But God and the Way He Loves - A New Adventure!

Let me begin by saying this: that if God had let me live in the muddy mire for all of my life, and then sent me to hell for my sins, God would have been perfectly righteous and just to do so. I do not deserve anything.

But God and the way He loves.

It all began with a phone call last Monday afternoon.

“Do you want to go to the International House of Prayer on Thursday?”

The International House of Prayer (IHOP) is located in Kansas City, Missouri, and they facilitate 24/7 praise and prayer, which they have been doing for 14 years. My friend and her mom were going up to Kansas City because my friend was going to be in Youth With A Mission’s Intimacy 2 Impact Discipleship Training School for 3 months, which happens to be about a mile down the road from IHOP.

The call was a direct answer to my mom’s prayer that she had prayed the day before the call - that she could see how IHOP facilitates prayer so that she could organize a 48 hour prayer where we live.

I didn’t have any set reason that I knew I was going for, other than to learn. I love doing corporate worship and so I was looking forward to being in the Prayer Room (plus the ability to really pray about some different things going on in my life), and I was interested in seeing Hope City, a ministry that IHOP started in the inner city. I was basically just looking forward to being able to spend time with the Lord, so that I could come home refreshed and ready for the new year.

We left Thursday late-morning and we arrived at IHOP Thursday night, just in time to spend a little bit of time in the prayer room before going to bed (though I could have stayed there until midnight!).

On Friday I spent quite a bit of time in the prayer room by myself as the other members of our caravan were at different locations. It was a precious time of just sitting at Jesus’ feet as He overwhelmed me with His love, and I rested in His embrace. His love is like a huge blanket of love, peace, joy, and contentment that just settles over you. Yet, that description hardly touches the surface of what it feels like. And if you have never experienced it, its like me trying to explain to you what ice cream tastes like when all you have ever eaten is dirt. There is no comparison!

On Friday late afternoon, my friend’s mom introduced us to a man, Chuck, that she had known for many years. He was currently living and evangelizing in the inner city. We told him our story, he told us his, and then he took us to Hope City for their Friday night service, which I was very excited about!

It was another very sweet time with the Lord during worship in the beginning of the service, and then prayer time at the end of the service as one of the leaders of Hope City prayed for me, and God had her tell me some personal things that I had been wondering about. It was one of those things that you just know that God had to have told her that, because she could not have come up with it on her own! He once again overwhelmed me, and I just sat crying in His presence. If all that had happened on the trip was what had happened on Friday, I could not have asked for more. But God was not done yet.

On Saturday I spent more time in the prayer room being with Him, and then Saturday evening we went to the evening service that they have. A man named Wes Martin gave the message on Mercy and how God had been merciful to him as he explained his salvation experience. I love the definitions he gave for grace and mercy:

“In simplistic terms, grace is receiving what we do not deserve, whereas mercy is not receiving what we deserve.”

“Grace is what sent Jesus to the cross. Mercy is what did not send us to the cross. Grace released the love and righteousness of God to undeserving souls. Mercy spared us from receiving the blows of God’s wrath toward our sin. Grace is the unmerited favor of God. Mercy is the unmerited forgiveness of God.”

God was just pouring out and revealing His mercy and grace to me during the trip and I was undone and overwhelmed. I have never cried so many joyful tears as I did last weekend. But even then God was not done.

On Sunday morning we were all supposed to go meet Chuck at an urban farm for praise and worship, and then go out and invite people to a huge banquet that night and tell them about Jesus.

But God had another plan. Namely, one named Jaipaul Papabathini.

Jaipaul is from India and is one of the directors of the YWAM base in Kansas City where my friend was going. My mom had met him when he came to speak several months ago at a local church, but I had not met him when he came because I was at our church that Sunday due to various factors.

Since we were going to be leaving the next day, Jaipaul called us as were were getting into the car to go meet Chuck at the farm, and asked us to meet him at the coffee shop that was on the IHOP base so that he could be introduced. He assured us it would only take a minute.

Unbeknownst to my mom and I, is that since Jaipaul had met my mom, he had put her’s and my name in his journal and had been praying for us. And to quote him after we met and he told us he had been praying for us, he was there to “reap the harvest” of his prayers!

The first thing Jaipaul asked me when I met him was if I was ready to go to India with him in February. He is on fire, has no fear, and he has the most infectious, mischievous, joyful grin that just makes you want to smile.

What went from what was to be a “couple minute” meeting, turned into him taking us to the YWAM base down the road to show us the campus. All the while Jaipaul was telling us how they were joining IHOP with YWAM, and how a new generation of young, praying missionaries were being raised up for the mission field that year. God had impressed the need so much on their hearts to raise up new missionaries, that they were waiving the cost of tuition for all of the Discipleship Training Schools this year, and the students just had to pay for room and food for the 3 months.

I was getting excited!

God started calling me to missions about a year ago, but it was not ever time. We’d hear from people in other countries, asking for anyone to come, but the doors never opened, and I stayed put. I also knew that I had to learn to be content where I was, and that as Jesus had said, “You shall be witnesses to Me in Jerusalem, and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth”, I needed to focus on ministering where I was before wanting to go out of the country, because it was not going to be any easier to tell someone about Christ in another country, especially one where they did not speak English!

After the tour of the YWAM base, and as we were all sitting in the lobby, Jaipaul turned and looked at me.

“Do you want to join YWAM today?”

I think my jaw dropped.

“It is usually a 3 month applications process,” he continued, “but I will waive you through and you could start tomorrow with everyone else.”

I was shocked and excited.

“Really?! I mean, wow, yeah, I’d love to do it, but I don’t have the money.”

“Is there someone you can call?”

My mom and I looked at each other.

“We could call these people…”

“And these people….”

It hardly seems doable to raise $2000 in one day, was the only thing going through my mind at the moment.

At that time, one of the leaders for the January DTS that we had been talking to came over and brought me the application form, explained it, and then Jaipaul told me to go fill it out. So, I went over to the table to fill it out. I had no idea where the money was going to come from, and I was hardly believing that I was actually filling out the form for a 3 month discipleship training school, but I had peace that God would very clearly give the answer, whether it be “yes” or “no” and I was just going to wait on Him.

As I started filling out the form, one of the leaders, Jason, for the 3 month YWAM discipleship training school that was going to start in February came over. He introduced himself, and then explained that the course which started on February 28th was going to be an international session with students coming from all over the world. Wow!

After Jason talked to me, Jaipaul came back over.

“Call your dad. Call him and ask him if he will pay for the course. And if he won’t, that’s fine, but call and ask him.”

Inwardly I was still thinking, $2000 is a lot of money… though if God could provide it I’d know if I was supposed to go or not.

I called my dad, explained where I was, a little bit about what YWAM was doing and being called to do, and then asked if he could pay for some of the course.

“All right,” he answered, “I’ll pay for it, all of it. Just find me the information that I need to transfer the money.”

I was shocked, to say the least.

This just doesn't happen. The way everything was orchestrated that day, along with how everything had been orchestrated for the last year, was unbelievable. Not only had God been so sweet to me in my time with Him sitting at His feet, but He had also answered the desire of my heart to do missions! He went so far above and beyond anything that I could have thought of. My cup was running over!

All I had to do was decide when I wanted to start - either the next day with my friend, or the next month with the international students.

And I did not deserve any of it. But God and His love!

As I sat in the prayer room that evening after finishing talking to Jaipaul, and after my mom and I had decided that it would be better for me to start in February so that I could finish getting all of my paperwork together, quitting my job, etc., I just sat there and cried. I was so overwhelmed at His provision.

Lord, I don’t deserve this at all. You keep showing me your love and every time it is sweeter than the first.

And I finally understood this song:

He is jealous for me,

Loves like a hurricane, I am a tree,

Bending beneath the weight of His wind and mercy.

When all of a sudden,

I am unaware of these afflictions eclipsed by glory,

And I realize just how beautiful You are,

And how great Your affections are for me…

Oh, how He loves us, oh,

Oh, how He loves us,

How He loves us all

And we are His portion and He is our prize,

Drawn to redemption by the grace in His eyes,

If his grace is an ocean, we're all sinking.

And Heaven meets earth like an unforeseen kiss,

And my heart turns violently inside of my chest,

I don't have time to maintain these regrets,

When I think about the way…

Oh, how He loves us, oh,

Oh, how He loves us,

How He loves us all

His delight is for me. Have you ever thought about that? I mean, really though about that?  You delight God’s heart more than the billions of stars that He created that worship Him night and day. God looks at you and says, “That child is Mine.” What love, such love, that the Holy Creator of everything, can look at us with all of our sin and want to be near us. And not just be with us, but take care of and let us know Him intimately, and shower us with more blessings than can be thought of.

Please pray for the laborers that God is raising up this year through YWAM and other ministries that will be going out and preaching the gospel to every tribe and tongue. The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few! I would especially appreciate your prayers as I begin this new adventure next month!

That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height— to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.

Now to Him who is able to do exceedingly abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us, to Him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus to all generations, forever and ever. Amen.

Ephesians 3:17-21

For part 2, please click here