Whoa!

     There are times in your life where all you can do is just say, "Whoa.  Amazing.  Breath taking. Indescribable."  I just had one of those weeks while leading a cabin of 5 amazing Jr highers who are sure fire after the heart of their heavenly Father.  When young people are all for God's plan for their lives, His identity for them, His dreams for their lives, the heavens shake and the destiny of the entire world becomes shifted.  In those times, they're not world changers of the future, but are changing the world right now in what they are partaking in.  They are experiencing heaven on earth, when "heaven meets earth like a sloppy wet kiss" and His love and presence is so thick and tangible that you can't move anywhere and not feel it.  God doesn't care about age, smarts, status or abilities.  God is no "respecter of persons" but will choose to use whomever He chooses so long as they're willing and are like, "God I choose You.  I desire Your plans and purposes and to advance Your Kingdom."
   The first night the campers were there, I was blown away at the level that God had impacted these young men I was leading already (not that I wasn't expecting God to move mightily, but more like I was surprised at how much my boys were attentively seeking after the Lord).  That night, our speaker (Ryan Rhoden, whom by the way is somebody who I greatly respect and look up to and admire as a leader), was speaking about God is worth pursuing and that God is pursuing us.  The main part of refining these young people was talking about removing the labels that the enemy has placed upon them and replacing them with God's truth.  I can't tell you enough how amazing it is to speak God's truth over their lives and to say to them that God alone sets their value and there is nothing in all creation that can change the value God's placed upon His children. 
     Come the third night, I was somewhat discouraged because the second night wasn't as eventful or I guess "imperatively" upon their lives.  However... I was dead wrong.  God's presence was so thick and so powerful.  All could feel God's Spirit moving throughout the chapel and touching lives.  The cabin time afterward put a fire to my spirit.  One of my boys, whom has had visions many times in his life, said that he's had a reoccurring one in which all that would happen is there would be a flash of light.  Brilliant white light just for a second.  I had no good idea to really pin onto it at first, but I sat in prayer for a second and I felt like God say/have me lean towards it being a glimpse into God's glory.  That God is desiring to show this young man His glory for him to know what it looks like, feels like, so that he knows the real thing.  One of my other boys was seeing that people were crying and upset and such, and he was like, "I want to help them, God!  Help me to help them!"  Immediately God gave him the ability to feel what people are feeling, which I feel like is something of a strong compassion/sympathy that only the Lord can give.  The best part about it is that this young man only feels it when he asks the Lord.  This puts so much power in his ministry for his life and will do such amazing damage to the kingdom of darkness and for him to bring God's healing power and touch in those he encounters.  I was so excited!
     The last night we were there will go down in history as a day that shook the heavens and shifted history forever.  It started off with the director, Jeremy Evans who has been my mentor and good friend for many, many years, spoke to the campers from Psalm 139 and spoke such great truth and power over the young people.  You are God's treasure!  To "hem you in and before" literally means to place you in a vault because of how valuable we are to Him.  And probably the most important one is that "He is there."  Whether we're making our beds in the depths of hell or if we're having the best day ever, God is always with us and is always is desiring to be in communion with us and no matter what, He loves us for ALL that we are and not for who we aren't or who we will become.  Then, come the evening chapel time, we had no idea what God had in store for the campers.  After Ryan had spoke, he planned to have us cabin leaders stand on either side of the aisle and create a "fire tunnel" for the campers to walk through while we lay hands on and pray for them.  I have only partaken in one as a cabin leader and was pumped for it.  (To give you some back info on God's faithfulness in this time, you should know that the whole day I had no voice whatsoever and was barely able to talk.  Once this service started, my voice was rejuvenated and I was able to pray and speak over every single camper that came in front of me, and there were MANY.  Next, my legs had kinda been falling apart starting with shin splints on my left shin, then the pain shifting to my right calf with some gnarly knots in them then the tendons in my left foot were crazily acting up and hurting a lot.  However, right as the service started, I felt no pain, and I was dancing, jumping up and down and getting crazy during worship.  The only pain that I felt, other than soreness from standing for several hours praying over students, was after the we had finished and I was heading to bed.  God is so good!) 
     I want to share a few of the words I gave to some students.  The first one, whom I will call Kyle, stepped in front of me and I know his brother (rather everyone does) and his brother is a very cool guy.  I start off with saying that you have an incredible brother and that there's nothing wrong with that.  Relating with him, I was known as Aaron's younger brother or Eric's younger brother and never as Jordan that much because my brothers are very, very cool.  I told him that in the eyes of the Lord, that he is not just (I'll call him Brian) Brian's brother, but God sees him as Kyle; just Kyle and that's all that matters.  Tears began to stream down his face in hearing that God calls him by his own name and not by the people he's related to. (God does that for all of us, by the way.  He calls each and every one of us by name.)  Later I thought "What would I have given for somebody to tell me that when I needed it!"  I believe that it freed him from expectations to being just like his brother and to be his own person, seeking after the Father.  Next was for a girl that melted my heart when this happened: having had the formal dinner for camp just a little bit ago, she was still in it.  I said to her, "You know how fathers have pet names for their daughters?  God's pet name for you is 'Precious.'  You are so precious and valuable in God's sight and He loves you so much."  And after telling her that God says that she is beautiful, tears began streaming down her face and she embraced me so tightly, while choking me up and warming my heart.  Speaking beauty of God's princesses is an experience that changes a life, and for them to believe it is something entirely all its own.  God is good!  Next, it was another young lady, who was wearing a flower in her hair. (God began to give me words for me through what they were wearing and such, or what was on their shirts or whatever; we serve a very creative God!)  I told her, "You know, flowers are something that represent beauty and are very beautiful.  God calls you His flower; you are so beautiful in His eyes." Sure enough, tears rolled down her face. 
     And to be honest, both of those girls that I spoke their beauty to, really were very cute girls and to think at such a young age that they already don't regard themselves as beautiful or worthy of God's love, is to just be in shock at how much overtime the enemy has worked to cripple the women of God.  As an older brother, a man with an older brother's heart, which is progressively forming into a father's heart for people, it infuriates me to see that, to see girls crippled by those lies that they aren't beautiful and will do anything to get complemented or feel special when all that they gotta do is sit in the heavenly Father's lap and hear Him whisper His love and speak their beauty to.  So I say this: ladies, girls, women, hear the words of the Father: You are beautiful.  I call you My beloved and you are the one I treasure.  I desire your heart and for you to know that all you need is My love and My definition for you.  You are the apple of My eye."
     Another: gentlemen, boys, men, hear God's heart for you: "Don't be so proud to think that you don't need Me.  The greatest end for man is to pleasure in Me and in order for that, you need Me.  To admit need isn't to admit you're weak but rather that you're strength is rooted in One who created all things."
     Live in God's love.

WHOA!