He's Coming!! Wake up!!!

For week 2 it was on the Holy Spirit. I had some questions that I had been confused about so I got those clarified that week. The biggest thing for me was the day we were learning how to hear God's voice.

After our speaker taught & people asked questions she had us ask the Holy Spirit what He thought of us.
Flashing before my eyes was a butterfly, then a flower, then an eye.
I was like ok, thats cool... then She had us ask Him what is He doing to me in this season?
I heard Him say: I am setting you free.
again, I was like ok, thats cool..

I then started to just sit there and think about it.. butterfly, flower, eye, setting me free.

It all came together then. Throughout this past year people would get flowers for me when they would pray for me and the Lord had had been speaking to me through butterflies. One of my most favorite dreams I had was this beautiful garden & a butterfly in it. I knew that dream was symbolizing a season I was in & God was pruning me to make me more like Him. There is a ton more things the Lord has spoke resembling that I will "burst" or "explode" (set free) .. but that's just too much typing :)
In this season the Lord is setting me free from fear of man, probably the biggest thing. I also know that there is more deeper stuff in me that He will be setting me free from.

Setting me free to who He created me to be!!

This week was "Corporate" week where all the DTS' get together for class. The theme for the week was Awakening the Dreams that God has for us.

Heidi Baker came and shared with us one day. She had told us about this vision that the Holy Spirit showed her. Click  this link  to read the full vision. This vision she shared with us just hit me. I am SUCH a person that thinks I need to be in control. The first week of being here at YWAM the Lord had started dealing with me about it !  But this vision.. it hit me so hard because we feel as though we are forerunners for the return of Jesus! That this generation right now is the "man running before the bridegroom telling everyone HE'S COMING!!!! WAKE UP!!!!!! "  Seriously. One of our friends pointed out to us that right now America is in the biggest economic fall but here at YWAM there is more students than there ever has been and next quarter there is supposed to be even more! They are running out of housing!  How are we affording this? We don't have jobs. Jesus is blessing it because the harvest is ripe! He is sending us out! We are hearing about revival happening in muslim towns! Muslim families coming to accept Jesus. Muslim people traveling because they heard christians are near & they know that their God can heal them! In a communist country a ywam team just got invited to speak at a church! This is not heard of !! Something is changing in the spiritual realm. Revival is happening.

Lord, wake me up! Wake up the Church! Set our eyes on you. Turn us back from "doing" and let us be sitting at your feet. I want to know your heart. I want to know you intimately.
My heart cries out just to know you..

week 1

We can't believe we have only been here a week! It feels like months with everything we have been learning & what the Lord has been doing in us!

So, the basics of what we've been learning is that the Gospel is simple. Take it as face value.  Something that really hit me was saying I will follow Jesus even if something were to happen to JR. He is WORTHY! Even if the Lord were to give me nothing.. I will follow Him. I will follow Him where He says to go. I don't need to ask why. Just go. haha. so simple, right!
Most people build their foundation on loving Jesus but that is wrong! Our foundation needs to be the revelation of God's love for US! If it isn't that then eventually our foundation will be washed away. The Lord has been stripping me away of things & it is leading up to me being in a vulnerable place with Him. I want my life to be like Mary's. Wasting my life at Jesus' feet!! How beautiful are His feet! Another thing that kinda just hit me was just gazing into His eyes & staring at His beauty! Laying my dreams & desires at His feet. Saying Jesus, I just want YOU & believing those desires will come as the overflow.

The Lord showed me this picture of me holding my heart. He said you aren't letting me fully get to your heart, you are trying to control our relationship so you won't get hurt. So, basically He is taking me out of this place of "controlling" to a place of "trusting" & of "intimacy" with Him.

--Ashley.

God is just so BIG! I've always known that, but i didn't know it like i know it now.  There are a lot of things like that that i have always known, but are just now getting actually revealed to my heart! I'm loving it!  Jesus give me more!  Some of the biggest things that i am learning are about God's true love, how even when there was not a good response.  I mean they were spitting in His face when He was trying to give His life up for them, how did I ever feel a right to be angry at someone?  He was giving the greatest sacrifice of all, in love, and i get mad when people don't appreciate something little that i do for them!

Another thing that i have been rocked with is just the fear that i have walked in.  I have always considered myself a pretty confident person, but really i have always had this fear of rejection, fear of not progressing, fear of what people are going to think. in order to live totally for Jesus we need to have no fear though, this is another thing that i have always known, but now i really know it.  In Jesus there is no fear, and i am in Jesus, so if the Bible is true we should have no fear right?  If God is real all fear should be gone from us.  Big statement, but we have a big God.

Lastly, I have been learning about intimacy with God, and evangelism/missions. They are both equally important! Spending hours at a time in prayer and intercession for the nations, getting to know (really know) Abba, Daddy, God, and seeing Him in the most intimate ways. He desires that so much! we are His children. He wants to spend time with us and teach us the things that are on His heart, but He also wants us to go out and spread the Gospel of Salvation and the Kingdom to all the nations and languages of the world. Intimacy and Impact. This is where the name Fire and Fragrance comes from, the fire from that intimacy with God that spreads it fragrance all over the world.  Its not just one or the other.  Its not either spending hours in prayer or going out into the world spreading the Gospel.  Its both and.  It is the marriage of prayer and missions.  That is what we are here for and that is what we were created for!! To be intimate with our Creator and to do all the things that He tells us to do. That is all.

Aloha!! from Kona, Hawaii

Aloha! from Kona, Hawaii!!!!!!
Man, We cannot get over the beauty & how blessed we are that God has called us here to ywam!!! We had 12 hours of travel time and got to meet some of our fire & fragrance family in the airport in Seattle! It has been crazy busy & overwhelming at times but we are loving it!! We are meeting people from all over the world it is so cool!! Including Korea, Norway, England, Australia, Canada, and various places across the U.S.

Yesterday we had our school orientation and went through the handbook. Andy Byrd, the one who pioneered fire & fragrance was there going through this and telling us what fire & fragrance is all about. He touched on the "revival culture" & the different traits that it is. The 5 different traits that lead to that atmosphere are: Just Jesus, Faith, Holiness, Thankfulness, & Discipleship. The things that stuck out to us the most is: repentance is a gift and we should have joy filled repentance and that will lead to having more of Jesus. God wants to speak to us because He wants to use us through our simple obedience! Where Jesus is the center of anything.. that IS REVIVAL!! There was a lot of other amazing things he said but I walked away from that saying, .. and this is only the handbook. --- Can't wait to see how the Lord transforms our hearts & lives.