I wonder how many of you came rushing to the blog freaking out to see if I really got married! As you can probably guess, I didn't get married; well, not in the normal physical sense we all know of. This past Saturday night I was married with Christ and the Holy Spirit. I was baptized for the first time in my life! Now let me tell you about this last week and how it came about, this story is awesome. I call this first section "The Turning Point."
So for the last few months the idea of being baptized has been on my heart. My whole life I have justified not getting baptized for various reasons: waiting for the right time, being stubborn and wanting it to be perfect, desiring for everyone I know to be there, etc. I have justified it one way or another time and time again since I was 15. With that said, God really stirred things up in me two weekends ago and beat out the stubborn mentality from inside me. However, that wasn't enough. The following Tuesday, our speaker gave us some prophetic words that he received for us and what he told me was so incredibly from God. He envisioned
me coming to Jesus and being handed a huge goblet full of His living water, and instead of drinking it in I poured it over my head and let it soak my whole body. If this wasn't confirmation for me to get baptized then I don't know what is! Later that evening, since that huge prophecy obviously couldn't be enough for me, during lecture our speaker spoke about John the Baptist and Jesus' baptism out of Matthew 3. At this point I was freaking out and I hadn't told anyone yet; so after the lecture I stayed around to talk to the speaker about it and just "by chance" my two leaders Vince and Arnauld wanted to stick around also to speak with him. So I filled them all in on how it came about that I feel like the time is now to get baptized and Arnauld goes on to say that God has placed a huge feeling inside of him this last week that somebody is going to need to get baptized, he just didn't speak up about it because he didn't want to put any pressure on anyone. Little did Arnauld know that I wasn't the only one feeling they needed to get baptized. After I shared with the group that I'm getting baptized this weekend, JP, Travis and Michael all jumped out of their seats and wanted to be baptized as well. It was like God was using my stepping out to open the doors for others to receive this marriage. Interesting how the hearts of those who were burning for baptism are all also going to Japan together, that is so awesome. "The Turning Point" is now accomplished, and now God is moving me into the next section called: "Let's Get Physical."
This section is everything that happened between Wednesday morning and the 5pm Saturday evening. As many of you know, my girlfriend Kirsten came to visit on Wednesday morning and I can honestly tell you that I don't think either of us could have pictured a better five days spent not only together, but also with Jesus. Wednesday was also the start of a massive event we put on called Worship & Ride where we had around 110 people here from across Europe for two days worshiping God and shredding the mountain together. It was unreal to say the least. Our times of worship turned into times of healing where some of us were blessed with the gift of healing and God put us to work. We had shoulders healed, necks healed, a certain man had a flat foot and hadn't been able to snowboard for six years and then after we prayed over him his foot had an arch and he went snowboarding the next day for the first time! I'm telling you, it was crazy! I haven't felt the Holy Spirit that intense in my whole life, it was insane. Now moving onto Friday, I was in a rather sad mood all morning because I was allowing the enemy to fill my mind with lies and deceptions about myself. Lies that made me believe that I'm not good enough and that I don't deserve love; they crippled me and broke me down to the point that I had to leave in the middle of a lecture because I felt my tear ducts about to overflow. I left with my journal thinking I was going write all my feelings out and as soon as I found a random little room where I could be by myself I put my journal on the ground and immediately broke down and wept. Please do not feel any pity of sadness about this because this might of been one of the most influential and significant revelations of my life. For the first time in my life I felt the Hand of God touch me and He went directly to my heart. He stripped away all the lies that I came to believe and and filled me with His love and truth. I audibly heard Him tell me "I love you" and I felt His arms wrap around me. My tears immediately turned into tears of joy and love. This was the first time I have ever felt His touch and heard His audible voice. I mean, I have been a witness to God working in my life, but I hadn't ever truly felt Him and heard Him like this. I couldn't sit still and stop shaking for a few hours after this took place and God filled me with His spirit and gave me a ton of prophetic encouraging words for some of the people here. God took my brokenness, took my imperfections, and has shown me unconditional love and let me tell you, it is intoxicating. Since that moment on Friday I have literally been on cloud nine learning what it means to truly live in Christ's love and not just knowing He loves me. It is hard to even express what this new heart feels like, it is unbelievable. Now onto the section you've all been waiting for: "The Marriage."
The staff here pulled a lot of strings so that we could use the indoor pool in our complex (I don't think anyone knew we even had a pool). So I was the last of us four boys to be baptized and we each had a little different way of doing it. When I first got into the pool, I spoke for a minute or two about why I am doing this and confessing my faith in Him. Basically saying my vows as in a marriage. Then I had my good friend Chantal read Psalm 139:1, 14, 23-24 and then Kirsten read Romans 8:37-39 over me. I had chosen these passages through out the last week because of their importance in my relationship with God. Then I had Vince and Arnaud baptize me in the name of the Father, Son and the Holy Spirit and as soon as I came up out of the water I felt so incredibly energized! Through this whole time I had a song playing by Lifehouse called "Everything" and as soon as I exited the water, if you know the song, it hit the really awesome and intense part. Then they all laid their hands on me and prayed and spoke words of encouragement over me. If that wasn't special enough, they asked Kirsten to come in and they did the same over both of us. It was such a special time, God definitely demonstrated His love to me that night. I realized that the time isn't in the future, but the time is now to take that next step with Him. I realized how monumental of a step it is to be baptized, I feel as if God has opened my eyes and my heart more to Him so that I can draw even closer to Him. So, now you know who I am married too!
Wow, this is probably the longest blog I will ever write! I miss you all a ton and truly wish you could have been here this last weekend, but know you were all here in my heart! I hope that you all had a wonderful Christmas and a fabulous new year! Ciao!
