We were listening to the speaker, Elijah Waters, on Friday evening. We had just finished worship with Unhindered, which was amazing as per usual. As I had said before, I hadn't really expected anything that huge out of the weekend. I went through a really hard month in April, and I was pretty much done for. And God knew that. Ha, he's sneaky, let me tell you! I had been struggling with a really difficult past event in my life just pounding me down this month. So Elijah, in the middle of his message, out of the blue says something incredibly specific to my situation, and says that there is hope and there is healing. (I'm trying to be as detailed as possible with still keeping my private matters private, I would really love to tell you the exact phrase, but this is personal, after all.) Funny thing I realized later was that he was actually standing on the side of the stage nearest me. My heart stopped. I kid you not, I swear it stopped, even if just for a millisecond. Tears came to my eyes, my jaw dropped and I just froze. I could not believe what had just come out of this stranger's mouth. No one else was really reacting to this except me. And the weird thing is that it felt as if he was speaking directly to me, I just had this gut feeling that what he said was said to me. I had never experienced this before, I was just so baffled by it. Go figure, God decided he was gonna grab my attention on the first day of the weekend. I love him :)
On Saturday afternoon I went and found Elijah. I knew that I needed to talk to him about this. I told him the quote, and he said he remembered saying it. I told him that I just thought it was completely out of the blue and asked if he had planned on saying it or what. I just wanted to get down to the bottom of this. He told me that he hadn't planned on saying it, and that it was probably about as random for me as it was for him. He said that God told him that someone in the crowd needed to hear what he said on Friday night. Again, just complete shock overwhelmed me.
Isn't it so amazing how God loves me and cares about me, ME, so much that he chose to, out of over a thousand people, single me out to tell me that one thing. Isn't that AWESOME?!?! Man, I still cannot get over it. I can't believe that he could love me that much. Ah!
After 3 workshops I went back to the hotel. I was going to change so I went into the bathroom. Apparently changing my clothes was not all God had planned for in that bathroom. The theme of the weekend was Surrender, but I really hadn't expected to surrender. I mean, yeah, it would've been nice, but I just didn't think that would be me. But man, in that tiny, cramped little hotel bathroom, I just started worshipping God like never before. I was raising my hands, praying, ultimately, I surrendered. I surrendered my life to my Lord in a tiny hotel bathroom. Ha! And who says God doesn't have a sense of humor? I noticed a complete 180 in me. All of a sudden, worship with Unhindered was...changed. I have never worshipped like that before. God's spirit just washed over me. I gave it all to him. I heard his voice more clearly and felt little nudges from him. I had the courage to go up to someone and pray for them when I never used to pray for people. I just...changed. And it was and still is amazing!! God is so good! Wow. Praise the Lord!
When I was surrendering in the bathroom (ha :) ) on Saturday, I told God that if I saw this one guy whose workshop I went to at YC again that I would ask him to pray for me. In Trevor's session he had talked about something that was, again, very specific to me. So I wanted him to pray with/for/over me. I was expecting to see him on Sunday because he had another workshop then, but no, of course God had other plans and I saw him on Saturday evening before the Group 1 Crew concert. I was like...God...? So eventually I got up the courage to go talk to him. I told him my story and told him what I wanted him to pray for. He got this volunteer to come pray with us and also his daughter. Before he prayed for what I asked him, though, he led me in a prayer of forgiveness for the people who had hurt me in the past. That part I was not expecting, but it was totally and completely part of God's plan for me during that weekend!! This provided so much healing to me I can hardly believe it. I feel forgiveness for the first time in years. I feel freedom. I am free!
On Sunday, there was a girl sharing her testimony at the last worship concert with Unhindered. Her story didn't connect with mine, but she did say one thing that just totally broke me. And when I say broke, I mean broke. I hadn't gotten so emotional to the point of crying all weekend. Sure, I had tears come to my eyes, but it wasn't hard to blink them back. So here I am in the middle of this huge crowd of teenagers, with no friends around me, and I just started bawling. I couldn't stop. The floodgates opened, and the tears just flowed. Through the rest of her story, through her prayer, and through the rest of worship, I just cried and prayed and worshipped God. But you know what? It wasn't a bad cry. It was a cry that I needed. A cry that healed me.
God is amazingly good. He worked this whole weekend together for way more than I could've ever imagined. Three days later and I am still just blown away by what he did, how he cares and loves. Like, wow!!! God is so good. So, so, so good!!
And by the way, I didn't just "surrender"...it was a SURRENDER. I am just craving God and thirsting to learn more about him. I'm leaning on him. I want to read my bible all the time. I just want to be with him. I love him more and more every day!
God is incredible!! I truly have the best Daddy possible :)
God bless,
Ariel
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| Little tidbits from the weekend :) Top left-Rapture Ruckus; Top right-Sean Quigley; Bottom left-Pat Barrett from Unhindered; Bottom right-Group 1 Crew |
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| I have a mustache!! :) Top left-The Panic Squad (notice Andrew using my hair as a mustache! xD); Top right-Mike Love (creator of YC); Bottom left-Pat Barrett (his face!! xD); Bottom right-morph suits!! |
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