Living the Journey

This time, exactly a year ago, marks a very special week in my life.

It has been one year since I attended the Journey to the Heart—10 days I will never forget, and the serious beginning of my own personal Journey.

I started out the Journey excited! I had been wanting to attend one ever since they had first begun.

Saturday night, after hearing two powerful testimonies, our team leader asked us what we wanted to gain from this Journey. I answered:

1. That I would let go of my fear that something bad would happen to my family members.
2. That I would learn how to know God on a personal level in my own life.
3. That God would reveal to me what my heart was really like.

So true to His nature, God answered my heart questions above & beyond what I could have thought!

To me, Journey to the Heart was about being “one on One” with God; investing that time to get to know Him on a personal level, seeking Him with all of my own heart. “Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord your God” (I Chronicles 22:19).

It has been a Journey that continued on; it didn’t stop after ten days. It keeps on going if we purpose to be on board with all of our heart, soul, mind and strength. “If ye will fear the Lord, and serve him, and obey his voice, and not rebel against the commandment of the Lord, then shall both ye and also the king that reigns over you continue following the Lord your God” (1 Samuel 12:14).

God taught me so many things in those ten days:

• How to seek Him, on a level I hadn’t tried.
• How to be still.
• How he could work miracles in the lives of the girls on my team, and of others also on the Journey.
• How powerful times of prayer and crying out could be—I will never forget those times.
• He showed me just how much I didn’t know about myself.

It is hard to describe the extent to which God touched me, but this is true of Him:

“I could not do without Thee,
For, oh, the way is long,
And I am often weary,
And sigh replaces song,
How could I do without Thee,
I do not know the way,
Thou knowest, and Thou leadest,
And wilt not let me stray.”
~Frances R. Havergal

~ Mallory
September 2008 Girls Journey

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Rachel had a serious car accident thirteen years ago. Her skull and cheekbone were crushed and a hundred pieces of glass were embedded in her head. This caused her to suffer many headaches. However, four years ago, she experienced a traumatic event in her marriage, and since then she has had a splitting headache every single day!

During the hour of prayer on Thursday evening of the Mother’s Journey to the Heart, she discovered a cause—a root of bitterness toward her husband. She confessed it to God and her husband and asked God to deliver her from all of its consequences.

The next morning she woke up without a headache. This was incredible! She felt her head to see if it was really true. All that day there was no headache. However, she was afraid to tell anyone, because she thought it might return. Sunday morning she again woke up with no headache! She realized that God had healed her. Her joy was inexpressible!

Rachel’s enthusiasm and excitement grew as she told everyone about her healing. A week later her husband affirmed that no headache had occurred since that day!

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In June, my sister and I were privileged to serve as leaders for one of the Journey teams. Right before the time of prayer and anointing for greater works, Mr. Gothard mentioned that he wanted to pray for my  health. I was puzzled as to why he felt led to pray for my health. I’m basically healthy; however, for more than 10 years I’ve struggled with heart palpitations called premature ventricular contractions (PVCs).

I knew I had allowed these heart palpitations to bring great fear into my life, even though my cardiologist has told me they do not harm your heart and you cannot die from them. I used to experience just a few a day, but over the past several years, my tendency to have them has increased. I’ve experienced days at a time with PVCs every minute. It can be emotionally draining and frustrating. I wasn’t sure what God was going to do through the special anointing session and time of prayer, but I had great peace in confessing my fears and yielding completely to His will.

After the time of prayer I was encouraged, and the day we left to go home, my heart seemed to be doing great. After I returned home I experienced a few… then they subsided. About a week later, they came on in full force. I was really discouraged. God reminded me that true joy could be experienced even in the midst of disappointment. I needed to trust God to work all this for good. One of my favorite verses over the past couple months has been Psalm 94:18-19:

If I say, “My foot is slipping,” Your loyal love, O Lord, supports me. When worries threaten to overwhelm me, Your soothing touch makes me HAPPY.

In His faithfulness, God reminded me that He was in control of my life and all that happens to me. I realized that if He was allowing the heart palpitations, it was for a reason—to grow my character! Whatever His plans are for my life, they are what I desire. I resolved not to allow the PVCs to steal my joy and hope in Him—that would only delight the enemy.

Since coming to those realizations, I’ve been amazed by the calm and steady heart beat God has blessed me with! I can’t explain it except by the grace and power of our God. It is truly miraculous to go throughout my day, to even sit here and type this out, without feeling any weird thuds from my heart!

God doesn’t always answer our prayers with a yes, but in His great love and mercy, He has strengthened my faith by doing the miraculous and unexpected in my life. Through all of this, He’s taught me that He will supply us with the grace, confidence, and peace to continue through challenging circumstances. He has the power to change our circumstances! He wants us to be totally dependent on Him so that we might see HIS GLORY manifested in our lives.

Yes, nothing is impossible with God (Luke 1:37)! The one who fears the Lord… is not afraid of bad news; his heart is firm, trusting in the Lord. His heart is steady; he will not be afraid (Psalm 112:7-8).

~Jennifer Lavin
June 2009 Girl’s Journey

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On the Thursday of my Journey to the Heart we had a day of delighting in the Lord and I went out on the lake in a kayak by myself. I had finally worked up the courage to cry out to God to remove from my heart all of the wrong affections that were there.

It was a dark, dreary day, but at the moment I cried out I truly felt God’s peace quieting my soul. As I looked up, a bald eagle flew right over my head and the clouds parted. Beautiful, golden sunlight fell on me. It was as though God was saying, “My face is shining upon you, I will give you peace, I will give you the grace to overcome this.” And for the rest of the time that I was on the lake, I was underneath the sun whenever the clouds parted. A beautiful blue sky guided me back to shore.

I vowed to God that I would never play a video game again, listen to rock music, or look at pornography. It was so freeing! Even though I’ve already had a great love for the hymns of the faith, God has increased it much more. When we were singing them on the way to the Northwoods and together as a group they sounded so beautiful to me.

When we had the hour of prayer on Thursday, myself and the other two guys with whom I was praying ended up praying for three hours. To me, it felt like maybe half an hour at the most!!! Near the end, I felt as though  it was just God and I, Him looking down on me with His pleasure.

Throughout the week, as God revealed things I had between members of my family and myself, I called them, and felt load after load being lifted from my shoulders. I called my father, and asked his forgiveness for leaving him out of my life, and I told him I truly wanted a closer relationship with him. I asked both him and my mother forgiveness for having a bitter spirit toward them, my brother for having a prideful attitude toward him.

And come Saturday night, when we were all praying together, I sensed God’s presence in a way I never imagined possible! continue reading…

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Please pray for these five teams of young ladies as they take a week to seek the Lord!

“O God, thou art my God; early will I seek thee: my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land, where no water is” (Psalm 63:1).

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Do you have more pictures from the Journey? Please send them to us!

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