Over the last several weeks we have been praying for a very close family friends child, who truly needs a miracle. At times like these you sometimes want to question God, but really, he just wants us to dig deeper, pray harder and worship through the storm. So while I have enjoyed summer break so far, I have also spent many days digging deep into the word of God, seeking his face, praying for direction and allowing him to speak through me and in me.
I have heard these words “Coming Back to The Heart of Worship” play over and over again in my mind.
It brought me to a place of reflection.
A place I often find myself.
We all can admit that we have moments where we allow the busyness of life to get in the way. Perhaps the busyness can even cause us to lose focus and forget what truly lies deep within us. Maybe lose sight of how to truly bombard heaven with prayer. Maybe we push aside how we are supposed to truly hunger and thirst for more of God. Maybe we even try to forget that if we want to see change that we have to be the change.
We have all walked different journeys in our life, and we all have a story to tell.
My story is different from yours but that is what makes us unique, that is what makes us the body of Christ. We all come into the house of the Lord with stories to tell. Stories that can touch and change lives moment by moment and piece by piece. Sometimes what we don’t realize is we may be the very missing piece to the puzzle, to not just our puzzle but this huge, gigantic puzzle of life.
I am thankful for my story, for my journey. For it has not defined me, but it has shaped me.
When I hear the words “Coming back to the Heart of Worship”, so many things immediately come to my mind.
But first let me walk you down my past, for it leads me to this very moment.
19 years ago, at the age of 8 I was saved. I asked the Lord to come and live and breathe inside of my very heart. At the age of 12 I was filled with the holy spirit, and At the age of 12 I experienced the presence of the Lord in ways that I probably can’t even fully begin to describe, ways that most people would probably look at me today and think I was crazy.
15 years ago my home church in Florida experienced an incredible move and outpouring of the holy spirit. I have always grown up in the church from the time I was born. Any time the doors were open my family was there. We were the first to arrive and the last to leave. When revival began, I remember spending my friday nights as a young pre-teen worshipping the Lord for hours upon hours, not caring about anything but basking in the presence of the almighty. As I sit here today and write about what I saw, what I felt, what was prophesied, I can only pray and hope that we will see these days again. That the body of christ will be so hungry and thirsty for more of him that it doesn’t matter what time church is over, that it doesn’t matter if we worship for an hour, that it doesn’t matter who is or isn’t there but that what matters is the people of God bombarding heaven and seeking the Lords face. No matter what it takes sometimes all the Lord asks is that we truly seek him with everything.
I remember as a little girl, I would sit at the altar praying and worshipping with my friends. There was a tremendous outpouring during our friday night revival services. One friday night they specifically asked for those that wanted to be filled with the holy spirit to come forward. I knew the Lord was tugging at my heart-strings. My body literally felt like it was on fire and all I could do was weep. I remember my pastor began to lay his hands on me and pray, I could feel the presence of the Lord so strong. In those moments I knew the Lord had placed a calling deep within my heart, but I wouldn’t know or understand would be the depths of that calling until years down the way. But what I did know that night was that my life was changed forever and I was filled with the holy spirit. I felt the power of God like I had never felt before.
I could tell countless more stories of how mightily the Lord moved. I remember another friday night we had a prayer tunnel, all the visiting pastors and staff asked for those that simply just wanted more of God to make their way through the tunnel. There wasn’t one person left in their seat that night, everybody began to move. I remember the closer we got, the more you could feel the presence of the Lord. It was as if you stepped into a river of anointing. So powerful.
Even though I was only 12, God did some incredible things in my life. Things that are unchangeable, irreplaceable, moments that I will remember and thank the Lord everyday that he has equipped me to pray, to intercede, to war in the spirit realm, to persevere, to worship unashamed with my whole heart, to thank him everyday even in the moments of confusion and doubt, to trust him continually and to know that I wasn’t just equipped so I could talk about it but that I was equipped so that I could be used by him.
So jump ahead to my life now at the age of 27. What the Lord did in my life 15 years ago was preparing me for what I would face in the years ahead. I look back and see why the Lord equipped, why he chose me. There have been many hard days and moments throughout my life where I needed to be fully equipped to fight battles, to pray and war in the spirit realm, to persevere, to climb mountains and walk through valleys, to learn to trust and to be reminded daily that his ways are higher than mine and his plan for my life has and always will be greater than I could ever dream of.
God has shown himself mightily to me in so many ways. He has been faithful, his promises have not wavered, his timing has always been impeccable, his love has been unconditional, he has never left my side but he has given me hopes, dreams and promises that have been filled and have yet to be filled.
There have still been moments in my life of struggle as we probably all can attest to, but in those moments there is one thing that remains the same in my life. I always find myself “Coming Back to The Heart of Worship”. There is nothing more powerful than worship to the Lord. For in worship you allow yourself to become undone in his presence, you allow yourself to be free, you allow yourself to open up to him and be willing to hear his still small voice.
For me my outlet is not just worship but prayer. When I pray, there are truly moments when I feel heaven literally bust wide open and rain down.
So these last few weeks have been a reminder to me of where I come from and the foundation that was instilled into me at such a young age and a mother who continually and daily prayed for me and taught me what it was to be a woman of God.
In these weeks, God has shown me that what he has given to me is not for the faint of heart, is not for me to just sit back and watch but it is for me to continue to be fully used by God. I remember during one service as I laid on the church floor, tears streaming down my face and crying out for more of him, I said these words ” Lord send me to the nations”, although I have not literally gone to the nations, I feel like I have gone to many nations within the journeys I have traveled and the paths that I have crossed. I know that the Lord still has incredible plans for Tyler and I. We don’t know what that is,but what we do know is that we serve a God whose faithfulness is bigger than any mountain we will ever climb and his love for us is deeper than we can ever imagine. So together we will continue to serve him with our whole hearts, unashamed and willing to go and be wherever he wants us to be.
Together we will continue to “Come Back to The Heart of Worship.”
Joy in The Journey 