willB-life

Hey all,

For those of you who haven't seen my note on facebook.. this is about my Planetshaker's experience. :) I want it on my blog as well :D

Over the four awesome days at Planetshakers, God has spoken to me in ways I can’t even explain. I was at the preaching of Pastor Russell Evans, John Bevere, Bishop T D Jakes, Pastor Sam Evans and Richard Wilkerson Jnr and by the end of the conference, all the messages had tied together nicely. The praise and worship brought the meaning of love for God to a whole new level with the inspirational lyrics. Later, I bought the ‘Even Greater’ album on iTunes and I was expecting the genre to be ‘Gospel music’ or ‘Christian Music’, but guess what; Planetshakers had decided that the appropriate genre of ‘Even Greater would be ‘INSPIRATIONAL.’ That’s one of the crucial points of praise and worship. It should INSPIRE us to be better Christians, share the Word to the billions of people who are destined to suffer eternal torture right now and to love God in a more pure and unconditional way.

As the conference drew closer and closer in date, something just didn’t seem right and I just couldn’t put my finger on what it was. It felt as if I had lost that love of God and the anticipation and excitement just wasn’t there. By that time my spiritual life was pretty much dead. Reading the bible was a chore and prayer was just simply a habit. PS Conference seemed more like a chore; an obstacle that ate away at my homework time. But, I still had that expectation that PS 20Ten would completely change me and it would slam me back into the right direction; towards our God. Sadly, by the time I truly appreciated conference, it was already over.

Finally, Day 1 came and memories just flooded back. The Hisense Arena, the alive Christians and the touching messages. The praise and worship was so alive and I could feel the Holy Spirit, but my heart still wasn’t in the right place. As before, something just wasn’t right. Pastor Russell Evans preached that night. His ultimate question was ‘What side of the Cross are you camping on?’ I’m not going to repeat what he said, but in a nutshell it was about the differences of camping in the wilderness (the WRONG side of the Cross) and living it up in the PROMISED LAND (the 100% RIGHT side of the Cross) and the way to cross over and breakthrough. TODAY IS THE DAY, but the majority of youth still choose to delay with pathetic excuses. Yes, procrastination is such a big problem in young people’s lives as well as mine. My life has always been ‘I’m only 13, what can I do?’ I realized something really wrong with my life. I was following, not LEADING. God intended the Church to LEAD, not follow. It should have overwhelming POWER and not just appeal to young people. Leading onto the topic of favour, I will paraphrase “If you receive what Jesus has promised and if Jesus lives in you, you will birth awesome things into daily life and prosper (move) towards God.” We are also HIGHLY FAVOURED. Favour also equals success. So therefore, logically if we have Jesus in your life, we will SUCCEED, whether it be spiritually, mentally, emotionally, physically or in life in general. The right side of the Cross is also where FAVOUR resides and we should push through to that place. The Cross is not simply a symbol, it is ALIVE. It gives new life and because of the Cross we can directly connect with God, it is indescribably POWERFUL. Have courage, be filled with the Holy Spirit and stay focused on what God had promised, and then, we will cross over to the right side. Remember always that we shouldn’t just feel something, or feel like God is present, but we KNOW God is present. Have faith, even as tiny as a mustard seed (You must have heard this many times) and supernatural things will happen.

I really regret not going during the day when Reggie Dabbs spoke on Day 2, but the night session spoke to me as well. I always keep this phrase in my heart (I can’t remember who said it) “It’s better to do something and regret it, than to regret not doing something.” So, I’ve learnt my lesson and I’ll make sure that I take any opportunity that God permits me to. During the session, John Bevere said something along the lines of “God has called us to live an EXTRAORDINARY life, through the GRACE of GOD.” The Grace of God does amazing things, it empowers us, it saves us from certain eternal death and it purifies our hearts and minds. Till now, I’ve never truly understood what the Grace of God is. The primary function of God’s grace is EMPOWERMENT. I’m sorry, but I’ll have to quote from John Bevere again (his just too good!) “Grace is God’s empowerment that gives us the ability to go beyond our natural ability.” Grace has given us the fullness of Jesus Christ and we should be what he is, in this world. If he was hated for spreading the WORD, so should we. If discovered in myself that earthly things are the things that empower me. Whether it be possessions (I want that iPhone so badly!), relationships (I think she’ll like me if I impress her) or even feelings (I’ll do this just to make my parents happy. NO, NO, NO. Jesus spent just 33 years on earth in suffering, but look, he is able to spend ETERNITY beside his Father, God… even though he is God! Not only that, but he has saved an eternal amount of Christians from pending death and opened up a connection between us and Him. If we go straight back to our old ways of sin after repenting, we have repentance but no GRACE. Thus, GRACE will EMPOWER us to stay strong in God and walk on the right path. Holiness is also a product of God’s grace and anything can be accomplished with the Grace of God (see how amazing it is!). I understand the misery that Christians go through, but this is because we’re trying the live life in our own power and ability, let God do the work! Grace should never ever be WASTED. Bad things will start to happen if we take it for granted, and we will fall from God. God has always called the Christians to be at the top of the world, but why AREN’T WE? Walk in extraordinary wisdom, understanding and DISTINGUISH OURSELVES FROM THE CROWD and we will be at the top.

God has worked amazingly through John Bevere, but that was only part one of his preaching! It continued in the morning of Day 3. God isn’t in complete control, so don’t think that we can hide away and that God will fix our life and the world. God will work through us. Remember that He gave the earth to man, for US to control and rule. We (the Christians) are the representation of God, but since we are just following, not leading, we are making God seem small and insignificant to the world. Grace = Divine Power : a John Bevere equation! We are defined by the Grace of God also and when we are needy of ability, we will rely on Grace. God can be trusted! God has written your life story before you even existed. He knows what your destiny was before you even came into existence, but this is impossible to fulfill on our own ability. So many Christians live on their own ability and don’t achieve anything spiritually in life. Then because of some disease, they just die without fulfilling their purpose. THIS IS PATHETIC. To receive the fullness of God’s Grace, have FAITH! Faith is like a key or password, with it, we can have ALL the Grace we need! The word of God is also the word of his Grace (How important is grace!) Hebrews 1:3 quotes “word of his power.” This may seem irrelevant, but it states all God’s power is in scripture (in the word). It is NOT the power of his word, it’s not just saying that his word is powerful. Without faith, it’s also impossible to please God. So, it is also impossible to please God on our own ability. Strangely, we are able to please God through the … Grace of God! John Bevere showed us an extraordinary diagram. Imagine a farm, crops, pipelines and a river. The farm is our spririt; our heart. The pipelines are faith. The river is the Grace of God. The crops are aspects of our spiritual life, such as forgiveness of sin, belief in God, living Holy, and Ruling in Life or Prosperity. All Christians and have received the Grace of God (the water from the River), through faith in believing in God. But we need to work on the others and have faith in the other aspects. If we have faith in other parts of life, the Grace of God will come also.

The rest of the day really blew me away, it was the turning point. For the youth electives, I chose worship and creative ministries and the speaker was Mike Webber. Leading praise and worship is all about calling upon the presence of the Holy Spirit for other people to encounter and almost being a spiritual connection. To be able to call upon the Holy Spirit, you have to have a soft heart and be in the right place with God. Not forgiving someone who has angered you, will do more damage to YOU than to THEM. If you hold onto that bitterness, it will gradually attach to your heart and you heart will become harder and harder, until you can barely encounter God. By then I’d realized why I couldn’t experience God as much as the previous conference or camps; I had held things against my parents, friends and enemies. I started to FORGIVE and things changed. Forgive people before they come to you and apologize and remember that the devil is behind an unforgiving spirit. It’s a trap created by satan, which sadly many Christians fall into.

The night rally of Day 3 was by Bishop T D Jakes and that brought my understanding to a whole new level. His preaching seemed to tie together all the previous speakers’ messages. One word, RELAX! When we go through hard times in life, don’t try to fix it yourself. Let God fight your daily battles. It will be the EASIEST VICTORY EVER. God is working in ways we can’t even understand. If we try to comprehend him, we have to use earthly terms and that reduces him down to a human. As Christians, we will get tired sometimes, but God tests us in holding back his greatness. Never doubt yourself when things aren’t happening spiritually, but in that time still keep close to God, pray and read his Word. I fell away from God, at that “resting” stage of my life. The enemy took control and tempted me. I always thought that the seed in my life was bad, that it was wrong. Bishop TD Jakes emphasized that the enemy tries to tempt us and attack us because we have a GOOD and SINCERE seed! When you go to new levels in your life, you will also experience new devils. I remember asking God ‘What’s wrong with me?’ ‘What’s happening?’ or ‘Why am I not achieving anything?’ But, I never listened, I only asked or thanked. God would have told me how to get out of my situation, if only I had shut up! Wait on the Lord and be patient. In perfect timing, he will have a strategy for all our struggles. God’s strategies are CRAZY, but that does not mean that IT DOESN’T WORK. Bishop TD Jakes stresses “LEAVE IT ALONE and GOD HAS YOU COVERED.” Praise God in trials and weakness and believe that he will fix it. When we praise God, He is almost placed in “debt.” So praise Him in hard times and he will be in YOUR debt to fix the situation. The preaching ended with an altar call and the presence of the Holy Spirit was overwhelming’ young people all around me were shaking, crying and responding to the call of God. That was really an extraordinary session and was a spiritual revival. It felt as if an enormous weight and burden was lifted off my life. But, when I went home, the devil immediately attacked me and it was a test of my newly revived faith. My dad got angry over something I didn’t even understand. I had told him that Planetshakers didn’t end at a specific time and he got angry over that? I was reminded of the preaching of all the speakers. Usually, I would have held this against him, but I chose to forgive and God was in my life again!

The conference went past too quickly. It was Day 4 and there was this dread of returning back to life in my heart. Pastor Sam Evans spoke in the morning. Her preaching further supported what the previous preachers had said. Once again, her preaching was incredible and it was mainly focused upon Jesus and how to live like him.
1. Jesus talked openly with his disciples about the future.
2. The Devil took him aside
3. Jesus rebukes satan
4. “You are seeing things merely from a human point of view.”
5. Get God’s perspective
When we come across troubles, we should confront them. If we shy away from them and avoid them, things can only get worse. Be reminded of Jesus Christ. Our troubles and sufferings are nothing compared to Jesus’ suffering. The enemy has power, but our God has so much more POWER THAN THE ENEMY. The enemy will try to lure us away from God and we will begin to think that we are powerless or that we can’t do anything. God already knows our destiny and what we need to fulfill in life, but the enemy will whisper lies to us and tempt us with a different direction of life. When Jesus was tempted by the devil he rebuked “AWAY FROM ME SATAN.” We are to STOP TALKING TO SATAN and listen to what GOD HAS TO SAY. THE ENEMY IS UNDER US, SO PUT THEM BACK WHERE THEY BELONG. We are CALLED. We are ANOINTED. Our lives have a part in God and He is always trying to breakthrough us. God wants to show the world faith through us; where else can he show up? God can see FAR BEYOND and the things that to us may seem impossible. We are ordinary people with an EXTRAORDINARY God. So we will be able to live EXTRAORDINARY lives if we try to see the world through God’s eyes. Pastor Sam continued with another few points:
What can rob us of our destiny?
1. Selfishness
2. Hanging onto your life
3. Putting greater value on the flesh rather than the condition of our soul.
Our destiny, guess what, is wrapped up in other people. The enemy wants us to be self focused and care only about ourselves. When we view the world in God’s perspective, we will be able to look past ourselves and to others around us. Our life on this earth will be over before we know it and we will spend eternity either with God or in suffering and torture. We need to let the things of the world go and to stop trying to manipulate it. The condition of our soul is so much important that just keeping our bodies fit and strong. But in this world it seems like the opposite. Have you honestly seen a reality television show about the condition of people’s souls? The resources from the speakers are to shape and condition our soul.

Next came the youth conference by Richard Wilkerson Jnr. It really appealed to the youth and was powerful. The Cross isn’t a symbol, but a STATEMENT and it is time now to raise up a generation of UNAFRAID and FEARLESS people! As Christians, we’ve got to step out and take initiative. In my life, I haven’t had much guts to lead at school or in daily life. When we lift our voice and step out, amazing things will happen. We will be surprised by the amount of people that actually follow us and differences will happen in life. When we don’t fully understand the Cross and what it means, we begin to criticize and when we don’t get more, we begin to doubt Christ. (Yes, this is when Rich W Jnr sang the Little Mermaid theme song! “What a spoilt little brat!” If you haven’t heard it, go to Planetshakers live!!) When Jesus said that it was my time to rest and I didn’t have much spiritual growth, I wanted more and when I didn’t get it, I began to doubt whether Christ was there. NEVER believe that we are worthless, as Jesus paid such a high price for us to be saved. Jesus wants you to be in his family and when you share his suffering in this world, so will you share His glory in the next world. NEVER put of God’s calling either, or else we will fall away and remember, the moment we are in now, is the FINEST moment. When we see the Cross, we will be led into a Spirit of repentance.

The entire conference was nearly over. It had gone by scarily fast and the last moment of it was here. This was Planetshakers Conference ‘Favour’ 20Ten, Day 4, night rally and we had Bishop TD Jakes speak. FAITH DOESN’T WALK BY SIGHT and POWER IS IN A SET. When you have a set, you would always want it complete, right? So should our spiritual life! When we have visions, share them to the Christians, as the world can’t handle our visions yet. Every time when God is about to give us something, the enemy will give us an issue to deal with, so that we don’t receive from God. So, watch out and be ready or we won’t be able to receive that vital something from God. Fear grips our lives. When we believe in something and fail or have a bad experience, we will instantly lose faith and be fearful in believing again. We will then begin to trust our senses more than what we believe and we also lose faith. But, the Lord will come for you for whatever the reason. On earth, we are defined by one weak moment. So we usually have that fear and wear a mask over our real self to protect us from being judged like that. We have a twin. The one we show to others is the Idealistic One, the one who we’d like to be, but the one on the inside is the REAL us. Preachers preach to the real us and God wants us to reveal to him, the REAL us, even though he knows what’s really inside of you! God isn’t just a savior or a King, but he is INTIMATE as well! He knows everything about us; every single detail. Something I’ve gone wrong in my Christian walk is showing my false self. At church, most people only see the side of me that is travelling very well without any trouble or bumps. This shouldn’t be. At church, we should share our SUFFERING and go through this together.

So that’s pretty much the end of the Planetshakers Conference. But it isn’t the end, its ONLY THE BEGINNING, as Pastor Sam Evans, so heavily emphasizes. With camp and conference, it’s a revival and gets us going. With all the things that we learn, we should apply them into life!

willB-life

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Pain

Monday, April 12, 2010

~Hope of All Hearts

Planetshakers Conf!!

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