The Roof Came Off Just Before I Took a 7.5 Hour Bath

A little reminder that I am rolling back the clock and sharing what’s happened over the past couple of months as I transition off the field and into a new job.

 

While In Guatemala, we hosted three Beauty for Ashes events. We invited the women of the households from all over the Blessing and got down to business. The last night, we had a full house, people from wall to wall. As the team gathered to pray beforehand, it felt like there was a magnet in the center, I felt a strong sense of Unity between us, and then we broke and splintered off in every direction. Scott raced upstairs for childcare, Nolo, Aaron, and I cruised down the road to pick up my precious friend D, Lindsey, Allie, and Alayna darted over to usher the women inside and strike up conversations, catching up since we’d last seen them.

As the night progressed, something was shifting in the room. Week by week, all of us got more comfortable together, but this week was something else. I felt that same presence among us as we taught about forgiveness. As women stepped forth to give back to the Lord their offenses, their hurts, their woundings, God filled up those empty places. God healed hearts in that place. God stirred up hope in the building. How many of us don’t even bother approaching God for healing when we know we’ve got stuff there? We’re either too proud to admit we need help, worshipping a false God that we have to perform for for Him to love us and therefore too scared to ask for help, or too shy, thinking that God doesn’t care about all that little stuff.

I will go toe to toe with you and bet all my marbles on a resounding “Yes. He does care.” There is a blatant humility in willingness to step forward and ask God for help. That is a reflection of relationship. Our unforgiveness makes us targets for demonic strongholds and influence, to fall into deception, to become resistant to the Holy Spirit and healing. We’ve gotta let Him into our junk and the first step to that is an examination to see if we’re holding anybody in debt to us. The second step is releasing them to the Lord to deal with as He sees fit. We saw fruit of this process in the minutes to come in a WILD WILD way.

The Holy Spirit was tangibly, obviously in the room. It seemed as though the roof was torn off, there was nothing whatsoever between us and heaven. I don’t know that I had ever been so directly involved in stewarding the presence of God. Guitars were set down as prophecies were given. Tears were rolling down most every cheek. God met with His people in that place. It’s a beautiful thing to let yourself relax into the presence of a Loving God. I’m imagining ‘Crickey’ from Mulan in the matchmaker’s teacup.
The next milestone in Guatemala for me was the seven and a half hours of baptisms that we held for the squad. If you had been in the room, you would have watched many tears of relief and release, heard every single person get prophesied over, seen some people get dunked multiple times, 28 people sitting criss cross apple sauce in a bathtub one at a time and encountering the spirit of God. We had people mopping up after everyone who went, an entire bathroom packed to the brim with interceders, the bedroom outside of that overflowing with worshippers, our leadership team hunched over for all that time, pouring themselves out for everyone who choose to get in the bath. I watched people go under the water and come up looking very…childlike. Fresh, joyful…clean. I watched other people get in and immediately start weeping, or become completely still, or watched demons flee at the powerful presence of the Spirit of God. Some people got in multiple times. Some people rested in the water. Some people got their prayer languages in the water, or right afterwards. Every single person got in and got refilled afresh with the Holy Spirit. We were glowing for weeks after that.

Moments before all of that began, I’d found myself offending somebody that I deeply love and admire. After offering an apology and asking for forgiveness, I felt like I got hit by a Holy Spirit hair dryer where all my worry and nervousness and desire for control over the other person’s reaction got blasted off of me in one fell swoop. I had done what I could do and there was nothing more I had to offer to rectify the situation. I had to wait on God. I was given the ability to turn my attention to what God had for me and away from the problem I had created. As a recovering people pleaser, that alone was a HUGE milestone for me.

At the very end of the night, we finished the last baptism, my dear friend Lindsey, I stepped out for a moment as we all contemplated whether or not our leadership team was going to be baptized ourselves. When I returned to the room, my whole body responded to how heavily the presence of God was resting in that place. On one hand, I couldn’t believe that I had been in there for so long operating normally, and on the other hand I suddenly understood why seven and a half hours had felt like three, tops.

That was not only one of the best days of all my races, but that was actually one of the best days of my LIFE thus far. What a thrill to partner with God, to do things that can ONLY BE ATTRIBUTED TO HIS SPIRIT. I long for the day the church stops trying to build the church and make disciples without the Holy Spirit.

LOVE YOU GUUUYSSSSS

THANK YOU FOR READING!!!!