Seeking His Presence

First worship time with our new students at YWAM Orlando

A few months ago we were praying in our base council meeting for our community and we were talking with God about being a “Ten Mina” (Luke 19:13) base.  (Ten fold fruitfulness) We were anticipating what appeared to be a record number of students for our campus this fall, and a continued outpouring from the Lord.  As we began to discuss this one of our leaders reminded me that we needed to limit the number of students we accept based on how many we could adequately disciple.  He based this on a statement I had made years ago when our team was looking at our housing as the limiting factor and I was trying to inspire faith.  I said let’s not be limited by our lack of housing because God can provide more housing in an instant.  What we need to look at is how many can we adequately disciple.  This led to human calculations like we can only have five students for every small group leader.  So this leader quickly made the calculations and told us how many students we could have.  In an instant my heart was pierced with conviction.  I realized that the statement I made with the intent to inspire faith had led to putting a lid on our growth.  I immediately repented to our leadership team and later to our entire community. 

I said we are still committed to quality discipleship in all our lives, including the students God entrusts us with, but if God is going to truly send a wave of new missionaries no human system will be able to contain this rapid growth.  We need to seek God for His creative ways in discipleship.  When God does a work in someone’s life there is truly transformation.  A moment in God’s presence can replace three years of counseling.

As a leadership team we realized we needed to make room in our community for more of God’s leadership.  In an earlier journal entry I mentioned that as we processed these ideas in our staff training time God had led us as a community to change our typical weekly schedule to better reflect His priorities for us as a community. One change in particular has been to begin every morning with a time of seeking God’s presence.  We clearly sensed that this was to be a time of merely seeking God with no particular agenda and that we needed to start this immediately – instant-joyful obedience.

We knew God would do good things, but I must say I am so grateful for His amazing work in our lives.  There were things hidden in many of our lives that are being revealed in a gentle way and God is setting us free. When God leads He always does such a wonderful job!  Today we had our record number of new students join us in the time of seeking the Lord.   This was their first full day and God was so consistent to graciously do a good work in the lives of the students too.  Students who have been with us less than 24 hours were repenting in front of approximately 200 people, committing their futures to the Lord, and speak words of the Lord over us.  Talk about running into the God’s presence! Thank you Lord for Your leadership in our community.

“A single day in your courts is better than a thousand anywhere else! I would rather be a gatekeeper in the house of my God than live the good life in the homes of the wicked.” (Psalm 84:10 NLT)