These words, a promise from God, written in black ink rested between the blue lines on a simple piece of college lined notebook paper. They were scribed onto that paper during a drive down to the cities Friday afternoon.
The trip started like any other roadtrip. Classmates of the Bemidji Area School of Transformation, but more so friends on an incredible journey of learning together, piled into two vehicles. We were anticipating the day ahead while dancing to the music in the car, chatting away and getting to know each other.
We were on our way to listen to Randall Worley at a church in Burnsville. We left early so we could go to the Mall of America beforehand to see how God was at work there.
And of course He was at work there. He's at work everywhere.
On our last stretch of the trip, we all took time together to focus on God, His heart, and His desires for the day and sought after what the Father was doing so that we could partner with that.
As this occurred, a police car sped past us. Right after, I closed my eyes and put in earphones. We didn't know yet, but up ahead was a scene that would cause a seriousness and grief to settle over us all.
Because my eyes were shut and I had headphones in my ears up until we drove directly by, I didn't have much time to take in everything that was going on. But there was enough time for some vivid images to flood my mind. There was a car totally mangled and flipped over while a small group of people were huddled around a body laying on the ground in the ditch. They were covering the person up with a blanket.
We immediately started praying and interceding. We prayed about whether or not we should stop. We heard "no." So we kept driving. Two of us (without knowing until a little later) saw angels of comfort completely immersed in the situation.
Passing the scene of that accident shifted something in the air around us. Soon after, Becky called us from the other car to process what just happened.
Steph heard something very specific as she prayed and as it was shared, much stirred in our spirit. She heard God say that he wanted to intervene in a life or death situation while we were at the Mall of America. It was a wake up call for us that we needed to be alert to what God was doing that day.
I'm not sure any of us really knew what this life and death situation was going to look like, but something inside knew that God was speaking clearly and intently to us. There was a confidence that when we saw it, we'd know.
I need to explain something more before I move on. When we pulled out of the driveway in Bemidji, I noticed Steph's license plate was SRB116.
You know how when you see your name or your initials, it snags your attention? I guess when we see our name or identity, it does something inside. As it should.
Well, SRB are my initials. When I saw that I immediately thought Psalm 116 because it reminded me of my amazing Uncle Donnie and Aunt Susie. In 1998, my cousin, Nick (their son), was killed in a motorcycle accident. After he died, my aunt shared a story about how the license plate of his truck encouraged her. (I don't recall the specifics of how right now.) I also recalled how after Nick died she woke up in the middle of the night and was lead to read Psalm 116.
Even though that psalm came to mind right away when seeing SRB116, I didn't read it until after we passed the accident.
You can read the psalm here.
I was blown away by the theme of death and life in this passage. It was completely fitting with what we were praying about and overall sensed as we continued towards the cities.
I was going to share it with my friends in the car, but decided to wait until the song that we were listening to at the time, You Won't Relent, was over. Meanwhile, I decided to copy down the passage on another piece of paper.
As I'm writing the first line, "I love the Lord, for..." Justin asks from up front, "Hey Suzanne, you have your Bible?"
"Yyyyyep."
"Can you turn to Psalm 116?"
*insert slight jaw drop moment*
"Uhhhh, yeah, so I'm opened up to that right now and I just starting copying it down."
Wow.
We read it outloud and God used it big time as we got closer to the mall. It affirmed that we were to keep our peace and joy as we partnered with the Holy Spirit that day.
Alright, jump ahead to us at the mall. We broke up into a few groups and started walking around. Some of us had some specific leadings as to where to go.
(And FYI - there are more great testimonies of that day that we are praising and thanking God for! He truly worked through everyone that day. I love partnering with you guys! God is awesome.)
Once we got to the mall each of us moved forward with the ways God had spoken to us on the way down. For me, there was one particular place in the mall I kept envisioning. I was incredibly compelled to linger around a specific restaurant.
I eventually reached that area with Heather and Mark. Right when we arrived there, Heather leaned over to me and declared, "There is major peace here."
So true.
The impression we had was to just hang out there and God would reveal the next steps.
A few minutes later, I found myself standing next to one of the girls that worked there. She was tidying things up. It's hard to explain, but words were coming out of my mouth before I even had time to think about what I was saying.
"This seems like a really fun place to work. Do you enjoy it here?" I asked.
This simple question opened the door to a phenomenal, divine conversation.
A few minutes into our conversation, she asked me what I was doing at the mall. I shared that I was a part of a ministry school in Bemidji and we were going to a speaker at a church in Burnsville that night.
I felt silenced about saying anything about being at the mall to see how God was at work. It's like God put a little cork in my mouth in that moment. So I stood there, not sure what to say.
In my silence, the next thing she said was, "I haven't been to church in like three years..."
She then opened up a bit about her life and background. What emerged next was a genuine desire and hunger for something of God. She said that she would like to go to church again, but didn't know where to go.
Okay, God...what do you want me to do with this? She's desiring this, but I live no where near the cities and I highly doubt she'll roadtrip to Bemdiji each Sunday morning. ;)
What did I hear?
"Connect her."
I asked her, if she was comfortable, if she'd like to give me her name and contact info and I'd connect her with some of my friends in the cities who go to church. I know they'd welcome her and love to go with her and help her check things out.
She agreed and we exchanged names and numbers.
As I handed her a little slip of paper with my info, she started to cry.
Quietly and almost to herself, she said, "I can't believe I'm having this conversation right now."
What she shared next still causes me to come before God with great awe...possibly even more so then the first time around. It blows me away every time I think about it.
With tears in her eyes, she shared, "Two days ago, I tried to kill myself. And today...I almost didn't come to work. I was going to call in..."
But there she stood.
And there I stood.
And there God was in our midst, radically pursuing His precious daughter.
She said she was looking for a sign that someone truly cared about her.
That's exactly what God did that day. He won't relent, "for there is love that is as strong as death, jealously demanding as the grave...
...and many waters cannot quench this love."
She was in awe. I was in awe. We were both trying to absorb everything as we both had tears in our eyes.
Things from earlier in the day were starting to make much more sense as she also told me that she had been looking for a sign that she was truly loved by someone.
God was bringing life, intervening in a life and death situation.
Wow, wow, wow.
Declare my love to her and read Psalm 116...
And share about why you're at the mall.
God removed that cork from my mouth as that became the right time to share. I released God's Words of Life. I told her the story about the trip down. The accident. How we were lead to Psalm 116. That we were at the mall because God was at work there and wanted to have encounters with people. And that, among many other ways God was at work that day, he wanted to bring Life into a life or death situation.
After I declared the psalm over her we talked some more.
Eventually, I laid hands on her and prayed.
Friends, there is power in the name of Jesus. Call upon His name! He is mighty to save.
After making sure she was going to be okay when she got off work our conversation came to a close she said, "Maybe you can call or text me later with another thing to read in the Bible?"
"Absolutely, Amber. Do you have a Bible at home?"
"I don't," she replied.
Well, she does now.
It has duct tape wrapped around it to hold it together. There are tear stains on some of the pages that fell from my face during secret place time with my Daddy. And there's a yellow star sticky note with my name on it in the front cover. I kept it in there and told her, "When you think of it, you can pray for me, too, k?"
I had slipped in my Bible those college lined pieces of paper from the car ride down with prayers and promptings for the day. As I pulled them out, Ephesians caught my eye. Just the day before, as part of an assignment for school, I had hi-lighted everything in blue in chapters 1 and 2 that declared our identity in Christ. This pointed her to the next part of Scripture to read.
We hugged goodbye, told her I loved her and that God loved her like crazy and we parted ways.
I walked out into the busy mall, speechless. Yet my spirit was sending out major and intense thanksgiving to God.
Later that night I received a text from Amber.
"Thank u god blessed me with u today it kinda changed my life. I can't believe how he works and puts people together. thank u for the bible I read the highlighted parts and I couldn't help but cry. I hope u really can find someone I can meet to go to church. I feel so new...I went from wanting to die and give up on my life and kids and something brought u into the store. :)"
That "something" is the Holy Spirit. And friends, this "something" is seeking to lead you into the very places that God wants to breathe Life and shine Light. Church, come awake and let's move forward into our calling and identity! Testimonies like this are becoming our new normal.
Let's walk in this new normal! We have been given and already possess all that we need to see heaven invade earth!
...
Since Friday, Amber and I have been in communication and have helped to link her up with some awesome friends in the cities. The Holy Spirit will carry things forth into more and more Life.
Something else hit me the other day. I felt like there was something to this during our conversation. The whole time we talked, we were standing by these coffeemugs with names on them. The entire time we talked, she was "tidying" up this area so that we could keep talking and she could appear to keep "working." :) It was cute.
I believe there is something about identity here. After I got home, I looked up what Amber means and what the color, amber, means.
Amber: precious jewel.
The color amber: the Father's heavenly care, glory of God
Amber, your life is purposeful! Your life will shine the glory of God to many. You have greatly impacted my life already. I thank God for you and your life! You are a beautiful, loved, and cherished Daughter of the Father. You are His precious jewel.
Thanks be to our Glorious Father!
*Amber gave me permission to share this story.*
On our last stretch of the trip, we all took time together to focus on God, His heart, and His desires for the day and sought after what the Father was doing so that we could partner with that.
As this occurred, a police car sped past us. Right after, I closed my eyes and put in earphones. We didn't know yet, but up ahead was a scene that would cause a seriousness and grief to settle over us all.
Because my eyes were shut and I had headphones in my ears up until we drove directly by, I didn't have much time to take in everything that was going on. But there was enough time for some vivid images to flood my mind. There was a car totally mangled and flipped over while a small group of people were huddled around a body laying on the ground in the ditch. They were covering the person up with a blanket.
We immediately started praying and interceding. We prayed about whether or not we should stop. We heard "no." So we kept driving. Two of us (without knowing until a little later) saw angels of comfort completely immersed in the situation.
Passing the scene of that accident shifted something in the air around us. Soon after, Becky called us from the other car to process what just happened.
Steph heard something very specific as she prayed and as it was shared, much stirred in our spirit. She heard God say that he wanted to intervene in a life or death situation while we were at the Mall of America. It was a wake up call for us that we needed to be alert to what God was doing that day.
I'm not sure any of us really knew what this life and death situation was going to look like, but something inside knew that God was speaking clearly and intently to us. There was a confidence that when we saw it, we'd know.
I need to explain something more before I move on. When we pulled out of the driveway in Bemidji, I noticed Steph's license plate was SRB116.
You know how when you see your name or your initials, it snags your attention? I guess when we see our name or identity, it does something inside. As it should.
Well, SRB are my initials. When I saw that I immediately thought Psalm 116 because it reminded me of my amazing Uncle Donnie and Aunt Susie. In 1998, my cousin, Nick (their son), was killed in a motorcycle accident. After he died, my aunt shared a story about how the license plate of his truck encouraged her. (I don't recall the specifics of how right now.) I also recalled how after Nick died she woke up in the middle of the night and was lead to read Psalm 116.
Even though that psalm came to mind right away when seeing SRB116, I didn't read it until after we passed the accident.
You can read the psalm here.
I was blown away by the theme of death and life in this passage. It was completely fitting with what we were praying about and overall sensed as we continued towards the cities.
I was going to share it with my friends in the car, but decided to wait until the song that we were listening to at the time, You Won't Relent, was over. Meanwhile, I decided to copy down the passage on another piece of paper.
As I'm writing the first line, "I love the Lord, for..." Justin asks from up front, "Hey Suzanne, you have your Bible?"
"Yyyyyep."
"Can you turn to Psalm 116?"
*insert slight jaw drop moment*
"Uhhhh, yeah, so I'm opened up to that right now and I just starting copying it down."
Wow.
We read it outloud and God used it big time as we got closer to the mall. It affirmed that we were to keep our peace and joy as we partnered with the Holy Spirit that day.
Alright, jump ahead to us at the mall. We broke up into a few groups and started walking around. Some of us had some specific leadings as to where to go.
(And FYI - there are more great testimonies of that day that we are praising and thanking God for! He truly worked through everyone that day. I love partnering with you guys! God is awesome.)
Once we got to the mall each of us moved forward with the ways God had spoken to us on the way down. For me, there was one particular place in the mall I kept envisioning. I was incredibly compelled to linger around a specific restaurant.
I eventually reached that area with Heather and Mark. Right when we arrived there, Heather leaned over to me and declared, "There is major peace here."
So true.
The impression we had was to just hang out there and God would reveal the next steps.
A few minutes later, I found myself standing next to one of the girls that worked there. She was tidying things up. It's hard to explain, but words were coming out of my mouth before I even had time to think about what I was saying.
"This seems like a really fun place to work. Do you enjoy it here?" I asked.
This simple question opened the door to a phenomenal, divine conversation.
A few minutes into our conversation, she asked me what I was doing at the mall. I shared that I was a part of a ministry school in Bemidji and we were going to a speaker at a church in Burnsville that night.
I felt silenced about saying anything about being at the mall to see how God was at work. It's like God put a little cork in my mouth in that moment. So I stood there, not sure what to say.
In my silence, the next thing she said was, "I haven't been to church in like three years..."
She then opened up a bit about her life and background. What emerged next was a genuine desire and hunger for something of God. She said that she would like to go to church again, but didn't know where to go.
Okay, God...what do you want me to do with this? She's desiring this, but I live no where near the cities and I highly doubt she'll roadtrip to Bemdiji each Sunday morning. ;)
What did I hear?
"Connect her."
I asked her, if she was comfortable, if she'd like to give me her name and contact info and I'd connect her with some of my friends in the cities who go to church. I know they'd welcome her and love to go with her and help her check things out.
She agreed and we exchanged names and numbers.
As I handed her a little slip of paper with my info, she started to cry.
Quietly and almost to herself, she said, "I can't believe I'm having this conversation right now."
What she shared next still causes me to come before God with great awe...possibly even more so then the first time around. It blows me away every time I think about it.
With tears in her eyes, she shared, "Two days ago, I tried to kill myself. And today...I almost didn't come to work. I was going to call in..."
But there she stood.
And there I stood.
And there God was in our midst, radically pursuing His precious daughter.
She said she was looking for a sign that someone truly cared about her.
That's exactly what God did that day. He won't relent, "for there is love that is as strong as death, jealously demanding as the grave...
...and many waters cannot quench this love."
She was in awe. I was in awe. We were both trying to absorb everything as we both had tears in our eyes.
Things from earlier in the day were starting to make much more sense as she also told me that she had been looking for a sign that she was truly loved by someone.
God was bringing life, intervening in a life and death situation.
Wow, wow, wow.
Declare my love to her and read Psalm 116...
And share about why you're at the mall.
God removed that cork from my mouth as that became the right time to share. I released God's Words of Life. I told her the story about the trip down. The accident. How we were lead to Psalm 116. That we were at the mall because God was at work there and wanted to have encounters with people. And that, among many other ways God was at work that day, he wanted to bring Life into a life or death situation.
After I declared the psalm over her we talked some more.
Eventually, I laid hands on her and prayed.
Friends, there is power in the name of Jesus. Call upon His name! He is mighty to save.
After making sure she was going to be okay when she got off work our conversation came to a close she said, "Maybe you can call or text me later with another thing to read in the Bible?"
"Absolutely, Amber. Do you have a Bible at home?"
"I don't," she replied.
Well, she does now.
It has duct tape wrapped around it to hold it together. There are tear stains on some of the pages that fell from my face during secret place time with my Daddy. And there's a yellow star sticky note with my name on it in the front cover. I kept it in there and told her, "When you think of it, you can pray for me, too, k?"
I had slipped in my Bible those college lined pieces of paper from the car ride down with prayers and promptings for the day. As I pulled them out, Ephesians caught my eye. Just the day before, as part of an assignment for school, I had hi-lighted everything in blue in chapters 1 and 2 that declared our identity in Christ. This pointed her to the next part of Scripture to read.
We hugged goodbye, told her I loved her and that God loved her like crazy and we parted ways.
I walked out into the busy mall, speechless. Yet my spirit was sending out major and intense thanksgiving to God.
Later that night I received a text from Amber.
"Thank u god blessed me with u today it kinda changed my life. I can't believe how he works and puts people together. thank u for the bible I read the highlighted parts and I couldn't help but cry. I hope u really can find someone I can meet to go to church. I feel so new...I went from wanting to die and give up on my life and kids and something brought u into the store. :)"
That "something" is the Holy Spirit. And friends, this "something" is seeking to lead you into the very places that God wants to breathe Life and shine Light. Church, come awake and let's move forward into our calling and identity! Testimonies like this are becoming our new normal.
Let's walk in this new normal! We have been given and already possess all that we need to see heaven invade earth!
...
Since Friday, Amber and I have been in communication and have helped to link her up with some awesome friends in the cities. The Holy Spirit will carry things forth into more and more Life.
Something else hit me the other day. I felt like there was something to this during our conversation. The whole time we talked, we were standing by these coffeemugs with names on them. The entire time we talked, she was "tidying" up this area so that we could keep talking and she could appear to keep "working." :) It was cute.
I believe there is something about identity here. After I got home, I looked up what Amber means and what the color, amber, means.
Amber: precious jewel.
The color amber: the Father's heavenly care, glory of God
Amber, your life is purposeful! Your life will shine the glory of God to many. You have greatly impacted my life already. I thank God for you and your life! You are a beautiful, loved, and cherished Daughter of the Father. You are His precious jewel.
Thanks be to our Glorious Father!
*Amber gave me permission to share this story.*
yeah....this made me cry...that's twice now that the transforming power of God has brought tears to my eyes tonight. Thank you, Lord! God bless you Suzanne! I so admire your response to his movement! I pray he continues to bless you with opportunities and testimonies like this ! It's a huge encouragement to me and to many!
ReplyDeleteCool things have been happening at CSS and I hope to blog about it soon!
Thank you for posting this!!!
oh, suzanne! your willingness to follow where He leads is awesome. keep it up.
ReplyDeleteThank you...this has gone a long way in helping me to make a dcesiona bout taking a step of faith...
ReplyDelete