A RECAP OF ENGLAND

Greetings! So it has been about a month now since I was sitting on the plane bound for the United Kingdom. As I reflected on this thought, I realized that many of you have not heard the stories of all that I saw God do while out there. For this reason I felt that for my entry today I should share. While I understand that to some this may be nothing more than boring chatter, I trust that for others it will be a moment of encouragement as you also begin to feel faith rising in you.

The journey in many ways does not start on January 7, 2016, but rather months before in June, 2015. It was here that I felt myself putting faith into action as I told my contact I would come to his city. I had no idea how it would all happen, how the money would come about, or even what God would have me to share. I only knew I was to go. As the months turned into weeks and days, God gave me ideas for fundraising and quickly brought in beyond that amount needed. But God also began to plant in me His words that I would share with the people. He began to give me an urge to speak boldly in faith, even though I was no one special, and to usher in to this church God's wave of urgency.

The plan was to speak in the church's Bible School on the topic of Spiritual Leadership, but also to share in two evening services and a Sunday service as God was leading. Quite honestly, my first sermon was written in the Dublin airport as I waited on my transfer. But from the moment the pen touched the paper, I felt God stirring my faith with an expectancy. God was about to do something big. He didn't really need me, but was allowing me to be the tool that He would minister through. As the evening service began, God moved on the people and brought an awakening to spirits. (More details on this message can be found in the prior blog).

The next day began with teaching in the Bible School, and ended with a late night at McDonalds. But the events that transpired in between still have me in awe of who God is. When I was about 10 or 11 years old, my local pastor asked me to pray over all the men in the church, laying hands on and staying till I felt a release. I had felt God's power then. But as I shared once more in the evening service now, I felt God's power once again. With a simple message concerning taking God at His word, believing the book of Acts to be true, and testing if in fact God was the same yesterday, today, and forever (Heb 13:8), I invited people to the front for prayer.

As God's tool once more, I felt His Spirit again like I did as that young child. I laid hands on people and God's words came through me. Prophecy was coming forth, people I barely touched were falling out, and healings were being done. When the presence began to subside I was in tears, thankful to have been a tool of God. There was no doubt that God was doing something for these people, but the fact that God was doing something in me was just as important.

The final service was had on that Sunday morning, where again God showed up. It wasn't in the form of healings and such, but in the form of rallying the troops. The message God had put on my heart was Joshua 3:5, to be consecrated. Before the army of God under Joshua's command was able to cross into the Promise Land and take possession of what was theirs, God needed them sanctified. It is no different today. God is moving this year, and He is moving us into what He has for us. But if we are not consecrated, we will not enter. In this grand chapel where His Spirit was moving, God was consecrating His people, and I was a tool used by Him to spur His people.

I came back from England a different man. I came back able to hear His voice in a new way, to move out in a boldness that wasn't fully developed prior, and hungry for what He has. A few days back, as we were having our family Bible time, my wife felt I was to pray over all the kids. It was as if the Spirit was standing next to me. I was seeing visions, hearing words of warning and prophecy, and breaking the grips that the devil wanted on our kids. This time, though, while still allowing myself to be the tool, I knew that God could and was doing it. I knew His power.

Before Jesus ascended into heaven in Acts 1, He spoke about how the Spirit would come upon the disciples in power, enabling them to be His witnesses. Not before this trip have I ever felt this degree of His Spirit and power. But who I am that I should experience it and not you. So it is to you that I want to offer this encouragement - that you too shall receive power after the Holy Spirit comes upon you, and you too shall be His witnesses (Acts 1:8). Do not discredit yourself, for God has plans to use you in a big way.