It's hard to summarize what has happened from each blog post to the next. I cannot even communicate how much happens on a day-to-day basis. The constant renewing of the mind and heart. He's in the business of bringing into all truth and I love learning.
But I would love to tell you about my weekend. This Friday a team of 50 of us drove down to the Bay Area to go love on people. San Francisco is a very open and free place, and so so so easy to love.
I don't know how to explain my experience other than it was tremendously FUN and EASY. Loving people should be the easiest thing in the world for us. It is so natural. I was so excited going into this trip. We have no agendas or motivations aside from the heart to love and celebrate people, and love them extremely radically well. And I can't stress enough how easy it is. The most powerful thing you can do is be yourself, and the Lord naturally leads you to people and divine appointments.
So much of the time it's easy to be "afraid" walking up to someone the Lord has highlighted, or even not, because we think it's on us to do or say the right thing and make sure the conversation goes a certain way. That is not it at all. All you have to do is go up and start a conversation, and you will get a sense of where you need to go with it, and things will naturally come up because what you carry and what is inside you is light and truth and so good that people open up, feel safe and loved.
Got to pray for so many amazing people on the streets and prophesy identity into their lives. It shocked me every time when I'd asked them if anyone had ever told them God loves them. And they'd be so taken back "Why, no." was the typical answer. People are shocked to hear God is so in love with them, and sees them individually, and knows them on a personal level, and is closer than their breath. And not every experience looked the same though. There were so many cases where God would create instant friendships with people and I and I knew I was just to be their friend and pour love on to them and show them they are seen. It is so easy to feel alone and get lost in the crowd of such a big city. Or even a school of 1,200 for that matter. When you go out of your way for someone to tell them they're appreciated and the world wouldn't be the same without them, it violates all built up walls and immediately changes their demeanor. They are shocked. And to go the next step and pull out the gold you see in them, and if it leads to it (it doesn't always need to) tell them God LOVES them, wow. I will never forget the amazing people and friends I made in the city.
Friday night, some of us went into the Castro District, it was my first time and I had an idea of what it would be like. It was an incredibly fun and joy-filled time. We started out the night with a joy-tunnel, and just celebrated people as they ran through and enjoyed SO MUCH being celebrated. Hahaha it was AMAZING! They LOOOOVED it! People would come up and ask, "What is this for?" and I'd reply "It's for YOU! We want to celebrate you!" and we would scream for them and tell them how amazing they are and just love. Love doesn't have an agenda, it doesn't want to shove anything down into people throats. And it was through purely loving people well that SO MANY people were lead to encounters with the Lord, received the Holy Spirit and saw and would call out genuine love. Typical phrases were "Wow we're really diggin your vibes." And repeating that so amazed. The most shut-off to religion, saw how loving and true we were. People know truth when they see it, we were made to recognize the Father and His love. It's built into us.
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A few testimonies:
-Garrett asked to take a "selfie" with 2 men in the Castro because they all had beards, lead to a 0 minute conversation, he got to pray and prophesy over them, asked them if they wanted to receive the Spirit, they did, we left and an hour later we saw them escorting a blind man they'd just met home. Haha!
-Lindsey Brianna & Michelle were walking and saw 2 girls on the sidewalk and felt they should stop, asked the girls if they wanted a "Spiritual Reading" and the girls were excited and said yes because they'd JUST been talking about that stuff and spirituality and were trying to really find it and God, and they got a huge download of words of knowledge for and about these girls who were then freaking out and saying "WE WERE JUST TALKING ABOUT THIS!!" and "HOW DID YOU KNOW THAT ABOUT ME?!" and they got to share how they have a relationship with God and they heard all of it from Him and how He loves them and all this stuff. And as they were praying for the girls, they began to say they were feeling a tingling up their entire bodies and a fire in their hearts. YESSSSS.
There are at least 100 more like it and completely different. So many people were lead to the Lord through kindness and love. No one was won through an argument or agenda to be right and tell people they're wrong. Kindness leads to repentance. And our job is to love, and point people towards the cross and pull the gold out of them and bring them into who they truly are and God has made them.
We saw God's power, love, healing and authority fall over San Francisco.
Unstoppable Love.
