God's Longing for His People

Isaiah writes,

"Fear not, for I have redeemed you;

I have summoned you by name;

you are mine.

When you pass through the waters,

I will be with you;

and when you pass through the rivers,

they will not sweep over you.

When you walk through the fire,

you will not be burned;

the flames will not set you ablaze.

For I am the Lord, your God,

the Holy One of Israel, your Savior;

I give Egypt for your ransom,

Cush and Seba in your stead.

Since you are precious and honored in my sight,

and because I love you,

I will give men in exchange for you,

and people in exchange for your life."

God, out of his compassion for his lost people, could no longer stand by waiting for his people to return to Him; the Lord himself speaks in Isaiah 42:14:

"For a long time I have kept silent,

I have been quiet and held myself back.

But now, like a woman in childbirth;

I cry out, I gasp and pant.

I will lay waste the mountains and hills and dry up their vegetation;

I will turn rivers into islands and dry up the pools.

I will lead the blind by ways they have not known,

along unfamiliar paths I will guide them;

I will turn the darkness into light before them and make the rough places smooth.

These are the things I will do, I will not forsake them."

Because of love, God turned back to us; broken and in our depravity. He reached into the depths, thereby shedding his sovereignty, if only for a moment, in order to find his people.

He groaned and longed, as a woman in the throes of childbirth, for his people to return to him.

His heart has always been for us, never against us.

Jesus reached out, not to strike with the wrath of Heaven, but to bring his people back to Him.

Jesus' own were so important to Him, he made himself nothing; relenting all his authority for the sake of His people. He associated with people of the lowest sort, never once refusing a beggar or sinner his inheritance in the kingdom of God.

So we come to this day, knowing that our God has come through His son, Jesus, so that we may once again have the relationship with God that captured David's heart. We now have access to the streams of living water-where there once were deserts, there are now streams of life.

We are the culmination of thousands of years of waiting, and the scriptures tell us that the time is coming and has now come where the glory of the Lord will be revealed, and all mankind together will see it. (Isaiah 40:5)

You were made for such a time as this.

Prayer of Jabez- The Remix

"Oh that You would bless me indeed,
And enlarge my heart,
That your love would be within me,
And that you would keep me in Your arms,
That I may be forever Yours"

And God granted the request.

(Remixed version of "The Prayer of Jabez" from 1 Chron 4:10)

Pt.1 God Lands in Disneyland!!! (Part 1 of 4) Healng Revival

Videos to go with the post below!! Find Pt 2-4 on youtube

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Healings at Disneyland

*This story was pulled from the Bethel Church testimonies website. It is too good not to share.

I went down to see my best friend, Jason Tax, in Los Angeles, just to visit for a week and hang out—and who knows what adventure the Holy Spirit might lead us into. Jay and I love to do street evangelism together. On the way down, I saw a Disneyland sign, and I remembered the times of lying on my bed dreaming with the Holy Spirit of revival inside the theme park. I thought, “Wow that would be cool if that ever happened for real.”

I had the privilege of speaking at my friend’s church on Wednesday night, and after the service, a lady asked me if I wanted a free ticket to Disneyland the following day. Yippie, Jesus. I thought, Wow! Those tickets are $94!

Jason Tax, Hannah Ford and I went to Disneyland to have a great day in the sun with the Son—and God set us up through one key miracle of a young man’s shoulder that was in a sling. We approached him and asked if we could pray for healing. Jesus instantly completely healed his shoulder and he removed his sing and began to test it out. He started crying from God’s goodness, and he told us how he could not raise it at all because of a fresh torn rotator cuff injury. He then started raising his arm over his head and moving it as freely as the other one. His friends explained how he is the star football player at their school and he would have had to take the entire year off from football after his scheduled surgery, so we explained the gospel of Jesus Christ and the miracles to the group of eight or so, and they all got saved and filled with the Holy Spirit, and two of them got healed—one of scoliosis. The other had Jesus grow out his leg as his friends all looked on.

They all started freaking out, and the heavenly momentum hit and it erupted into an all-out Holy Spirit healing miracle service in the Disneyland food court for four and a half hours as groups of young people got their friends and brought them back to us for healing. They would come to us and say, “Can you heal this?” as they would point to a lump on their knee or a bad ankle. We would answer something like, “We can not heal anything but Jesus can heal everything and that same Jesus is in you now, so everyone put your hand on this person and say, ‘Be healed in Jesus’ name! Now test it out.’” Really, that’s how we prayed: “Be healed! Now test it out.” Almost every healing was instant as the looks of shock appeared on the faces, then praise and cheers to Jesus would erupt from the crowd of youth!

Flat feet were healed as arches formed in front of everyone to witness. One girl was so scared as her friends dragged her up to us. She was almost crying from fear. We told her, “Hon, you have nothing to be afraid of. This is Jesus and He loves you very much.” She had extreme scoliosis and a dislocated thumb that was in a hand brace. She was still very much afraid so we told her, “We won’t even need to touch you because the glory is here. Just remove your brace and move your thumb around.” She did and her thumb was instantly healed. We asked her to touch her toes and then check her back out. She did and her friends lifted up the back of her shirt to check out her spine. They all screamed because it was now perfectly straight. Jesus! We asked her if she knew Jesus, and she said no. We told her it was Jesus who just healed her and asked her if she would like to know that Jesus? She said yes, so she got saved and then we explained to her about being filled with the Holy Spirit and she said she wanted Him, too! So we asked her to put her hands out in front of her and say, “Holy Spirit, come and fill me up. I give my life to you.” She started shaking under the power of God. God is soooo good!

We witnessed bone knots dissolve from knees, asthma healed, crooked knees straightened out, and eyes healed. Some protruding ribs were pulled back into the chest. Even gold dust showed up on many and three youths experienced supernatural weight loss as their once tight pants got looser and looser. Screams erupted as one man grew an inch taller while everyone looked on.

A super cool thing was how each kid got saved and then we prayed for them to be filled with the Holy Spirit and almost every kid felt a strong manifestation of the Holy Spirit like electricity, heat, tingling all over their bodies or a heavy, weighty presence.

They would then ask us questions like, “Can you make the sadness I feel leave the inside of me?” All their friends would say, “I feel that way, too,” so we started praying in large groups, commanding depression to leave them and joy to come. Kids were crying, laughing, yelling “Jesus,” saying things like, “I can’t believe this! This is way better than any ride here!” Those kids were getting set free. We prayed for healing for the first few kids only. Then we taught the youth that the same Spirit dwells in each of them, and then we watched Jesus heal through their hands! We witnessed around 120-140 healings, most of them instant and about 100 or so decisions for Christ, of which 50 or so were first-time decisions, asking Jesus to forgive them of their sins. Yea, Jesus! One young man came up to me and said, “I never knew that Jesus died for me,” and he yelled at the top of his lungs: “Jesus!”

read more testimonies at http://www.ibethel.org/features/testimonies/index.php?f=testimonies.php

Never Created to Be Lost

We were never meant to be broken.

We were never called to be sick.

We were never created to be lost.

You would never go up to the woman, stricken with AIDS from a lifestyle of whoring herself out and say to her "You deserve this sickness."

What about the man who cheats on his wife one night, and the next night his wife is killed? Would you tell him, that during the midst of his depression, that it is his fault his wife is dead and that he deserves to live a life of shame?

What about your best friend, or your mom? Would you tell them that they were never meant to be saved? Or what about the murderer, or the rapist? Would you tell them that they were never meant to have eternal life with Jesus? Maybe its just Jesus' will that they go to hell.

Far from it. If that were the case, then we would be admitting that the cross was not sufficient, that Jesus was biased as he bled to death on the cross, and that Christ's example on this earth was one of believing that only certain people deserved healing.

Now the question becomes, is the cross sufficient enough for you? Do you cling to his promises? David did, he even told himself not to forget them!

"Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits, who forgives all your iniquity, who heals all your diseases." Pslam 103:2

Now how did David, a man who came before Jesus, understand the Lord's grace and healing years before His Son even showed up?

He decided to truly know God, and what he found was how truly loved he was.

As I sat at breakfast this morning, I saw a man walk in front of my window. He was completely doubled over, barely able to walk. An amazing thing happened, instead of thinking "Poor guy" my first thought was "He deserves to and will be healed, Jesus loves him that much." As I watched him get into his car, I wondered to myself "Does he know that Jesus loves him that much."

Could I have run out of the restaurant to chase him down to tell him and show him this love? Yeah, probably should have. But here is the thing I have realized, Christians tend to understand that they are meant to truly love their neighbor, but have a skewed view of what it means to love themselves. They use disease, sickness, and self pity as some backwards way of maintaining a connection with the Father. Do you realize that you will have none of those in heaven to continue a relationship with Him?

If you seek God's heart, you know what you will find? You will find that you were never meant to be broken, called to be sick, or created to be lost. You were made whole, called to live victoriously, and created in God's image.

Sexual Purity and VH1- Kris Vallotton

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Jesus Chris is Perfect Theology by Bill Johnson

We are told to always preach the Scriptures and not preach our experience. The reason for this is rather logical. When we preach our experience rather than Scriptures, we change the standard that God set for our lives. Plus it creates room for a lot of bad theology.

In that light, none of us would ever preach that a little bit of sin is OK or that sin is inevitable or to be expected. Yet who of us has lived without sin since our conversion? We hold to the conviction that we must proclaim the truth of the Scriptures and not preach our experience. The redemptive work of Jesus was far too great to tarnish through such compromise. Instead we proclaim what the Bible teaches--that we were made righteousness in Christ--knowing that doing so is necessary for us to attain to the fullness of what Jesus accomplished for us. "If anyone sins, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous" (1 John 2:1). It says "if" not "when." Strangely, many seem to tolerate preaching our experience when it comes to miracles, signs and wonders. That is why there are many among us who preach that some sickness is just not going to get healed. Why? That is our experience. Instead of finding out why there was no breakthrough by seeking God in prayer and the Word, it just seems easier to blame our lack on the sovereignty of God. It has been this way for generations. But it is no more legal than to teach "moderation in sin." As long as we preach our experience, our experience has little opportunity to improve.

There remains only one reasonable example to follow. It is Jesus Christ, who is perfect theology. Following that example without compromise will eventually bring about what we all long for--Jesus Christ, the resurrected One, to be seen for who He is by the world through His body.

Graham Cooke / "Business Man"

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Heidi Baker: Intimacy for Miracles - CBN.com

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Bill Johnson - Bringing Heaven to Earth - Part 1/2

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The Authority We Have

*The following post is taken from Kingdom Culture. They have a service this Thursday in Greenville. Check it out at www.kcgreenville.com

The Holy Spirit has really been harping on and teaching me a lot about who I am and the authority WE have as children of the King. Romans 14:17 says, “The kingdom of God is righteousness, peace, and joy.” The kingdom IS this! It is not conditional to circumstance. The kingdom of God is ALWAYS righteousness, peace, and joy. Ephesians 2:6 says, “For he raised us from the dead along with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms because we are united with Christ Jesus.” If you are a child of God, if you’ve been brought from death to life, then you are seated with him. Therefore, the same authority that is given to Jesus is given to us because “God decided in advance to adopt us into his own family by bringing us to himself through Jesus Christ.” (Eph. 1:5) We’re in the family. We have access to all that is our Father’s, thus all authority over the spirit and earthly realm. So, by the power of the Holy Spirit, we SHOULD live from where we have been seated.

Our righteousness should not be conditional/shakeable, our love, our joy, our peace. The source has all authority. It’s unshakable! “The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you!!!” (Rom. 8:11) My prayer is that we come to realize our rightful place in God, the identity in not which we label ourselves or the world labels us with but the one our Father has given us…His masterpiece, more than conquerors, burning with love for our first Love! I pray that as you read this the Holy Spirit would impart wisdom and understanding as only he can give, and that your righteousness, peace, and joy are unshakable, immune to circumstance. I pray that your love for the Father would grow with each passing day, and that not a day would go by without encountering Him in powerful ways. Amen.

Examples I cannot shake: Mark 4:35-41; Acts 16:16-28. Live from where you were seated and watch God do incredible things on your behalf!

–Joel Reid

Worship To Rock Your Heart

Ian Mcintosh (new CD)

Jacob, the Generation of the Those Who Seek His Face

Cory Asbury and Matt Gilman

and rock out to the song below

FLAME- Joyful Noise

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Graham Cooke - The Nature of God Part 1

Peace to all of you.

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I Exalt Thee -Chris Quilala / Jesus Culture

Jesus Culture will be in Atlanta from June 10-12. Check it out at www.jesusculture.org.

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A New Home

This summer, as many of you return home to your families and friends, remember....you are not the same as you once were.

What happened?

Your home address changed (or it will).

For too long Christians choose the residency of heaven over hell, but it doesn't become home until they actually get there. That is changing.

At the moment of your salvation, you became part of the greatest home on earth, the Kingdom of God! You are no longer of this world, just as Jesus was not of this world (John 17:16). Its time to stop striving in a life in which you are trying to reach others by operating from earth; its time to start thriving by operating from heaven to earth!

Home is where the heart is. The more you give your heart to God the more heavenly love you are able to give to others. The more you submit yourself to heaven, the more heaven you will bring to earth. As you walk into rooms and restaurants you will see the atmosphere change because "the kingdom of God is in the midst of you" (Luke 17:21).

It was prophesied over a friend of mine that she would be a "spiritual homemaker." I conclude that this is a call to all of us, that wherever we go we would be ones who create a welcoming and inviting atmosphere for the Holy Spirit to come and inhabit.

Grace to Conquer,
John

Saint Louis University Radio Show - Taylor's Story

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Anna's Story

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Amazing Night- Freedom from Past Relationship into a Relationship with the Savior

I go to Presbyterian College, and I have a wonderful friend, Ashley, who attends Clemson, and I had decided to visit her on this particular weekend. It was Saturday night, and she wanted to take me to a friend’s house to hang out. We came up to the apartment, and she told me this is where "House Church" is on Wednesday nights. To be honest, I was a little nervous. I had met a few of the guys before, but the sound of “ house church” was a little intimidating for some reason. I went in and went to the “ Hammock room”. I looked at the way they had built it, and thought it was pretty awesome, Caleb was laying in a Hammock, and Ashley sat down. I was looking at the wood where the Hammocks were hanging from, and saw where people had written bible verses all around the frame. I saw a certain Verse, Matthew 6 : 35 (or 34 I cant remember), but that made me excited because one of my favorite verses is Matthew 6: 34( I was a worrier, so this verse went right in with my life.. ha)

So I finally got in a Hammock, and Caleb didn’t really do the whole small talk thing. “So tell me your story, I want to know about Lindsey Harris,” he said. I was definitely taken back by that, and really didn’t know how to respond for a few minutes, I kept looking at Ash for help, but I was kinda on my own. I started talking. I really don’t remember what I said, I was pretty uncomfortable, but I thought it was cool how he was interested in getting to know me. It was pretty late when we got there so after a little while of talking I started to walk downstairs to grab my purse.

Downstairs I ran into John and Austin. John immediately looked at me and just “had to ask me something”. He said, “This is kinda awesome, but I was talking to God in my quiet time earlier and he told me something about Presbyterian College, and gave me a vision of a small group of people trying to speak to a larger body of people.” Immediately I started to tear up, he said that “God was really making it clear that it was PC and not any other college, and I just think its pretty awesome that YOU are here now, and YOU are from PC.” I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. PC is starting YoungLife at Clinton High this year (He had no idea of this) and we had just started going to the high school with only 7 people.

So I was like, “ Umm YEA! that’s freakin ridiculous!” The look on his face was just pure Joy. We just started talking more about what God had put on his heart. I had NEVER had anyone speak truth to me like that, without holding back, or worrying how strange he might sound. Well after a little while Ash and Caleb came down and I was just pretty emotional about everything, I just couldn’t believe how he had said that.

When Ash and Caleb came downstairs she could tell something was going on. Ash ended up pulling me aside and was telling me how she thought it would be pretty awesome to have these awesome men of God pray over me. Recently I had been struggling with a past relationship that had ended, and it was REALLY holding me back from having any true connection with God or “ really getting it” as I like to call it now. She said she thought there would be so much healing in having these guys pray that I would release him, and cut the ties, and just completely let it all go, and to ask God to heal me from my own pride and desires. I couldn’t help but cry for some reason I felt more ready than ever to do that. I NEEDED to let a lot of things out, and let a lot go. I had never met these guys, and really had never shared these private things with a lot of people, much less people I had just met, but there was a feeling like I have never had before to go through with it. Ash went and talked to them-( I think), and they were all SO cool about it.. they pulled up a chair, and kinda all just got around me.. I was so uncomfortable, overwhelmed, and confused. I didn’t know whether to act cool (ha!), or to cry, or to sit and observe, or to pray. What the heck this had NEVER happened to me before! Austin stood up and gave everything to God before he spoke, he said it was all Him, and that he wasn’t really sure how this was going to go, but that God was in it, he was sure of it. so it started..

He started praying for me, and for about 5 minutes, I was pretty relaxed just in my chair closing my eyes listening… then after that things started getting crazy. I couldn’t help but lift my hands; it was like it wasn’t me doing it. I got so overwhelmed with emotion, I started crying, laughing, talking, and praying ALL AT ONCE. It was insane!

Michael started telling a vision of my being PURE and dressed in white, dancing with Jesus in a rose garden. It was like he was watching something I had wanted for so long, he painted a perfect picture. He had the biggest smile ever and was just laughing and so excited for me, I have never seen anyone be SO happy for me! He didn’t even know me, it couldn’t have been just him, it was like someone was speaking through him telling me how much they loved me and wanted to hold me and love me and tell me I was pure again! I could feel John’s hand on my left arm the entire time, steady, never moving. When he would pray it was so powerful, the words he would say spoke to me like nothing I had ever heard. Caleb was in front of me on the ground just PRAISING God like I had never seen. He would pray and I promise I could feel his hand on my knee and it was SOOOO cold, not just like cold from his hand being cold, but like ICE! I’m serious it was unnatural. It was like cold water being poured over my knee and rinsing me of what was not pure. Austin started to speak and he had never talked to me or never heard my heart or knew NOTHING about me, and just spoke truth. He said, “ Lindsey, I feel like there are some things that you have been wanting to confess and get off of your heart, and God wants you to know that you can do that now. Some things that are unpure and that you are ashamed of.”
I have never cried so hard in my life as I did at that point. It was like he knew exactly what I was holding. The weight of it was soo heavy that I never could have let it go without help. I had some things I had done in my relationship that I was NOT proud of, and that really weighed heavy on me. I stood up crying and lifting my hands in the air and just spoke out the things I needed to confess and give to God, and begged for complete purity. I started to pray for my ex’s wife, and asking for her forgiveness! That thought had NEVER crossed my mind, it HAD to of come from God, because something like that had never even been on my conscious. I asked for my ex’s forgiveness and that God would heal him as well. It was all flooding in, a million thoughts and things just flowing out of my mouth, I wasn’t ashamed, or embarrassed to speak these things out. Mind you, I was STANDING and crying and praying in front of guys I had NEVER met in my life. I was completely with God and he was taking all the hurt, shame, guilt, and sin away. It was amazing. Ash was behind me and praying for me, I have never been so happy to have a friend like her as I was at that moment. She asked for God to CUT those ties I had with him at that point, and to let me be FREE of it all so I could completely be free to Love and have a relationship with God. She spoke truth like I had never heard her speak before. I have NO doubt that the Spirit of God was in that room with us, and that it was OVERWHELMING me. We went through this for about 45 minutes and it felt like 5 minutes. After it was all over I just sat and took it all in. The smiles everyone gave me were ridiculous. I didn’t know what to do, but I had never felt so at peace in my life. I felt like a COMPLETELY knew person. I had encountered the power, and love of God and it was incredible.

Afterwards we were all sitting around, and Austin looked at me and smiled, he said “You guys, look at her…she is so different, even the way she is sitting now , she is so relaxed, and you can tell she is changed.” He was completely right, and I LOVED IT! He also randomly asked, “Lindsey, does a red balloon and a track mean anything to you?” At first I couldn’t connect it at all. Then all I could think about was how in High school, before Volleyball matches we used to all have a balloon and write a goal on the balloon and set them free. A few times I would pray and send it up. ☺ Then it hit me, I would pray to the balloons, and we would be RIGHT beside the High school track field! He laughed and said, “Okay good, because God wants you to know that He got your prayer and He loves you too.” HOW AWESOME?!!? Ahh this night could not have gotten any cooler. After all of this, we went outside to lay on the road and looked at the beautiful stars, I knew from that point that my life was going to change drastically, and it certainly has. I FINALLY GET IT. I know what it means to have a REAL relationship that I depend on EVERY second of the day. There have been times I have struggled since then, but I went back to school and had been completely changed. I was so happy and excited, it was like “new me.” I truly believe that the Spirit of God changed me that night, and it was in some CRAZY ways.

-Lindsey Harris

Beautiful In It's Time

Wednesday night comes. It has become my favorite night of the week since December. I arrive at Wednesday Night for prayer and see my brothers and sisters and I am overwhelmed by all these new faces. We had some family visiting us from GA. Anyway, this guy, Micah gets up to share his testimony. I am thinking to myself, “YES! Share your testimony. Let’s claim that victory in Jesus!” Oh man, just about everything to trials and faith to believing and receiving was all in the message coming from his lips. I was smacked with some affirmation to what God had been showing me.

We move into some time of individual prayer corporately just going to the Lord, coming into His presence and acknowledging him. I begin to see myself dancing with Jesus and He is delighting in me. We are holding hands and I see myself as this small child and he is twirling me around.

This Micah guy gets up and begins to speak out about specific sicknesses that are plaguing people in the room. He says that there is someone here with digestive problems and I immediately receive it from the Lord. When he was finished speaking about every single thing the Lord showed him, he began to pray. I understood that he was praying for the specific healing of the sicknesses and at one point he was praying healing for me specifically, only it wasn’t Him praying. It was the Holy Spirit interceding. Micah had no idea who I was or that I was the one with digestive problems and yet, I heard this prayer being offered up for me. I placed my hand on my stomach and I could see the Lord’s hand on my stomach and I began to see my intestines become new. Tears of joy and thanksgiving rolled down my cheeks and I could not stop thanking Him. I kept saying, “Thank you, Jesus. Thank you, thank you Jesus.” I kept singing and praising Him. He had touched me again. We never stay the same after He touches us.

I can’t even explain what Thursday felt like. My stomach felt different. Certain things that had been broken, that I had just accepted as normal, were suddenly functioning differently. I mean, my stomach sounds like a fish tank after almost every meal. Yet I ate, and nothing. I am laughing right now because I didn’t know it could be different. I also saw that the swelling in my knee had significantly decreased. I was stiff and sore in my Achilles but I decided to go walking last night. I could not just walk…I had to run. As I ran, this freedom and peace washed over my mind once again. Matthew 6:33, 34 came to my mind as I was running…

“But seek first his kingdom and his righteousness, and all these things will be given to you as well. Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.”

Any thought that may have said, “No, you better not run, it’s going to cost you later when you are in pain,” vanished, completely. I made a confession to the Lord saying, “Lord, I am going to run to you, as fast and hard as I can, by your grace, each day!” I meant physically but as I said it, I realized I meant it about everything in my life, my relationship with Him. I am SO excited about this because now when I physically run, I am reminded to run that hard after Jesus in this life! It reminds me to run after Him first, not worrying about what may happen to me the next day because I pursued Him this hard today, and that is ALL He desires from me. Whatever pain comes, He’ll get me through the next day. The next day has its own lessons. He wants us to run HARD and FAST each day empowered by His Spirit, our eyes on the prize, which is Jesus. As it says in Philippians 3:12-14:

“Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

By the way, I am writing this as my feet are elevated, with an ice pack on my knee and one on my Achilles tendon. My calve muscles are as stiff as blocks of wood, but I am rejoicing to feel sore muscles that I was able to work. I am rejoicing that my hip was loose enough for me to have the range of motion to run. I am rejoicing that I didn’t even feel ANY pain in my hip today!!! Seriously, praise the Lord with me! He is making ALL things new! Praise the Lord, oh my soul. Praise my Redeemer, Creator, Friend, Father, Lover, and Healer! Praise the One who has called me out of darkness into marvelous light. His name is Jesus. He is Lord. And one day…I’m going to run to Him in Heaven…I am going to kneel before Him and weep and weep with joy that His body broken made my body whole that His blood poured out poured living water into my blood. I will spend eternity singing on my knees, and He will sing over me as He does even now.

I am healed by Him and sealed in Him.

Jesus…the most powerful name above every name (Acts 4:12). It’s in your name I pray, by your name I am saved, and your voice that calls me home. Yes, I believe. Yes, I receive. Yes, I’m running after you.

Amen.

-Joy VanDeLoo

*This is only a portion of Joy's wonderful and beautiful testimony to how good the Lord has been to her. If you would like to read the full testimony check out
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=50444054867

Jesus Came to Band Practice

I received a text message from my mom during FCA this past Thursday telling me that Jesus had come to band practice that night. Now I had no idea what she was talking about. So I sent her a message back asking if this was a man dressed as Jesus for the every-other-year play my home church puts on called "Easter Alive" because this is a Methodist church on a Thursday night and nothing else is really going on at this time. I get an email from her the following morning and this is what it said:

We were practicing "You Raise Me Up" by Josh Groban for Michelle to sing for the first time this Sunday. Verne was making the violin sounds from his keyboard and Michelle is doing a fantastic job with the vocals. We practiced this song for 45 minutes and felt pretty good about it, but we were thinking that a real violin player would be nice and moved on to the next song - Enough. We were struggling with "you are more than enough", when a guy with a violin walks into the Chapel and sits down. I looked at Debbie and she said it must be a friend of Verne's.

After we finished Enough, Verne walks over to him and says, "Would you like to play with us?", but no one knew who he was. So Elliott (the lead singer of the praise band) introduced him to everyone and he played You Raise Me Up and Amazing Grace – My Chains Are Gone to the point of goose bumps.

Jesus truly came to band practice and is definitely more than enough.

-Charron Conley

Fibromyalgia Healed

I am so glad I get to tell you about my Sarah. Mostly because I love her a lot but deep down because in telling you about my Sarah, I am telling you about my God.

Sarah is my sixteen-year-old sister. When I describe her as ‘really cool’, you can take that to mean that she loves fiercely, relates warmly, judges mercifully, works diligently, and looks nice even after playing twelve softball games in one weekend. Sarah knows God in a particularly permanent way because He healed her of fibromyalgia.

To give you the whole play-by-play would hardly be feasible in this context, but I will give you the game stats so the next time you are one strike away from winning or losing the World Series, you will have the courage to swing the bat.

Fibromyalgia is an incurable, life-long syndrome characterized by incessant, intense pain and fatigue. There is no scientific explanation for its onset and no medical treatment for its relief. Basically, for no physically discernable reason, Sarah’s body amplified each physical sensation way beyond its due until her threshold of pain quit functioning as a threshold altogether.

She had to quit playing sports because even sliding into second would wrack her body with aches for days. She had to start taking prescription sleep medication just to sleep through her body’s natural tossing and turnings. And we her family had to invent new ways of communication our comfort and love because each hug, pat, or back rub send Sarah’s sense reeling in pain.

And, of course, we prayed.

We prayed for a full recovery and for full restoration. Do you know what I discovered? God always desires us to be healed. Always. He has destined our bodies to spend eternity glorified in fullness of health and beauty. And freedom from infirmity, physical death, is inextricably coupled with the freedom from sin, eternal death. He clearly broke the backs of both powers of death at the Cross. He always and forever desires to heal you. So we doggedly asked Him for just that in Sarah’s body.

We also prepared her to receive it by responsibly employing means available to us for managing her syndrome: a strict schedule, sleeping medication, Aleve, anointing her with oil, regular exercise, etc.

Another thing I discovered: God’s redemption. He encountered Sarah in her intimate place of constant pain. He gave her grace to get up out of bed every morning. Grace to go to school and sit in desks that made her hips throb for hours. Grace to be patient until the hour of healing arrived. Grace to face friends that accused her of lying about her condition. He redeemed her years of affliction by using them to extend deep roots into the soil of His love. The creative God did not waste anything: He used every means to draw her into intimacy with Him.

He didn’t let fibromyalgia get away with Sarah’s heart. He let it run for a while because He is the only wise One. He knew the exact moment to take it all back and vindicate Sarah to the fullest measure.

That moment was sprinkled in nanoseconds through her illness in the form of grace but it matured in an instant on November 9th, 2008.

I knew she had been fully and completely restored when I hugged her. She had a human back—not a rigid board stiff with pain and the fear of pain.

Yesterday she was a starter for her high school’s varsity girls basketball team.

Now she has full health and new solidarity in her secret place. Our God loves us well. My God loved my Sarah well. In it all.

-Jessica Reis

God is Big

Back in August, I made a decision to dedicate my time this year to prayer and fasting, once a week. I have grown up as a Christian and one of the biggest things I have always struggled with is trusting God and believing that He can still move and work in big ways. My faith had been confined to my needs and my worries, and while I was aware of God's work on a larger scale, I didn't always believe it affected me. So I began to pray weekly and fasted each Tuesday, praying that God would allow my faith to grow stronger and that He would let me see him do work in a real, tangible way. Nothing happened for the first three months, but I continued to pray.

And then God started happening in big ways.

Over fall break, the first weekend in Novemeber, I was sitting in my parents church in Atlanta when God gave me a vision of a mass of students, all gathered together on Bowman Field to worship Him and pray for our campus. Behind the students was a huge tidal wave that was just perched, ready to come crashing down. When I got back to Clemson, I shared the vision with a friend of mine. She absolutely flipped out and encouraged me to come to her house church to share it with others. Now I have to preface that I was raised in a church setting where sermons were not regularly preached on dreams and visions and spirit-moving actions. We were commonly referred to as the "frozen chosen"… And I was slightly scared/skeptical/confused on what exactly was happening.

But God took those fears away after I shared this vision with the house church. I wasn't sure what sort of response I was going to get, but lets just say the roof almost erupted off. I quickly found out that God had given this same vision to others, and they had been praying for months that God would give them a way to make this dream real and actually happen.

And that is just the beginning. God has put a revival spirit in the hearts of so many of His children at Clemson that it is unreal. If you have been coming to DCF this past semester, you've probably partaken in one of the multiple prayer times we've had where hearts have been crying out for our community and that the lost would find the love of Christ. Students across campus ministries and organizations and churches are coming together to pray and to worship and to share the gospel. Uniting as nothing but Christians, there is a movement of believers that are not being hindered by any sort of labels or fears and are proclaiming the Gospel in front of their classes and in 200 person lectures and in the dining halls and all over campus. There are efforts being made right now for a large gathering of Christians to happen on Bowman to pray for our campus and another event in Little John to have a massive gospel presentation happen for all who want to hear. People are physically being healed and hearts are being softened left and right.

I don't know about you, but that is not the sort of Christianity that I am used to seeing. This movement that the Holy Spirit is flowing through is not at all what I had in mind when I started praying 3 months ago. But who says God has to answer our prayers in a small manner? The small growth I figured would happen has been blown out of the water by what God is teaching me and through what my own eyes have been a witness to.

He is alive and is proving His power to me and to this campus and to the world. There is a new revival happening and it is an unexpected, but welcome, answer to my prayer.