I hope you all are doing well! I think of you often and miss your faces :)
God has been doing amazing things! Shocking, I know ;) Jesus is always moving and He is always speaking. The question is are we seeing and are we hearing. This last Wednesday night we had a big party at a park here in Pohnpei and about a 100 people gave their lives to Christ! It was an amazing night full of so much love. The Pohnpeian's have a beautiful culture of love and honor and I've bee learning so much from them.
This week my team also went into the hospital and prison. This was the outreach I have been waiting for :) We saw many people healed! So many people regained energy where they were able to sit up to eat and drink. Others were completely touch by the love of God that tears poured down their faces as they encountered Papa God. One woman (She was 85) had horrible head and knee pains and was blind in one eye was healed. Pain left her body and then we covered her good eye and asked her to tell us how many fingers we were holding up. She answered correctly ever time!
We also went to the prison and that was such an encouraging time! Who knew prison would be so much fun :) I've never been apart of hospital or prison ministry before and now I'm asking myself WHY not! It's my new favorite :) A lot of the men in the prison are already following Jesus which is amazing. So my group went just to love and encourage them but we also felt like the Lord was calling some of them to be pastors. We asked if any of them were feeling like God was calling them to pastor and 6-7 men stood up. We prayed over them and released them to pastor. Men were also getting healed and set free. Such an incredible time!
God has been speaking to me about love and if you'll give me a minute I'd love to share.
1Corinthians 13 (Read this and read it slowly. Then go read it in the Message translation)
If I speak in the tongues of men or of angels, but do not have love, I am only a resounding gong or a clanging cymbal. 2 If I have the gift of prophecy and can fathom all mysteries and all knowledge, and if I have a faith that can move mountains, but do not have love, I am nothing. 3 If I give all I possess to the poor and give over my body to flames, but have not love, I gain nothing.
4 Love is patient, love is kind. It does not envy, it does not boast, it is not proud. 5 It is not rude, it is not self-seeking, it is not easily angered, it keeps no record of wrongs. 6 Love does not delight in evil but rejoices with the truth. 7 It always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.
8 Love never fails. But where there are prophecies, they will cease; where there are tongues, they will be stilled; where there is knowledge, it will pass away. 9 For we know in part and we prophesy in part, 10 but when completeness comes, what is in part disappears. 11 When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put the ways of childhood behind me. 12 For now we see only a reflection as in a mirror; then we shall see face to face. Now I know in part; then I shall know fully, even as I am fully known.
13 And now these three remain: faith, hope and love. But the greatest of these is love.
God is love. Jesus is love. God is holy. Jesus is holy. A holy, righteous and just God who keeps no records of wrongs! A holy and righteous Jesus who ate with sinners, touch peoples filth, and did not condemn the adulterer. What? How can this be? Jesus, don't you know you're righteous?
Jesus help us and forgive us! We reject the very ones you have come to love. Teach me how to love. Teach me to love like you do. A love that compels people to you. A love that stirs a desire in their hearts to be holy as you are holy. Help us remember that it is your kindness (not rudeness) that draws people to repentance. Give us patience, Lord! The same patience and joy that led you to die for US (not just them...us) while we were still sinners. Jesus, we need to be changed by you. I don't want to be resounding gong. I don't want to claim to love but in reality I'm just a noise that causes others to run. Lord, I do not want to possess knowledge, wisdom and prophecy and not have love at my very core. Lord, I want to be possessed by You and You are love. Reveal to us what kind of love this is and not what religion tells us this love is. Help us Jesus!
Jesus is moving and speaking. Ask Him where He is going and what He is saying. Then go and do it and be possessed by radical love!
Love you and miss you all!
Jess
