My trip was amazing. God did new things in my life and I feel like I grew a lot. Its kind of an odd feeling. While I can articulate some of the stuff that He did (at least enough for eight previous blogs in addition to this one), I feel like the heart of what He did and my feelings towards the trip are beyond diction. That seems to be a recurring theme in my life, not having the words. Quite the quandary for someone who fancies himself a writer. What God does is beyond words and such was the case on this trip. Nonetheless, here’s my feeble attempt…
Life is all about the first and second greatest commandment. That we love God and love others (Matthew 22: 37-40). I love God more after this trip and I thank Him that He is here with me in Tanzania as well. I thank God that He is omnipresent and that while we left Asia, He stayed there and came with us. And yet, no one else came back with me. I do miss walking around Darjeeling or seeing the beauty as our tour bus winded through the Himalayas. But more than anything I miss the people. The ministry takes place before the Lord and is for the benefit of the people.
I said a lot in my previous posts and people may think one thing or another about that post or this post, but when the ministry comes down to it, its about the people. God is so worthy that it isn’t right for all people to not worship Him. People are too precious to not be fulfilling the destinies that God called each of them to. All the prayers and intercession, all the prophetic words and acts, all the steps trekking up and down hills, all the change and food given to beggars, all the lyrics sang, everything is in hopes that God receives more glory from more people. He loves them so much and their faces remain in my mind.
I can’t overemphasize this to my brothers and sisters in the Lord. We need to do more to reach the lost people of this world. We must show them love. We must share truth. We must pray for good strategy. We must intercede for them. We must live blamelessly, so as to not give them reason to discredit us. God will help us and its His heart to see these people in His blessed family. Please take a pause from reading this and pray for those that don’t yet know Christ and also ask God for an increase in passion to see them saved.
The Lord gave me three things that He would be doing in me and through me personally on this trip and as is the case with a faithful God, He came through. I’ll share in reverse order from previously.
The Lord said that this would be a testimony to others. This one’s easy because it doesn’t have much to do with me. I was faithful to blog and if anyone wants to talk about it, I’m doing that as well. I may not know who the experiences speak to, but that doesn’t matter to me so much. Through all the blog posts while I was there, I got zero comments on my Blogspot and I believe a whopping two on Facebook. Haha! Wow, if I didn’t enjoy writing, I would have given up a long time ago on blogging. At any rate, I indeed testify that God is great and did great things on this trip.
The Lord told me that while the Kingdom would advance externally, He was sending me there so that the Kingdom would advance internally as well. He told me that, but I didn’t really know what that would look like. Its funny that one of the big ways He advanced within my own heart will have a direct effect on the external Kingdom. I feel like I have received a heart for the lost. I’m sure that has come across in this post already, as well as the last several, but its quite true. Its completely selfish of me to only be concerned about the working of the Lord in my immediate life and sphere of influence. That’s sinful. I can’t ignore the masses of people that are perishing without the love of God. That’s wrong. Aside from avoiding sin, I see the beauty of people and the beauty of culture that the Lord Himself is so in love with. It only makes sense that the people should be joined to their Creator who is passionately in love with them.
The second way that the Kingdom advanced within my heart had to do with intercession. I did go through a baptism and all that my intercession entailed was much more than I’ve experienced before. From standing looking across a river at a city in a closed nation, I prophesied to the city that their freedom is at hand. Walking through an outdoor Hindu temple in Darjeeling, I cried out for mercy. From the floor of my hotel, I had intense dreams and woke up praying for the city many times in a single night. From the seat of our bus or SUV, I sung in worship on behalf of the people that we passed. And I did seemingly stranger things than these in intercession. This is something that I must maintain and use to touch Tanzania.
Finally, the Lord told me that I was to receive an impartation. For those that aren’t familiar, the best way I have to explain it is that its like spiritual Christmas. Often through the laying on of hands, but not necessarily all the time, the passing of a spiritual gift or other good thing can be passed from one person to another. Or from God to a person. For me, I tried to keep my eyes peeled on who might pass on the impartation. I truly came across some exceptional Christians, but the impartation that I walk away with is from the Lord.
I am a more powerful person. The Lord has imparted power to me. This is in direct relation to an increase in faith that my prayers actually make a difference. I’m sure that sounds strange, but for us followers, it shouldn’t. We are supposed to be powerful people. If God entrusted us with the Gospel and seeing it proclaimed, don’t you think that He would give us some power to accomplish that. He in fact did and said so Himself: “You shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you; and you shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea, and Samaria, and to the end of the earth” (Acts 1:8). If we are bearers of the Holy Spirit, we have the power to change the situations that are around us. God is all-powerful and He dwells within you. Let us not grieve Him or stifle Him.
This isn’t a simple impartation though. Its not like a physical gift, its something that I have to choose to walk in and I have to lean into the Giver of the gift for it to really take an effect. I don’t want to put down the power because it is hard to wield or carry. Too many bearers of the Holy Spirit do just that and thus don’t walk in the power that lays dormant within them. I’m choosing to walk in this power. And to make sure I squeeze out every blessing from this impartation, I’m preparing to do one of the most powerful things that I can think of. I’m preparing in the near future to do an extended fast. I need to fully attain this power and I want more. I’m not power hungry in the sense the world would think. But rather, I see people every day that walk around in religious garb that tells me they don’t know the love of God. Treasures of Africa is seeking the Lord for land and we will need financial miracles to attain it. I am preparing to enter into the most important relationship of my life when I marry Melissa next summer. I have a son who is still deaf. I need the power of God in new measure to change situations and ensure His highest in all of these things.
The Lord was faithful to me in Asia. He is a faithful God. His Word goes forth and does not return void but accomplishes that which it was sent for. He spoke over this trip and His hand of blessing was all over it. He is the powerful God who is making all things new and is redeeming that which was lost, for this we give praise.
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The Rundown: Well I’m back in Moshi, as stated above. No more need be said about the trip unless you want to email and ask for more of the nitty gritty. Its great being back at TOA and I’m blessed by some changes that we made to my schedule. It now has me teaching more which I love. I’m getting a better amount of time with the older kids on Saturday, the first and second graders during the week and I’m teaching our guard, Arnold, Monday through Thursday now. Its been a blessed and busy last few days back. I’m glad its Sunday and I can relax today. All the kids are well and I loved being so exuberantly greeted on my return home. Outside of TOA, it’s a bit strange around Moshi. I’ve spent every night since my return at home. Melissa’s gone, the interns are gone, the Helblings, Lauren and Mary are gone. Its weird. This place is vacant. I am watching Ryan and Stacy’s while they’re in the states and it was weird being over there with everything covered up and no one there. Please pray for me. I know God has something in this season, but I hate loneliness. Anyways, that’s about it for now that I can think of. Blessings on all of you.
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