This has got to be one of my favorite meetings of the year.
This morning, most of our campus missionaries from Metro Manila and several from the provinces came together to worship God and ask for Him to be with us as we plan for Ignite, our Every Nation Asia Campus Conference.
We held it in Cuneta Astrodome where the conference will be in 35 days. We crammed into a room much too small for us which overwhelmed the brave but useless efforts of the airconditioners. And with sweat running down our faces, began to worship God and pray. I loved every minute of it.
It reminded me of the early days of all our centers when airconditioning was an unheard of luxury, which it still is for many locations.
It reminded me of packed youth services where the smell of sweat indicated just how many young people were present and how passionately they were worshipping – giving birth to our expression, “Smells like the harvest.”
But more than all of that, it was fun because it’s always great to praise and worship our God. And even as the preparations for the conference are growing, we wanted to remind ourselves that this isn’t about us, but about our God. In fact, the reason we need to pray is because this is Beyond Us. On so many levels.
-
- Beyond Our Abilities – Everything that’s going to happen here is beyond us. We can do our best in planning things, but if God doesn’t go ahead of us, then nothing will happen. This is true about Ignite and for all of our lives. We’re like the Kid Darth Vader in the Volkswagen commercial. We can wave our hands around, but God’s got the real power.
- Beyond the Natural – There are spiritual realities at work that we do not always see or comprehend. To go without prayer is to march in blindly. Good thing Jesus said He defeated any enemy we will face on the Cross. When we pray we are taking that victory Jesus won and applying it to every area we’re walking in to.
- Beyond our Location – Whenever God does something in the Bible, it always goes far beyond what the original participants expect. In the same way, Ignite 2013 is beyond LifeBox or Victory. It’s beyond the Philippines. But we are believing that God will use this time to make an impact in nations all around the world. With delegates from 17 nations coming,we are excited and hopeful for the inception this can be for them.
In short, with big tasks and big goals facing big opposition, you better be praying to a big God. What an energizing way to start the day.
After that, I spent 5 hours in a coffee shop writing some of the materials for the conference.
Then I ended the day with my Victory group meeting while my wife met her’s next door. Good day! But now I need a long shower and some sleep. Good night!
