Kingdom [Day 2]

Day 2 started very early, earlier than any of us had intended! 7am. Kristy is an early riser, but a heavy sleeper, makes me laugh :) Oh, this was a full day! 7am until 1am. Brace yourselves.
We are the light of God. Word for word from my journal. Chris told the story about when Jesus took 3 of his disciples, Peter, James and John up to a mountain. Jesus was transformed right in front of them, his face shone as bright as the sun, his clothes white as the light, and Elijah and Moses appeared. God said, "This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased. Listen to him!" [Matthew 17:1-13]. Jesus shone like the light because he was God's light. We're supposed to be God's light to the world. People are supposed to look at us and not be able to figure out why we are the way we are, and want what we have. Do you know what the greatest miracle to ever take place on this earth is?? No? Can't think of it? Do you want to know? When the Holy Spirit enters your body, enters your heart, and makes you a child of God, that is the greatest miracle that can ever, ever happen. God recreates. If you're an alcoholic, or do drugs, or a prostitute, or anything else, and you invite Jesus into your heart, don't expect him to completely destroy and rebuild you. He won't do that. It's not that easy. What he will do is recreate your mind, your soul, your spirit. He'll renew you. He'll make you into His image, with a lot of prayer, faith and hard work from you. I'm only beginning this journey, but guys, it is so worth it! This is going to sound harsh, but if you really look at it, every single one of us, is dirt. Now, I don't mean this in a way of putting people down. God made this earth, he made everything on it, he made us. When he made Adam, he made him out of dirt. He breathed the breath of life into Adam's nose. Chris said not his mouth, because that would be CPR. Haha. We're all made out of the dirt of the earth. A lot of the time, in the bible it says man did this and man did that, when it says "man", it means all of mankind, women included. Here's a really cool thing that we learned: Your body is not the real you. It's the outer shell. Your spirit, that's the real you. Chris said that people are wrong when they say "I have cancer" or whatever, they should say "My body has cancer", because your body is not the real you, your spirit is.
Earth is like boot camp. And some days, I know it sure feels like it! Basically, God's training us for leadership. You have the power to transform this world. All things are possible in Christ who strengthens me. All things. One thing that Chris said, was that God never told you to "afford" anything, he just told you to do it. Trust in him, and do what he asks of you, and he will supply. Man, this is gonna be one wild ride!
Like I've said before, the Holy Spirit is in us. God communicates to us through the Holy Spirit. When God thinks something, you will think it too. Your thoughts come from Him. Don't get me wrong, he's not going to give you evil thoughts. That's completely the devil trying to get you off track. DON'T LET HIM!! Fight. Fight hard. God has emotions. He has deep emotions. When you hurt, it hurts him even more deeply, he hates to see us hurt. When someone is saved, and brought to Christ, he rejoices! He's so happy! He can't contain himself! I know a lot of the times, I've never thought about God having emotions. But it's so cool, how deeply wrapped up in us he is, that when we feel, he feels.
Another cool thing: God doesn't hide our destiny from us, he hides it for us. He wants us to find our destiny! But he wants us to look for it, to be so wrapped up in him, so that he can reveal it to us. When we ask, he will help us. Seek and you will find. God, he has a book in heaven written about you. About your destiny. About what he wants you to do. The desires that you have, he puts them in your heart. If you desire a husband, God will give you a husband. If you desire children, God will give you children. If you desire a car, or a house, God will give it to you. But keep in mind, it's all in his will. Your kingdom come, your will be done, Father.
You know how when a girl knows that a guy likes her, she plays "hard to get"? Just because it's encouraging for girls when a guy pursues her. It makes them confident. It makes them feel wanted, loved. God does the exact same thing! He wants you to pursue him! He wants to feel loved by you and wanted by you! He's not going to come somewhere that he's not welcomed or respected. You have to invite him. You have to want him.
Chris told us about the three things that we can never talk about in a mean or hateful way: Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the blood of Jesus. Jesus is so precious. He loves you so much. It hurts him when you talk about him in a hateful way, and it should hurt you too. It's not in any way acceptable.
You need to be intimate with the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is your ticket to God. He wants to have a relationship with you. The Holy Spirit is living inside of you, you can't get any closer! Romans 12:11 says to be on fire for God!
Another thing that we learned, was that when something Heavenly is lifted off of you, people tend to look for something earthly to cover you. Like Adam and Eve, after Adam at the fruit from the tree that God told them not to eat from, they realized that they were naked. They looked for leaves to cover their bodies, because they sinned against God. Also tying into that, when something Heavenly is removed, religion comes in. Everyone talks about religion and being Christian and stuff, but personally, I don't like the term Christian. Jesus never called us to be "Christians", he called us to follow him. Followers of Christ. Religion, I think, is just going through the motions. Because we feel we have to. I don't want that.
Jesus should be our standard. Not a camp counsellor, or anyone else. We should strive to be like Him. He should be our role model. It makes me so sad to see girls looking up to famous people like Rhianna or Katy Perry, or whoever. Don't get me wrong, I don't know who they are as a person, because I've never met them, but neither do these girls, and that's what makes me nervous. You see Rhianna or Katy wearing very little clothing, a lot of makeup, their lyrics are not appropriate. We think that that's the person they are. And that scares me, because how a person looks, and what they sing, are not who they are, but that's what these girls look up to. Looks and lyrics.
Romans 12:2 says, "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will." One thing that Chris said to us was that we should look at the Bible like we're looking into a mirror. You should be a reflection of Jesus.
A super cool thing that we experienced this weekend was healing. Dean (our youth pastor) came up to the front after praise and worship on Saturday morning. He started saying that God had given him a vision that there was someone there who had one leg shorter than the other and that it caused them pain throughout their body. He asked them to raise their hand, and two sisters raised their hands. (They did give me permission to share this story.) He asked them to come up to the front, and sit down with their legs out so that he could see the difference. He asked Chris and Kris to come up to the front and pray for them. They started with Natalie, she's about my age, they just started praying and praying, and afterwards went to Alayna, the older sister, and prayed for her. Guys, NATALIE AND ALAYNA ARE HEALED!!!!!! I cannot stress enough how real this is! Their legs are now the same length. I talked to them yesterday, their legs are still good. Amazing. God is so good, guys. Right there, in front of all of us, God showed himself to us. After reading this, there is no way you could tell me that there is not a God. Because deep down inside you, that seed is planted. And it's all my fault :) Chris was saying how every day, people say that their back hurts, or their arm, or something that's causing them discomfort. He said that all we have to do is ask them if we can pray for them. The worst thing that they can say is no. All you have to pray is this, "The kingdom of God has come upon you. In the name of Jesus Christ, be healed!" That's it. You just have to believe, have faith, that God can do anything. And honestly, he really can. You can't afford to think, "what if". It just isn't an option. He still performs miracles, he's not done with us, guys! And to those of you who are still struggling with deciding whether you believe in God or not, think about this: You can't see your brain between your ears, but you have faith that you do, in fact, have a brain.
In the evening session, Chris called us all forward, we sang Fire Fall Down again. Then he asked whoever didn't feel filled with the Holy Spirit to step forward. I didn't at first, but I felt God pushing me, so after a little push from Him, I stepped forward along with about 10 other people. Chris, Kris and Dean started going from person to person and praying with them. On November 13, 2010, I was baptized in the Holy Spirit. We all learned how to speak in tongues. I really don't like saying "learned" but I don't know how else to phrase it. At first, I was just scared. About what was going to come out of my mouth, if I was going to sound stupid, what people would think, what if it didn't come naturally, what if I was just making it up. But again, we can't afford to think, "what if". After I just let go of whatever worries I had, and it took a little bit, the words just started flowing. Let me tell you, speaking in tongues was something I never thought I would experience or be able to do. I thought that you wouldn't know what was happening, that God would all of a sudden just make weird words come out of your mouth. But it doesn't work that way. Once I let the words come out, they flowed. I have no clue what I said, I didn't even listen to myself as I was speaking, I don't try, I don't think. It is the most amazing gift from God. That night I also talked to Kristy about my past, I had really been struggling with it for a long time. She prayed for me, and she said, "You know, in God's mind, none of that stuff ever happened. It doesn't exist. Never happened." So, so true. Ever since I started thinking about that, I've been at so much peace. It never happened. My past never happened. I love that.
Don't get me wrong, this weekend wasn't all such serious and heavy stuff. Although, the heavy stuff was probably my favorite part! We did this game, the Blanket Toss. So fun! Basically, a bunch of people are around a blanket, holding onto the handles. A person goes in the middle, and we all yell "One! Two! THREE!" And throw them up in the air! Sooo fun! I went, I was really scared to, but man, I flew!! I'm so light, so I went so high! (I just realized I used the word "so" three times in that sentence, is that grammatically correct? If Adam Wiebe is reading this right now, this is all I have to say to you: Smart AleK.) After the evening session some of us stayed back and were just hanging out. The guys started talking about poop (no surprise) and I was the only girl there, so I decided to go to be before the lights all got shut off on me. I was walking back to our chalet, and after about 5 seconds, I hear Hannah Montana blasting out of the Wigwam!! It wouldn't have been so funny, but there were like, 15 guys in there, rocking out to Hannah Montana!!! Soooo funny!
Blessings,
Ariel
P.S. I will try to finish Day 3 soon!!