A Reason to Sing (a late post from reviveTWIN CITIES training)

A Reason to Sing

GOOD MORNING Saturday…so our teams head out and Emilee and I make our first stop at Grace Church and set David up (we were blessed to have a table for the men’s breakfast).  Simultaneously, across town Kyle and Rich were at another men’s breakfast for HisClay Ministries.  All the while we had part 2 of training starting at 8:30 a.m. at OCMC.  And some of our team was there - getting prepped for the morning!  Busy day!

So Emilee and I get David all squared away and we head out to the OCMC. As we are cruising down a MN highway, I just remarked to Emilee, “We may have just enough time to stop and grab a coffee” (a must for any early morning in the cold!).  Well just as I mentioned coffee, I noticed a police officer and I looked at my speedometer and said “I’m going to get a ticket.”  Yep, I was speeding. Guilty! And now you’re thinking - great what a way to ruin a morning.  But for some reason, it didn’t really phase me, did I have the time to get the ticket, nope, did I have the extra money to pay for the ticket, nope.  But I knew I had more important things to think about.

So as we departed from the sight of the infraction, I turned up the radio and took off to OCMC.  Neither one of us spoke, and there was no coffee to be had, but we were good and made it to OCMC.  We were on time for our most important mission...getting the teams equipped to go out and share the Gospel.

Our emphasis from training the night before was LOVE - LISTEN - DISCERN - RESPOND.  The Lord had us open in prayer with this verse:

“Love is patient, love is kind and is not jealous; love does not brag and is not arrogant, does not act unbecomingly; it does not seek its own, is not provoked, does not take into account a wrong suffered, does not rejoice in unrighteousness, but rejoices with the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never fails…”  (1 Cor 3: 4-8)

The morning worship was amazing, the Lord just kept telling me not to worry about anything (as some of you may know I’m a blessed to be a facilitator in training, which means I help organize the teams before we go out during training, and last time we had about 200 people to organize).  As the church filled up the Lord kept saying, keep singing, keep worshipping me, I helped you last time, I’ll help you again.  So I kept singing.  I love singing and the Lord gives me a reason to sing time and time again.  

As 150+ people and 42 teams hit the streets, I was excited.  I was so excited, because I was on a team!  I hadn’t had the opportunity to go out last time, but love when I do and really felt that this morning I was excited to LOVE on people.  Not to mention I had a ROCKSTAR team.  

So our team headed out and went to a local hospital, as we talked and walked we came across Whitley, as she greeted us with a sweet smile, we asked her how we could pray and she said for direction (for her life) and for her God-son.  So we stopped and immediately, I thought the Lord send us to Whitley because He knew her and about her life.  As we sat down we noticed she had a tattoo on her finger, and it said “Love.” It was beautiful.  So as we continued LOVE - LISTEN - DISCERN - RESPOND, Whitley gave her life to the Lord and became confident in her direction.  And the Lord gave all of us a reason to sing.

Praying, that despite all the things the world throws at you, you will remember we have an eternal reason to sing and we have to share it.

Prayer & Obedience (a late post from reviveCOLUMBIAsc)

Prayer and Obedience…

It’s been 3 days since I have been in Columbia, but my heart nonetheless is still there. What an amazing time with friends and fellow believers this past weekend. As our training team, David Maddox, Tony Hicks, Drew Gibbs, and Valita Randolph traveled from a far to come to Columbia, our hearts were to be available to the Spirit of the Lord. Lord, let us hear your heart for this city, let us hear the cries of your people for revival and let us join in their work and labor in faith for what the Lord has in store for Columbia, SC.

As you probably already know the answer to what happened while we traversed through Columbia, I just want to share with you a bit of what happened…

Thursday our team landed and headed to a local coffee shop to just sit and prep and take in the city. It was a fun time of fellowship and of conversation with locals in the shop, it’s always a blessing to get our heads back in the city in which we are going to spend the next few days and what better way to get a pulse then to go be among the people…Next we headed to our Instigators home - H.L. and Janie Allen. Some of you may be asking what denotes an instigator? Well here’s a simple description...at Time to Revive an instigator is someone who is led by the Holy Spirit to pursue and pray for revival in their city and has been led by the Lord to call upon others to join them in that plea...and that’s what H.L. and Janie have devoted themselves to...praying for revival in Columbia, SC.


At dinner that night we were able to pray and talk through what it’s going to take to rally the Church in Columbia, SC. What will allow us to bring people together to share the love of Jesus across this city? Our prayers are simple...Lord we want to see you transform us and the Church. We want to see your love and power manifest and revive this city! What an awesome time together...and we pray your will join us in this prayer!

Friday as we met throughout the city with churches, pastors, and business men, our teams prayed and prayed for the Lord to keep us in His will, Lord what do you want to see happen in Columbia and our prayers were being confirmed, step by step. Friday evening we got to hear testimonies of how the remnant in Columbia had been stepping out in boldness and faith, to share Jesus. 2 Salvations with a team that went out last month from the Greater Columbia Call to Prayer, 4 Salvations at the Giving Table event, another person joining in to pray for the Government in Columbia once a month, another person talking about a time when they shared with someone who didn’t get it, but she later she must have spent time with the Lord and got it because she was seen witnessing her new faith to others, joy and praise when someone shared about the article in Reach Out Columbia titled “It’s time to REVIVE, Columbia” by Marsha Bradberry...what a blessing!!! And through all those I had an even more overwhelming joy at that moment, because a good friend of mine who I met the week of prayer time in Columbia had finally been able to join us for that evening...and so the Lord was just filling everyone’s heart with praise on what He’s doing in Columbia!

Training was a joy and our focus was prayer and obedience. With our (the training team) heart cry being what Luke said in Acts 4:29 - 31 -

29 And now, Lord, look upon their threats and grant to your servants to continue to speak your word with all boldness, 30 while you stretch out your hand to heal, and signs and wonders are performed through the name of your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place in which they were gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and continued to speak the word of God with boldness.

Boldness...and what a mighty God we serve, because on Saturday morning as the teams went out after a beautiful time of prayer, the Lord answered those prayers...reviveCOLUMBIA teams went out in boldness and returned to celebrate 14 salvations and later on Sunday 2 baptisms! Praise the Lord!

Will you continue to pray for and pursue revival with us in Columbia, South Carolina?

FAITH, multiplied

FAITH

Here we are after training #3 in Richmond.  What a fun couple of days.  No crazy travel stories to talk about, no delays, no issues, our team arrived safely and made it home quietly.  We are certain we rode in and out on some prayers, so thank you to those who pray for us continuously without fail.

Our time these last 2 days in Richmond were such a blessing to David, Gary, Ben and myself.  Our team has come to terms with the travel, the long days and the sometimes sleepless, or off schedule nights.  And people say all the time, “we just don’t know how you do it?”  Well it’s simple really.  It’s all God.  He does it…we just have to have FAITH.

And it’s clear that those who gathered together yesterday and today have FAITH.  And together we clung to the FAITH that the Lord will give strength, will lead our steps, will make a way, will teach us, exhort us and unite us as the body of Christ.  It’s interesting to see how even the disciples needed to be encouraged in their FAITH.

In Mark 11:22 – 26 Peter brings to Jesus’ attention the fact that the fig tree he cursed withered away and Jesus responded with these words:  “Have faith in God.  Truly I say to you, whoever says to this mountain, ‘Be taken up and cast into the sea,’ and does not doubt in his heart, but believes that what he says is going to happen, it will be grated to him.  Therefore I say to you, all things for which you pray and ask, believe that you have received them, and they will be granted to you.”

Because of your (that’s you RICHMOND) FAITH, the Lord showed up, everyday people, who have been called by Jesus, claimed His power and moved mountains Friday and Saturday in Richmond.  You shifted the atmosphere and pushed back the darkness.

FAITH saw a partially blind man healed, it saw 3 salvations, it addressed demons, it prayed with dozens of people, it planted many seeds, it invited people to church, it connected believers to reviveRICHMOND and in return each person involved tapped into increased FAITH.

And afterall that’s all we are after, urging believers to learn how to share their FAITH (the Truth).  “For by grace we are saved, through FAITH and this is not from yourselves; it is a gift from God- not from works, so that no one can boast.” Ephesians 2:8-9

Praising God for each of you, thanks for increasing my FAITH!

Join In, Listen, Obey...

And here's the devotional I wrote for Day 2 training in Devils Lake - thought I would share...since officially I'm writing and the purpose of my blog was to write more!

Enjoy - kt

Join In, Listen, Obey...

WOW! Summing up day 2 of trainDEVILS LAKE #3 it has been tough...the Lord showed up in BIG ways, starting on Tuesday morning. About 25 people met to pray and go out in the Devils Lake region and right from the start the Lord began to encourage His disciples who were showing up scared, nervous and a little hesitant. It reminded me of a quote I read earlier today:

“The Spirit of God meets us where we are and calls us to take the next step . . . This is where we find God - one step ahead, inviting us forward. And as we follow Him we may live the lives that display the irresistible beauty of 'the light of the world, a city on a hill [that] can’t be hidden' Matthew 5:14” - Jeff Cook, Author/Pastor


It could not have been more true yesterday. Right from 8:00 a.m. on, the Lord was one step (or years of prayer) ahead of us.

As one first-timer showed up yesterday morning and made herself available She sat down to listen to the training of how to use the Gospel wristband and Step-by-Step Holy Bible and when the presentation was over she realized that sitting next to her was a young mother whom she had never directly shared the Gospel with, whom she had been praying for - for years and she had just been presented (through Gary’s training) the complete Gospel message. WOW!

Now, while the young mother had to leave quickly after the message was delivered, God was setting her up to have a chance to follow up with the message she heard! Our God is an awesome God! - Psalm 68:35 This first-timer felt the Lord just gently say, “I’m here to help you every step of the way!”

During lunch there were similar experiences where the Lord encouraged and spoke to team members to let them know “You are not alone.” And whether it was another team member helping out at just the right time with the words of the Gospel or a prayer or even if it was complete recognition that the Holy Spirit was directing their steps and speech, our first-timers, and even our seasoned veterans were encouraged! Just by taking one step forward they saw the Lord meet them where they were.

And because of that what we see, “The word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to greatly increase” (Acts 6:7). Never before had we ever taken out 60+ people for night time outreach. So as we took our first steps and they took theirs, we continued to see the Lord show up in all his glory.

And just like what happened that morning, a young college student was able to be encouraged that God was answering her prayers. By someone else taking a first step and sharing the Gospel with her friend, we were able to celebrate by saying, “GLORY!”

Be sure to check out the video below too!

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

I wrote this for our Time to Revive email communications last week and thought I would love to share it with others as well!  Enjoy!

The Joy of the Lord is my Strength

Joy is all I can think about today...and for many days leading up to this day. Today was joyful in that we didn’t travel in blizzard conditions, I got to have great conversations with coworkers, I was able to hug some great friends from Arizona and North Dakota and I didn’t wear a jacket all day (not even in ND!). JOY!

But seriously, for the past few months the Holy Spirit has had me focused on this little song. “The joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength, the joy of the Lord is my strength...”

It all started in Devils Lake too, the first time I had heard this song, if ever, was on Day 6 of prayDEVILS Lake (Click here to see Gloria (Kyle’s Mom) sing it - Love it!). And my roommates, friends and coworkers can also tell you, I haven’t been able to shake this little saying and song, it just keeps popping up!

I can’t shake how gracious the Lord is to me. He gives me strength whenever and wherever I need it and His love NEVER FAILS! (Psalm 136).

The Lord was so good to me in Seattle, He gave me unending joy, so much so, that I remember saying to Emilee that I couldn’t explain it. He gave it to me even when I should not have felt joy, when I didn’t deserve it. His joy abounded. And in return I give thanks, glorious thanks.

And that’s what we got to see tonight. God’s joy arcing from Seattle to Devils Lake. As Gary talked tonight, when Jesus sent out the seventy-two, they went in obedience to the Lord. Jesus did not promise it would be easy, in fact He stated just the opposite, you will be sent “out like lambs among wolves”Luke 10:3. As Gary said tonight imagine being a little lamb in a pack of wolves, not a fun picture!

Now we didn’t tell that to Pastor Les, Kim, Jessica, Andy, Vanessa or Michelle when they signed up for reviveSEATTLE, it’s just not a cool tag line for a mission trip. And in fact it may be a little harsh to describe how these North Dakotans felt when they arrived in Seattle, but truth is it was hard. It was hard because it was different, because it was a new city, because it was stretching and each one went knowing it would not be easy.

They trusted the Lord, they held onto His promises and they returned with joy. Just like it says in Luke 10: 17 - “The seventy-two returned with joy.” And tonight we got to share in that joy. We got to see how the Lord worked in and through each of them in Seattle and how he’s continuing to do that as they are obedient to be sent out.

And now that same joy is multiplying in Seattle and in Devils Lake! You too can get in on that joy just by allowing the Lord to be your strength and joining us...whether you are reading this from Seattle or Devils Lake - it’s not too late, come...let the joy of the Lord be your strength.

Kristi

Check out the video that accompanied this writing too: