Many apologies for how late this blog is! Life has been truly crazy this last few weeks; but no excuses, my bad!
To say that God has been moving through this place is a complete understatement. The amount of retained learning and growth that has taken place the last weeks has been HUGE. Thus far, we've had these topics during our lecture phase: evangelism, culture of honor, spiritual warfare, character and nature of God, and the Cross. The two teachings that have had the largest impact on my life so far have been the cross and spiritual warfare. I could speak for hours about all that I have learned and all that I have been going through here, so if you have any questions or would like to hear about anything in more detail, please do not hesitate to drop me an email! I would love to talk more about any of these topics of our spiritual journey. I'd like to share with you a few events/life lessons that have been strongly put on my heart the last few weeks.
We had the opportunity this last Tuesday to put on a Christmas gathering at a men's prison facility about an hour away from our base. The morning before we left, we had a time of intercession where we prayed for the people we would come into contact with there and for the Holy Spirit to move through the prison. During the time of intercession, many of us were given visions, words, phrases, and bible verses. I was given a vision of Isaiah 42 and a very large black man. I had never read this chapter out of the bible before except for verse 16, so I had really no idea what the entire chapter was about. We shared with the group what we received from the spirit, if anything, about the prison visit. I was hesitant at first to share my visions because I thought they were so random, but I felt so strongly that i should speak up about them. So I did. I came to find out that Isaiah 42 is about the servant of the Lord, it speaks on freeing the captives from prison and leading the blind out of darkness. It not only brought new meaning to my vision, but quickly became a favorite chapter in the bible. Now I know that the vision of Isaiah 42 spoke truth about the prison, what about the man I saw in my vision? Wouldn't you know that about an hour into being at the prison out of no where came a huge black man that walked straight up to me and talked to me for the entire time we spent at the prison. His name was Kevin and he was from Nigeria. We talked, laughed, prayed, hugged, and he shared with me a lot about his past. It hit me half way through that Kevin is God's Isaiah 42. Kevin had faith in Jesus as His savior, but didn't quite know what exactly to do about it. My leader and I had the privilege to pray over Him and hopefully speak some truth to Him. With about 30 minutes left in our visit, I went outside because I felt led to simply pray for Kevin and our time there by myself. I prayed that if it be God's will, would He keep Kevin and I in contact when I leave so that I may have a hand in continually praying for him. When I walked back into the room where everyone was, Kevin handed me a slip of paper with his phone number and email address! I'm not kidding, I felt as if God himself was handing me this slip of paper. In all honesty, I've heard stories from other people about God giving them visions and prophecies and seeing them come true and what not, but it was always hard for me to realize or comprehend it because I have yet to witness it myself. This was God's first stamp in my gifts of the spirit passport: prophecy. To completely put this into perspective for you, would it help if I told you I've been praying for gifts of the spirit for two weeks now? God truly answers when we knock on His door, when we seek His truth and when we ask in Jesus' name. Continue to be faithful in the little things and God will truly begin to be faithful in bigger things. I could go on and on about this topic and what has happened to me over the last couple weeks because this is only the tip of the iceberg; so again, please don't hesitate to email me and ask me about it.
One more massive lesson I've learned since being here. I am supposed to be here right now. How simple does that sound? I am supposed to be right here, in Davos, right now. God knew I wasn't ready for what He had in store for me prior to me coming here. I know He is molding and pruning me to become the man I am supposed to be so that I can fully live in Him and accomplish His will. With that said, I've been seeking confirmation the last week or two on certain specific details of my life (one being the gifts of the spirit and that one is surely being answered as I write this). I'd like to ask you to pray for me regarding confirmation on the other details. Without telling you any of them, if you are given any thoughts, feelings, or visions while praying please email them to me! I would not only be thoroughly encouraged to hear your thoughts, but they could very well be the words God desires for me to hear.
Thank you for the continual encouragement and support that I have received, it means more to me than you know! I pray that all is well with you and that God is at work in each of you. I miss you all!
