Me sitting in the prayer room at IHOP-ATL!!

So I didn’t get a chance to write yesterday. I spent the day laying by a pool here in Lawrenceville. It was really awesome. It looks like a kids pool, and it was FULL of kids. Its called a leisure pool. We played in it all! It even had a lazy river to float down, and a whirlpool area.

Then I spent the evening listening to Lou Engle of the Call. It was powerful night of contending for issues such as abortion and the homosexual agenda and the spirit of Jezebel. We were praying over the men of the church who are struggling with issues of compromise and immorality. God desires a bride who is righteous! And He is able to deliver us out of our sins! It was powerful!

Today has been a day full of the Lord! I am about to go into a session where Corey Russel is going to speak. I’m excited! Have Your way God!

—————————————————————–

I leave for Romania in 4 days! It is quickly closing in on me! There are 3 of my team members (one is my team leader) who live in Georgia, actually in Lawrenceville. So we met up at the prayer room and had a meeting about what I will be doing in Romania! Me and my friend Stephen will be teaching small groups about walking in the Spirit. And God is preparing us! Its really exciting. We also talked about the game time, I will be helping lead the games! This will be a really fun time, and a time where we build relationships!

Break in God! Prepare us for this trip! Do what you want to in us and through us! Change these campers lives forever! Let them fall more in love with Jesus! Amen!

Hey everyone! I’m back! (After I really didn’t come back last time, sorry about that). So much has been happening. After I last posted I went to GA for 3 1/2 days and then to Florida for 3 1/2 days. And for the past week I’ve been fasting from the computer. So that makes it 2 weeks!!! AAAHHH!!! I’m really sorry.

Here is a slide show from the last Romania trip I took. Yes, I had blonde hair!

I have some news for you all! I AM GOING TO ROMANIA!!!! Woohoo! I’ve asked for prayer about this and wrote about it a few times and God is AMAZING! It is completely paid for and I leave in exatly 10 days!

I will be gone June 24th until July 13th. There are two teams that are going, but I will be there for both teams. There are 21 of us in all. Our team name is Pursuit. We are in pursuit of Jesus!! It is going to be an incredible trip, one of the best yet for me I think! The team is going to be amazing as well. I’ve got close friends going, the pastor of my church, young girls, people I don’t know at all, and its just going to be beautiful to watch the Lord use us all in the lives of the Romanians!

This will be my 5th missions trip! 4 of them have been to Romania, but this will be my first time to this area in Romania. I am going to Camp Lighthouse. A youth camp. Usually I go to Bazna, Romania, to the house of prayer there, BHOP. I am looking forward to this change and going back to this beloved country!

We had a day of fellowship and training for our team yesterday and it was a blast! Oh how I love the preparation for these trips, and the way the Lord speaks and teaches all of us to be a team. It is incredible! He is so amazing! To get a group of people to do something together for 19 days, and learn how to do it IN LOVE and not kill each other! Only God can do that! Haha!

So again, I apologize for the posting lapse. It is getting harder and harder to keep up a blog, but I still want to! I really do enjoy doing it. And I love that people actually read it sometimes. I don’t know how these people who post every day or more then once a day for YEARS do it. It is crazy, I guess it is some of their jobs, and well they are much better at it then me. But I’m going to keep chugging along as best I can. Come back if you want, hopefully there will be something to read!

I picked this song “Rescue” by Desperation Band.

I was mostly influenced to pick this song because of some events that happened tonight. Not directly to me, but that indirectly affects me. I always listen to this song when I am going through something sad.

Not the same rough stuff that I’ve been blogging about. But some OLD rough stuff.

Something that the Lord is bringing closure to.

And when He is doing something like that, killing something inside of me that doesn’t need to be there, that’s when I cry out:

I need You, Jesus, to come to my rescue!

And you know what? EVERY time I pray that, He comes to my rescue. He is pretty amazing like that. You can always count on Him. He wants to come to my rescue.

If you ask Him to do that for you, He will do it! I know we all need rescuing!

For day three I choose “How He loves us” by John Mark McMillian.

Why? Because it portrays the love that God has for us! It makes me fall in love with Him all over because I am reminded about the depths of love that come from His heart!

Do you know how much He loves you?

Listen to this song and be reminded!!!

Day two (in my favorite song a day for a week posts) brings us the song “A little longer” by Jenn Johnson!

The first time I heard this song was in the basement of a house I lived in 2 years ago, in Lynchburg,Va. I remember it so clearly! My friend Gracey and I would go down there to pray and worship. I went down there to meet her one day in January of 2007 and she had made me a cd with songs on it.

This song was on it! When I listened to it it changed my life!

Seriously. I was at this place in my life where I just couldn’t “do” Christianity anymore. I was tired of trying to be a Christian and failing so many times! But the Lord had begun to work in me and started teaching me to stop striving and just “be”. Let Him have His way with me, and stop doing it in my own strength.

Christianity isn’t about a list of rules that we need to accomplish and check off. Oh no. Its about a relationship with the greatest Man ever. And the greatest thing is that we CAN”T do it or make it or be good enough! We have to let Jesus do it! He has washed us clean, He makes us good! Its all about Him!

I just need to stop “doing” so much, and sit with Him! Love on Him a little longer.

Don’t we all need to stop being so busy and just love Jesus?

———————————————————————————————————-

Next up I want to let you guys know that my newsletter for April is ready!!!!

CHECK IT OUT!!

———————————————————————————————————-

And a sweet baby girl passed away last night. Her name was Kayleigh. Please check out her blog, pray for her family, maybe leave them a comment and encouragement! They need it right now! And they love God so much, it is an incredible testimony.

This song is called “Your Beautiful” by Phil Wickham. I love it so much. Every time I hear it playing I have to stop and worship Jesus. It explains what my heart wants to say to Jesus!

YOUR BEAUTIFUL!!!

Please take the time to listen to this song. It is amazing. Listen and worship Jesus for a few minutes. Tell Jesus how beautiful and amazing He is! He is worthy of our praise and our adoration!

This song makes me fall more in love with Jesus. It makes me stop what I am doing and pay attention to Him. It moves me deeply, and not because of Phil Wickham but because of what God has put in him and what he allows the Holy Spirit to speak through him!

]]> http://amandaslade.wordpress.com/2009/05/11/favorite-song-day-1/feed/ 0 Amanda http://amandaslade.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/glorious/ http://amandaslade.wordpress.com/2009/05/08/glorious/#comments Sat, 09 May 2009 03:08:56 +0000 aslade http://amandaslade.wordpress.com/?p=1422 ]]>

I’m back with happier posts! I’ll try to get away from the same old, mundane posts.

So as you’ve read in the previous posts I’ve been having some what of a rough time lately. Mostly with my emotions. But God is sooo good and He blessed me tremendously the other day!!! It was glorious. And so I thought I would share with you some things I am so thankful for and that blessed me!

1. IHOP-AC bought a building in downtown Burlington. We bought it back in January, and we’ve been praying for it since July 31st, 2007. We are not in the building yet because of all the work that has to be done, but we are contending for it! And we walked in the “new prayer room” on Wednesday (we go and pray over the building once a week) and demolition has begun!!!!! It was one of the most encouraging things to me! Here I am praying for the raising up of 24/7 prayer in Alamance County, and not always seeing whats going on, and the Lord shows me tangible answers to our prayers!!!!!! I was so moved by this simple thing! Praise the Lord, HE ANSWERS prayer!

2. Here is some breaking news–the chance that I am going to go to Romania is even greater then ever!!! I’ve written several times on here that I’m praying about going this summer for about 20 days. And I got a call on Wednesday that it’s looking really good that I am going! This makes me SOOOOOO excited! I’ve been 3 times already, but this will be a different city in Romania and it will be to minister in a youth camp. I am pumped and really hope that I get that chance!

3. I was blessed with a hair cut/trim on Wednesday. I haven’t had my hair cut in 7 months. Well, I’m not actually cutting any length off, because I’ve been growing my hair out since I became an intercessory missionary in August 2007. I’m growing it out until IHOP-AC becomes 24/7. I have faith that its going to happen sooner then later! I just like getting it trimmed and layered when I get the chance! I had a WONDERFUL woman cut my hair who goes to my church and she just blessed me with her company! She loves Jesus so much and I got to share my testimony and talk about Jesus and the prayer room! Those are basically some of my favorite things to talk about! Glorious!

4. I got a VERY encouraging e-mail from someone who reads my blog. He just encouraged me concerning some of the things I had posted before. It really blessed me.

Actually I could keep going… but I’ll just say that God is so amazing! I really needed encouraging and of course He knew it (and I had been asking and telling Him that and He saw my need and filled it! I love Him so much! He blows me away over and over again with how wonderful He is!

————————————————————————

Also, starting on Monday, I’m going to do a week long posting theme. I’m going to put up a video of my favorite song and write how it has impacted me, a new one each day.  There are SOOO many good songs out there and SOO many that have impacted me in incredible ways! So I want to share them, and maybe let you guys find out about some new amazing music and where you can get it. And also listen to it and be encouraged and look to Jesus! So be looking forward to that and make sure to check back!

———————————————————

I’ve got a lot of things to post about, and I’m getting out of this rut I am in and back in to the swing of things! Keep my eyes on Him and not on the circumstances and situations around me. It is WAY better when I do that!

I’ll keep my eyes, on the Prize, I’m looking at You, Jesus!

I don’t have much to write about that I haven’t already written about here and here.

So it seems to me like I’m a broken record lately.

It’s about Jesus.

It’s about love.

It’s about how I’m feeling about those two things.

It’s about life in the prayer room, as an intercessory missionary.

But its just like Chris commented on my How I feel…post. Emotions change, God does not. Amen.

Life has it’s ups and downs. I have my ups and downs. But God never changes. I can always count on Him, especially when I can’t count on myself to be consistent.

He has a perfect track record. In every instance of my life He has proven Himself faithful! He has proven Himself full of love. He has proven Himself perfect. I can trust Him, I can believe Him, I can give Him everything and He won’t take advantage of me. He doesn’t reject me or abandon me. Nope, He is always there. He never breaks His promises. Oh he is not a covenant breaker, He is a covenant keeper! Always, and forever!

I have to keep testifying of how great God is! I can’t keep it in, over and over again I will praise Him! I will tell about His goodness! Even when I don’t feel like it or it doesn’t seem like it. I will testify of truth. He is truth.

Bless the Lord!

Some days I don’t feel the Lord at all. I can’t live this life based off of my feelings. Most times I’m not having the encounter of a lifetime. Its me sitting in the room trying to commune wit the Holy God. Trying to not think about food, clothes, my hair, money, life in general. Continually bringing my focus on the One who I am here for.

Some days I hear the Lord speaking to me like a whisper in my heart, sometimes through His word. Most days I am meditating on what He has already spoken.

Some days I don’t feel like I can keep praying, singing, worshiping. I feel like I’m not doing enought.

If I was here because of my feelings, I wouldn’t be here. I would be doing something that I could see results from, I would be out doing what looks good to people.

But I’m not here to see results with my eyes. I’m not here for an emotional encounter. I’m here because I love Jesus! I’m here because this is where He wants me and I delight in nothing more then doing what He wants me to do! I’m here to be near to the One whom my soul loves. To hear what is on His heart and to partner with it in prayer. Even if I can’t see the change. Even if people tell me I’m wasting my time.

To tell you the truth, sometimes it feels like I am! But what keeps me here in this place of prayer and worship is love.

Even when I don’t feel anything, I rest in the confidence that I know who my God is. He is love. He loves me. This is truth. NOT what I’m feeling at the moment.

I am confident that partnering with His heart in prayer is the ONLY thing that changes things and brings about the action of change. Even when I don’t see it.

I am confident that I am not wasting my life. Because I know without a shadow of a doubt He’s worthy of ALL my time. He deserves me giving up EVERYTHING!

And I’m here praying for the world because He is worthy of every single person giving up EVERYTHING for Him.

Yeah, its love that keeps me here. There is this burning inside of me called love that has taken root and won’t let me go.

I’m not talking about feeling love. Love is here inside of me no matter how I’m feeling. It warms my heart when it starts to get cold.

When I’m sad or discouraged this love doesn’t leave. It makes me cling to my God!

And even though I am so weak, this love is growing inside of me every day!

This is why I live, breathe, eat, sleep, pray, talk, laugh…because this love I have for my God keeps me going!

Why do I love Him? Because He loves me perfectly. His love never fails me. His love covers my sins. His love is passionate and jealous. No one has ever loved me like this nor will they ever. He has given up everything for me. He has given me everything I’ve ever had. And all those times I’ve been unfaithful, He’s been faithful!

Do you see? How can I not love Him? I have to! He is worthy of so much more but I give Him my all, no matter how small it might be! I give Him my love. And this is why I live and do what I do.

Excerpt from my journal from today. 6:50 p.m. This is my description of Jesus.

I love Him. He is so beautiful.

And you know what? He is a mystery.

Just when I think I know something about Him, I realize I do not know Him.

Sometimes I just stare. I can’t look away.

He holds my gaze.

I’m mesmerized by those eyes. I’ve never seen eyes like His.

Smoldering with jealousy and love. I see the flames of love flickering in them.

And I sense that when I am looking into those eyes, my eyes are a reflection.

How can I not return that gaze? I’m ruined by this mysterious Man with eyes of fire.

I long to give more.

He looks at me with those eyes and I haven’t done anything to deserve it.

Yet there He is. Looking at me.

Oh what a wonderous love we have. His eyes scream “I love you!”

And my heart is undone! I scream “I love You too!”

I have to.

There is nothing else in life except this Love. Everything comes from this Love.

Oh this Man.