In the Presence of God

Blessings to all.....

I am so excited to see what God is doing in my life, in the lives of my friends, and in the lives on my teammates.  He is revealing Himself and His mighty works to us everyday.  He is so glorious and worthy to be praised.  I am so thankful that I have a Father who loves me so much that He sent His son to die for the payment of my sins.  I am such a sinner and so unworthy for that amazing sacrifice, but He gave His son because He loves us and that through Him we might be saved.  What a great God we have! Thank you, God, for loving us!!!

I wanted to let you know a little about what is going on in our lives; me, Marissa, and Matthew.  I wanted to share just little ways we have seen God's presences and His work in our lives.  It says in Matthew 18:20 "For where two or three are gathered together in My name I am there in the midst of them." I absolutely love this verse, because I know where there are two people coming together in the name of Christ there He is.  It is just this beautiful feeling when you can just feel Him right there beside you.  This happened to Marissa and I about a week ago at a prayer and worship night at Remedy, our college group.

After worship we separated off into small group or individual prayers.  Marissa turned to me and asked if we could pray together, and I was so excited to pray with my beautiful, amazing sister.  We went into the  back room and began to talk and pray with one another.  I feel totally blessed to have a sister in the Lord who loves and supports me; who encourages me everyday to seek a closer and fuller relationship with God.  As we were praying, I could feel God's love just pouring out on us.  There were only two for us but as it is said in Matthew "Where two or three are gathered in my name there I am there in the midst of them." He was there present and listening to us, surrounding us, and comforting us.  It was just this beautiful moment in the presence of God.  

We ended up missing the last couple worship songs, so we decided to worship God where we were.  We  said "Lord give us a song to sing." The first song that came to me was 'Surrender.' (I'm giving you my heart.  And all that is within.  I'm laying it all down.  For the sake of you my king.  I'm giving you my dreams.  I'm laying down my rights.  I'm giving up my pride. For the promise of new live. And I surrender it all to you, all to you. And I surrender it all to you, all to you). Right as I began to sing Marissa turned to me, "That was the song I was just about to sing." At that moment a chill went through my whole body, because I knew God was right there in that room with us.  We began to sing out to God, singing we surrender all to Him. After Surrender, I began to sing, "The splendor of a King...." and Marissa yells with excitement, "I was just thinking 'How great is our God'."  At that moment, we looked at each other and just knew our Lord and Savior was in this little dark room with us, and it was beautiful. There were just two voices, but God heard our praise.  Even through the chaos of the world and the heaviness of our hearts, He still heard us and meet us right where we were.  We knew that moment was so special, and there was no way we could just leave that place.  So we kept on worshiping God with our voices.

We were in that room for quite a long time, but we just did not want to leave because we felt His presence.  In silences, I heard Marissa begin to sing, "He is jealous for me. Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy. And Oh how He loves us."  What an amazing testament to God, that we know He loves us, and that we can sing that out to Him.  There is so much junk going on in both of our lives, and Satan is trying to get in and destroy who we are in Christ, but because we know that "He loves us" we have a rock to stand on.  We know we have a God who is fighting for us, and because of that Satan has no foothold over our lives because we are His children and Oh how He loves us.  Thank you for loving us...

It was just an overwhelming and beautiful night.  We sat there in the presence of God singing songs and surrender our hearts to Him.  It was this time of total peace within our souls.  We ended the night out singing as loud as our voices would let us  "WE LOVE YOU, OH HOW WE LOVE YOU, YES LORD WE LOVE YOU,  OH HOW WE LOVE."  We thanked Him for loving us, and we wanted to yell out how much we loved Him.

This was just a beautiful moment that I was able to share with my amazing friend, sister, and teammate.  God has been moving in our lives and revealing His mighty works. He has blessed the three of us with the deposit money we needed by April 1, 2010 for our trip.  This was just a blessing for all of us.  We have been a bit worried at times about our funds, so for that money to come in it was just another great confirmation that God is going to be working in such amazing ways.  We sent our deposit today, and it was just this relief knowing we are totally 100% willing and ready to be used by God. Our hands are wide open and we are saying "YES LORD!!! Send me." Please keep us in your prayers, while we are continuing this journey.  Love you all so much. Be blessed. Amanda