Last night, we were invited once again to come and lead a prayer meeting with a group from Georgia. In addion to the family (of 15+ people), this time several families from their Catholic church joined the meeting. It's amazing to watch the Lord move in this group of precious people. They have a hunger for something real. Many have expressed that the leaders in their own church, although moved with good intentions, have not been able to help them spiritually. There was an awesome time of words of wisdom and prophesy in operation there. It was as if the Holy Spirit was gently revealing himself to these people, so that they can begin to trust him in a new way. All together, there were about 25 adults (and more children than I could count) and both times we have come together, powerful things have taken place. It's not every day that Catholic people place themselves in the same room with a couple crazy Pentecostals...but the Lord has helped us to be sensitive to His Spirit, speak in love, all the while remembering it is His job to bring people to salvation, not ours. As Luis started out by saying last night, our only agenda is to worship Jesus. We don't come with any other intentions than that. And really, isn't the gospel just that simple anyway?
One interesting thing that happened to me personally last night was during a time that we were all in one big circle, and Luis asked us to all hold hands and pray. While I had the hand of a young man beside me, I immediately saw an image of a noose. The Lord gave me a word for that man, but being only the second time getting together, and the first time I had met this young man, I was hesitant to open my mouth. The meeting continued, and I couldn't shake the feeling I had. At the end, I knew I needed to go and speak to that young man. As appropriate in the culture, I asked Luis to go with me. I told the young man what I saw during prayer and how the Lord had shown me that there was a suicidal spirit over him, manipulating his mind, trying to convince him that his life was worthless. But that the Lord wanted him to know that his life was planned by God, and He had a purpose in creating him, and that God had placed a treasure inside of him. That God wanted to use him in a great way, but he needed to give himself to God completely. That God accepted him just as he was, and he didn't need to get everything together in his life, but rather to just come as he was, and let God put his life in order.
After that, I felt a calm inside of me, and I felt like I had done what the Lord had asked of me. The young man came up to Luis after we were all done and told him "everything your wife said was true", and he began to recount to Luis all that he had gone through over the past couple of years. There are countless other things that happened last night with other people. It is exciting to see where God is moving. "Redemption en Español" has been just as exciting, and although we are transitioning, each service is so full of life changing revelation. What an exciting time to be alive, knowing that God is getting ready to create a spiritual explosion in the Hispanic Community. What an honor to be a part of this great move of God!
