Battling Discouragement (part 2)

After i wrote that post with the same title.. God is really good cos He sent a word of encouragement through Auntie Ivy on Sunday.. basically after second-liners cell, i was supposed to sit with them for the main service but i went up and joined CC for worship for a while cos i was trying to help JJ out with the songs before that.. and when i was up there worshipping with the kids, Auntie Ivy took over and started praying and the atmosphere upstairs was different.. it was dynamic and i know that Holy Spirit was there.. then she started to pray for people and she released a word to the youth up there..

i cant really remember what words she used but essentially it was a word of encouragement for those in youth ministry who felt that what they were doing was in vain but God says that its not in vain... and that though we are in the desert but there is a stream and God is that stream.. she said a lot of other things i cant remember but essentially they were along those lines... and i know that that word of encouragement was also for me...

i think that what the youth min needs rite now is a change in mindset... a few weeks back, i was sitting in the sancturary for our usual pre-service prayer when the Holy Spirit convicted my heart and i had to repent for thinking that it's gonna be just another service... We need to throw away that mindset and every service, we really must expect God to move, expect Him to come, expect ourselves to have an encounter with Him.. that's gonna put such a demand on His presence that He's really gonna come... Really, the thing is that we decide what goes on in the service- whether God moves or not.. cos He always wants to move in His own way and we must learn to seek Him for His divine strategies and give Him a platform... So if its not gonna be just another service, what is it gonna be? We need to gain His plans and perspective and move with it and prophesy it.. speak it forth...

God has given us the earth to steward, even the ministry.. and life and death are in the power of the tongue and those who love it will eat its fruit.. and He has given us access to His heart by His Spirit.. so that we can declare and speak forth what is in His and our hearts that we wanna see happen.. and yes by that, we decide what happens...

So what to do? Firstly when we come for service, we don't rely on feelings.. even if we don't feel that the service is gonna be as dynamic as we hope, we will not believe that and go by that. Then instead, we'll declare "this service is gonna be different" "this service is gonna be special" "we're gonna encounter God today" "lives are gonna be changed"... and we're gonna believe what we declare regardless of what we see or feel... then watch as the Holy Spirit meets our expectations and takes us even beyond that...