A Prologue to My Story
- Worship is my favorite part of a church service. I love to stand and praise God with a congregation of people. I feel connected to the Lord in a very precious way and often hear Him speak to me. I love this; it is so special and important to me. Worship helps me to focus solely on Him, and often, the Lord will lead me to pray for someone. Typically, this happens when I look at someone, and He gives me words for a specific thing they’re going through. I haven’t felt that connection in a while, so one of my desires for this trip was to feel that again. I wanted to feel God lead me in worship and guide me to pray for someone.
- Five days before training camp, I closed my finger in a car door. Like, fully shut the door on my finger. It hurt quite a bit, and got infected. I wasn’t able to bend it or really use my left hand at all, and it was almost constantly throbbing. It felt like my finger had its own heartbeat…it was most definitely not a fun or ideal situation at all.
My Story
Two days (7 days after I slammed my finger) into training camp, I was standing in worship and felt God tell me to place my hands on my head and pray over my mind. At first, I didn’t want to–it felt a bit odd putting my hands on my head in a room full of people. But after a moment, I told the Lord, “Okay, if you say so,” and started to declare truth over my mind. While I was praying, the Holy Spirit washed through my body, starting where my hands were placed on my head and moving all the way to my feet.
I felt His love and strength cover me. He showed me that I’ve been carrying baggage and self-deprecation. He set me free and washed me clean when I didn’t even know I was walking in pain! It was kind of funny to be freed from something I didn’t know I needed freedom from. I started to cry and just thank Him. God is so good, He loves so well.
I felt like a brand new person. It’s impossible to describe in entirety…but I felt clean and whole and loved. It is the best feeling in the world. I felt the Lord tear down my self-constructed identity and surrendered myself to His refining. I felt prompted, so I asked God, “Who am I?” and waited for a response.
At this point, I’m sobbing on the floor. Sitting on my knees, hands still on my head, tears rolling down my face. I probably looked quite the mess. My Squad Leader came over and started praying over me. She said in her prayer, “Thank you, Jesus, that her identity is found in you.” My tears immediately stopped as my mind went, “Oh, yeah. Right. I knew that!” and started asking the Lord to show me what identity in Him looks like.
After praying, I returned to worshipping and asked God to send me to pray for someone. After a few minutes of praying and worshipping, He directed me towards my squadmate kneeling on the floor and told me to pray over her mind. I did question this direction at first since I had just prayed over my mind, but after a few minutes of wrestling, I went to her.
I stood behind her as she was kneeling on the ground. I couldn’t see her face so I wasn’t sure if she was worshipping or upset. I didn’t want to disturb her if she was praying, so I hesitated for a few minutes. Eventually, I knelt with her and began praying over her in my mind. I placed my hand on her shoulder and began to intercede, just non-verbally. A few moments later, she looked at me and squeezed my hand. I hugged her shoulder and asked if she needed prayer over her mind. She said yes, and so I began to pray.
I opened my words to the Lord and felt the Spirit directing my mouth. He gave me very specific words and phrasing to pray over my friend. When I was done, we stood up together, and she told me (I am paraphrasing), “Nothing like that has ever happened to me. That was crazy. How did you know?”
Thank you, God, for allowing me to be your mouthpiece. It is a beautiful thing to be entrusted with your children.
When the worship session ended, and we sat down for the teaching, I realized my finger wasn’t hurting. When God touched me, it stopped throbbing and hurting entirely. I was able to bend my finger for the first time in seven days and use my hand!
Please Pray for Us
This is just one of the ways God encountered me at training camp. There are many more, but this one impacted me the most. It is a beautiful thing to be touched by the Holy Spirit and set on fire by the Lord. I am so excited to continue to stimulate my relationship with Him. I’m pouring into His word, focusing on and praising Him. When God moves, it is so powerful and life-changing. My current prayer is that the Lord will continue to move through me.
We started hiking the Camino de Santiago today. Please be praying for us as we continue this adventure. We need guidance and direction from the Lord to determine our next steps. God is moving in this trip!
P.S.
If you would like to fund a Nutella Croissant…my Venmo is @charislenz 😀 and…
Here are some fun pics of my whole squad!
