We are home from Fall Retreat and I'm really at a loss for words--but one of my youth--one in which the Lord has equipped with the ability to write for Him--summed it up pretty well. With her permission-I share it with you now. I think she does it best. Also, below are two videos from Saturday night. Thank you all who faithfully prayed for us while we were gone!
"A tase of what it might be like" by Amy Carpenter
So today i just arrived back home from a youth retreat I took with my church (Riverstone) to Cohutta Georgia. The entire weekend was amazing, the theme being surrender, and we just had these awesome times of worship where God came and moved in powerful and unexpected ways. But I want to zero in on one such worship time in particular: Saturday night.
Before the band even came up, I could feel the sense of expectancy, anticipation, and almost urgency of the people around me, myself included. There was an unspoken need within all of us to worship our Creator and when the worship began our prayer might not have read "please, God wreck me tonight, mess me up for you Lord, please God when this is over I pray I will be undone" but it happened anyway.
I'm new to spontaneous, or prophetic worship when the worship leaders just sing what the Holy Spirit is placing upon their hearts and this weekend our group was exposed to and began to accept that we didn't have to know the words being sung to praise our King, but that we could sing our own, we could sing our own personal praises to God. The IHOP Atlanta band however, were old pros and they led us into a new realm of worship that our youth isn't exposed to very often, or at all.
I remember sometime that night just looking around and taking it all in, it was like God whispered in my ear, take a mental picture, because the people who aren't here tonight will want to know how it all went down. People were jumping, spinning, shaking, punching for God. In time with the heavy percussion in the background, the body of Christ was worshiping as one, dancing for joy in the throne room of the Most High. People who I never thought would get up and go for it did, leaving all insecurities behind. No one was concerened about what the people around them looked like, they were only searching for one approval.
It was such an atmosphere of joy and acceptance and light. It felt like the angels had come down from Heaven to join us in our revelry because of the party-like atmosphere. We were no longer crying out to God for help, to break us and help us heal, we were healed and we were celebrating his goodness. And suddenly I realized that, this is what Heaven is going to look like.
I felt so privileged, God chose to let us taste it, how awesome and fun praising his name could be-I believe the term was 'Holy Ghost party'. It was all that and more. Because all the while we were praying for God to move, praying for gifts, praying for our generation. That we would be awakened. That we would be delivered from addiction.
Heaven is the closest I can come to accurately describing what happened. But there was a shift and a confirmation that God. Is. With. Us. We no longer have to live in fear, but he has empowered us to go out and live radically different lives.
My prayer is that it won't be a one night occurrence, but that like wild fire that joy and fervor will spread and we can experience a taste of heaven daily. That the satisfaction of being in God's magnificent presence will take root and we will expect that when we meet with the Lord in the secret place. We don't need a band, or loud music to reach a deeper place with the Lord, we need to be willing to meet with him because he longs to take us there.
Video #1: How the night started--expressing our love to Him
Video #2: When Jesus showed up in a mighty and powerful way