The Favor of the Lord

I wasn’t quite sure what to expect today.  It had been a long summer, and I wondered what kind of damage the summer and the enemy had on the students we worked so hard to reach out to at the end of last year.  Did we completely lose the harvest that we’d fought so hard for last year because we dropped the ball during the summer?  The thought of this happening actually truly frightened me. 

Even I myself had considerably dropped the ball during the summer…

  Going through my own struggles and trials, I had pretty much stopped doing ministry, and just took a break from the world.  Obviously, it wasn’t the right thing to do.  But I couldn’t help it—I was quite simply burnt out from doing things.  And honestly, I wasn’t getting my strength and fill from God.  I was running on me gas.  And if anyone has ever experienced this before, you find out pretty quick that “me gas” doesn’t last very long.
Yet, I was so excited for the first day.  There’s been so much going on in the Passion Church world.  Something shifted in the entire atmosphere three Sunday’s ago, and ever since then, God has truly somehow become enthroned in all that we do!  It was just crazy!  Our past three Sunday meetings all were about 6 hours or so of unbroken fellowship with the Spirit, and no one wanted to leave!  God was truly pounding into everyone during this time that He needs to be the focus, the center of everything we do.

Intimacy.  Justice.  Helping the needy.  Going to do the work.  These are a few of the many things God prophetically spoke into His children during the three Holy Spirit filled meetings.  The message was clear—most of us have signed our Burning Heart Contracts, and we, above all else, want to be close to God’s heart.

So we went out today with conviction.  The beginning of the experience was nerve racking at first—I was walking down Bruinwalk, when suddenly I noticed the people I was supposed to be reaching out to during the summer was at the entrance of the walk.  Honestly, I was so nervous to see them.  I had completely dropped the ball, and had even told them multiple times that I would contact them and meet with them in the summer.  So obviously I was pretty nervous to see them, considering I didn’t fulfill my commitments to them over the summer. 

I had prayed to God earlier that week that God would give me favor with every person that I was trying to reach out to.  And I kid you not, it was amazing to see them again.  It was as if nothing had changed—we hadn’t even skipped a beat.  God gave me favor with them, and I truly believe that only through His grace, this harvest wasn’t lost.  Even from that point, I could just feel in my spirit that God’s favor was on us! 

After encountering this small group of students, we went to worship God in the middle of Bruinwalk, the center of activity at UCLA.  But I couldn’t help but remember the times of worship in the summer.  I had gone out a few times, and it had been so spiritually hard to worship God.  I couldn’t find Him—I was worshipping, but they were just empty idle words being sung to no specific person. 

And I also thought back on all the times we worshipped the previous year.  Yes—we went out faithfully, and at times even preached.  But everyone there (besides maybe Jaeson) was only out there out of obligation.  Furthermore, we were worshipping more with expectation for God to do something rather than simply worshipping.  I was afraid that today, on the first day of outdoor worship, that it would be the same me centered, “miracle” centered, not God centered worship that we’d experienced in the past.

But something was different.  The atmosphere—everything, was different.  I can’t explain it, but I knew that I knew that I knew that God’s manifest presence was on Bruinwalk today.  We worshipped Him as if no one else was there.  A small group of us just sang our hearts out to God, and it really wasn’t about anything else but worshipping our King.  It was an amazing experience…and I couldn’t help but feel so powerfully God’s favor and joy in that place—I was literally laughing with giddiness and joy.  I knew in my Spirit, and I began to tell everyone that the favor of the Lord is upon us! 

We continued to worship, and I noticed one of the Passion Church girls, Anita, talking to a young man off to the corner.  Anita is reaching out to the International Students of UCLA, and hopes to plant a church with them.  As I was watching her talk to this young man, I knew in my Spirit that “this man was an international student”.  Yet, he looked Caucasian!  Not being sure of myself, I kept it inside, and didn’t say anything, but I kept looking back wondering if what I had heard was from God or if it was from my own wishful thinking.  But the thought couldn’t be shaken—the favor of the Lord is upon us, and He’s going to give us immeasurable favor to all the UCLA students we reach out to and talk to.

So after a while of talking, Anita comes back.  She states, “Yea, he’s from El Salvador.  He’s an international student”.  I could not even believe what I had heard.  I was so convinced that He was Caucasian, not from El Salvador!  It was truly amazing, and everything God had been speaking to me at the moment was miraculously confirmed!  I was seriously so pumped up at this point.  God was speaking loud and clear—His favor is with us this year!  Isaiah 61 was being realized right before our eyes!

Yet it didn’t end there.  As we were walking back, we walked past a booth that a Campus Ministry had set up, and were giving away free rubber bouncy balls.  I saw these bouncy balls, and kind of half jokingly half seriously wanted one.  I don’t know why I wanted one—I really had no use for it.  But I sort of half jokingly half seriously told God that I wanted one of these bouncy balls, but I didn’t want to take one from the booth, because they were using them to try and talk to people, for the purposes of their ministry. 

As we continued to walk up the path, my friend Stephen suddenly picks up one of the balls off the floor, and just hands it to me.  I was floored.  I know it doesn’t sound like much, but it was once again confirmation of everything I had been feeling—God’s favor is with us, and He’s going to do all that we ask of Him this year!

But it still doesn’t end there!!!  We were heading to the Office of Residential Life at UCLA, because we needed to get some fliers up on the dorms.  When we got there, the lady at the desk was being pretty cruel to our fliers—pointing out all the flaws, and how they wouldn’t be able to get it up unless it’s approved, and the lady who approves it is not there.  It was discouraging—we really liked our fliers.  We decided to head over to the computer lab and print out the fliers and change some of the information and details on the fliers.

As we’re heading in the direction, one of the guys who were with us, Enoch, walked over a triangle on the top of some stairs.  He starts freaking out and says “Omg, I saw this in one of my visions while I was praying!”  Without fear, he then turns around to the first group walking by and says “I am a Christian, and I was wondering if you need any prayer”?  Immediately, the group says “We’re Christians too.  Are you part of what Jaeson Ma has been doing at UCLA?”  It turns out that they’re very interested in joining Passion, and it seems like they’re going to be playing a specific and important role for our ministry this year! 

We then went to the Computer Lab, and when we got there, we printed out new fliers and fixed them.  Shortly afterwards, we went back to the office, and God suddenly put on my heart, “the lady who will approve the fliers is at the office right now”.  Once again, I kind of shrugged it off, and doubted that it was from God.  Then Caleb came out from talking to the office lady, and looked at me and said, “the lady who was supposed to approve the fliers was in there, and she approved them”. 

Floored.  That’s quite simply the only word that could describe what I felt at that moment.  Floored.  God confirmed on this first day that His favor is on UCLA.  I also had a moment of revelation for Enoch, and this time, although I may not be right, I told Him my interpretation of a dream that Jaeson had.  I’m not sure if what I said is going to happen, but I’m also not going to miss out on encouraging someone through a revelation of God simply because I’m afraid “it’s not true”. 

What a day.  Isaiah 61.  Go read it.  That’s the passage for UCLA this year!