the Joy of the lord IS my strength

The joy of the lord IS my strength..

ponder that for a moment, be still.... think about it?

Im having a joyful moment, lately I've been waking up every morning completely stoked! My cup overflows!
Its quite funny how God works! I love his surprises...


I just attended a youth and young adults conference called the 'Filling Station' in Surrey BC, accompanied by two awesome men of God, who strive only to go deeper, hungry and thirsty for more of him.
The weekend I have to say was pretty awesome, I get so pumped seeing young adults, junior highs and high school student hungry! their boldness, with arms high, stepping forward in having a personal relationship with their saviour... (sighs, takes a deep breath, ahhhhhh and smiles)
Inn a way God started something new in me, he does continue to stretch me constantly, he really taught me how to be still...to rest in him, to trust in him, to step out in confidence in him.
Yes I've heard this so many times but this time the Holy Spirit was training me, i was actually learning it, actually experiencing it. Knowing that I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me, I said ALL things! I can move a mountain with him being the strength of my life.

I'm the type of person that when there's worship going on and most people are at the front jumping I immediately dive right in... Ready to get my praise on!
But this time at the conference every time I headed to the front to jump and dance, the Holy spirit immediately would tell me, 'i want you to go to the back' a little disappointed i pouted my lips and headed to the back
i don't really know why God was asking me to do this, i know we can get to pumped being up at the front, adrenaline is rushing, were dancing before our king but i think God was wanting me to do this so i wouldn't be distracted by the people around me, it would just be me and Jesus.

In Chapel before the service we spent a lot of time on our knees, praying for breakthrough in spiritual warfare, praying for our leaders and speakers, for the kids, for our young adults.
Man oh man its so powerful to see how God turns up and the Holy Spirit pouring, pouring, stirring, stirring.
We all had an expectation that God would move and he did! Lives were touched, the altars were full of kids on their knees giving their lives to Jesus.
So powerful to see, we get excited we jump with Joy over their lives, we jump with Joy when we see God moving in their lives. Wohoooo!!

Filling station's theme this year was about 'Grace', we had awesome speakers, Simon Gau, Donna and Doug Lasit from Portland, Oregon.

Simon spoke on the Friday night about how we are covered by God's Grace, and questioning us 'do our hearts burn to follow? Because if they don't we are in trouble!'

We all had workshops that followed on the Saturday, I attended Donna Lasit's workshop on worship. Oh wow I was so blessed, so encouraged, so impacted, so in AWE.
Did you know that worship is like to kiss the hand of God. ......picture that for a moment, it puts a big smile on your face doesn't it?
Donna sang, I love how God places songs on her heart randomly, then she spoke a little maybe about ten minutes, but those 10 minutes were very very encouraging, I think I may have cried throughout the whole workshop. Just a joyful, Godly cry.... people who know me well know that I cry lots when I'm in the presence of God, joyfully and sometimes when my heart breaks for others. Anyway!
Later on that day I attended the 2nd workshop of Doug's class on Timothy 2, we talked about the life of timothy how Paul was a little crazy ha ha so we learned the spirit of leadership I was loving it!
A lot of laughs, a lots of AMENS!
Later on that evening Pastor Doug Lasit spoke again on 'what is the cause you are living for?, what is that cause? what it means to live for Jesus,
our CAUSE is this – we live to love God, build the church, reach humanity with the Love of Jesus.

Sunday church at Bible Fellowship is always awesome, I love the pastors, the people, all of us gathered together. I love it :)
Doug and Donna both spoke that morning, Doug was at 9am and Donna was at 11am, unfortunately i was running a little late and only heard Donna spoke.
Donna spoke on Idolatry, on how idolatry is anything you put above God! Anything you put 1st above God is Idolatry, we need to know what is important to us.
2 kings 17- they worshipped worthless idols you become worthless yourself, you are doing to find yourself worthless when you put things in front of God.

Donna also talked about Idol image- our desire to be accepted, that the world has bought into the lie that even I have bought into this lie that if you look good you will feel good. Yes you can feel good for a time... but it wont last long. Its an insecurity issue and I think so many of us deal with it.
Donna really challenged us on understanding what worship is, I think its something that we really need to study and meditate on, really look at it from God's perspective not our own.

Think about this - Can we really worship God at our lowest point, our darkest moment when everything has been taken away from us?
I love love love, in-fact my favourite story in the bible is the story of Paul and Silus in Acts 16- Paul and Silus are stuck in prison they were praying and singing , the other prisoners must of thought these guys were a bunch of loony's because they were NAKED, they are in the worst conditions, there probably in pain, their chained up and there's probably rats running around their feet, YET they praised and worshipped God.
I love that it stirs something within me and I get so excited, its time that we got our praise on in every situation, his praise shall always be on our lips!

I'm actually getting side-tracked.. because I was planning on talking about my trip and stay in Portland not the Filling station, I just got to excited :)

Sooooo how it came about... on the Sunday after Donna spoke at church, my two closest friends Deanna and Daniel were heading back to Portland Bible College, but before all that happened I bumped into Doug Lasit and mentioned that I had two friends from the bible college and i mentioned to him that I thought it would be an awesome idea if I came down for the week and he agreed .... but truthfully I didn't think I would actually go.
So just before Daniel and Deanna left for Portland I had very little time to make my decision! It was a little ' should i stay or should i go now' moment. Soooooooo a lot of people encouraged me to go... and I did hesitate so many times just because i didn't have enough clothes and my hair straightener and felt i was very unprepared.
So the conversation an hour before we left surrey was, yes, no,yes, no, maybe, yes, no, no, no ,yes, i don't know. Ha ha so you can imagine! I had no idea if I were to go or not.
I am very very happy that I went! I Soaked in so much, I got to experience awesome teaching from the classes at the bible college, amazing worship at chapel, Lisa Trent spoke at youth on Wednesday! Oh how amazing it was, the altar was flooded with kids!!!
I am super blessed! I am rich in the blessings of God.
Not to mention that I was surrounded by amazing, amazing, amazing people of God. The girls in the dorm were so loveable.
I'm having a little giggle with myself :).
when an opportunity arises last minutes like that, Go for it! Unless there is big Red lights going off and the Holy Spirit is very clear with his 'NO'.







I'm excited to go home and back to my church! I miss all my youth, excited to spend time with my Sunday school kids! Just excited to be with my church family in general.
I wasn't gone that long but whenever I'm away from home and my church. I miss them and get so excited to see them when I come back.

As you can tell I'm pretty high on life right now...!!

JESUS!!!