Living the Journey

We have an amazing account in Scripture in which Satan complained about the hedge of protection that God put around Job. (See Job 1:10.) We are able to experience the same protection today by asking God to put a hedge around ourselves and our family, as illustrated by the following testimony:

“After learning about the importance of praying a hedge of protection, our family traveled to Georgia to visit friends. We were going to ride four wheelers on the first day, so our fathers prayed a hedge around us boys. We did not get hurt.

“However, they forgot to pray for the girls, who were going to ride horses. My sister lost control of her horse and hit a big oak tree. She loosened and chipped her bottom teeth and slightly injured her neck. We prayed for everyone in detail from that time on.

“Shortly thereafter, I was allowed to operate a huge tractor to move a big pile of dirt. We prayed for a hedge of protection. As I took a large load of dirt, I hit an uneven piece of ground and lost control, but God protected me. My friend’s father was close beside me on a Bobcat. If I had flipped, he would have rolled down a steep hill.

“The next day we rode horses on an old road and of course we prayed a hedge around us. I was galloping down the road around a slight bend and a truck pulled out of a hidden driveway. I reined in my horse just in time. If I had been two seconds late coming down the road, I could have been killed.”

~ Paul
September 2008 Guys Journey

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August 19th one year ago marks the largest turning point in my life. It was on that day that, while on a Journey to the Heart, God pulled on my heart and convicted me to call my earthly father about a sin I had been hiding for years. In my journal that day, I wrote two sentences:

“August 19th, 2008: On this day, I begin a new path towards moral freedom.”

“O God who made these trees, let this moment be the title page of a new beginning.”

Little did I know how much God would fulfill those two statements of my heart. His method was simple: take my life, flip it upside down, and shake me out. Then flip me back over and fill my cup with His presence—His continual presence. Here are the three major areas He has affected the most in my life.

God’s Word is Living

Prior to Journey to the Heart, I never read my Bible. Never. I didn’t want to. I felt nothing when I did, and seriously doubted its inerrancy. I read many books on why the Bible was reliable, but the more I read, the more I doubted it. I liked Aquinas and Plato better, who gave logical reasons for what they stated, as opposed to the Apostle Paul’s way of stating spiritual matters as facts without any backing but Jesus’ work on the cross.

While as Journey to the heart, I discovered why the Bible is trusted by so many: it speaks to man’s heart. Read the Psalms and the words of Jesus, and one sees a depth that touches the weaknesses of man’s humanity like no psychologist ever could.

God’s Way of Life is Freedom

One year ago, I could have written St. Augustine word for word:

“But I was an unhappy young man, wretched as at the beginning of my adolescence when I prayed you for chastity and said: ‘Grant me chastity and continence, but not yet.’ I was afraid you might hear my prayer quickly, and that you might too rapidly heal me of the disease of lust which I preferred to satisfy rather than suppress.”
(Confessions, VIII. vii)

Yet right now, comparing now to a year ago, I cannot remember the last time I lusted like I had before Journey. I cannot take any credit for this at all. It is an uphill struggle every day, and it takes but a moment to fall. But most of all God has remained faithful to me, in turning my heart towards Him and away from the lusts of the flesh. He has taught me His way of freedom, to live for Him and not for myself.

My father calls this concept the “spit-in-the-face theory” while the Apostle Paul calls it “dead to sin but alive to God in Christ Jesus.” The concept is the same: what I do is not conditioned upon what others do to me or what I want to do, but only upon what Christ has said is best to do. If someone shows me love, I show them love back because Christ commands it. If someone spits in my face, I show them love back because Christ commands it. My identity, and therefore my actions, aren’t circumstantial to this world, because my Master isn’t in this world, only in me.
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Pray for this team of young men as they spend the week “entertaining God” in the Northwoods! “Behold, I stand at the door, and knock: if any man hear my voice, and open the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me” (Revelation 3:20).

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After seeing the work that God had done in the lives of the young people from our church who had just returned from their Journey to the Heart, God put in my heart a desire to make sure that this fire was not quenched. I invited all of the alumni of the Journey in our church over to my home to review the material that we had gone through. We shared with each other insights and new ideas for how we could resolve current issues in our lives.

Once our hearts were clear, we were free and excited about communicating the love and power of God to others. We then prepared for our soulwinning outreach by asking difficult questions that non-believers might ask us about the Gospel, such as “How do you know God exists?” or “How do you know you are saved?” We answered the questions with Scripture and then each one of us prayed individually for the adventure on which we were about to embark!

Equipped with Gospel tracts, we hit the streets of New York City! Dividing up into three groups so that we could effectively reach more souls, we began to pass out tracts and talk to people about the Lord.

Nick Gomez from the July 2009 Journey reports: “Many were open. Many were not. But we praise God for the boldness He gave to share the Gospel. Sometimes we had to face rejection but it was actually a blessing to be rejected when we knew it is for the Lord!

At first, of course, you get nervous, but you ask God for the grace and He will provide all the boldness. After all, we are His instruments and everything we do is through Him! The only thing He does is use us.

So I would recommend to you if you are coming to the Journey, don’t come alone. If you really want to make God known, bring along friends that are really seeking God. Then you can do mighty works in your city just like God is beginning to do in the city of New York.”

Please pray for us as we have a vision to win New York City for Christ! In the next upcoming weeks we will be contacting the officials of our city to see how we can spread the Good News of the Gospel more effectively to the very needy people of our city!

~ Bryan Lafaurie
August 2008 Journey

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Today we cover the final key in our series on how to conquer the fear of rejection. Over the past six weeks we have taken a look at the following six steps:

1. Do Not Love the Praise of People
2. Stop Comparing Yourself with Others
3. Accept Your Unchangeables
4. Greet Everyone Enthusiastically
5. Give Valuable Things to Others
6. Understand Your Worth to God

And now…

7. Rejoice Over Rejection for Christ.

The more effective you are in benefiting the lives of others, the greater will be the brightness of your life, and the more Satan will revile you. However, this should cause you to rejoice because your life will receive great rewards in heaven:

“Blessed are they which are persecuted for righteousness’ sake: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are ye, when men shall revile you, and persecute you, and shall say all manner of evil against you falsely, for my sake. Rejoice, and be exceeding glad: for great is your reward in heaven: for so persecuted they the prophets which were before you” (Matthew 5:10-12).

The Greek word for “exceeding glad” doesn’t just mean to be happy. It means “to leap for joy, to show one’s joy by leaping and skipping, denoting excessive or ecstatic joy and delight.” It’s intense!

We can have this degree of joy when we have our focus on the eternal benefits we will experience in eternity instead of the temporal rejection we are experiencing right now:

Beloved, think it not strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened unto you: But rejoice, inasmuch as ye are partakers of Christ’s sufferings; that, when his glory shall be revealed, ye may be glad also with exceeding joy” (I Peter 4:12-13).

“Lord, I now ‘trade in’ my reputation for the name of the Lord Jesus. It is no longer important what people think of me. It is only important that they see Jesus in me.”

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As I look back over this Journey to the Heart I am amazed at how God met with each of us in a special way. I remember praying before the Journey that God would do a mighty work that none of us could ever orchestrate – that it would be clearly Christ’s power working in us by His Holy Spirit. He truly did answer that prayer.

God quickly drew our team together and every day there were profound insights shared that the Lord had given. One evening, a team member told how she had called home that day to confess something to her parents. That convicted the rest of us to make things right with our parents no matter how big or small the issue seemed to be. As we confessed our sins and yielded up competing affections and things we had held back from the Lord, He allowed us to focus on Him and to hear His still small voice.

Some of my fondest memories are the times of prayer we had as a team in one accord. As we cried out to God, He heard our prayers and answered in miraculous ways!

The times of laughter, singing, sharing, confessing, crying together, and examining our hearts were invaluable, but the time spent alone with the Lord and together bowed in His presence are what made the Journey for me.

God became very real and personal to us. We saw Him restore a marriage that at the beginning of our Journey was headed for divorce. He delivered a team member from an addiction, brought new love for family members, and made scripture come alive to us.

A few days into the Journey my physical strength was at an all time low due to lack of sleep and a health problem I’ve had for several years. Lack of energy had long become the focus of my daily life and I was always looking for answers and questioning why the Lord did not heal me. Now, I knew I needed God’s help to make it through this Journey.

I bowed my head and gave God unconditional control of my body and health, without expecting healing in return.

As the Journey continued, I was amazed at how little sleep I was getting and yet how inwardly refreshed I felt! God was giving me grace and strength for each day. I had been letting my health run my life, but now God was teaching me that He must have first place and that I needed to trust Him with my health no matter how I felt.

The Northwoods is a beautiful place to meet with the Lord. The messages we heard on the Journey and the counsel of the staff were a wonderful learning experience.

It is always humbling when God works in our hearts and uses us despite our failures and shortcomings. He heard our cries for brokenness and reminded us “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for He hath torn, and He will heal us; He hath smitten, and He will bind us up” (Hosea 6:1).

~ Miranda
July 2009 Journey

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