Street Worship

It's been a while, but tonight I just got major inspiration to share what happened just tonight, and the context behind it.

So about 4 or 5 weeks ago, we had a meeting with these two women who work with/for an organization called 'Exodus Cry', where they reach out to prostitutes in our area. So we had them come here to our house and share some of their story, and give us guidelines and wisdom as to how to reach out to these prostitutes.

Here's the gist of what we were instructed to do:

A couple women go and start talking to a prostitute, they initiate the conversation, and then after a couple of minutes, if the woman is responsive, one or a few of the guys can come over and talk a bit, while always treating them with respect. The woman who shared and led us gave us some ideas as to what to talk about and all that too. We also talked about how best to show respect to them, and what is appropriate, and what isn't, and our safety too.

After we went over all of this, and shared and prayed, we divided into two groups (about 5 in each), with mixture of guys and gals, and went out (after praying for each other and for the trip), to find some prostitutes to bless and pray for and such.

So one group of us walked to the right, down the street, and the other group walked to the left (from our house). Oh, yeah, I should have said right away, that our street, Troost st, has a lot of prostitutes walking up and down it at night.

So I was with the group that walked to the left down Troost. The people who went to the right, have an AWESOME story about that night too!!!! But as for our group saw a couple prostitutes, but weren't able to talk to any of them, cause one didn't want to talk, and another got picked up – or got business right away, before we could get to her. And it was very strange and odd, but we didn't see many prostitutes that night.

BUT God had (and has) other plans!

Quick list of people in our group:

Meghan (*awesome* leader)

Rosalind (intern)

Morgan (intern, and he's a dude)

The woman with Exodus Cry

Tre (intern)

And me (intern)

So we were all praying and listening to God's Spirit, as we walked, and then, both Meghan and I suddenly felt a spiritual shift. Like, all-of-the-sudden. For me, I felt a sort of force, like a sci-fi show where there are invisible shields and force-fields. I literally felt a sudden shift in the atmosphere, and it was like a pushing against me, but at the same time, I also saw that there was a force-field from God originating in me, (God's Spirit in me) that rose to meet that other force-field, and push it back, away from me. :D haha love that... :D One of the reasons I love sci-fi... cause a lot of times, it's pretty close to reality in terms of the spiritual side of things...

It was pretty much like this, except I didn't have to raise my arm, God was just there. 

Anyway, at the same time, we all heard some strange “music” or sounds nearby. And then we saw the lights and all the hub-bub. There was this building, which used to be an old fire-station, that had all the windows open, weird music, weird moving lights, and strange looking people. As we were walking by, we all felt the atmosphere change, and we all got sudden feelings of peace, or joy, or assurance of God's love and presence in our lives.

A woman, wearing a black fancy one-piece swim suit outfit, with and other decorations, came out to us, and asked us 'What are you all doing tonight?' and we told her we were just walking the streets, and she then began to try to explain what they were all doing, and said something about they are totally 'experimental', and anything goes, and that they are just basically opening themselves up to anything that comes their way. The whole while the strange 'music' was pulsing through the place and out onto the street around.

I didn't really talk to the woman, but Morgan, who was one of the ones who did, said that when this woman was talking, it was like she was talking in circles, and was very confused, and couldn't really explain what she wanted to... it was obvious she was strongly influenced with some demon or spirit. But that doesn't scare God, and God is in us, so we didn't have fear. This woman invited us to come in, and have a look around, and apparently, you're supposed to pay a fee of some sort, but she said we could come in for free. We think that she was the organizer of the place.

Anyway, while my team was talking to her, I saw this younger gal about age 14 standing there holding a cute, small white dog (we later realized that a lot of occults sacrifice white animals, so we later suspected that is what it was for). I could tell right away, that she was sad, and felt unsafe. So I talked to her a bit about the dog, and then just dove in and simply asked her if she knew anything about God. And she said no, so I just said what was on my heart for her...which was basically everything opposite to what I could see she was feeling, and the atmosphere of the place. That God is a good God, He is all the care and love, you've ever known, combined, and then added a zillion times extra. And that God keeps us safe, and cares about us, and wants to be with us, and PROTECT us.

She TOTALLY received what I said, yet was still really, really sad, and looking down. Then I asked her if I could pray and bless her (I like to say that when I pray for someone I don't know, 'Can I pray for you right now, or just bless you?'. I asked her (which is really important) if I could put my hand on her shoulder, she said yes, and I got to pray for her!!! :D:D:D:D:D Some of what I prayed was for God's love to bless her, and for protection, and His goodness to come into her life. It was awesome.

Okay, so I'll attempt to describe the 'music' that was pouring out of that place: It had no beat, sounded chaotic, get trance-like. It was basically a collection of random sounds thrown out. There was a lot of screeching sounds, odd banging here and there, and strange lower sounds too... all together it sounded like off of some horror movie or something. It was NOT organized, or had any semblance of order or precision of sound. It was 'experimental', like the lady said.

So, was asked God's Spirit if we could enter, and he gave us all the ok, so we went in two by twos or in small groups (that is important), and I couldn't help but rejoice and praise God in the middle of all of what we saw, and felt.

Ok, so there were about 30 people in all, there, and many of them were dressed up.. one person had huge bunny ears, and thick white face-paint, others had a lot of black – gothish looking... and Tre said he saw a man who was probably around 30, but had the face of a really old person, and all this kind of stuff. People were all dressed up... and EVERYONE (other than our group) was all stoic and had these downcast looks on their faces.

Gloominess.

The first room was all wide open, with a couple 'musicians' in the back. And there were some chairs around the sides of the room. There was this little side room, where the stairs were, with bookshelves with very odd things on it, like occult symbols, and other creepy things like that... I didn't really want to dwell on looking at that. And all along the top of the room, there was this snake-like piece of 'art'. It was the metallic hosing that you use for say, your dryer or something like that, except it was really big, and it was cut so that the red Christmas lights could shine through. It looked like a metal, shining, red snake.

Then upstairs, there were some rooms, with beds in them, and velvety stuff, and a room with a TV on the static, and a small kitchen-ish place with beer in it. And at the end of the hallway, there was a large room, with another 'musician' playing demonic 'music' with big windows open to the street below, and moving lights. There were a few chairs on one end of the room, and an old sewing machine in the corner. Odd. There were no doors. Everything was wide open, and the sounds were just blatantly obvious to be inviting of evil.

Anyway, we came out of there after looking around, and we walked away, and we all needed to really pray. So we prayed together as a group and cleansed ourselves of anything that we might have picked up from that place. And I had a word for Morgan too... something God wanted him to hear/know.

SO, TODAY... Tommy, his friend Ethan, and I decided to go for a walk, and we walked past the 'Evil' house, and saw that there was some kind of function going on. Then Ethan got this awesome idea: that we go and sing worship songs on a bench across the street from the 'Satan House'.

We asked God about it, and t'was cool with Him, so we got a guitar, and a small drum, and worshipped God with some songs there. As we were chilling with God, two people, husband and wife, come walking down the sidewalk where we were, and we recognized them as some people we had met earlier at the local outdoor community pool! They too, are Jesus followers, we started talking, and they totally wanted to join in with the Jesus time.

While they were still walking up, and I didn't yet recognize them, God was telling me to ask them if we could pray for them, and so I asked them. As I asked them, Tommy also said that He heard God telling him that too. And they said that they'd really like some prayer because they are going to be moving out to the Middle East somewhere, with God. And that they'd like prayer for that. So we had them sit on the bench, and we all prayed for them, and I got a 'word of knowledge' for each of them, and them together as a married couple.

And we just hung out and worshipped God there! On the sidewalk, across from the street to where the Satan House is! The Satan House wasn't that loud or rambunctious as it was the first time we checked it out, but there was something going on. But anyway, God put some people in our path, as we stepped out in faith, and praising, and putting God first in that place.

Then, after some time of that, we saw a man-woman (transvestite, or a man who dresses up like a woman) prostitute. Walking up the street, (there's a lot of those down here), and immediately, this couple we met went running and said 'Hi', and talked with 'her' cause they already had a healthy, kind relationship with 'her' and knew 'her' a bit. Anyway, they invited us over, and we accepted, and shall yet go over to their place within the next few days before the internship is over.

But, I really got to pray, and speak over this couple, and we saw angels, and Tommy and I both saw a sort of 'bubble' thingie around this couple as they sat there on the bench together... God is doing amazing things, and is continually. We just had an idea (from God), and went and just did it, prayerfully. But we just did it.

Those who have God in them, He is with us, His power is in us, and where we go, He goes. So all that remains is if it is His will or not. And sometimes God doesn't give a direct answer as to if it is His will or not, for us to do something. BUT that can a lot of times just be God saying 'I'm with you wherever you go, whether it's on a sidewalk, or in the comfort of your own home, I'm with you. So do not be afraid, and GO FORTH. With my blessing. I'll let you know if I don't want you to do something.'

I love God! :) He loves, Oh! How He loves.

PS One thing to clarify: God prevails, so don't be afraid or fearful because of this story.  If you are, pray about it, and ask someone else to pray for you, because this is not for you to be scared by.   God doesn't endorse that kind of fear.

Reflections of Walking in Right-Relating

God's Holy Spirit is WAAY more powerful than I ever knew!  HE can really lead, and teach SO much! And He heals and helps people that you'd never imagine. But where does it all stem from?

We've been practicing and learning how to simply fall into His ways.  That's all it is! FALLING.  You know that term 'falling in love', well, that is what is LITERALLY happening with us, and God!  He IS love, after all.  And the idea of FALLING.  If God's love is a river, we simply have to fall into it.  And that's our life.

FALLING into God's river of love. Just letting go, and falling into Him, and His ways (this pic is not of anyone I know, by the way).

 Just falling back into His ways.  His ways are like a path... a continual path of good standing with God.  Oh, and falling in that love, and being in that river or that path, is righteousness.  It is not contingent on what we do, or don't do, or think etc... it just is.  God just is.

A friend of mine, Tommy, said he just had an awesome revelation about this.  He said he was listening to a dude, Joseph Prince, talk about how we usually talk about trying to achieve completeness, and perfection, and that is the whole point of the path: to get to the goal of completeness.

HOWEVER!: This dude was saying, "No!" this is NOT how it works!  It works like this: We are already made complete and whole in Christ, THEN we move forward IN that completeness!!  WOW!

And we've been learning about that in other ways too, but this one is the most recent explanation.

There's another explanation too, on one of my earlier blog posts. It's talking about what the word 'righteousness' means in Hebrew, and how that applies to our lives.  << AWESOMENESS!!!!!

I think the hardest part about walking in 'right-relating', is the regular mundane, everyday stuff that goes on in our lives. And the thing is, how do we walk in right-relating with God as much as possible, even in the mundane times. And in every area of our lives.

This ties into what we just learned the other day about the Hebrew worldview, vs. The Greek worldview (ours). (There is more on this on one of my previous posts.)

In the Greek worldview, we separate spirituality from regular life stuff. We only see God in everything around us when it comes down to the fact that He created it. Whereas in the Hebrew worldview, God's presence is seen in everything, all the time, and ACTIVELY working. 

For example, the chair that you are sitting on is viewed as something that is constantly pushing you upwards, and holding you up. It is actively a chair. And it is only that way because God is, right now, willing it to be that way. So God is constantly willing, and choosing, and making things to happen as we see them. Even inanimate objects. 

God is always there, always. He is in all, through all, and is all. He is also Himself. He is. And it might sound kind of complicated, but it's really quite simple: God literally holds everything together, all the time!!

We just have to realize it, and step into the river. Step into His path. Or, as I was saying earlier: FALL into His love! FALL in LOVE with God!!! :) After all, 'He Is'.

That's just a tidbit for you.

This was a short blog post for once! :D

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