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I want to preface this by saying I go to a church absolutely encompassed by the spirit. We go where we are lead. If that means we worship the whole service with no sermon then that is what we do. We let God speak and show us where to go. He orchestrates the morning, the way it should be. That was what happened Sunday. From the moment I stepped in the church, I could feel the heavy presence of the Spirit. There was no denying it was there. It was thick all around. I knew something big was going to happen. I knew God was going to be at work. He was about to have His hands all over us and in that church. To the extent to which that would be, I had no idea. What happened was the last thing I expected. But I should have known; life changing moments always revolve around the number 28. Yesterday was no exception.

God gave me a word on my heart that needed to be spoken. It was denial. I felt someone in the church was denying God’s love and power and ability to heal. I felt there was disbelief in the magnitude of the God we serve. Initially, I wasn’t going to say it out loud. I was going to have someone else say it. But after some encouragement, I decided that it be better if I be the one to speak it in front of the church. I said a few sentences and then went back to my seat. If wasn’t even 5 seconds later that I felt compelled to go back up. There was much more to be said. God wasn’t done using my voice yet. I was hesitant to go back up considering I was just there and lingered at my seat for awhile. The whole time my heart was pounding, I was hot, I was tingly. My legs literally began moving back to the altar without my doing. I was not meant to stay silent. The time had come for me to share my testimony and how I got to where I am today. It was by no longer denying God’s presence, His unending love, His power to heal, and His grace that I was given a second chance at life and made new. It was by no longer denying God’s ability to restore and denying that He had a greater plan for me that I was able to be in recovery.

There I stood, in the front of the church giving my testimony. There was no fear. God bestowed upon me great strength and courage. It was a moment I had been envisioning, but hesitant to make reality. There was always fear over having the right words to say. But that fear was not necessary. God will give you all the right words which he did for me. I spoke without real thought. The words just flowed out of my mouth freely and gracefully. It was amazing to get to see people’s reactions as I spoke. Even if nobody reacted, the presence of God I felt while speaking would have been enough. To release the words was freeing. I would have done it to an empty sanctuary.

It didn’t stop at the end of my testimony. Glory continued to fill the place. The young people in the church were called to come to the altar. The future warriors of Christ were now all standing before me. A prayer was spoken over all of us, and I was asked to stretch my hand out and pour out a blessing on everyone around me. My hands were tingling as I released my prayers onto all these young people. I was so at peace up there. It felt like home. It was exactly where I was meant to be. I was standing up there wanting to pinch myself. This couldn’t be real life. I had to be in a dream however this was so much better than anything my mind could have created. Was my life really this blessed? Was this really happening? Was I truly in the midst of the beginning of a revival? I was waiting to be awoken, but I never was. This was all reality. This beauty and blessing was my life. All I endured brought me straight to that moment, and it was more than worth it. I would do it a million times over just to get to experience yesterday again.

After the prayer, it was a never-ending time of praise and worship. It kept going and going, nobody wanting to leave. No matter how many times we were released, nobody budged. God wasn’t done with us. We had more proclaiming to do. We had more love to outpour to our God. We had more praise to give for all our Creator has done for us. It wasn’t just the young adults either. Everyone in the rest of the church were there singing with us. There were so many arms outstretched to the sky and eyes welling with tears. Everyone, the broken, the scarred, the hurting, all were together as one perfect, united, beautiful body of Christ. Seeing it all from the altar was overwhelming. No words can accurately describe the image or the emotions that were going through me. All I could do was stand there and praise God, opening my arms to let him invade. There is something so beautiful about being exposed in the presence of God. There is no judgment. There are no critiques. You comes as you are with your heart open and realize that you are completely accepted. You can shout and dance and cry out to the Lord with nothing holding you back. You are completely free. You are unhindered.

The place was filled with love and hope and faith. There was no room for fear. No room for hate. Mountains could have been moved with the power that was in that church bestowed upon us by God. You knew all things were possible. You saw what was to come. Potential was overflowing that church. You see all the young people standing there with their gifts on display, ready to take on the world and change lives. Standing up there, I saw them all as how God created them to be. They were all perfectly and beautifully made and I was filled with so much excitement for what they are about to do. Every one of them has been anointed by God and have been called to be His hands and feet. I was blessed enough to get to have an image of them in the moment they discovered that they have been chosen. It gives me chills thinking about it. I got to see what it must have looked like when my gifts were uncovered and I had revelation into my purpose on this earth.

Right now, I am so full of the spirit. I feel like I am floating, no exaggeration. I am weightless. I am free. I am uninhibited by all the pain of the past, the trials, the struggles, the sadness, the defeat. They have no power over me anymore. I have been touched by God and experienced His glory. I experienced a piece of heaven. After that experience, it is hard to let anything bring you down. It is hard to see anything but splendor. Everything is brighter. All of the world’s natural beauty is magnified. Everything seems more alive. There is only joy to be felt. I am overcome by peace, love, hope, and faith. I never want to lose what I have gained today, and I know as long as I continue following the Lord and listening to His word, I never will.

I sit here writing this in disbelief. I told my mom that at some point someone is going to have to wake me up from this dream. This past week has just been blessed with new fulfilled dreams every day. Life just keeps getting better. This was the icing on the cake. This completed all that I was working on for so long. In this moment, I feel so full. I have everything I have ever dreamed. Everything is falling into place perfectly. God has given me a long look at the blueprint to my life. I am so excited for what is to come. What a beautiful life I live. I am so thankful to call it mine. I am, for the first time, completely in love with who God has made me. It is a love I will know will only increase as I step even more into my destiny. There is no stopping me now…

I thought it would be important to share the lyrics to the song we kept singing to God. The words hold such tremendous power and meaning. I will forever shout out His name. I will no longer be silenced. I am His…

Rooftops

Here I am before You, falling in love and seeking Your truth Knowing that Your perfect grace has brought me to this place Because of You I freely live, my life to You, oh God, I give So I stand before You, God I lift my voice cause You set me free

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim That I am Yours, I am Yours

All the good You've done for me, I lift up my hands for all to see You're the only one who brings me to my knees To share this love across the earth, the beauty of Your holy worth So I kneel before You, God I lift my hands cause You set me free

So I shout out Your name, from the rooftops I proclaim That I am Yours, I am Yours All that I am, I place into Your loving hands And I am Yours, I am Yours

Here I am, I stand, with arms wide open To the One, the Son, the Everlasting God