New Year’s: As 2018 began, I heard Lord telling me to be more bold and quick in sharing about Jesus as Savior. Then couple days later, one of our national partners shared with me that He heard the same thing from God to share his faith and bring up Jesus in conversations. To me, this was a confirmation that God wanted to show great things in this year.
Fast & Pray: To start off the year, our community and our team did a 21-day fast while keeping intercession for our country. On the 21st day, we arranged a 24-hour prayer slot as well as 2 hours of worship to finish the fast. We lifted up personal and ministry prayer requests and saw God moving as he was starting a greater prayer movement across the world.
Man in white: Laura's mother, Martha, told her that she didn't believe in all the dreams and visions that Laura was having about Jesus, and she thought they were all stories. Laura told her mother that she would pray that she had a personal encounter with Jesus. A few days later, Laura's mother had a dream in which she was in the midst of all of her relatives, and it was dark. Then a man in white with two other people came and said, "This isn't your place," and he took her out of there. He then told her that he was Jesus. She didn't believe that he was Jesus, and so she said, "You're not Jesus." He said, "Yes, I am," and he held out a cloth with the name "Jesus" written on it. She said, "Then where were you all of this time?" (She has been sad about many things in her life, so she felt like Jesus hadn't been there helping her.) He told her, "I was here the whole time. You just didn't invite me in." After having this powerful dream, she has fully invited Jesus into her heart and she wants her relatives to know about him.
Personal God-Sighting: This past month's God-sighting was my encounter with the Holy Spirit during our fast season and worship evening. Going into the worship evening, I went in with a hungry heart for an encounter. For several months now, I knew that God was transforming my heart of worship and desiring me to learn how to worship in spirit and truth. The worship time that I had the opportunity to lead was powerful. Throughout the night, I just felt the flow of the Spirit in the room leading the worship time. The last 30 minutes of the worship evening, we had a time set apart specifically for encountering God. After a couple minutes of just waiting for the Lord, the word "surrender" flashed before me and led me to kneel down. While I was kneeling down, I felt pressure on my back that almost caused me to bow down. Although the pressure was great, I also felt release of fear and shame. It was at that moment when praying in the spirit didn't feel so unknown. God has been teaching me a lot about speaking in tongue and worshipping in the spirit and this was a significant encounter He's taken me.
Invitation: Once again, I met with Dina and sensed that I should share the parable of the lost sheep. This is not an usual passage to do a study at an early stage, but I sensed that I needed to share how much God loves her and how much Jesus desires to be in her heart. So, after I shared the story, she replied in awe by saying, “God is good. God is relational. God is near.” I also shared with her that Jesus came for her personally. She has yet to surrender her life to Jesus, please pray that she will fully invite Jesus into her heart.
Prayer Requests
- Ask God to raise up a prayer movement and a disciple making movement in Artesia. In particular for more ways for locals to encounter Jesus through dreams and visions.