Praise the Lord, O my soul

Praise the LORD , O my soul;
all my inmost being, praise his holy name.
Praise the LORD , O my soul,
and forget not all his benefits-
who forgives all your sins
and heals all your diseases,
who redeems your life from the pit
and crowns you with love and compassion,
who satisfies your desires with good things
so that your youth is renewed like the eagle's.

Psalm 103:1-5


I just got back from the SoleSeekers retreat. A-ma-zing. Jesus Christ is alive and dwelling among us today! I absolutely did NOT want to go this weekend. More than almost anything, I hate being in a situation where I don't know many people. Especially if that situation lasts for 48 hours and I have no chance of escape. In my mind, best case scenario was that I'd meet a few new friends and not spend most of my time alone. The worst case scenario was that I'd get attacked by a runaway paddleboat. Either way, I didn't really think it would be worth the spent weekend and the $70 it cost me.

Seems I didn't have a choice in the matter. When God wants you to do something, it's really hard to ignore that voice, that feeling of tugging at your spirit. I knew I had to go no matter how much I didn't want to. Praise Jesus that I did. The fruit of this weekend reaches beyond my wildest expectations.

I never knew much about the Holy Spirit. Little by little over the past couple months, I've begun to be introduced to him. I love that at The Branch, the Spirit is always invited in. In my experience, the church of Christ hasn't been a big fan of the Holy Spirit. I've heard of him, but I've never known him. I've never been a part of a study on the Holy Spirit, and although I was baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, I never even knew who he was. (And on that thought, do I really know the extent of who God is? Who Jesus is? If only I really did!) When we don't know what to pray for, the Holy Spirit intercedes for us on our behalf! Praise Jesus for that! How many times do I not know what to pray for? More often than I do know what to pray for!

Prophesy is another thing that hasn't been mentioned much in my church experience. When it was, it was just one of the three names that went together. When I thought of a prophet, I thought of Isaiah and the rest of the majors and minors. Modern day prophesying sure wasn't something I'd really heard much about. I'd heard of prophecy as being one of the spiritual gifts, but I've sure never known anyone with the gift of prophecy or even really known what it's about. If I had known what it was about, I would've been sceptical at best. In the past week, though, I have been inundated with stories of prophesying and this weekend, I actually saw a man with the gift of prophecy praying and prophesying over brothers and sisters in our group. This stuff is for real. God, Jesus, Holy Spirit, Satan, Angels, Demons, Prophecy, Spiritual Warfare. All real. More real than we can even grasp.

I'm excited. I'm also incredibly scared. It's so much easier to just keep your eyes closed and keep pretending. I don't even know what to think, but I know that I'm standing at the edge of something big. God is present and revival is coming. I can just feel it.