it with you!
Most of you know that I have had so much fear & anxiety when it comes to speaking in front of people, so much so I will do everything possible for it not to happen.  Within the past 3 years, I have had crazy revelation that this is not my "personality", but the place the Lord has called me to thrive in, to set people free in, to bring peace & restoration to hearts, to speak life & bury death.  The enemy knew this was God's design over my life, and so my whole life he has tried to destroy that.  And for a long time I gave in to the fear, I gave in the anxiety, I gave in to the insecurity, I gave in to the plan of the enemy.
Over this past year, the Lord has not just been riding me of the fear of speaking in front of people, but going even deeper into the issues of my heart that create that fear.  He has been securing my identity in Him, and in Him alone.  When this happens, it no longer matters what other people think of you, because you are not performing for love... you are living out of a place of love.
This revelation has become even more real to me and alive in me as I have chosen to step out.

Two weeks ago I spoke at a Christian private highschool here in town.  For two days I shared on Identity through sharing my testimony and journey with the Lord over the past 10 years.  It was absolutely incredible!!  The second day I spoke to a group of 15 students who were 13-17 years old.  By the end of the class, not only was a student in tears after I called her higher in Jesus and started prophesying who he created her to be, but the principle was also in tears!!  As I was speaking, the Lord gave me this very intense vision of fear and anxiety leaving me as I was speaking.  It was as if glass was being violently & swiftly removed from my back by the words that were coming out of my mouth.  The more I spoke, the more free I felt, and the more free others become.  This day really marked a place in my heart and destroyed the thinking "What I have to say is not important".  I knew that that was a lie, because I saw the important in my words as students were falling in love with Jesus and finding out who they were.

Every Friday a group of us in the Leadership Track meet together for an Elective.  For 3 hours we are trained up into being better teachers and preachers.  One of our assignments this month was for us to be in groups and speak for a whole week in middle school or high school class on campus.  My friend Cammie and I spoke in the 6th grade class this past week.  Going in, we knew we were going to be speaking on Identity in Christ, but we didn't exactly know what the week was going to entail... But the Lord unfolded it so beautiful.
For the first part of the week, we each took a day to share our testimony of finding our identity in Christ.  On the third day Cammie led out identifying false identity and how to over come that.  We spoke a lot on the power of declaring scripture and the power of life and death in our tongue.  Then on the last day I led out Original Design.  Original Design is knowing the original intent of your life, the way God created it to be, before satan came in and began to speak to us lies about who we are.  We spend some time writing down 3 lies we've believed, then writing down the 3 truths about who God says we are.  THEN!  We all stood up on our chairs, all 15 of us, and we each declared one sentence of who we were.  It was one of the most beautiful times I've ever experienced.  One by one, each heart, had a revelation of what GOD says about THEM, and they declared it for all to hear.  Some started crying, as it was a struggle, and we were able to walk with them through the fear and into greater freedom.

This week was so powerful for me because I almost felt like I was one of the students... I am at the very beginning of a beautiful journey of not just believing in my head what God says about me, but believe it so much in my heart that my life reflects that truth.  I believed before that if I were to step out and speak up I would feel insecure, more fear & anxiety.  But what I actually felt was full peace, extreme freedom, and confident in being a daughter of Christ.

I hope this encourages all of you to really get the Lord's heart not only on situations in your life, but on YOU as a person who God is pursing and desires so deeply to walk through every part of life with.  If there are areas of fear, He wants to fill those up with His perfect love that casts out fear.  If there are areas of anxiety, He wants to give you His perfect peace which guards your heart and mind in Him.  If there are areas of loneliness, depression, oppression, ect. ect... He wants to reveal to you the amazing family that He has invited you into and show you a whole knew reality - His Kingdom on earth, in your very life.
In Hebrews 12 He says that He rewards those who seek Him.  This is a promise of God.  Seek Him! I promise you, you will not be disappointed.  He is a Father who loves to give His children good gifts!!



Below are some pictures of this past week in the Foundation School class here on Campus.  Hope you enjoy!

The Students speaking life over one another!

  

The whole beautiful class with Cammie and I and their teacher Jon

Me teaching them to put a stake in the ground that we will no longer believe what the enemy

says about us, but only God!!  After this was the declaring of who they were!!

If We Will Listen, We Will Obtain

It had been about 28-30 hours into this feeling, that hour by hour continued to overtake me.  My kindness began to wear thin, my patience was failing, dis-gratitude and annoyance grew thick, and I was growing weary, quick.  All desire to invest in people was quickly disappearing and all I wanted to do was crawl into bed and sleep it away.  I tried everything in the book.  Physically, I drank tons of water and I tried resting, I took a shower to see if that would calm my heart down.  Anxiety just grew, and nothing I was doing was helping.  I broke off, rebuked, repented, asked for prayer from a few close friends.  I filled myself up with truth, and declared the love of God over my heart.

Over the past week, I have been crying out for more hunger.  I have been pressing in for fresh revelation, from the Holy Spirit Himself, not through other peoples revelation.  I am tired of it being easy, and I was getting sick of not having to press in.  So I cried out.  I asked God for hunger; over, and over, and over again.  I desperately needed, not just an experience of God being close, but an awakening in my spirit to the reality of the goodness of God, and the reality of my weak self, so in need of a Savior.  I hate living in a robot mentality... from meeting to meeting, prayer set to worship set, intercession to contending, then a meeting, then worship, eat and sleep a little, have a little fun, intercession, worship.... It was become a routine, rather than a desperate cry for more.

I decided to go home and really get with God.  I needed to just seek Him, with only the sounds of birds and the wisp of the breeze.  So I did.  And in the midst of my wrestling inside, I felt Him speak to me...
"What if every action you did, brought in the Kingdom?  What if you lived a life where nothing hindered my presence?  What if this feeling never left; would you still seek me?  What if fear never entered your heart, and you lived - day in and day out, in that state?  What if you asked me first in every feeling what I wanted to reveal?  Beloved, I am teaching you to fight for yourself."  And in that moment I realized He was answering my prayers, and breaking my box of How I thought He was going to do it.  Hunger is refreshing & beautiful, in all it's messiness.

A dear friend of mine, dealing with somewhat of the same thing, said this, "Sometimes I am always fighting for others, that I forget to fight for myself."  Instantly I had a picture of Jesus, leaving the disciples, to get alone with God.  I believe part of that was Him fighting for Himself, for His own heart, for Truth to be resounding in every aspect of who He was, and that He would have the mind of the Father above His own.
I feel sometimes we get so caught up in believing things are from the enemy, that we discount the fact that, through everything, the Father wants to reveal His heart to His children.  I felt His spirit come upon me and I literally stopped in my tracks as He said "If you would quiet yourself, and listen, you will obtain much."  And even in the struggle within me, I choose to still my heart before Him... And though I did not "feel" still, I knew my spirit was ready to listen.  And a cry within my heart resounded "I will do anything Jesus."

I always want to be broken before Him, and aware of my need for Him.  I never want to be in a place where I think the methods I have used in the past will cure every situation.  I want my heart to be molded by His methods, not my own.  And although He is always constant, His way of doing things changes all the time.  I believe He does this so we don't start thinking it's our own selves alone that bring things to pass, but that He is always above... For we only know and see in part, but He knows the whole - from beginning to end.  And "He who began a good work in you will bring it to completion."

I believe He always wants to reveal things to us, but I believe we are on soil ground with the Father right now.  I think it's a very important time to press into His voice, to throw off our own rights and entitlements for things to go a certain way, and really listen to what He has to say for this time.  He has fresh bread, fresh revelation, and fresh wisdom & strategy for the age we are in.  We are being prepared for things far greater than we could understand, and He will be faithful to clothe us with the armor we need, because of our faithfulness and obedience to yield to Him, to His voice, and to His timing for things.