No Sleeping At The Wheel

We’re almost six weeks into our Rev5 Class of 2016 year, marking five years of dedicated leadership development with 18-24 year olds. If we were honest, starting off the year was smooth and we were feeling pretty confident. Our trips and classes were going as scheduled. We had just returned from the beautiful Grand Tetons of Wyoming and were heading into our monumental week of telling our life stories, we call our Testimony Retreat.

We’ve been through a handful of Testimony Retreats. Each have been powerful and redemptive. But God wanted to make sure there was no sleeping at the wheel for our team.

Stories began and we shared in the recounting of the highs and lows that are typical in each of our lives. In the first story from our students, we ended with a heavy sense of spiritual oppression. The weight of spiritual attack was almost palpable. Alarmed, we gathered as directors and prayed.

Quickly, we sensed that there was more here than just some stories and the freedom that comes from confession. We were stepping on spiritual territory that had been occupied by the enemy and he was letting us know he didn’t like it.

Each hearing a unique piece of what our next steps were to be, we shared and confirmed that we were to reach our to our prayer teams to seek counsel and ask for “spiritual backup” against this oppressive force we were coming against. As soon as prayers started going out, we could feel the weight lift and began to regain our mental clarity and discernment.

We met individually with some students that God had put on our hearts and after confirming with the Lord that we had been obedient, we felt peace moving forward as planned. The stories continued, but this time, without the spiritual weight that had been present before. God moved and His redemptive story played out once again in the lives of our students. What a gift to be front-row on their journey to fullness in Christ!

What we learned

We walked away from this experience acknowledging that we don’t have it all figured out and we never will. God didn’t set up a template for spiritual growth and just say, “Go do it and let me know when you’re done.” He intended to be an integral part in each and every step of the journey.

Looking forward, we continue as one who has been marked by God and is acutely aware of their dependency on Him. It’s a joy and an adventure!