Have you ever experienced "God bumps"??? This past week or so has been a God thing week for me to say the least. My skin has literally "tingled" this week as God worked in me! This will definitely be a "rambling" today but God things are NOT a coincidence!
James and I continue book one of the Navigator 2:7 as a home study. We meet Sunday afternoon after church and lunch to discuss the week's homework, do our verse memorization and talk about our Bible reading for the week and what we have learned through that study. I have to admit that this week I haven't spent time in my Bible but with God, in prayer and meditation. I have seemed to have "lost" myself over the past year and God is helping me to "find" me again. I have spent mornings in prayer this past week, have been reading the book for my Wednesday night study, memorizing God's Word and been "taken to the wood shed" more than once...through all of the above!
Sunday morning in Crosstraining we have been (and continue) to discuss "What Christians Believe and Why". We have started our 2nd quarter this month and it was hard for me to decide whether to participate in the other Sunday morning class/Sunday evening video ("To Live is Christ" by Beth Moore) or to continue in pastor's class. At one point I thought I would do pastor's class in the morning and then do the video at night...but at the last minute decided that now was not the time.
Wednesday night I joined a group doing "Forgotten God" by Francis Chan. This study is about the Holy Spirit, the one part of the Trinity that is often overlooked. We are into week four (this Wednesday) and...my, oh my...this study is really challenging me! This week it talks about "quenching the Holy Spirit"! Quenching = to put out, extinguish, to suppress, to put an end to, to destroy, to cool off. Boy, I find myself suppressing Him all the time!
We, as a church body, were called to a 172 hour prayer vigil by our pastor. That's right...starting last Sunday at 8 am until today at 12 noon...172 hours of continual prayer. I chose a three-hour block this past Monday while James was doing book two of Navigator 2:7.
I had made my "agenda" for that evening...I would start in the "prayer room" then go into each class room and pray over that specific class, teacher and students. However, God had other plans for me that night. I stayed the entire three hours (albeit one bathroom break) in the "prayer closet": praying, praising, praying, singing, praying, reading the Bible and praying again! I sat in the chair and on the floor, laid face down before the Lord, stood and paced. I cried out, I smiled, I clapped my hands and spent a glorious three hours in the presence of the Lord.
God said to Solomon, "if my people, who are called by my name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land. Now my eyes will be open and my ears attentive to the prayers offered in this place." (2 Chronicles 7:14-15)
Today we had a totally out-of-the-ordinary worship service: singing and giving testimony. Lives were changed, miracles performed this week as we followed God's command to become humble, pray and seek His face this week! Tears flowed in joy, hands clapped in praise and above all GOD WAS GIVEN THE GLORY! We were in the presence of the Lord today! We ended with "God of This City"...knowing that God is not done in "this city". (I get God bumps just listening to this song!)
I can't wait to see what God has in store for me (and my church family) this week! I have to say that I am spiritually full this week and it's just a wonderful feeling! I know that He is just beginning His work in me with this new year and I am so excited about being His daughter!
Love in Christ,
Theresa
