Mercy Always Wins

When you're put in a leadership position, your perspective of things severely changes, you become aware of things you wouldn't have noticed before, you're more sensitive to distractions, feel a lot more pressure..haha it's nice to just come and receive, but it's even greater to grow.

Tonight we had worship and prayer at Roasters.. the last couple times it's been amazing, not a whole lot of distractions, pretty easy to engage.. tonight was just as amazing if not more because we really had to press through some hard stuff at the beginning. First off we had...I think close to 20 people which the most we've had, in the past was like..10 haha so I'm definitely celebrating that factor, that's just awesome that our size doubled from tuesday night. Before I even got to Roasters, I was already kind of frazzled so when a lot of people started showing up, it felt almost overwhelming because I was behind the bar making drinks, along with our people showing up came about 6 people that were not with us, but thought we were open so came in and ordered some drinks..I was all alone making the drinks, so Audra got a little stressed with the atmosphere. It was loud, people were all over the place, I had MANY drinks I had to make while also thinking ahead to the time I would have to take to clean everything up. Even in my writing, I feel the anxiety that just kind of settled on myself and a couple of our leaders during this. I was kind of communicating with Cam and Kate with my eyes, just saying "This is crazy" and sensing their agreement back. When it came time for us to start everyone was hyped up on caffeine-thanks to me lol the first couple songs were majorly challenging for me, people were still talking and laughing loudly while others were trying to engage, but were almost hesistant because of the atmosphere that was previously set. I just felt the snicker from satan as if to say "ha yeah, try and worship in this. good luck". As the leader of this, I was pretty focused on all the distractions in the room and trying to figure out the best way to eliminate them while still keeping my focus on Christ. I felt a pull- would I give in to my frustration and let it define the night, or could I allow the Lord's grace and mercy to triumph over evil... the song "Holy" by Matt Gilman came on and that song is weighty, it's powerful. I began to feel the shift in the room. Certain songs just pertain that aroma of the Lord that's just irresistable, you can't help but be captivated by His glory and presence. "Holy" was that song. From that point on, I took that shift that I felt, and ran with it. Even though, in the distracting moments, I was challenged by the Lord to search within myself and find my purpose for this night. It wasn't to try and eliminate distractions, it was to bring praise to my King, that's what it's always about.. so I made that my focus, made Him my focus alone, and fell into Him...as did everyone else. It's incredible how worship completely silences the enemy, worship IS the elimination to the distraction.

With that said, Mercy always wins.

A Life Worth Living

I gave in, I created a blog. I realized that there's too much happening, the time that we're in, the places our generation is going, I can't be silent, I won't be silent any longer. So, this has to be like, my 3rd blog I've created..lol but this blog will have purpose.. just like my life. I won't live just an ordinary life, just be a common person doing common things writing common blogs. I have to have purpose, I want to be a temple that hosts the glory of God. I might not have very many readers, but if I can just encourage one life, of one reader, I'll feel accomplished. The time we are in, is unlike any other time in all of history, my generation is truly different from every other generation before us.. the movement that is taking place right now, will change the world. A good friend was sharing with me last night about a word our generation has been given- we are a generation that is experiencing a level of intimacy that is so deep into the Lord, that we are able to carry and maintain the glory of His presence..and because of that we are impacting every aspect of our culture. People don't know it yet, don't recognize the shift that is taking place, it's still somewhat under the radar, but it won't remain that way for much longer..in fact it's happening right now. Burning young people are rising up who have said "yes" no matter what the cost, and because of that, nations are literally about to be impacted by the manifestation of the Holy Spirit.. we've contended for it, and will continue to do so. Revival is not an event, it's a movement, one that will be passed down from generation to generation.
Are you ready to go deep? Are you willing to be led into the darkest of places? Do you trust the Lord enough to let Him lead you without you knowing the destination? ...Me too.