Everything is so different here. The spiritual climate is intense and great and so real. The evidence of a true relationship with God is so apparent in the lives of these people. Tonight was the Vision Banquet for the church and on the way there, the girl I rode with said, “Hey girls, let’s pray for tonight.” And another girl said, “Wow, I was thinking the exact same thing!” I didn’t pray because I didn’t even know what to pray for (haha!), but we already had worship music playing in the car so we began praying in tongues and each girl led out.
This church is BUILT on prayer. It is the absolute foundation of the church and it is of the utmost importance. On Saturday nights the church gathers to worship and pray for over 2 hours. WOW! That was Day 2 of GI and a great way to start off a weekend of services across Seattle. Worship and prayer were SO made for each other and I LOVE that this church has a live worship band to sort of “kickoff” the time of prayer. It just prepares your heart and makes the prayer part so much easier…. Pastor Judah said it so well during the prayer service that as you adore, magnify, and focus on Jesus, you can’t help but talk to Him! It’s so true. I always thought of prayer meetings as being sterile, serious, and a “cold turkey” style of praying, but this has changed my mind. It’s so easy to worship and pray for 2 hours!
I’m quickly learning that preparation and expectation can make or break my experiences in corporate gatherings. When we don’t take the time to prepare and expect, our corporate experiences end up becoming a spiritual light switch that we turn on or off. There’s no deep connection, no practical application, and no lasting fruit. When we do take those few extra minutes in the car or whatever, it’s a more steady flow, if you will. God’s presence and anointing don’t start and stop - rather, they are constant and ever-present, waiting for us to simply acknowledge and respond. Playing worship music in my car before and after service prepares and maintains my heart - keeps me in a state of worship and brings my attention back to God. And as I stir myself up, or as my spirit man is released and allowed to be free, my expectation for the corporate gathering grows. I’m preparing my own heart and raising my own expectations for what God wants to do and say during the service - in my own life as well as the lives of others. I think that’s a massive part of being a mature Christian - we’re no longer dependant upon the worship leader to lead us into the presence of God, or to get us excited about God. No - we’re taking ownership and ENTERING the service with focused, grateful, worshipful hearts - ready to lavish our King with praises and adoration. We’ve taken the time to prepare our hearts before God - to leave our baggage, our stressful weeks, dysfunctional family situations, discouraging thoughts, etc. behind and enter His courts with thanksgiving. Can you imagine how much that would bless your worship leader??? As a worship leader myself, I’ve noticed that people can become dependant on whoever is leading the music a certain week and lose focus of what it is we’re after here, which is Jesus. At times, it felt like every week I was reminding the people WHO God is and WHY He’s worthy of our praise. BUT WAIT!!! I’m exhorting the mature Christians who should already know why our God is so great and greatly to be praised! When each individual, each family that comes to church takes the time to set their hearts on the loving Creator of all, which in turn builds their expectation, you’ll see and experience a huge change in the spiritual climate of the service. I dare you! TRY IT! I know it would bless your worship leader tremendously and would allow them to truly focus on listening to the voice of the Holy Spirit instead on dragging you into the presence of the Most Holy One.
Everybody’s been saying how awesome this year is going to be for us 1st-year interns and how, by the end of the year, we’re not even going to know who we were when we started. And that’s all cool and fun, but I totally felt God speaking to me during the prayer meeting. Tears began to fall from my eyes as I just opened my spirit and received the word that the Lord was speaking to me: I’m in for the ride, opportunity, and experience of my life - I’m going to be so changed and different - I’m meant to be here.
This was my first time ever attending a Sunday morning service, and it was FANTASTIC. We ended up sitting in the front row! It was so crazy sitting there listening to Pastor Judah preach and thinking, “Wow…. This is my church now; he’s my pastor now.” (I guess it’s the whole ownership thing and adjusting to the new things that are happening!) Worship was great and had a good mix of songs from everybody - one of their own original songs, one by Hillsong, one by Leeland, one by Chris Tomlin, and one other I think. A little while later Pastor Judah came up and preached from Ephesians 2:1-10, primarily focusing on the last verse and the phrase “prepared beforehand.” It was PERFECT and just the thing all of us 1st-years needed to hear. GO DOWNLOAD THE MESSAGE RIGHT NOW!!! I’m just so confident that this is where I’m meant to be and I can now rest in that and enjoy this journey that’s unfolding before me. This is destiny!
I’m meeting the greatest people here. One girl’s in her mid-twenties I think and she’s been heralded as one of the greatest worship leaders from Christ for the Nations in Texas with a voice like Janice Joplin! Her voice is beautiful and you can tell she’s anointed to lead worship. (So many girls here can sing and have hearts for worship! I believe worship team auditions are in a few weeks, so that should be fun.)
One of my neighbors is named Alyona (pronounced “Alana”) and she’s Ukranian. She is my hero! Seriously! She was a 1st-year intern last year, and then went back to her home church to start an internship program there. (Her parents are the senior pastors of a church there.) She took the lessons she learned and translated them. (Our book is MASSIVE, by the way.) Our internship program is 9 months long, and we cover 1 lesson a day for 3 days each week. Alyona’s program was over the summer and they covered 3 lessons a day for 5 days, so they covered all the material! (Do keep in mind that she’s a WOMAN in the UKRAINE) By the end of the summer, 170 young people graduated. 170!!!!!! It’s so amazing! And now, she’s back to do the 2nd-year program. And that’s not even her full testimony…. She shared with me how she even got to be a part of the GI program and how God did some serious work in her life and proved Himself to be faithful. It was hard, difficult, but it paid off - 170 people’s lives are now ruined forever! She plays the piano and we got to worship together for over an hour yesterday which was so fun! God is knitting our hearts together and she says I’m one of her heroes, too, although I don’t know why…. We both have the utmost respect and love for each other, even though I have no idea why she thinks of me in that way! I’ve done nothing compared to what she’s done, but we’re so grateful for each other and I’m excited to see our friendship grow in the months ahead.
