Missionaries and new
Christians seem to have something in common... they both struggle with
having the zeal and desire to see God do crazy radical things yet still
having faith when it doesn't happen. Many of the participants that come
on the World Race have just begun to realize that God still does signs,
wonders and miracles today. As future Racers read current Racers blogs
about how people are receiving their sight and are walking for the first time because God healed them
there is an excitement that rises up. Sure there is that question of if
it is real or not. But even stronger than the doubt is the desire to
see it for themselves!
Wouldn't you love to see God heal someone!?! Wouldn't you love for
God to use you to bring healing!?! Wouldn't you love for God to heal
you?!
Some people are lucky enough to see God move
through signs, wonders and miracles. And the rest of us pray that we
continue to have the faith to expect them to happen when we pray.
But there comes that day when your faith wavers.
When you begin to doubt not that God does miracles, but that He will
use you to do them. After expecting God to heal the hundreds of people
that you've prayed for and seeing nothing happen you begin to wonder
why. Why are other people seeing God move in amazing ways and you're
not?
Pray for our Racers. Pray that they will have
abundant faith. That they will hear God's heart beat. That they will
know when God is ready to heal physically, or emotionally, or
spiritually. Pray that rather than looking at the expectations that
haven't been met, they will see the thousands of little miracles that
the Lord is doing around them no matter how small they might be. Ask
the Lord to show them the lives that have been changed forever because
of them. And why not go ahead and ask that God would do some crazy
signs, wonders and miracles :-)
Last weekend AIM hosted a retreat for a group of
leaders from a college here in Georgia. The original plan was to have several
of the leadership from the Short Term Program speak. However with everything
that happened in Haiti, some of the guys were now in Haiti and not going to be
able to speak. My buddy, Corey was now not only putting together their program,
but running the whole show.
I had originally only committed a couple of hours
to help Corey out with the retreat. I was tired and did not want to give up my
weekend.Friday I spent the day up
at my desk working and then planned on spending the evening with the group. As
we were serving ourselves some dinner Corey and I were chatting about what the
plan was for the night's session. It was then that I was asked to speak about
the Holy Spirit for those who this was new concept for. Jesse and I quickly
realized that we have similar styles of preparing to teach (ask Jesus and then
just speak from the heart) as we shared together that night. I also realized at
that moment that I would be staying the night at AIM and be there all day
Saturday.
On Saturday it was still freezing outside, but we
decided to go ahead and do one of our exercises with the group. As we were
coming inside I mentioned to one of the girls that I wasn't getting paid for
being there... she looked at me with shock and asked, 'then why are you here?'.
All I could think to say was, 'because I love Jesus and I love you guys'.
I don't get 'paid' very much for my 'day job' of buying
plane tickets, doing interviews, or finding receipts. And I didn't make a dime
for the extra hours I put in to help out at the retreat. But those leaders'
lives were changed forever! I had the opportunity to invest into people who
were hungry for more of the Lord. I also got to watch as my coworkers and
people in my community had a chance to shine.It was awesome!!!
Please
don't comment with saying how I am storing up treasures in heaven or anything
like that. That wasn't the purpose of this blog. The purpose was simply to say
that as I put my own desires aside God moved and it was a fruitful weekend that
I will never forget :-)
Right after the earthquake hit Haiti the atmosphere at AIM changed. It seemed like everyone went immediately into emergency / disaster relief mode. People started focusing on how AIM can help with the relief efforts in Haiti. Job descriptions changed and people instantly came on board to work full time with AIM with the Haiti Relief.
The other day I went through the AIM and World Race blogs to make a single blog on the latest details. We have stories directly from Haiti and the Dominican Republic, what we are currently doing, the things we are hoping to do and lots of people who are getting ready to head out. Please continue to pray for all of our staff as they make big decisions and even head down to help.
Click on the link below to read the latest updates -
As you might have read in one of my last blogs, while at launch in New Zealand I missed out on the first big night of ministry. The good news is that we have more than one night at launch.
The following night we begin with some great worship. As I am praying and worshiping in front of a huge world map the Lord beings to speak...
It's not good enough.
Being a Christian is not good enough.
Reading your Bible or praying is not good enough.
Being an evangelist and telling people about Christ is not good enough.
Being a missionary is not good enough.
The people of New Zealand, the countries around the world have all of these things.
They have Christians, evangelists and even missionaries. But that's not good enough or they would have seen revivals and come to know Me.
God. If you don't need us. Why did you chose us? Why are we here?
You must bring a new thing. You must listen for the words that I am bringing. You must go where I am moving. Seek Me. I am wanting to do something new. That is how revival will come. That is how lives will be changed. As you bring Kingdom you will see miracles.
Apart from me you can do nothing. Anything besides what I am saying and doing is not good enough.
I am currently swimming in receipts and airline quotes...
I wanted to let everyone know that we are sending a World Race Alumni team down to the D.R. to help with things along the border of Haiti. I am heading out of town for a conference and will probably not have time to update everyone here on what is happening in Haiti / D.R. However I am the teams contact person in the States and I am also the one who posts on the WR Prayers blog. So please feel free to check out the Prayers blog as well as on the AIM Haiti site.
Again check out prayers.theworldrace.org to get prayer requests and praise reports of what God is doing on the field with our World Racers.
I love worship! Singing has always been something that has brought me closer to the Lord. When the presence of God is heavily on a place where people are hungry for Him you can almost guarantee that there will also be people set free and healed. I LOVE that! Being able to pray over other people and speak God's truth over them is one of my favorite things.
All of those things happened the first night, but I missed it. All of it. One of the Racer's backpack didn't make it and the airline could only get it to an airport an hour away. I was informed I had to take the Racer that night while everyone else would be having an awesome time with the Lord.
I had to do something I didn't want to do. I'd been doing a ton of driving and really wanted a day off from being on the road for hours. And I really didn't want to miss the night session.
We were successful in getting the guy's bag, even though the airport was closed. And I did have a good chat with him on our long drive. But by the time we got back the night was over. They talked about how awesome it was and how the Holy Spirit fell. I was bummed I missed an awesome session. That once again my natural gifts were used rather than my spiritual gifts. Yet there was a part of me that was ok with it. The Lord had asked me to surrender once again and I did so with the right attitude.
I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas & New Years!
Surprise... I am back in New Zealand! I arrived a couple of days early to spend some more time with friends and to be here for when all of the Racers and staff arrive. The last two days have been wonderfully sunny as it's summer here. My friends decided the best thing to do would be to go for a nice walk with beautiful views each day. It really was worth the long walks. And I am so glad I brought my running shoes & a pair of light weight pants to walk / hike in.
This afternoon I am picking up one of our staff members and three of the squad leaders for the teams. I am looking forward to sharing this beautiful country with some of my friends! Then tomorrow morning the masses begin to arrive! The team leaders and another staff come in tomorrow. Followed by the finance people then next day and then everyone else arrives. So glad I was able to hire some buses to pick everyone up. (Plus the owners of the buses are friends from another ministry here, so we are supporting them while they help us out.)
Please be praying for everyone as they travel. Coming into New Zealand can be a bit intimidating as they are very strict on what you can and can't bring into the country. Pray that everyone remembers to declare everything and not get hit with any fines. Pray that they all have favor and do not have any issues coming into New Zealand. Pray for travel mercies for everyone. And that everyone will adjust to the time and climate changes easily. Oh and let's not forget to pray that the Kingdom of Christ will move in and through all of us, that we will be able to enjoy each others company and the beauty of New Zealand and the people here!
I probably will not get a chance to blog again until I am home in Georgia... so look for an update in a couple of weeks.
Posted in The Real Me by Casey Wells on 12/15/2009
One of the things that really challenges me and speaks to me is the devotional of works by Smith Wigglesworth. Today's reading was something that really spoke to me so I thought I would share it with you...
'And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor, and though I give my body to be burned, but have not love, it profits me nothing'
- 1 Corinthians 13:3
...
A man came to me, and we had long talks about the Lord. He told me, "I was in a very difficult place. I had been working very hard in the church and had given all my strength..."
Oh, I see such godly, holy people doing more than they ought to, thereby giving themselves away. Don't you know that your body belongs to God (1 Cor 6:19-20), and that, if you overtax your body, God says He will judge you for it? We have to be careful because the body that is given to us is to exhibit His power and His glory, and we cannot do this if we give ourselves all the time to work, work, work and think that that is the only way. It is not the way.
The Scriptures teach us that Jesus had to go renew His spiritual vision and power in solitude with His Father (Mark 1:35), and it was also necessary for the disciples to draw aside and rest awhile (Mark 6:30-31). Couldn't Jesus give them all they needed? My dear brother, whatever God gives you, He will never take away your common sense.
Suppose I unwisely overextended my body and knew that I had done so? How could I ask anyone to pray for me unless I repented? We must be careful. Our bodies are the temples of the Holy Spirit, and He has to dwell in them, and they have to be for His purpose in the world. We are not working for ourselves; God is to be glorified in our bodies. Many today are absolutely withered up, years before their time, because they went beyond their knowledge.
International day of prayer for the
persecuted church
Day of the orphan
I fly to New Zealand!
I'll be gone for 11 days. I get
to travel with one of the Jan '10 squad leaders – Kyla Cornelius. Our job is to
get ministry setup for all 18 teams that are going to be there in January! It's
a huge job, especially since I currently don't have anything lined up for our
time there – needless to say I am overwhelmed with everything that needs to get
done both in New Zealand as well as all of my normal work that is piling up. Please keep Kyla and I in your prayers over the next couple of weeks :-)
The very
definition of ‘Awakening' is exactly what took place during the World Race
Awakening Conference that was held in Brasov, Romania. Every current World
Racer, World Race Alumni, Staff, Coaches, and the men who had the vision and
drive to start the World Race came together for the first time. Over 200 of us
brought the Kingdom of Christ as we worshipped the Lord together for four days.
The first day
of the Awakening I was reading from the book of Acts in the Bible. I love the
book of Acts and have read it quite a few times, but this time was different.
My focus wasn't on the sings and wonders, the miracles. I wasn't searching for
anything. I was just enjoying reading Scripture. Then something that I've read
numerous times stood out as if I was reading it for the first time...
"So, God who
knows the heart, acknowledged them by giving them the Holy Spirit..."
- Acts 15:8
Wow. God the
Father gives us the Holy Spirit because He wants to acknowledge us! The gifts
of the Spirit are not reserved only for those who are evangelists and see people
come to know the Lord, or for those who have the gift of healing and get to see
people healed in order to celebrate Christ their King. God wants to give us the
gifts of the Holy Spirit because He wants to remind not only us but those
around us that we belong to Him. That we are sons and daughters, a royal
priesthood, forgiven and set free, healed and delivered.
I shared this
revelation with everyone the first night. There were some people crammed in
that tiny room who needed to allow God to give them the acknowledgment that
they deserved by allowing the Holy Spirit to move in their lives. When we deny
the Holy Spirit to move, when we deny the gifts of the Spirit we are not
allowing God to acknowledge us. And there isn't anything else that God wants to
do except acknowledge us as His own...
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