day ten

In awe of God's sovereign power I find myself silenced with words, but yet hungry and thirsty in my spirit.  I discover how far I from God's will in my life while others encourage me that I am so far ahead of them.  I see how far I am away from where I would like to be.  I am broken and stripped of any and all pride everyday by seeing God's power moving and knowing that He could use anyone else on this campus, on this hall, but yet He chose me.  I am constantly reminded of the story of Moses while I see the Spirit moving.  Moses felt unqualified though his age, speech, and past but yet God chose to use him and no one else.  God keeps reminding me that there is nothing I do to make him want to use me more or less when it comes to works but rather a hunger and thirst for more of His word and spending time in prayer is what He is truly after.

Today was a unique day.  We did pray and there were more guys that I had never expected to be in there along with other small group leaders that partner with me in leadership on the hall.  So it is exciting to see that I am not the only leader who is participating in this desire for more of him through our times of prayer.  But besides praying again and seeing all that happened in that God taught me a lot on my own today.  I learned that this fast is showing me about what it means to really operate in the Spirit and to trust God in all.  As I talked with a friend of mine earlier today he was telling me that I was not ready for what God is going to do.  He was encouraging me by telling me that I have no idea what I am getting myself into (in a good way) and that for me to just pray and ask God to continue to keep me expectant and ready for what His Spirit is doing.  My friend was telling me that I am about to see something happen on this campus that not many men ever get to see.  Knowing the theological background of Liberty he was telling me how exciting it was to see how the Spirit was moving and how he was showing up everywhere I go.

Today I took pictures of family, friends, and pastors that are close to me and put them on my wall.  I put them there to remind me to pray for them.  My prayer is not only for myself, my small group, or this hall, but my prayer goes out to everyone that I am in relationship with.  I want to see a hunger for more of Him to rise up not only on this campus, but back home in Richmond, at my friend's universities, at churches all across this state.  My expectations are high because of the answer to prayer I have seen in the past few days.  I no longer take prayer lightly.  When I pray I expect God to do something, and I expect to see things happen not only in the physical realm but also the spiritual realm.

I am truly studying prayer right now and taking each word and breaking apart.  I'm doing what Louie Giglio calls a One-Word Study.  For example I am stuck on "Father" in the Lord's prayer and God is showing me so much.  I do not care if it is the word "the" I will study it and I believe that God will show me something I have never seen before.

Books I read today:

The Relevant Church - Mike Bickle, Mark Driscoll, and many more.

Scripture I read today:

Exodus 1-4

Matthew 6

Luke 11

Verse of the day:

Philippians 4:6