Getting Started
At the beginning of May, I was reading the book Radical by David Platt (which I strongly recommend). The first chapter or so was talking about how Platt went to an underground church in India where several people met in secret and risked their lives to study God's word. Throughout the book, Platt talked about being radical in our faith and doing whatever it takes to live for God. The book focused a lot on the persecuted Christian, and how they are prime examples of what it means to give up your life for Christ. While reading this book, God really spoke to me and showed me that I needed to be radical in my faith and "take up my cross and follow him" (Matthew 16:24). I felt God calling me to do something radical in my faith; something that brought followers together to focus on God and learn more about Him. I felt him calling me to just focus on scripture and prayer. No music. No fancy decoration. No object of worship. Just Him and Him alone. As I felt Him calling me, I was like, "hey this is a great idea. I want to do something like this!" But what I was really saying is, "Hey this is cool, but it's not actually going to happen." As a couple days and weeks past, God told me, "look I'm serious! This is going to happen!" I was talking to my friend Stephanie about the idea and she loved it and said she would love to help. I was excited, but in the back of my mind I was still like, "Yeah it's not going to happen!" Then, I was working out one day and the executive director of the Y that I work at saw me reading rereading Radical. He was talking to me about it and said that we could use the Y to meet. This was God both providing and saying, "I told you, Jess. It's happening!" So I met with Stephanie and Cameron, a youth pastor in Boiling Springs, and we set the date and talked about the night of worship. It was going to happen; all my doubt in the fact that it was going to happen, it was actually going to happen. I sat down one day just to brainstorm of what the service was going to look like, and God took off with it. He completely organized the entire service and showed me what to do! It was sooo amazing what God was doing. He provided everything from the planning of the service, to the money, to the name; He provided and planned EVERYTHING! God had something planned for Flood of Freedom; and I could not wait to see what it was.
The Name: Flood of Freedom
I remember sitting in my sister's room talking about this event. We were trying to decide what to name it and neither of us knew what to name it. We were just shouting out random ideas. When I prayed about the name, Lou immediately said, "What about Flood of Freedom?" It was God naming it, neither Lou nor I. The name Flood of Freedom represents that we have a Freedom to worship God but sometimes we take that for granted and focus on the object of worship instead of what worship is really about. Flood of Freedom represents that we need to take advantage of this freedom of religion in our country and be radical in our faith; telling others about God and meeting together in fellowship learning more about Him and growing in our faith. God planned all of the scripture and planned the themes of each Flood of Freedom event. The first Flood of Freedom was: Freedom from Sin. God told me that this is what we need to talk about and focus on. He told me, "I also want to focus on church/worship, love, evangelism, and prayer. Thus, coming up with the worship services, "Freedom of Church and Worship, Freedom of Love, Freedom to Evangelize, Freedom of Prayer. I then realized that God also called the services Flood of Freedom to show me these freedoms that are vital to our walk with Him. It was crazy to me to see how just a simple name of a worship event could have such a powerful meaning behind it.
Prayer
Planning this event since May, I prayed everyday. I prayed specifically for certain things, mainly that God would show up that night. The power of prayer was revealed to me in all of this. So many people were praying for this one night of worship. God answered all of the prayers for the night of worship! God taught me through all the prayer that He wants us to pray to Him. He wants to hear from us. He wants to answer our prayers. He wants us to declare our dependence on Him. He knows the whole picture when we only know a little, so we have to pray for "his will not ours!" (Mark 14:36) The power of prayer beyond belief! One of my favorite verses is Philippians 4:6, "Don't worry about anything; instead, pray about everything and present your request to God." Through all this planning up to the service and during the service, God really showed me what it meant to not worry about anything, but to pray to Him because He will take care of everything!
Freedom of Sin:
The Amazing Night of Worship
All day, I was freaking out and stressing out about the service. I was running all over the place trying to get things ready for the service. I was getting extremely nervous about what to expect and about talking in front of everyone because I am NOT a public speaker. I was running late getting to the Y to set up so it was making me even more stressed out. I couldn't think straight. I couldn't think of what needed to be done. I just froze. I was just stressed over everything going on. I was stressing about if people were coming, if it was going to be a good service, if it was going to go as planned. If you name something to freak out about, chances are I was freaking out about it! All the way up to the service I was just going crazy. As the service was starting, everything seemed to be going wrong in my mind. I felt like nobody was there and nothing was going right. I really thought the night of worship that God had planned was a complete disaster. While I was up speaking and reading through the message I was so mad at God. I couldn't even pay attention to what I was reading or talking about. I was just thinking to myself, "God I prayed about this for 5 months and did everything you told me to do. Why are you not here? Why are you leaving me here and doing nothing. I was expecting you to do great things, you have really let me down!" All I wanted to do was close my bible and run away. Far, far away and hide from God, just as Adam did in the beginning! Half way through my message, I got sick. My body was pouring in sweat, my stomach was killing me, and I couldn't see straight. I rushed through the end of the message cutting about half of what I planned. I explained we were going into a prayer service, called up the first person helping me, and took off to the bathroom to find myself facing the toilet getting sick on my stomach. My face was completely pale and I just didn't know what to think of the night. Coming back to the service I just cried. I was just thinking to myself, "God what is going on? What are you doing? Please just tell me!" I was getting so angry with God and couldn't stand it any longer. Then I just stopped. Froze in my boots, well my chacos, and just prayed. "God take control of this. I can't do anything. This is all you. I know you have something planned for tonight, so I'm giving it all to you. Take it into your hands." Immediately my whole attitude changed and God showed up. During the communion part of the service I just broke down. God revealed himself to me and just called out to me. God's words were, "Jess, it doesn't matter about number of people there or following an outline of a service. I have it under control and I am here. I am always here! You did exactly what I told you to do, so let me do all the work! I have got something amazing plan. Let me be in charge. Thank you for being obedient to me. Now watch what I can do and what I have had planned all along." I was sitting with my brother and my dad, who I love so much, and just looked around the gym at everyone there. People praying together, crying, and just growing in their faith and seeking God. I felt the presence of God and just saw him at work. He definitely had something planned, and words cannot even describe how amazing it was. God had spoke to each person that night, especially to me, and just did some incredible things. I was so amazed to see the things God was doing and how everyone there was so eager to become one with God and to seek him! It was just so mind blowing the things that God did during that service. God just took me by surprise and just really did some incredible things that I could never imagine. God showed up during that service and I know this is just the beginning! All the prayers, He answered. All the worries, He took away. All the doubt, He demolished. All the glory, He accepted. All the work, He did it all. God was in control of everything, and he changed lives during that service and really spoke to us and revealed himself to us. It was an amazing service, and it was a much needed night of worship!
The Things He Taught Me
During this night of worship and all the planning up to the service, God really showed me that He has everything under control and that He has a plan for it all! God is in complete control, and He knows the greater picture while we only know small bits and pieces. He taught me to just trust in Him and to be obedient to Him. If He is calling us to do something, the only answer is, "Yes, God! I will do it!" God really just spoke to me during the service and showed me that He is God and I am not. I need to let Him do all the work; I am just here to do what He tells me to do! He has a plan. Even in the chaos and stress, He has something planned and He is there with us through it all! God showed up; He did things I didn't even think were possible. It was a great night of worship! Words cannot even describe it!
God's Calling to Me
During this all, I have been focused a lot on the Persecuted Christian. I am working with Open Doors USA (visit opendoorsusa.org) which is an organization that works with Persecuted Christians. God has used this organization to teach me to be radical in my faith and what it really means to give up our lives for Christ. The offering taken up during the service (God raised $235) is going to support this organization. I have felt God calling me to continue working with Persecuted Christians and teaching others what it really means to live for Him. He has called me to let others around me know about the Persecuted Christian, and He has called me to use that to teach others about Him. I also felt God calling me to organize more services and things that will glorify Him. I have been blessed with organization skills and planning skills. With this gift He has blessed me with, I am using it all for His glory. Though I'm not the world's greatest public speaker (probably the world's worst), I know that God has blessed me with the gift of organization for a reason, and that reason is to glorify Him and teach others about Him by planning and organizing things to reach out to others. I am praising Him daily for blessing me with these gifts, and I plan on using them for the ongoing of His kingdom and His glory! I cannot even describe how great our God is! I am now living fully for Him, listening to Him, and only saying Yes to Him! Our God is amazing!
Thanks for all the support and prayers! I encourage you to be radical with your faith, and to seek God continuously. We need to obey God, and live for Him! Our God can do things beyond the imaginable! Praise Him. Seek Him. Study his word. Tell others about Him! Our God is an awesome God! All praise be to Him!
