Seek and Ye Shall Find-- No, forreal.. SEEK!

Greetings Fam,

As a first-time blogger on Christian Carpology, I thought it'd be fitting for me to introduce myself to you all. Although my name is not important, the God that I serve is truly worthy of mention. For those of you unfamiliar, allow me to explain the way in which I've come to know Christ, and the intimate relationship He has formed with me.

The following is a story that I shared with a friend, regarding the turning point in my life-- my own conversion of sorts. I must warn you all that this story is rather long. I wrote it a day after my encounter with Christ took place (throughout the story you can sense my excitement). I have not edited the content-- I've only changed the names to protect the anonymity of my friends and loved ones. I hope that somehow, no matter where you are in your walk with God, my story can serve as encouragement. God really does show himself to those who earnestly and diligently seek after his heart.

"Whoever has my commands and obeys them, he is the one who loves me. He who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I too will love him and show myself to him." John 14:21

Be Encouraged :)

--

July 27, 2010 4:30pm

Ok so here it goes. On Sunday, one of my friends (named B) invited me to go to this concert to see the Truth and some other artists perform. I really like the Truth's music, but I didn't want to travel to the concert alone. B claimed he was riding with some friends and couldn't ride with me there. So after we had got off the phone, I was just like ehhh.. I'm probably not going to go to the concert if no one will ride with me. But then like 20 mins later something happened and he called me and said he would be able to go with me there.

As we're driving there, I'm using my navigation system to figure out the location of the venue. {Sidenote: before I left out the house my phone was fully charged.} All of a sudden-- and this has never happened before-- my phone screen just begins to get darker and darker, as I'm pushing buttons etc. to try and get the screen to light back up.. but my phone's just like not being responsive at all, until finally it just simply cuts off. So I'm like cool, okkkk. I'm kinda freaked out, but I'm just like, you know what it'll just restart it and then everything will be good, cuz with the Blackberry Storm you just never know. So I take out the battery and restart the phone, but when I do my battery is completely DEAD-- like blinking red. AND my signal, like my cell towers, are completely GONE... CRAZY right?! I was just like whoaaa this has never happened to me before. And it's just like God knew all this would happen, so he had B change his mind and ride with me, so I wouldn't be lost by myseld! (Isn't he awesome??)

But anyways, so I'm just like ok cool. B calls one of his friends (A) to see if they can give us directions from where we are, to the church. So basically it takes forever b/c we're like out in the woods somewhere with no cross streets, so it's like extremely difficult to give A an address... So meanwhile all this is happening, I'm just being frantic like, Oh no! We need to ask somebody for directions etc. I just hate being lost. But B's just like "yo chill". B uses this time to tell me some stuff God had laid on his heart to share with me while he was abroad (which was 1 year ago) and basically he tells me that my obedience is central to ALL those around me. And that once I submit, so many of those around me will follow suit. He also gave me info about me being a leader etc. Just soo much he had to say fit in perfectly with what I had been going through this past Spring. Like it ALL made perfect sense. And it was just like God had to use THAT exact moment when we were lost to illustrate to me, how much me following his direction and plan for my life will transform the lives of others. So anyways we have a little moment there.. and I'm just like really feeling convicted etc. But then as soon as the moment passes, A calls us and is like "ok, I have the directions for you". And that was just a simple reminder to me that God's timing is nothing like man's timing, but it is ALWAYS on point.

So we finally get to the concert-- which was amazing btw. Once the concert's over and everybody's ready to go home, A realizes she locked her keys in her car. So while we're waiting on AAA to arrive me, B, A and few other ppl are just sitting outside just talking about God's plan for our lives, relationships, finding people on fire for Christ etc. and we kinda just somehow become a close little group while waiting out there for hours for the truck.

So in this time, (and this is REALLY where the crazy stuff starts happening so READ VERY CAREFULLY) A explains this game to us (which we realized later really isn't a game lol) called treasure hunting. I'm not sure if you're familiar with it, but I'll explain either way. Basically we all pray for God to reveal clues to us (it can be anything, like an article of clothing, a car, an idea, a color-- just anything) regarding people that we need to pray for and minister to. So you pray for God to give you clues and as they come to you, you write them down no matter how silly they seem. Once she finished explaining the game, I'm just like ehhhh, I've never been one of those people that truly feels like "oh man, God is talking to me." Like I certainly believe in the power of prayer but I've never had quite a transformative experience like the one I'm about to describe in the coming paragraphs.

So anyways, I finish praying and I have all these random ideas, and i'm just thinking to myself and questioning like "hmm are these your ideas God or are these just items or things I've come in contact with in my life.. etc." But regardless of these questions/doubts, I write all the ideas down. Here are some of the ideas God gave to me-- square rimmed glasses, leopard, diamond, polka dots, braces, pigtails, gray beard, blue jazz, plaid skirt etc . After I wrote these items down I felt led to walk towards this shopping area (mind you I've NEVER been to this area before, so I had no idea what I was gonna find at all) and I walk into this place called Manayunk Diner, and lo and behold, as soon as I walk in I look to my left, and I see nothing but LEOPARD stuffed animals in a tank-- like who has this?! what restaurant has a tank full of stuffed animals, let alone baby LEOPARDS?????! AND when I walk in further I see a woman in a polka dot skirt!!!!!

So I run back to my friends, and I'm just like "wow, we have to go in this diner! I don't know what's gonna happen, but we HAVE to go back there." So basically we all go in there and find many of our items there. We went up to people and asked them if they would pray with us, and surprisingly EVERYONE was receptive. God did such a mighty work. So many of our items were found in that diner. It was crazyyyyyy.

I could keep going on and on, but basically, on this night God showed all of us his Power and just how real He is. He really wants to show himself in everybody's life if they would just ask, and open their eyes, ears and hearts to listen for his voice!!

To make a long story short, we ended up staying out til 3am walking around to certain locations that we felt led to by the holy spirit, all the while finding more and more of our items wherever we turned-- confirming we were right where God wanted us to be.

Then last night we did the same thing, as most of us still had items on our list to find. But this time we were literally out from 10pm- 6am, driving downtown, we went outside of bars and prayed over I don't know how many people. People in Rite Aid, homeless families on the corners.. God just continued to show us signs THE ENTIRE night!! I've never had an experience like this.. sooo real and sooo close.

Oh and sidebar, there was absolutely NO ambiguity with the signs he would give us. At first I was just like" yo, this stuff could mean anything.." But as soon as we would see the sign we knew instantly (each and every one of us) that it was who we were supposed to talk to, and where we were supposed to be. Like for instance, with my gray beard example, I had in my mind a man with a long gray beard.. and we'd see men with close cut gray beards, and even when I tried to be like "hmm maybe you're who I'm supposed to talk to," God would somehow show me that it was the wrong person... UNTILLLLL i saw this white man with this long gray beard JUST AS I had imagined, sitting outside the steps of this Jewish center. In my mind I'm just like, "ohhh man!!" God you deliver JUST as you promise-- no ambiguity at all. Come to find out, there was this HUGEEE story, linking me and several people to this man with the gray beard... Like it was absolutely crazy. I'm doing the story 0% justice, it's just one of those things that is so unbelievable until you experience it.

I just had to share this with you. Hope all is well on your end. Be Blessed :)