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Wow, a whirlwind has happened since school has started. It is so wonderful here. I have changed so much already. I hope to update this more, but since I have been adjusting so much this month I didn't get to it. I thought I would tell you a little bit about my time at my retreat and my revival group.
Every student is assigned a revival group, and the groups consist of about 70 students. Our time in class is wonderful, but the time in revival group is a whole different dynamic. This is where you create more intimate relationships with people that you may not have if you weren't forced to! haha. Every group has their own feel too. So my group is special. I absolutely love it and I love the people in it because we all have such great and inspiring personalities.
I got to know more of my RG members on a retreat we all took to Chico. We spent a couple days there getting to know each other better and worshiping God. This time together brought so much breakthrough for me and for the others. I loved it so much! The time there, I experienced the Holy Spirit like I never had before. It was an uncontrollable presence that I had longed for. I wanted an encounter with God and so did everybody else. And God came. He showed us how much He wanted to encounter us. So much freedom was brought to people to just be undignified. It did not matter how stupid we might have looked in the natural because we were fully engulfed in the supernatural. It's really hard to put into words all that happened, but it showed me that God wants me to feel Him. It is normal to feel Him. All that this encounter with God showed me was that my identity is in Him. He is mine, and I am His. What was really important to me also was the encouragement I felt from the people around me. They encouraged me to encounter God more. They wanted to see me on the floor laughing at the glory of God, and they cheered me on. I wanted the same for them too! I wanted us all to have that holy laughter. I wanted us all to basque in the glory of God. There is something so special about people who are around you that can encourage you to be the best you were made to be. I am so thankful to have always had that wherever I am, and I think this time on my retreat showed me how important my brothers and sisters are. Without them I would be so lost because God created us to be together.
I still wake up some mornings and think, "How did I get here?" I am so thrilled to be learning from such awesome revivalists. And I am so honored to be learning alongside future revivalists. A huge thing that is taught here is that what we receive here is being given to the people we know back home. I impart the glory and power that I have experienced in this last month and I ask for more of your presence Lord to manifest in their lives. I ask that the miracles I have seen here would double and that You would work in power through their hearts.
I am so thankful!
Emily