God has been doing an amazing work in the 4 churches that we have been at so far. We just finished up an 8 day (which turned into an 11 day because of what God was doing in the lives of people) conference here in Wyoming, Ontario, Canada last night. Every night truth's from God's Word was being proclaimed. A lot of times people are expecting our revival team to come into their church and pump them and get them going. There is a passage in Hosea 6 that kind of approaches revival in a much different manner. It says in verse 1 "Come, and let us return to the Lord; for He has torn, but He will heal us; He has stricken, but He will bind us up...He will revive us...He will raise us up, that we may live in His sight." We don't tend to want to go through the muddy things in our lives in order to have that close intimacy with God...we just want it all to be better right away :) This past Sunday we had people from the congregation share what God had been revealing in their lives and how they have responded to it. Let's just say it was the best church service I think I have ever attended! Not because of anything that man did, but what God did. There were over 40 people and 4 hrs of testimonies! Coming into this church we heard that it was a very good church. But what we have realized that in every church there is garbage in peoples lives that is being kept secret. The church in Acts was a church that got open in with each other and the Word of God prevailed because of what people shared. I just want to share a couple of the testimonies with you:
"I had been hiding a secret sin in my life for the past 2-3 years (adultery). I thought I could bury it and take it to my grave, wow, was I wrong. On the night when Ryan preached about clearing your conscience God convicted me to the point that I couldn't fight it any longer. I had already confessed this secret sin to God, but I was hiding it from my wife, I finally gave it up. I confessed this secret sin to my wife. In that instant, a huge burden was lifted from me. Said thing is that it all went onto my wife. I was certain my marriage was over. This summit was the start of my total surrender to Christ and it started the healing process in my marriage. My wife extended forgiveness that night. We hae a long road to go for me to regain her trust and rebuild our marriage. But since that night, God has been doing an amazing work in me, my wife, my marriage, my family. It is only by God's grace that this was possible. This situation has changed my life. God is good, God is great." - Steve
Here is his wife's:
"God found me full of bitterness, jealousy, disrespect toward my husband and very controlling in our home. Praying and reading my bible was a chore and I was very unwilling to spend time with God. Our home life was chaotic with our children very disobedient and with very poor attitudes. God convicted me of these sins and I sought forgiveness from Him and from the ones I was holding bitterness toward as well as the jealousy. My husband forgave me for my controlling spirit. I now have a desire to read God's word and spend time in His word and prayer. Our home feels more under God's power. I have a love for my husband that I have never experienced before. Praise God!!!" - Jacqueline
It was so great to see God restore this marriage! One of the nights after their confessing, I saw them in worship and they were holding hands and raising them up praising the Lord! It brought tears to my eyes because I knew what God had done in that marriage! This couple could have just kept coming to church, putting on the mask and "pretending" everything was okay. But they chose the way that is going to bring most glory to God and humbling to themselves. It is hard to have a real relationship with someone while keeping them at arms length and never letting them get into your life and know the ins and outs of you.
There was another lady that got up and shared that she and her husband had been married for 34 years, but have been separated for the past 5 years. She said that she had neglected praying for him and confessed that she wanted him back (and he was sitting in the congregation!). He got up and went down to her and they went and prayed. She later testified how she has now put her wedding rings back on (which she had not worn the 5 years they have been separated). The last night we saw her and her husband kneeling and praying together as a couple and embrased and kissed afterwards! (now only God can work like that:)
There are so many more that I could share with you. Tomorrow we head to another church here in Canada. We will do an 11 day summit there. What is cool is that some of the people from the church we just finished at are going to come to the next church on Sunday and testify to what God has just done in their church! We as a team are excited to see what God as in store for this next church. It is hard to leave a church that you just got attached to but realizing that God has much in store in the next church as well.
Continue to pray for our team. Pray that we will be fully surrendered to God (despite long nights, continually new host homes and churches, long bus rides, etc.) God has challenged me lately that what I get to do is such a privilege and sometimes I tend to look at it like a duty. Pray that I will be continually refreshed in God's word and time spent with Him.
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