Living the Journey

In the beginning of July, I was blessed with the privilege of attending my fourth Journey to the Heart. The Lord used those ten days of self-examination and time alone with Him to reveal Himself to me in great and powerful ways! I found myself asking the first day, “Lord why am I here this week? What are you going to teach me? Why is Your Word not coming alive to me today like it should?” It was as if I took a step forward, and threw all my burdens before Him in a huge tangled mess. He spoke to me in a quiet voice that morning. He said, “Ye receive not, because ye ask not…” Such a simple answer!

God is not a God of intellect or human reasoning. He doesn’t care how you word your prayers, or if you sound “put together” when you come before Him with all your worries. He much prefers a child that is desperate for Him, lost without Him, and no longer concerned about anything but Him. He wants you in your lowest, weakest state – the REAL you – void of all human strength, empty of all self. That is when He draws near and whispers in your ear the perfect answer; that is when He fills you up with Himself and provides a solution that heals every problem and destroys every burden.

My Father taught me to pray at Journey. He didn’t whip out a gigantic list of problems that I had and tell me to fix them all. He simply said, “Ask, and ye shall receive from my hand…”

So I asked!

Prior to the Journey, our family had been in Pennsylvania visiting relatives. During our time there, the Lord had placed on my heart a tremendous burden for some of our unsaved relatives. That first day at Journey, I felt the Lord leading me to ask for their salvation again. I knelt by the bed in my room and found myself pouring out my heart before the Lord. He gave me peace as I laid it all at His feet! I was able to cast my cares upon Him and spend the remainder of the day rejoicing in His love and feeling a new awareness of His presence!

It was just the next day that I was talking by phone with my younger sister Bethany, who is 12. She shared excitedly with me how they had decided to stay in PA one extra day for no reason at all. That day, our cousins came by to visit. (This was the same day I had prayed). Bethany poured out her story of the conversation she had carried on with our cousin Emily, who is very close to her in age, and how the Lord had led her to share the gospel with Emily. She told me that Emily had received the Lord as her Savior and had dedicated her life to Jesus!!! “Ask, and ye shall receive…”

Perhaps the greatest lesson God taught me at Journey is this: Solutions to my problems do not come by a method, but by a relationship with Him. On Friday evening in the Northwoods, 6 teams (64+ girls) had gathered to pray in the upper prayer tower. For the first time, I witnessed one-accord power in prayer throughout an entire group of girls and not just a single team! I watched as young ladies committed and re-committed their lives to Jesus, confessed hidden sins, cried out for freedom, and laid their requests at the feet of their Maker. During this time our team cried out for salvation for lost friends and family, healing for the sick among us, and various other needs. The Holy Spirit was present among us that night!!! Others who were far beyond the walls of the prayer tower testified that they had heard us crying out to Jesus – a noise like thunder.

continue reading…

6 Comments »

In the fall of 2008, I began a Journey to the Heart.  God did a mighty work in my life during that week in the Northwoods, as I was a very proud, fearful, insecure, and obnoxious girl.  As I continue the Journey, God has slowly been taking my sinful heart and changing it into a “heart after God,” fully and completely reliant on Him. I am beginning to see God for who He really is.

After the official beginning of my Journey to the Heart, God led me to teach character to children for 3 semesters. My experience teaching character in schools and reaching out through Bible clubs has been nothing short of amazing.  To be on the front lines of the spiritual battle, watching God work in hearts, praying over souls, sharing God’s light in a dark world . . . I would not trade this opportunity for anything. I don’t want to give you a false impression, though, it is also a lot of work!

This is work that cannot be done alone!  Every lesson, every Bible club, and often each individual class, is bathed in prayer.  The best object lessons for a class I didn’t know what to do with came directly from the Master Teacher.  He is an everlasting source of ideas!  So many folks thought I had it all together, but I didn’t.  Only God and I were in it together, and He knows where all the pieces belong.

Interning with this character program also surrounded me with good friends: some that I knew for a season, and some that I will have for a lifetime.  God gave me the right kind of friends, who encouraged me to trust the Lord when life got rough, who made me do my best, and who even loved me enough to tell me when I was wrong. God bless those friends!

God used this opportunity to draw me to Himself and to allow more of His character to shine through me. The Journey to the Heart retreat was just the beginning of my Journey with God.  Stay in His Word, and keep talking with Him. God’s plan is simply amazing!

~ Barbara
September 2008 Journey

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

2 Comments »

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

8 Comments »

Rebecca’s time alone with God each day was nourishing, but dry. She had heard about others who delighted in God’s Word and prayer like “peaches and cream,” but wasn’t really sure if she would ever feel that way. On her recent Journey to the Heart she experienced God’s presence and developed a greater delight in God’s Word than she ever had before. The important truths she discovered took her relationship with God to a whole new level.

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Download MP3 (3 min)

~ Rebecca
July 2009 Girls Journey

5 Comments »

If you wanted a walking definition of a “good kid” it was me. I grew up in a Christian home, asked Jesus to come into my heart when I was 7, and went to Church twice a week. However, something was missing in my life! Reading my Bible was a struggle and giving in to peer pressure was not something new. The only difference between me and my friends was that they were cold and I was lukewarm. Something needed to change and I knew it.

That is when I decided to go on a Journey to the Heart. This was the best decision I have ever made. It was a “launching pad” and the real beginning of my walk with God. I rededicated my life to Him and gave Him the next 10 years to do whatever He wanted with it. The small coal of my spirit was alive and the next couple months proved this as I encountered major struggles and the devil threw all the fiery darts he could find at me.

At this point, my relationship with God can be summed up in John 14:15 “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” Loving God is the only thing that matters. This is a simple applicable truth that I am and will continue to apply on a day to day basis for the rest my life.

~ Philip
July 2007 Guys’ Journey

Leave a Comment »

I wanted to come to the Journey to the Heart so that I could get to know Jesus more intimately. What I didn’t realize is that God wanted to know me and He desired to pursue relationship with me. I had been meditating on this verse in the beginning of the week: “Search me, O God, and know my heart: try me, and know my thoughts: and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting” (Psalm 139:23-24). I asked the Lord to remove anything from my life that would hinder me from being completely free to love Him with my whole heart.

Sure enough, the Spirit of God spoke to me and pointed out to me the things that I needed to make right. I have returned home with a list from God of people I need to ask forgiveness from, things I need to talk to my parents about, and other people I need to talk to. Now I am discovering how to walk in the light, have a clear conscience, and to be a mighty man of God.

More than that, the Lord is revealing Himself to me in ways I could not have imagined. He is opening up my eyes to His word and showing me insights by His Spirit. I am learning how to communicate with Jesus and how to recognize His voice. It wasn’t until I went to a quiet place and honestly opened myself to the Lord that I began to hear from Him. He answered my questions and responded to my requests. And above all, I found a God who wanted me and wanted to fellowship with me.

Now I am learning what it means to live in Christ; exchanging His life for mine. I no longer live for Christ, but Christ is my life. I am asking Him to live in me and through me to accomplish His will and His purposes. Instead of trying so hard to be a Christian, I am trusting Christ to be my all in all. Now God can do through me what I think is impossible because He is free to be all that He is. As I die, Christ lives.

God used “Journey to the Heart” to rekindle my relationship with Him. I am encouraged to daily meditate on His word and seek His face. Thank you, Jesus!

~ Timothy
July 2008 Guys Journey

2 Comments »