Deluge Ministry Night

Yesterday, after the M:X teams for Bolivia left the building, Becky came over to spend the afternoon with me before Deluge that night. The whole time she was over, my family was driving me crazy. I was feeling physically drained and was very irritable and impatient with all who crossed my path. At some points, I felt like steam was coming out of my ears. Around 6:30, Rach, Lyd, Beck, and I headed out the door to leave for the Deluge meeting. It took us a little while to actually drive away though because the younger kids swarmed outside and shot in five different directions as I futilely tried to chase them in. not funny, esp. since we were already running late.]

A couple minutes after arriving at the church building, Jesse (my youth pastor) asked how I was doing. After the automatic "I'm doing well," it hit me "no, that's not quite right" and after a second of hesitation, I told him how stressed out I was about the day as well as big upcoming changes like starting Valencia. He said that he'd pray for me as I went into the meeting, which was an encouragement.

As I walked into the chapel, I started talking to my friend Ariel and her two sisters and asked if they could pray for me as well, which they did right then and there (love them!). We went into worship, and partway through, God started convicting me of my sinful attitude that day. I leaned over to Lydia and asked for her forgiveness, and did the same with my mom. Let me tell you...that is all of God's grace that He put me in a posture of humility...naturally, I am quite the proud one.

After a few songs, Jesse came to the mike and started talking about how God desires for His people to be full of the Holy Spirit. He said that we'd be spending an extended time in ministry that night, for he sensed there were several specific groups God wanted to address.

Jesse asked for those whom want to be given the gift of prophecy to raise their hands. He named two guys in our youth group whom he sensed that God specifically wanted to become pillars of the church in this spiritual gift. People then gathered around and prayed for them.

He asked for those whom have a burden on their hearts to change culture to raise their hands, which I did. Over the past couple of years, this area has been huge for me and has taken many of my thoughts and prayers. I hate abortion. I hate the way our country is trying to shut God out of everything. I hate how teenagers/young adults shun responsibility and chase after the fleeting pleasures of this world. I hate abuse within families. I hate the liberalism and false philosophies most of our schools and colleges teach and promote. I hate not knowing where to start and feeling inadequate to bring change. Anyway, people gathered around to pray for those of us who raised our hands.

Jesse then said he had a sense that there were a group of the youth (and named one guy in particular) who God has enabled to see through the superficiality and shallowness of relationships within the church. . .those who will lead the way to genuine, Biblical fellowship. We prayed for them...and then...

Last of all, he asked for those who want to be baptized in the Holy Spirit (which we have talked about in previous meetings) to make their way to the back of the chapel where there was room to kneel and pray. I immediately thought "I should go" but then the doubt started coming on and I hesitated. "Come on," I told myself, "you have gone twice before in church meetings to ask God for this, but nothing has happened. What makes you think it will be different this time?? There are only two other people back there (guys at that), and it is gonna be pretty awkward. You should just maybe kinda pass."

Okay, so that is all I have time to write right now...and your eyeballs are probably about to fall out from reading this far (if you have, haha)... I'll finish my little story later. ;)