I have a joy in me that I cannot describe. I hope what I right here will help someone. I cannot change anyone. I only right here my experiences, so if God uses it or not, all glory to Him either way:pp

I was in a very dark place for 5 years. I had a desert experience, where I went through these cycles and I was Spiritually dead . I still believed in God and I was saved and spirit filled, but I was drifting from God. I also heavily criticized my church and I stopped really going or being committed to going. I kept speaking death over myself and everything around me. I was at times extremely lonely and I felt like no one really cared. I neglected my gifts and I couldn't stop my mind from analyzing everything. I would sometimes get myself into such holes that I would really struggle with my faith.

But for the past year and a half, God has started to take me into the promised land. What I mean by this is that I started experiencing victory in areas where before I had never had victory. Many things happened last year that had never before happened to me. And slowly but surely I felt God breaking through the cycles in my life.

Now while last year was an awesome year for me, I also knew that it wasn't enough and that God wants me take me into a new season. While last year God was laying the foundation and showing me what he was planning, this year God has started to move in my life.

Already this year God has just brought back the joy and a freedom into my life. The key to all this, was that God started helping me tyo focus on Him. I was always coming to church expecting church, or a sermon, or a song or some wise person to change me. And also God showed me how He saw me and how much He loves me specifically and so He broke through all negative things and cynicism in my life. God showed me ho good He is. I come from a family where a lot of death is spoken and when you spend too much time with people who have bitterness, it can really drag one down. But God is good and He really desires good things for us. And when I started believing this it just started seeing things in a new way No longer did I come with an expectation to get anything. I started coming and expecting to serve God. |I knew that nothing in me was good but I also knew that God does not expect me to be perfect and that He can use me even though I still have so many issues. Yesterday I attended a training session from my church called the School of the Supernatural (SOS). God just reminded me of the gifts He has given me and has also reminded me of promises spoken many years back over my life. They are now starting to be confirmed and fulfilled in my life without me having to do much.

And so I have come to a place where I know my desert time is over. I know that God is going to take me to knew places. In this year random unsaved people just came up to me and started speaking about God. I have been looking for work for more than a year. and suddenly I got one. I can just go on and on talking about how God has started to do things in my life without me having to do that much. I just had to be willing.

God is awesome. He is not angry or disappointed. His goodness is genuine. He knows every need and every desire. He has not called us to live boring Christian lives, sitting in some building singing nice songs and listening to messages. I strongly believe God has called us to live lives that are filled with godly excitement and joy. He wants us to bring church to the nations and stop going to church to try stuff or to receive something. We have been set free. God wants us to walk in that freedom. I no longer feel the need to analyze. I know God is delighted with who I am because He has told me so himself. There is no more striving or trying. I know God can use me and that He will do all the changing. Break out of the box. I am so excited and I know that what is coming is going to be challenging but I also know that God is going to put my feet on solid ground.

God has long laid it on my heart to be a intercessor and it has just started happening.

I can go on and on just talking about how God is changing me and how faithful He is. I love God. He is just amazing. He is mighty and He is on your side.

Something I need prayer for. My church sends out mission teams every year to spread the gospel. I really want to go and I went to a meeting today where one could get more info and sign up and all that. I just went in obedience not knowing if I was even going to go but just feeling I needed to be there. I feel that God is calling me to do this and there are three possibilities for me: Malawi, Russia and Italy. I just need to know which one God wants me to go to, so if anyone feels they want to pray for this, feel free

Also, I just want to continue to use this praise to worship God and tell of the good things He is doing. So watch this space. :cool:

:hug:

Thanks you for sharing this wonderful testimony of God's love and faithfulness!! How glorious He is!! :pp I know He has great plans for you because He has great plans for all His children!! Keep on focusing on Him and He will keep filling you with that excitement and joy!! He will show you were He wants you for missions too!! Glory to God! Hallelujah!! :pp

blessings to you :hug:

Wow that's awesome! Thanks for sharing with us 143! I will pray for you and your mission trip, though I just want to add this. If God is calling you to go on a mission: Don't be too stressed out about which one you choose or where you end up going, because He can use you equally as well in any place and in any situation just as long as you are there to bloom where you're planted!

Rock On 143! :thumbsup:

Wow that's awesome! Thanks for sharing with us 143! I will pray for you and your mission trip, though I just want to add this. If God is calling you to go on a mission: Don't be too stressed out about which one you choose or where you end up going, because He can use you equally as well in any place and in any situation just as long as you are there to bloom where you're planted!

Rock On 143! :thumbsup:
Wow. yes thank you for that. I know God is speaking through you in saying that, because this is what someone else from church prayed over me as well.

You know it's not because there is something wrong with the word of God that this world is the way it is
It's not because Jesus does not care or that He has forgotten or that He is weak.
It;s not because He does not see the widow or the orphans or the lost or the oppressed
it's not because He is angry or that he doesn't have enough love or enough power or enough of anything
It' not because He wants to punnish or "teach us the lesson"

The only reason why this world is not changing, is because the church, instead of going out and making the love of Jesus real. Instead of welcoming people and accepting people as they are.instead of obeying the command to go into all the world and do the good that Jesus did, the church is fighting against itself. The church is making it so hard for people to enter into the kingdom of God. Many would rather sit in church and play games., argue about this or that doctrine or have huge intellectual debates, than to step out and have church where the people are. The world cannot see Jesus because the church does not reflect who He is. Jesus is ready to save and heal and bring victory and it is happening all around the world slowly but surely, in places where people really love Jesus. The Church in the East and in the developing nation is growing fast, because where the people are living in such darkness, they run to the first light they see. :pp:hug:

I do not wish to condemn or judge and I actually wish to encourage and uplift. God has begun to challenge me. I am so tired of seeing the lost and the needy while sitting in church and living my little life. I am asking, who will join me in following Jesus to where the people are. Who will start to reach out, even if its only to the man across the street and invite them to church. Who is willing to get rid of the fear of man and join the real Church. The Church as ir was always meant to be. A place of family, a place that is warm and open to anyone and not a building or a movement but where ever the need is. Jesus said the harvest is ready. the harvest is not the problem. Its the laborers. If you do not what to go, pray, do something.

It's not my church, my denomination, my worship, my songs, my anything that is going toe save the world. It's the love of God living through us. We don't have to be more spiritual or more intelligent or more skilled to love someone. We don't actually have to do anything. We just need to let God's love stir us for people around us and develop a hunger for serving the people around us. So that His Kingdom can come in our workplaces and our schools and our government buildings and in the townships and in the streets. Do what God lead s you to do, but let us live the gospel and not just preach it!

I am not perfect and I am not there yet, but i feel an urgancy and God has been speaking to me about these things. About Courage and faith and real trust. Willingness to live lives that are dead to the world but alive in Him. I am ready. I want to be willing. I am willing. And I know that God will provide in all my needs and even my desire for a wife and children. I hope you and me, whoever you are is encouraged by this. I just want to share the following by David Platt. You might not like him, but he speaks truth:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b1OXB7RXZ70
If this makes you uncomfortable, good. We are not here to be comfortable.