For Revamped, "Night of Worship" has always been a big deal, it's three hours of continuous worship, which isn't so long for some people, but for us we normally leave with scratchy throats and the worship team pooped. AAAAND it's awesome, every year The Holy Spirit is ever present, and the growth of our group is obvious both in numbers and our spirituality. Pastor Johnathan and so many more people put hours of prayer, hard labor, creativity and thinking into making it an impacting night, a night that breaks chains, breaks walls, to declare our freedom and our testimonies. Tonight the theme was "Unstoppable", basically describing every aspect of God. We all had the chance to write our testimony on a piece of cardboard and declare it to the crowd, "I was _______, but now I'm _______". Mine was "I was lonely but now I'm loved." Lonely describing the deepest and rawest part of who i used to be, and Loved describing the realest and most powerful way God revealed to me that I was not alone.
Now for the past few years my experience in Night of Worship has been a prophetic one, a chance for God to speak through me to convey a message He wants someone to know. Prophecy is a spiritual gift anyone can recieve, 1 Corinthians 14:1 - "Let love be your highest goal! But you should also desire the special abilities the Spirit gives - especially the ability to prophesy." It's a gift I encourage everyone to practice because it's such a faith expanding experience to have verified prophecy and to know God speaks through you. Now tonight God planned to speak through me more than He ever had before and i left Night of Worship feeling so happy, fulfilled and excited!
It all started a few weeks ago, when i was praying for a random girl at Revamped (I'm keeping her name private) feeling like i should encourage her in her Spiritual Gifts, whatever they may be. So a random scripture popped in my head, something like 1 Kings 4, talking about the Administration of King Solomon. So i figured administration must be one of them and really wanted to talk to her but felt it wasn't the right time. Skip ahead to tonight and i feel tonight is the night to talk to her, but in the middle of worship i get this nagging feeling that there's more, so i receive Matthew 4:11 - "Then the devil went away, and angels came and took care of Jesus." Now this is right after Jesus had been in the wilderness being tempted by satan with food and power and Jesus rejected him every time and finally told satan to go away. So i felt i should encourage someone that feels they're going through their own wilderness to keep rejecting satans advances, and tell him to go away because the angels are coming to take care of you! We have all gone through hard times in our life and this is our "wilderness" and satan loves to tempt you in these times because we are at our weakest. But it wont last forever and you have to keep fighting and be a warrior! Then it suddenly clicks with me that these cardboard testimonies are our stories of making it out of the wilderness, but that some people may still be in their wilderness. That they might feel as if they have the first part of their testimony, but are missing the end of it, the happy part, making it out. And it broke my heart because I know the struggle that goes with that. So someone, maybe more, needed to know that even though they feel they only have half of their testimony they just have to keeping fighting, because Jesus is coming to give them the rest!
So at this point i'm worshiping my soul out but getting a sick feeling in my stomach because i'm pretty sure i'm gonna have to share this Matthew 4:11 message with everybody, and my anxiety is having a frenzy.All i can think about is what if i leave something out or get all confused and don't convey the right message. It starts getting hard for me to focus, so i just pray that maybe it's just for one person, but nooooo, i know it not. So of course i wait until the last minute, and they show a video and I'm thinking this is the end, so i missed my opportunity, kinda relieved, but mostly disappointed in myself, because i let anxiety get the best of me and someone might of really needed to hear that. But wait, it's not over, I've got one more chance so without thinking (so i wouldn't throw up) I tell Johnathan. So nervously and excitedly i tell everyone Gods prophetic message (Phrased a lot shorter than how i wrote it) and i get a good response (thank goodness cause that woulda been aaaaawkward). So i go sit down and I AM so relieved and really just proud of myself.
After the last song and our closing prayer i went straight to the girl i got the Spiritual Gift of Administration for and asked if i could ask her a question, she said yes. Here's what happened:
Me: Hey could i ask you a question?
Girl: Yeah sure!
Me: Do you know what your spiritual gifts are?
Girl: Yeah! Administration.
Me: OH, well i'm just here to verify that!
*shows her "Administration" written down in journal*
I got this for you a LONG time ago but just felt like now was the right time tell you!
Girl: Thanks so much!
*Were both kinda in shock*
Me: Thank YOU so much, for verifying us.
*Me being awkward*
Soooo, that was cool, I was probably more shocked than i should have been, haha. But God constantly blows my mind. So then i go grab a piece of pizza to eat in the lobby and she walks up to me and ask's if she can talk to me. And this is, kinda, how it went:
Girl: So during alter call (Before i gave the prophetic word) i asked my friend to pray for me for the exact same thing you spoke about, and she told me that she had a prophetic word to give me after service, but when i just asked her she said that you had already said it on stage! I asked her if she told you anything and she was like "No!"
Me: Oh wow, that's so awesome.
*Something to that extent* *Told her a bit of my experience of not feeling like i had a finished testimony and what God did to give me one, and encouraged her. Found out we'd struggled in very similar ways*
OH, this must be for you!
*gives her super cute ring i bought for myself a few days ago, shaped like a crown with fake diamonds on it, nothing real or fancy, i just liked the symbolism of it, reminding me that my fathers royalty making me a princess.*
I felt like it needed to go to someone tonight, to remind them what it reminds me of, being royalty. Clearly that's you!
Girl: Really?! Thank you!
*More talking*
You know what's funny about this ring, my friend prophesied over me a while ago and said that she felt that there were chains on me and that God wanted to break them and replace them with a jeweled crown!
Soooo, that was even cooler! It went something like that, it was generally just an awesome experience for both of us! She had so many things verified over her tonight and I know it blew SO much unbelief out of the water! And it gave me a chance to grow in prophecy, and you know when those subtle whispers of "maybe i'm just talking to myself" or "that was just a coincidence", no more. I've had more than enough reasons for those whispers to be proven wrong before, but if i chose to listen to them now, i'd be lying to myself no doubt.
I'm not sure what everyone else's experiences of Night of Worship were tonight, but i know The Holy Spirit was IN there! So there have to be SO many more awesome stories!
I worshiped
I felt the presence of God
I prayed
I prophesied
I slapped anxiety in the face
I got to pray over a a really awesome friend
I made a new friend
We experienced the realness of God
I ate pizza
AHHH, it was SUCH a good night!
This is a photo from the NoW before tonights, i couldn't find an updated one
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