There is so much that we don't see.
Everything is more connected than we realize.
I've been blown away by this in the last week. It all started with one of our students, Anthony, a 25-year-old tattoo artist from Maui. Somehow I heard that he had gone to Amsterdam last fall...the same time I was there. I asked him about it and it turns out he was there for 6 weeks all within the same time I was there on outreach.
God is moving in Amsterdam, but being there it was hard at times when we weren't seeing anything happening. We met a lot of people out on the who were very hard hearted and it was easy to get discouraged at times. A lot of our ministry was simply interceding/praying over the city and the people in it. We would spend hours in prayer of what was on the Father's heart. It felt like plowing at times...perseverance. We knew God was doing more than we were seeing. And it stretched me so much to push into the Lord.
Six months later, I meet Anthony. He had gone to Amsterdam to help open up the new tattoo museum in the city (Amsterdam is known for its many museums). He began to tell me that on the trip God really got a hold of his heart. From the moment he came into the city, his eyes were opened to seeing God in everything he passed. The wind, conversations he overheard, the sounds, the bikes. He had known about Jesus but his life had been going down the wrong path. There was something missing.
I remember constantly asking God to encounter the people of Amsterdam, tourists and locals alike. That was a prayer of our whole team. The YWAM Amsterdam base has this "prayer tower" at the top of its building that overlooks the city because it is so high. We would go up there a lot and just look out on to everything and ask the Holy Spirit to move in specific ways. Revelation of God's love for the people who were there. Crying out for sons and daughters to come home to the Father.
Anthony said he daily felt God during the 6 weeks in Amsterdam. One of the last nights he was there drove him to a place of wanting to turn his life around and start pursuing a relationship with God. God gave him the strength and the will to give everything to follow him. As he arrived back in Hawaii, the Lord met him in ways of providing him community that wants to run after God and the good things he had in store.
So we sat talking and connecting the pieces together. He literally lived a 5 minutes walk from me. I'm sure we passed him more than once in our time there since Amsterdam is not that big. And now he is a student in Awaken DTS...what!! But what completely struck me was how God was moving in Anthony's life in Amsterdam as we were praying for stories like this to happen. God created perseverance in me as we didn't see a lot of obvious fruit...but now he is just completely blessing me by allowing me hear about this testimony.
Our prayers do more than we think. Our words alter the atmosphere. God hears us. He really does. And it is okay if we don't get a chance to "see" things happen. By faith we intercede for what the Holy Spirit wants to do. I'm not saying it was our prayers that changed Anthony's life (because only God can change a heart)...but God allows you to partner with his heart because he wants a relationship with us. He created something in my heart as we prayed out what was on His heart. It is obvious that God put both Anthony and me in Amsterdam with different purposes for stories like this that bring Him glory.
My faith is so stirred!!! I hope yours is as well. The faithfulness of the Lord is so much greater than we can imagine.
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