November 21, 2009
After three days of fasting corporately, the people of Waypoint gathered together for a night of prayer and worship. These are the words that people felt the Lord shared with them for 2009:
Matthew-
Thank you Children of God for being hungry for the Lord. There are some of you here, that He is proud of for pressing through all that last year held. He knows the hurts and the wounds and His promise will be to restore you. What he has for you, it is going to be better, so hold on to Him and I thank you personally for pressing through. Thank you for loving Jesus all the way through it.
Caleb-
The thing I feel strongly as a qualifying statement for everyone, especially in a group the size of our church, especially as we attempt to fast, we might not fast in the way we set out to originally. You might have made modifications and changes in your initial plans to fast and we might feel disqualified in accurately hearing the Lord; But I want to say regardless of your changes to your fast or your failure at keeping your plans, you can’t fail in pursuing the Lord. God is pleased and excited and happy at the thought of sacrificing for Him.
Page-
Last week I felt like, when I prayed with Josh, that God wanted me to give up Facebook and I made jokes about why, but the real reason is that any form of communication or shopping (like Target and my phone or my e-mail, anything I and find to distract me) I use to comfort me. That is why I gave Facebook to God and He has answered my prayers. I have felt very comforted.
Also, I have one student that I pray for and feel like I am offering him up to the Lord, literally, when I pray for him (holding up her arms). Come 3:30pm I am just his teacher and he is out the door, and I don’t know, but God does, and he is His. I’ve been so blessed by the Lord this week.
John-
Isaiah 54: 2&3
2 "Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back;
lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes.
3 For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.”
I think that the Lord is saying to Waypoint not to hold back. We are perhaps going to get a bit bigger but also, individually, to go deeper in the Lord and strengthen our stakes when He gives us great responsibility and opportunity. The canvas will be stretched by those coming in and we are going forward. For those of you who have been with the Lord for awhile, when he says move, do you tighten your seatbelt, or batten down the hatches, either way, don’t fear, He knows where He is going so we can just enjoy the ride.
Katja-
God communicated to me this week in ways that were different for me. Before the week started, He gave me a song and I’m not a song person and that is not the usual way He speaks with me, but He gave me a song that broke me out of some hard depths. It was the words and the tune that were amazing and blew me away.
The next thing, I was going to read my bible and journal, but God said just to sit. Some people here know I am eagerly waiting for news from Burundi but He said to me that He will fight for us and to be still and to wait for the deliverance of the Lord. But right now, every time there is something that I try to do, He says to just sit and be still.
He gave me 3 pictures and I’ll share two. I saw all the boys from Burundi sitting in my living room, playing board-games and just laughing. I wasn’t begging Him to bring them or anything, but it was so neat for Him to just show me a picture... and I don’t know what that is, whether He took me to where He sees from, but either way, it was the most encouraging thing in the world.
Secondly, we live in Benson, and there have been break-ins and stealing and we found out there are two cars on our street that have been stolen so I’ve been calling neighbors and the neighborhood watch and have checked-in with people. Well, God showed me that it was His blanket over our neighborhood. It was so small, but He showed me that He cares about 65th and Maple. I would have done that regardless but He was showing in His realm, He was doing something more.
Charity-
Well, anyone who knows me knows I don’t like talking in front of people but the thing the Lord has been teaching me in my first successful fast, is that He gave me strength to get through it and to let go for my past and past failures… my guilt and shame and look to the future. This is a weird analogy, but it is like we carry around this bag of poop that we forget we carry around and other people can smell it but we are so used to it that we just carry it around and have it on our hands and all over us and don’t know it. The Lord gave me a word that we are not defined by the things of our past but by how He defines us and that we are worthy because He makes us worthy.
Joe-
Everyone has a different story about how they read the bible or how they dive-into it… maybe like reading it once a year cover to cover or diving-in and getting lost in it. I find myself using a concordance and finding a verse that means something to me and then finding other passages that relate to it and focusing in on it that way. So during this fast I asked the Lord, “What am I waiting to hear?” I’ve been trying to do some meditative prayer for the last few weeks so I was already on that focus when the fast started, so I wanted Him to tell me what to focus in on. So, as a kid I would set the bible on the table and ask the Lord to just show me when I flip it open where to read and this time, for this fast, I flipped open to Hosea. For those of you who know of Hosea, this might speak to you, it did to me. Here where He speaks of Israel straying away, and putting obstacles in her way to keep her focused, He says:
Hosea 2:(16) "In that day," declares the LORD, "you will call me 'my husband'; you will no longer call me 'my master. (17) I will remove the names of the Baals from her lips; no longer will their names be invoked. (18) In that day I will make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field and the birds of the air and the creatures that move along the ground. Bow and sword and battle I will abolish from the land, so that all may lie down in safety. (19) I will betroth you to me forever; I will betroth you in righteousness and justice, in love and compassion. (20) I will betroth you in faithfulness, and you will acknowledge the LORD. (21) "In that day I will respond," declares the LORD—"I will respond to the skies, and they will respond to the earth; (22) and the earth will respond to the grain, the new wine and oil, and they will respond to Jezreel. (23) I will plant her for myself in the land; I will show my love to the one I called 'Not my loved one. I will say to those called 'Not my people, 'You are my people'; and they will say, 'You are my God.'"
Jenny-
What he showed me was all the lists of things that we have to ask Him for and those lists are good, but what He said was that when we praise Him and when we worship Him, He will take care of the lists that He knows already. So get lost in worshipping Him and He will care for the rest. It is about focusing on worshipping Him, rather than all the needs and people.
Kristy-
We had some people pray with us on Sunday and as He has been speaking to my heart, He is pouring out His spirit. In the old testament He came to a prophet or a person but I am so grateful that we are in this time where He is pouring out His spirit, not in containers or in individual people, but on us and I am so excited that He is moving.
Anne-
In one of the times I was reading with the Lord, the verse that stuck out with me: Matthew 21:(15)But when the chief priests and the teachers of the law saw the wonderful things he did and the children shouting in the temple area, "Hosanna to the Son of David," they were indignant. (16)"Do you hear what these children are saying?" they asked him. "Yes," replied Jesus, "have you never read, " 'From the lips of children and infants you have ordained praise'?"
I was wondering why it stuck out to me but I think it is how Waypoint keeps the kids with us here, we take time for the kids in our services and I think He wants to encourage us to do things differently with kids in our group. Just letting the kids be freer and crazy. So to those with kids, just let them be loud in service or whatever. Here in America we keep our kids quiet but I think the Lord wants me to encourage more of that in our midst.
Kevin-
I realized how much I missed fasting and it has been a while that I have had a multiple day fast. It is good to separate myself from the things that drive me, like food. Some of my sweetest times have been during fasting and I have had a tough time just getting a quiet time with Him but I have been sensing His presence while fasting. A scripture comes to mind, Matthew 6:16"When you fast, do not look somber as the hypocrites do, for they disfigure their faces to show men they are fasting. I tell you the truth, they have received their reward in full.” He says “When you fast…” and it reminds me that it just needs to be a lifestyle. If the guys at the office asked me what I was doing (they didn’t, but if they had) and I said I had to fast, it would be good just to say that this is what Christians do, we fast.
Jan-
Mine is very simple and the word is BELIEVE. Matthew, when you said, “Lord we believe you”, it isn’t believing for something specific… it is just to believe. We are believing someone not something. For many of us, believing has been difficult in the last while and we don’t want to put ourselves out there and believe, cause maybe we have been disappointed or whatever, but it isn’t believing in something, it is in some One. We need to believe Him. There is a world of difference. My word is simple, it’s ‘believe’.
Linda-
I rarely get up in front of a crowd so this is difficult. I got the word ‘restoration’. He is restoring us to our first love. He wants us to love Him and commune with Him and know about our first Love. Isaiah 43:18, familiar to us… 18 "Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past (19) See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the desert and streams in the wasteland.”
My husband and I are starting something new and that is working with the youth in North East Omaha and I have a heart for it, but I work such long hours it is hard, so I’m asking the Lord to renew my heart with His heart and I am asking He helps me serve in the community in that way. It is something new for me and new for the church. Lets spread our wings.
Jason-
For those of you who don’t know me, I’m Jason and I grew up without a father. Growing up I’ve felt like I‘ve had to fend for myself and I have had a lot of healing. But over time, I try to do it myself a lot. This week before the fast started some things happened that made me so anxious I couldn’t sleep and I went to Paul (I’m his room mate) and asked him to pray for me. Starting this fast I didn’t know where to begin or how this would all work, I didn’t know. I felt like the Lord spoke through Psalms 77… in that psalm he is doubting, but he says to himself, No! I will look back and remember the Lord! So, I’ve been looking back and remembering that He calls me son, and learning to take ownership of his sonship. I get to mature and grow in that. Through that, I become a man. So, it has been from last night to today, so relaxing and I am so at peace. It is a fight and a war and I have to choose to let Him be daddy over my life and it is renewing my mind that He will never leave me or forsake me. Matthew, He is redeeming my life beyond what I can imagine. I can’t imagine what it is like to be a son but all He asks little by little is to trust Him. It is beyond what I can imagine or think of, but with that, I just want to say that because of this in my life, I have a foundation in my life that others don’t have. A foundation of His provision, mentally and emotionally.
Michael-
It has been about a year since I’ve fasted and He reminded me, encouraged me, that it is a birthing in me to see His kingdom come... To meditate on how I can bring His kingdom, how I can change to invest in the kingdom. But as I was seeking Him (cause I want to invest in everything I see and I’m only one person, adjusting to married life, and only able to invest in one person’s life of time) I ask, “I want more of You and how can I see You manifest in peoples lives?” Well, He brought to mind, Anna from scripture. She was a window for 84 years and served Him with prayer and fasting all of her years in the temple and that was a good revelation to me. That is one way we invest in His kingdom, with prayer and fasting.
Mary-
God has been speaking to me out of Isaiah. At a women’s study today, he told me to look up Isaiah 40. It has been a rugged year… 2008 was nothing to write home about. In our group there are so many heavy things to pray for, health, jobs etc. and it becomes hard to remember that He cares about the little things. I was reminded tonight with the economy and our little lives, that He will be with us. Well, chapter 40 says, (25) "To whom will you compare me? Or who is my equal?" says the Holy One (26) Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing (27) Why do you say, O Jacob, and complain, O Israel, "My way is hidden from the LORD; my cause is disregarded by my God" (28) Do you not know? Have you not heard? The LORD is the everlasting God, the Creator of the ends of the earth. He will not grow tired or weary and his understanding no one can fathom (29) He gives strength to the weary and increases the power of the weak (30) Even youths grow tired and weary, and young men stumble and fall (31) but those who hope in the LORD will renew their strength.” God was saying, hang tough and I will come through for you as a body and each individual need.
Jonathan-
This last year was kind of hard in different ways but I don’t know, I am really taken with the new year and I have a lot of hope for Waypoint in this new year. It isn’t just me feeling that way, I feel like it is a godly anticipation of what we are going to do together. One thing He has been impressing on my heart for the last few weeks… old words and old prophesies that He shared, He hasn’t forgotten. They can be fulfilled in multiple levels so we can re-look at those things and have hope. He can fulfill them in the past, be fulfilling them now and fulfill them in the future. Also, with what Jan said, with believing and what we’ve said about fasting and partnering with God, co-laboring with God, I have high hope with what God is doing right now, from the fast this week, what He is up to in the future. I guess, maybe I am bi-polar here, but I have great anticipation. While I was ministering to Jesus, I asked Him to show us His heart and it was weeping and He was asking us to partner with Him where He is broken, to bring transformation.
Troy-
I’m an engineer by training and trade and a problem solver so this word is not a natural one for me. We need to excel in love in 2009. I lead a small group and I think it might be even more specifically for men. We need to consider how to love our wives more deeply this year. Out of the abundance of our hearts, we will speak. They will know we are Christians by our love and I believe in this time, love is what distinguishes us. Men, how do we love better?
Faith-
I’m a chatty person, but this is uncomfortable. What God talked to me was personal, but apparently someone needs to hear it. I find myself constantly apologizing for being myself and this week the Lord told me, “There is nothing wrong with you”. I don’t know who that is for, but obviously you need it. Quit apologizing and He loves you for who you are and how you are made.
Matthew-
2 Cor. 1:19-20
Stay in this posture of the pursuit of God. God will break through and he will show us good things to us. He is a good father and he has plans for waypoint. He didn’t call us into existence for nothing. Keep pressing in and let him do what He wants to do.