Hey everyone! We just finished a couple days of debrief (rest, reflection, equipping) at the end of serving in Georgia & a couple days of “Burn” (a retreat to a mountain rainforest for morning & evening worship, & all night intercession).

 

Burn

”I will exalt you, my God the King; I will praise your name for ever and ever. Every day I will praise you and extol your name for ever and ever. Great is the LORD and most worthy of praise; his greatness no one can fathom” (Psalm 145:1)

When we carve out space in our life for gazing intensely at the heart of God without distraction, He draws near & Holy Spirit transforms us inwardly. He spoke tenderly to me. He brought ways I’d been enslaved to things of this world to the surface so I could renounce those ties and walk in freedom. He increased my dependence on Him alone & affirmed how treasured I am in the Church. He demonstrated His power by delivering a teammate from an oppressive Spirit of Fear when she began manifesting during a worship session. He convicted people to pursue forgiveness & reconciliation with each other. He filled squadmates who were previously crippled by the fear of public speaking & people-pleasing to boldly get up before the whole squad & preach a fiery message.

The Church is a group of imperfect people, bumping into each other & totally screwing it up sometimes, but whose lives are laid down before the King of Kings. Who listen and step with His Spirit, willing to die for their brother or sister, & burdened with the mission to gather in the lost. There are no perfect people & no perfect churches—& that’s the amazing thing that God could accomplish His purposes on Earth without us YET He chooses to recruit us in because HE LOVES being with us. Example: Think of a mother making cookies with a child. It takes way longer, it’s way messier, yet the point of the activity is to DO IT TOGETHER! And guys, these highlights just brush the surface of my experience with God & community at the Burn 0_0!!!

Surgery in Turkey

“Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day” (2 Corinthians 4:16).

The next topic I want to share with you all, is I am having a slight emergency surgery in Turkey tomorrow (the 14th). It’s due to a pre-existing condition, so April & I will be splitting off from the rest of the squad (for 9 days) who is moving to Armenia. This was unexpected & I am responsible for double the expenses (to pay for a squad leader’s transportation, lodging, & food) plus surgery & recovery expenses. I wanted to notify you all for prayer support (smooth travel, professional surgeon, successful surgery, & manageable pain/effects when recovering). Also, if Holy Spirit moves you to generosity, please email me about directly donating to these unforeseen (double) expenses & I’ll let you know exactly what your donation is covering: [email protected]. 

Serving in Georgia

“He heals the brokenhearted and binds up their wounds” (Psalm 147:3). 

Lastly, I want to share some highlights from our month serving in Georgia. It was an ATL month (no host, no assigned ministry), just dropped off in the capitol, Tbilisi. After prayer we felt led to Batumi & partnered with a church there serving the homeless, helping with a Kurdish (minority) school, children’s/young adult/women’s Bible study, & making connections with women in human trafficking at local massage businesses. Plus connecting with many refugees from Russia

I had sent our ministry bios to Pastor Rebekah, & when she saw I was experienced with doing Inner Healing Prayer with people, she asked if I would be willing to do it with members from the church—in which I enthusiastically responded YES!

To clarify, Inner (or Emotional) Healing Prayer is simply when I ask the Holy Spirit for questions to ask the other person, in order to get to the root experience/emotion/lie that is plaguing that person. Based on that information, I create a prayer plan that I have the person pray through which involves the person surrendering each experience/emotion/lie to Jesus for Him to replace with His peace & His truth. Then we thank God, & the person walks away healed & freed. A friend had walked me through Inner Healing Prayer in college when emotional trauma I had experienced refused to budge to my regular prayers. I was so transformed by experiencing God’s power to heal, that I sought out more training from a mentor so that I could help bring that healing to other people that I meet. Ever since then, God has led people to contact me to pray with them for freedom from grief, fear, addiction, anger, & shame & EVERY SINGLE TIME He has shown up because HE CARES SO MUCH ABOUT US! He’s amazing!!! OKAY!! Now for some testimonies!!! 

I got the honor & opportunity to pray with 10 different women for healing, & folks, He showed up every single time & took their emotional pain & replaced it with His perfect peace & heart-piercing truth. There were two women who requested to pray with me who were not Protestant Christians. I had never prayed for emotional healing with someone who didn’t have the Holy Spirit (whole other side conversation if that sentence bothers you—to clarify shortly, only God knows & determines who is saved & who isn’t—not me), so, I was so curious what the Lord’s response was going to be to their pain. 

One of the women was Orthodox. She was in her early 30’s. Her husband had died suddenly 3 years ago, leaving her alone to raise their children. She still had immense  grief that was affecting her daily responsibilities. We prayed & the Lord immensely lessened the pain from her sorrow & filled her with peace & joy instead. She said, “When I first walked in this room I was smiling because I wanted to be polite. But now I am smiling because inside I am truly smiling!”

Then she asked, “How can I pray? How can I have a stronger relationship with God?” So I got to read & explain the example prayer Jesus gives us in Matthew 6:5-15. There a different kinds of prayer, but generally, praying is just talking with God anytime anywhere. I also got to encourage her to open God’s Word & ask Him where she should start reading, & just ask Him to make Himself more real to her each day. [Orthodox is a branch of Christianity but very legalistic. They go to the priest for forgiveness & pray to the saints. The service is a series of rituals & members are encouraged not to read the Bible for themselves because they “wouldn’t be able to understand it.” God is viewed as their Lord & not relational like a father.]

Another woman I got to pray with was from Iran, had grown up Muslim but now had doubts, & had lost her father 4 years ago. She still had immense sorrow and many fears. So we prayed. The Lord replaced her pain with peace & joy. And when I told her to ask the Lord if He wanted to say anything else to her, she replied that He had said to her, “I am the Truth.” Woah. OF COURSE the Lord wanted to make Himself known to her, that it was His amazing love that healed her. Then we started praying for Jesus to take away each of her fear’s. He took the first one & replaced it with peace. But when she began to pray for the second fear, she started shaking. She became very anxious & began sobbing. Suddenly she exclaimed, “Kaitlynn! Please pray for me!”

I knew exactly what was happening—at this point I’ve seen so many demons manifesting it just makes me angry that they think they can torment people the way they do. So I jumped in & prayed for her, breaking off the spirit of fear that was oppressing her in Jesus’s name. She stopped shaking and became completely calm. Then she said, “Wow. I feel such immense peace. I want to just lay down and sleep because I haven’t felt so much peace in a long time.” WOW GOD! He has power over evil and fights so hard for our freedom! When we invite Him to show up in our need, His compassion & great love is aroused to move supernaturally on our behalf so we can know who He truly is & how He views us! I’m always so overcome with awe & gratitude when I see Him draw near to the hurting & to those who aren’t even trying to seek Him, & reveal Himself in such a tender unique way. Ah! I’m so in love with Him!! 

Confetti Everywhere 😀

What I’m learning in my relationship with God, with the Church, & all the precious people I’m sharing the Gospel with is compounding SO MUCH! Compared to my first blog back in August, you can tell the spiritual heat has really been turned up for us! We’ve seen God move in so many miraculous ways in response to our prayers the last couple months—I hope to recap Jordan & Turkey with you while I am recovering this next week.

Also if you have more questions about demonic possession/oppression/influence or spiritual gifts I would love to explore that conversation with you based on scripture (shoot me an email—perhaps we can do a Zoom call soon)! To clarify, probably the most obvious question is can someone who has the Holy Spirit be possessed—& the answer is no, but they can be oppressed or influenced by demons. I recognize deliverance & the question of how demons affect people whom Holy Spirit lives in is not knowledge that we’re often equipped with (at least I wasn’t growing up). Super real & super normal to me now, haha. & I desire to see more churches equipped & aware of the enemies’ schemes as well as how MUCH MORE powerful God is over our enemy. Wild!

Thank you for praying for me! Give us more of You Lord! For Your glory & for Your Kingdom to come!! Say hello in the comments below! Seriously, it’s one of my favorite things to check back after I’ve written a post & have a conversation with all of you!