Living the Journey

Come and hear, all you who fear God,
And I will declare what He has done for my soul.

A month before I came to the Journey to the Heart, life at my home was falling apart. Problems that had been discreetly covered over in public life were causing so much anger and pain that life was almost unbearable.

I grew up in the Philippines. I loved the people, loved the ministry, and loved seeing so much of God. His hand was working in troubled lives through the testimonies we shared with one another. He was ever present and always sufficient. As I got older, the cares of living caught up with me, people and relationships became more tangled and I began to put God farther and farther down on my list. He became so common that I took Him for granted.

Then our whole ministry came crashing to pieces.

Ugly problems that had been working in secret finally surfaced. My father sat me and my older brother down and said: “We are leaving.” The only thing that came to my mind was that this was some king of cruel joke.  It could not be happening.  It was not possible.

It was true.

In one month our entire lives were packed into boxes and I found myself in a foreign country (but my passport said it was “home”) where I knew little more than the geography and the language . . . and little of that.

For You, O God, have tested us;
You have refined us as silver is refined.
You brought us into the net;
You laid affliction on our backs.
You have caused men to ride over our heads;
We went through fire and through water;

The next year I spent much time working on my own to survive. I waded through the morass of teen life trying desperately to salvage some sort of meaning. The mission climate I had been accustomed to made “teen problems” seem shallow. I buried myself in books to find some life wherein I could understand people, where life had meaning, and where my wounds wouldn’t hurt so badly. I sunk so deep into depression that I would wonder why I even wanted to remain alive.  Into my vortex of pain, God began to tenderly turn me toward Him.

Come and see the works of God;
He is awesome in His doing toward the sons of men.
He turned the sea into dry land;
They went through the river on foot.
There we will rejoice in Him.

In 2008, during a session with Teen Pact, they gave a time for personal prayer and meditation. For the first time in about 4 years, I was able to still my mind and I asked God if I could ever go back to the Philippines (my life goal, basically). Suddenly, almost like a physical touch, I heard the word “Here.” “Here?” I asked. “Why here? continue reading…

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Enjoy a panoramic view of the Northwoods Conference Center on this beautiful evening in early March! (Java required.) Thank you, Barak, for the photo.

Click and drag your mouse to pan and press ‘+’ and ‘-’ to zoom in and out.

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Last November, livingthejourney.com posted a speech about competing affections that Stephen wrote after God did a deep work in His life during a Journey to the Heart. Following is an abridged version of a second speech he recently wrote on selling out for God.

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“What are you doing here? Worshipping your imaginary God?” The church members cowered in the pews, wondering if there were more soldiers and more guns outside. “All those who are faithful to God, move to the right side of the church. You will be shot for your faith! You who wish to go home and keep your life, stand on the left side. You must decide to live or die.” Those people who moved to the left side then slowly filed out, taking one last look at their friends who would soon be dead.

If this happened at your church, where would you be? Many Christians in America are not living to please God. It was recently reported that “in this generation as never before, cultural gravity relentlessly pulls at Christian children. Nearly 80% leave the church by the time they complete high school.”

By living for ourselves without living solely for Him we are missing out on God’s power in our lives. Revelation 3:16 says, “So then because thou art lukewarm, and neither cold nor hot, I will spue thee out of my mouth.” If you live like a normal Christian in America, you would probably fall into this lukewarm group that God says He will spew out of His mouth. But you don’t need to be lukewarm if you sell out for God.

Only by being sold out for God and living all for Jesus can we be a true lights that shine brightly in this world. Matthew 5:14 and 16 says,  “Ye are the light of the world. A city that is set on a hill cannot be hid. Let your light so shine before men, that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father which is in heaven.” Then we can live with the power that God gives to us. Paul stated, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me” (Philippians 4:13).

George Müller was a man who gave himself fully to God. He received the means necessary to erect the great buildings and to feed over ten thousand orphans day by day for sixty years. In all that time the children did not have to go without a meal. Sometimes mealtime was almost at hand and they did not know where the food was going to come from, but the Lord always sent it in due time.

How can you grow to be fully God’s servant? First, die to self. “Dying for God is easy; you only have to do it once. Living for God is hard; you have to do it every day.” The apostle Paul proclaimed: “I die daily” (I Corinthians 15:31). We as believers are required to die to self in order to be on fire for the Lord and achieve the greatest impact for His Kingdom.

Second, in order to be sold out for God you must yield all your personal rights and expectations to Him, giving Him your dreams, your possessions, and your money. A young man named R. G. LeTourneau learned how little he really needed to live on. He decided to live on 10% and give the Lord 90% and the Lord abundantly blessed him. Malachi 3:10 says, “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it.”

Third, dedicate your life to the Lord. Have you ever seen the bumper sticker that says “Jesus is my co-pilot”? When we fully dedicate our lives to God, we make Jesus our pilot instead of our co-pilot. Let Him get behind the wheel and take you places you never dreamed possible.

What is keeping you from selling yourself out to God and living to please and glorify our father in heaven?

The story that I opened with ends like this: When only those on the right remained, the soldiers put down their weapons. “We, too, are Christians,” they said, “but we wish to worship without hypocrites.” Would you have the courage to stand up for God and not walk away? Have you really sold out for God?

~ Stephen
July 2009 Journey

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In September of 2007, I boarded a plane headed for Chicago and a Journey to the Heart. It was there that God did a work in my heart that changed my life. He showed me just how fearful of a heart I had. I had a fear of what other people thought of me that would control my words and actions when I was around them. This became the controlling force of my life, rather than what God thought of me. The Lord helped me to see the severe consequences of having a fearful heart, and what a hindrance it was to being an effective soldier of Jesus Christ

One night, our team experienced intense spiritual warfare and we sensed that Satan was attacking us with fear. I got on my knees with the rest of my group and earnestly cried out to God to take away my fear. The amazing happened. I immediately felt a peace, a freedom, and a joy inside! I was thrilled! I felt so free from that bondage!

I did not at all expect the tremendous results that would come. In the days, months, and years that followed, God opened up so many opportunities to make an eternal impact in the lives of others. I was able to reach out to others and talk to them without fear of what they thought of me. It was incredible! I was free to do God’s will. Free to be used for His service. Free to obey the Holy Spirit’s promptings. It grieved me to see how, for so many years, my fear had hindered me from being used of God; from being an available vessel for Him. How many opportunities I must have missed to reach into the lives of others, all because of my fear of man.

Never would I have dreamed that exactly two years and one day after I attended the Journey, I would board a plane for Oklahoma to spend ten weeks making an impact in the lives of many children there. During our heart preparation at Eagle Springs, God again convicted me of my fear of man. I was challenged to live AUG – Approved Unto God. (See Proverbs 29:25, II Timothy 2:15.)

One day before Bible club, I noticed a girl sitting alone while everyone else was playing. Upon going over to talk to her, I asked what the best thing was that had happened to her that day. Without missing a beat, she said, “When the church people came.” (We would go door-to-door picking up the kids for club. This girl evidently viewed us as ‘church people’.) I was caught by surprise as I was certainly not expecting that as an answer! For some of the kids, we were their only hope of something better. We were the bright spot in their day. We were the ones that cared enough to love and reach out to them with the love of Christ. Had I had a fear of man, I would have pushed away the Holy Spirit’s prompting and would have lost an opportunity to share His love with this girl.

As I further talked with her, I discovered that she was rejected by her friends at school and was very hurt by that. I was able to share with her from personal experience how I had found a true Friend in Jesus. The very next week, this little girl was gloriously saved! Through all the training, the work, the loss of sleep, and inconveniences, nothing can be compared to the rewards of investing in these young lives. I can truly say it was worth it all!

My time in Oklahoma teaching truth in the public schools and doing after-school Bible clubs was a growing time and a stretching experience. When I stop relying on God and fail to look to Him alone for approval, I soon fear man rather than the Maker.

God is continuing to do a work in my heart. What I experienced on my Journey was not a one-time thing. It is an on-going process. My Maker is continuing to mold me and develop in me His perfect love that casts away all fear.

~ Sarah
September 2007 Journey

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If you are interested in an opportunity to invest in the lives of children, please send a quick note to Chad Christiansen.

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Ever since my baptism last August, I had been striving to draw closer to God on a daily basis. Yet, at that point, I didn’t realize that I had allowed some affections to creep into my life and compete with my love for God. It wasn’t until this past September when I went on a Journey to the Heart that I was able to get alone with God and hear His voice as to what He had in mind for my life.

In Bill Gothard’s Basic Seminar, he describes a new perspective on fully dedicating your life to Christ. He uses the illustration of a room with everything inside representing the things that you do in your life. This might include each activity you have become involved in or every subject that you’ve mastered. In this illustration, when you become a new Christian and dedicate your “life” to Christ, it is like you are  inviting Him to come into the room and allowing Him the freedom to have control of all the aspects of your life. Let’s say there is a box in the room for each of your accomplishments. If there is something that you want to hold on to and don’t want you new Roommate to know about or take away, you might build a closet, put the box on the top shelf out of reach, and lock the door. Then, you really aren’t giving God everything because you are still withholding that one little box in your closet!

As I was searching my heart, trying to figure out if there was any particular area in my life that I had not yet surrendered to God, He revealed to me an area where I had allowed myself to be in control. At first, I was unwilling to give this up because it wasn’t all bad. Just some of it was, so the good outweighs the bad and makes it ok to live with, right? Wrong!

I argued back and forth with God about it, and finally agreed to give it all to Him. I was able to discover that God wants to be the center of my life, and I need to be willing to let Him be in control of all aspects of my life, including my future.  The Lord showed me that He is my fulfillment; He is all that I will ever need to be happy. He also revealed to me that now is the perfect time for me to focus on serving the Lord through my current responsibilities.

I Corinthians 7:34-35 says – “The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and in spirit: but she that is married careth for the things of the world, how she may please her husband. And this I speak for your own profit; not that I may cast a snare upon you, but for that which is comely, and that ye may attend upon the Lord without distraction.”

These verses prompted me to rededicate myself to focus on serving the Lord rather than pleasing myself. That alone has been life-changing for me, and now I am able to fully trust God to care for everything I will ever need or want! As challenging as it was, after I completely surrendered everything to God, I was finally able to experience true peace in my spirit.

In closing, I will just share one of the verses that suck out to me during this time of my life: Psalm 126:2-3: “Then our mouth was filled with laughter and our tongue with joyful shouting; then they said among the nations, ‘The Lord has done great things for them.’ The Lord has done great things for us, and we are glad.” Yes, God has done an awesome work in my life, and I am very glad!

~ Grace
September 2009 Journey

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I was so excited when I returned from the Journey to the Heart! I had learned so much about the lies we believe that trap us and keep us from serving God with all our strength. I had a new sense of freedom. With all this excitement, I knew that I had to share it with others. I gave my testimony at church but that wasn’t enough. I knew many girls who had never heard the truths that will set us free from the lies that we have come to believe. God was telling me to share in detail from what I had learned.

With the help of my parents and sister, I was able to invite girls over weekly to discuss the struggles we go through when we believe Satan’s lies. At the first meeting only five girls came, but as the weeks went by the group grew to 25 people. I was so surprised! By the time our weekly meetings ended, I could see how God had already begun to work in the girls’ hearts.

I remember how inadequate I felt when God had laid it on my heart to share with these girls; yet by the end I understood that all God ever wants is a willing heart.

~ Natalia

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