Tasting Destiny

Wow, I've not posted in such a long time... guess over the past few months, I've been in a place where I neither knew what was going on within me nor without. And I didn't know what to make of my past, present or future. And I didn't know what to do, or if I was doing anything wrong. And I couldn't conjure up my desires. Thinking definitely didn't help. Eventually, thank God, I came to a place where I was fine with all that, because I knew I'd be fine, not because of what I did (and I KNOW I made some really bad choices), but because God is God. Ok, that summarises the past few months.

Now on to Brazil... pretty much the most amazing trip of my life. I think only CM2007 could compare to that, but that was completely different. It really put my emotional accounts back in the black =) (I'd been telling people that I was only breaking even for weeks.)

1) God's glory... We had the chance to minister in churches, in ghettos, on the streets and even to the cops (unexpectedly). I saw a lady who had a leg 3cm shorter than the other have her leg grown out by God. Another lady who'd had scars in both eyes since birth saw clearly for the first time. Watching her joy and wonder was a huge reward. Of course many others were healed, but those two impacted me the most because of their response of sheer joy. We saw God change lives and heal wounds through prophetic words... but the best memory for me was watching a small church in a ghetto area shrug off the oppression and rise up in spontaneous joy, singing, hooting and dancing, then fall out in holy laughter under the power of God.

2) God showed me again how personal He is. As many of you know, I love the Japanese language, although I'm not all that proficient at it. Turned out that the main church we ministered in used to be one that catered to the Japanese in Sao Paulo... so I met many Japanese people. One lady even by-passed the Portuguese translator to speak to me in Japanese when she found out that I could understand. That was really amazing. There were so many other things that were extremely personal to me on this trip... it's hard to describe how without going into detail, but so many things were ridiculously FAMILIAR to me: thrilling multi-partied car rides, amazing Brazilian friends that reminded me of friends/family back home, dancing to familiar songs in familiar ways, etc... I felt like I was Home.

3) It's like I stepped into some of my childhood dreams for those 8 days. Amongst the Brazilian family in Christ, I met the dream team of my - well, dreams. Haha. All super anointed and capable in their area... passionate God-lovers, united in love, and covering multiple spheres of influence in society. There was also that sense of adventure and smell of danger that I absolutely needed, because Sao Paulo is apparently one of the most dangerous cities in the world (?)... because we were nearly robbed, etc... Not that we were actually in any real danger, but just being in that environment made me feel strangely good. And for the past few months, I've been longing to see the streams of real discipleship and extreme supernatural power combined... and I found that in an inter-church organisation in Brazil called Dunamis.

4) On the plane ride back, God gave me a glimpse of how parts of my destiny came together... this gave me a continuous adrenaline rush throughout the flights... stomach kept churning and I had absolutely no appetite that day. The last time this happened, God brought it to pass. I'd love to think that this is true too. As for the details, you'll have to ask me personally. ^_~

5) God showed me how in tune with Him I am and how much I operate with an awareness and knowledge of who He is. This makes my happiness shoot through the roof. This is intimacy lived and enjoyed.