Let It Rain:
Let it rain, let it rain, open the floodgates of heaven.Grace Like Rain:
Hallelujah, grace like rain falls down on me. Hallelujah, all my stains are washed away.That got me thinking, and I remembered that God doesn’t care about my past—He cares more about what I’m doing right this instant—and this time I actually understood it. No matter how many times I’ve tried to run away from Him, He still calls me back expectantly. That realization was an answer to prayer that would be elaborated on later on today.
The rest of the day went by pretty much as usual until around 5. The guys in the Redcoat trumpet section had a get-together for about an hour, and then I had dinner and went back to my dorm until the UGA brass band concert at 8. While I was in my dorm, I started working on arranging another song for On That Note. (On That Note is the acapella group I’m in that started this semester, for those of you who didn’t know.) This one was written by my friend Jon Joiner, who is on the worship team at the UGA Wesley Foundation, specifically in Freshley, so I’m really excited to work on it.
Then I went to the brass band concert, which was great! It would have been even better if it hadn’t been during Freshley. But thankfully, the concert was less than an hour, so I got a ride to Freshley and was able to get there in time for the last song of an extended worship session and for small group. And boy, what a song it was! It was Revelation Song, which is probably one of my favorite worship songs. And the Spirit was very present at Freshley tonight; it was obvious as soon as I walked in that He had been filling the room all night.
Then came small group time. In my prayer leadership small group we talked about prophecy. It was kind of funny because I had a conversation with my friend Josh about prophecy last year, and I had already heard everything that we talked about tonight from him. It was cool getting that affirmation that what I believe about prophecy is supported by others within Freshley. But even better was what came next. I was hoping we would get a chance to “practice” prophesying for each other, and we did! And the best part was that there was absolutely no way that we could interfere with the way we heard God’s voice: we were given a number and told to write down our prophecy/encouragement for that person without knowing who the number was assigned to. We had no way to make up a prophecy because we didn’t know who we would be asking God about. We just had to trust that He was telling us what we needed to tell the person we were supposed to be prophesying over. Well, the encouragement that was given to me was that I am a child of light and that God will free me from the trap that is set for me and allow me to come to Him wholeheartedly and be redeemed, rejecting Satan’s lies and accepting the Lord’s truths (Ephesians 5:8, Psalm 31:4-5). Like I said earlier, God answered my prayers to an even greater extent than I deserved.
But He didn’t stop there. As I was praying and writing, God gave me a set of verses that seemed to refer vaguely to witnessing. Basically what He told me to say was that even though witnessing may be hard with a particular person and it seems like you’re suffering, don’t give up, because God didn’t give up on you. James 1:12 says that God has promised the crown of life to those who love Him and who have stood the test, and Philippians 4:1 indicates that those who come to know Christ through us are our crown, so together the two verses are a hint that God is promising to save the lost person in answer to the prayers of the person I was prophesying over. He also wanted me to give encouragement to continue showing God’s love and to work diligently because He won’t leave the faithful without a reward.
Well, when we found out who we had been prophesying over, I gave my paper to her, and she told me that her boyfriend isn’t a Christian and it’s been a struggle. The fact that what I said was exactly what she needed was really encouraging for me. But prophecy isn’t about what we say or about saying the right thing for the right person at the right time. If that’s what we focus on, then we don’t really see the big picture of prophecy. Prophecy is one of God’s ways of sharing truth with us, and we should want to get to know Him more through prophecy. Prophecy shouldn’t be our main concern; we need to focus on the Giver of prophecy. It's not about me, it's about Him. Anyway, I was thinking about it when I got back to my dorm after Freshley, and it hit me: God didn’t just give me an eerily accurate prophecy about a person who needed to hear exactly what I had to say. He gave me a promise to share. He gave me the promise that if she perseveres with Christ’s power, He will save her boyfriend! The last thing I wrote on my paper was, “Your friend’s resolve to reject Christ is shaking! Stay confident [that God will move in him]!” That came straight from God, because I had no idea who I was talking to or who I was talking about. If that’s not encouraging, I don’t know what is!
And then to top it all off, another friend told me that our prayers for her roommate are being answered, slowly but surely.
Lord, let Your will be done! Come quickly to keep Your promise!
No comments:
Post a Comment