I was reading an earlier post today about someone receiving their prayer language, and I was reminded of how hard it can be to trust God in this area and of my own “awakening” in this regard when I was a youth.

In Jeremiah it says we will find Him when we seek Him with “our whole heart,” and I believe the same is true of that powerful connection we make with the Holy Spirit.

I prayed with a woman at the altar two Fridays ago to receive her prayer language, and she was so earnest to receive it but frustrated that it wasn’t happening. “I think I have a mental block,” she said. “Maybe my head is too much in the way.” I encouraged her to pray past that and to continue to seek God with a heart that pushes past the “intellect” and draws only on the “spirit.”

I remember going to several youth meetings and seeing people receive their prayer language at the altar. I would leave and go home feeling like somehow God wasn’t ready for me to have it or I was doing something wrong. I got into a quiet place in my room and just began to worship, refusing to think too hard about it or worry that it wasn’t happening.

I focused entirely on worship, praising and giving thanksgiving to God for all He had done for me, and saying over and over, “Whatever you want for me, Lord, I’m eager to receive it.”

It was during that personal time with God, not at an altar or with anyone praying over me, that the Holy Spirit fell on my heart and I opened my mouth to find a new language tumbling off my lips.

It was awkward and foreign to my ear, and my mind immediately wanted to rebel against the process, but I just pressed in and kept those utterances coming.

I looked up at the clock some time later to realize I had been praying in that language for nearly 2 hours! And I learned that it was something I had to begin to operate in daily so that I could overcome any discomfort or doubt I had about its origin or purpose. Just as we have to exercise discipline and practice over our formed prayers, we have to do the same with our prayer language until, like our own language, it flows from the spirit unhindered.

So, for those who may be struggling in this area, set your mind at ease and put your focus on worship and relationship first.

Remember, if we “seek first,” those things will be “added unto” us.

I have a story to tell that is not my own, but Rachael’s. I’ve asked God how to share “her” story, but can only communicate it from my experience.

In the eyes of the world, Rachael was born with many physical handicaps. Among them she is deaf and unable to speak. I have watched this beautiful gift of God for 21 years and she has far exceeded what the doctors ever thought possible for her to accomplish.

I’ve often thought that she tries so hard for us to hear her; to communicate what she is thinking and how she is feeling. There is just so much that we don’t know.

Rachael’s brother started attending Celebration with my son a short time ago. His mother (my friend since the second grade) has seen a change in him and has been saying that she wanted to come too.

This past Sunday was the plan.

Sunday morning arrived and they were running a few minutes late. I thought if they don’t hurry up then it’s going to be next weekend. I wanted to be on time only thinking of getting my “seat” for the service.

As we drove, I could see something was wrong with Rachael. Was she excited or upset? Would she disrupt service? I knew they would be taping for TV. Would she have an outburst during the time Pastor was speaking?

As we settled into our seats and the music started, I watched as she held tight to her precious mother’s hand. She sat so quiet and still.

I forgot all my worries as I heard the message.

At the end of the service, Pastor asked if anyone had not asked Jesus into their heart to stand. Rachael stood up! I could see that her mother started to reach for her but stopped. As her head raised and she gazed towards heaven, her mother and I both knew she had been touched by the Holy Spirit.

God had spoken to Rachael’s heart in a way that only she could HEAR!

We have cried, rejoiced and shared this miracle with friends and family. Last night her mother asked her in sign language, “did you feel Jesus in your heart?” Straight faced and without distraction, she said YES!

How does she tell us that she got saved? How does she give her testimony?

I felt compelled to tell you that “the line” was shortened last Sunday and Rachael got saved. I look forward to her continued awakening as she starts her walk with Jesus and with her new family at Celebration Church.

I had my spiritual awakening today. It was neat, funny, great and surprising all wrapped up in one.

I have to start from the beginning. My mother told me about my brother’s blessing yesterday. The Lord not only blessed him with a good job, but a good job with a great salary. The first thing I thought was that with the money he was making I could really use it to help support my family more.

So then I was thinking about the fast and how maybe I was doing something wrong because nothing happened. So I went to work today and began to speak with Cleo who is one of the guys I work with. He began to just talk to me about how God was dealing with him and how when you pray not only should you talk but listen as well. I always thought there was a format to praying and that it should be a long drawn out thing.

Man was I ever wrong!

Not only did I not know how to pray, but I didn’t know how to discern the voice of God either. I left work and on the way home I heard something say read Psalm 23:1. Me being me, I started saying why, for what, what does that say?

The whole ride home Psalm 23:1 was on my mind. So when I got home and read Psalm 23:1 which reads “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want.” I thought, “that was so weird because that was the answer to my questions and the answer to my fasting.” Then I had to share the news with my mom.

I finally heard and obeyed the voice of God and it feels great. I just want to take in more and read more. I feel like my eyes have opened and I see a whole new world.

It’s a great feeling and it’s a feeling I pray I will have forever.

Since I’ve been coming to Celebration Church 5 months ago, I’ve gradually seen many small, but significant changes.

I originally started going to the Wednesday Youth and Sunday services at the St. Johns campus for a friend, but quickly found myself drawn in and loved feeling the presence of God and being around people who felt it as well.

When I heard about the fasting, I decided to try it out with some encouragement from my friends. I was very excited. When I got home and told my parents about it, they were full of questions and a little bit of doubt. I naturally couldn’t answer all their questions, but with help from my Youth Pastor, I informed them as much as I could. They questioned my reason for doing it and I told them even though I didn’t completely understand everything about it, I wanted to feel God work in my life too.

Today on the 7th day of fasting, I was talking to a group of friends in class about what the fasting is about and how I am doing it. One girl said to me, “I don’t see why you would do that.” Without even thinking about it, a response came out and I told her . . .

“You know, sometimes our love of food or other material objects overcomes our love for God and the most important things in life. Maybe if we set aside some of our bad habits, even if it is for only 21 days like I’m doing for fasting, we’ll be able to break some of those things that keep us away from God and the things we really should be doing in life - like helping others.”

No one really talked much about it after that, but I sat the whole rest of the class thinking about what I just said and how I didn’t even think before it came out. At the end of the class, one of the girls asked me if she could come to Youth Service with me this week.

I’ve never really had a real experience with God, but to me, this was it.

It was like God put the words right in my mouth and I just said them, without even knowing it to help inform this girl. Maybe she needs God in her life too.

Sometimes all it takes is some faith in believing in what you are doing, even if you don’t really understand it.

God works in crazy ways.

I had an awful night a couple weeks ago. It started off with drinking alcohol which led to me doing things I regretted and behaving very irresponsibly.

I am a single mother and I always try to make wise choices for my child’s sake and be a good example to him. But I slipped and let the desires of my flesh draw me into sin. The next day I was overcome with conviction like I’ve never known. I felt so miserable. I fell on my face before God and cried to have control over my flesh and be strong in the Spirit.

That is when God spoke to me through his Word. I opened my Bible to Romans.

Romans 13:11-14 (NIV)
¹¹ And do this, understanding the present time. The hour has come for you to wake up from your slumber, because our salvation is nearer now than when we first believed. ¹² The night is nearly over; the day is almost here. So let us put aside the deeds of darkness and put on the armor of light. ¹³ Let us behave decently, as in the daytime, not in orgies and drunkenness, not in sexual immorality and debauchery, not in dissension and jealousy. ¹⁴ Rather, clothe yourselves with the Lord Jesus Christ, and do not think about how to gratify the desires of the sinful nature.

I think this verse was so relevant to the Awakening series. The time is NOW to WAKE UP . . . before it’s too late.

Awakening is a word that really paints a picture in my mind of having been either asleep or unaware; then your eyes open and what’s going on around you comes into focus.

The reality of this is still as vivid today as it was 24 years ago.

I had just turned 17 years old; I lived a pretty average life at the time. My parents were separated after 29 years, I was confused and mad, and my friends were decent people just trying to find their way to fit in with everyone else.

Yep, I would say that was pretty average for where I grew up in North Carolina.

But somewhere deep inside I was looking for something, maybe it was someone; I really didn’t know. What I was sure of at this point, was that my level of frustration was increasing.

Several afternoons a week and most weekends I worked at a local grocery store. This particular Saturday was not much different than any others; I had spent the night before drinking with a friend, my mom was out of town and my dad didn’t live with us any longer. That afternoon working at the grocery store proved to be the beginning of something amazing in my life.

I had just finished packing someone’s groceries in their vehicle, and while on my way back inside the store, I stopped for a moment. It would be impossible to forget this little moment in time because it turned out to be life changing.

After stopping with my cart, I looked up into the sky and stated the following:

“God, if you are really real, if you really are who they say you are, if you truly exist, I am asking you to show up in my life and prove it to me. I don’t want to believe you exist because that’s what everyone says. I want to know for myself.”

The very next weekend, I wound up in a Sunday night church service which was a very unusual thing for our family. It was during this service that God touched my heart, made Himself so very real to me, and He absolutely changed my life forever.

From that point, I decided that if God loved me enough that He would hear a young kid in a small town in the middle of nowhere that I would follow Him all the days of my life.

I learned during this time that if a person would just take some time, maybe when there’s no one else around, and ask God to make Himself real, He always does.

Wayne Lanier
Middleburg Campus Pastor

For the past month or so, we’ve been playing a short promo video for The Awakening series during our main weekend services. Not too long afterwards, we received a testimony from a mom about the video and her son. You’ll find her testimony and the promo video below.

A Mom’s Testimony

I have been coming to Celebration Church for about 6 months and last Sunday my son finally came after I have been begging him to try it for months. He thinks that churches are out of touch and don’t do anything for him or to him. I noticed he seemed to be responding well to the service (even bobbing his head a little at the music).

At some point during the service, a video was played about drugs with the Pastor’s voice. After my son saw that very powerful video he did not say a word the rest of the service.

I noticed his eyes seemed a little watery.

When we got in the car after church, I asked him what he thought and before I could finish the sentence he said, “I am sorry, mom, for doing drugs.”

He then told me how he had been trying drugs for a couple of weeks with some friends and that the night before he was offered coke. He did not do it but wanted to.

After seeing the video that was amazingly cutting edge, he said that it hit him so hard. He had never seen a video on drugs in church, let alone a video so real feeling and daring to talk about it on a Sunday morning. He told me that something about it and the environment changed his mind and maybe even his life.

When we got home he gave me a bag filled with marijuana and asked me to get rid of it.

We went to dinner that night as a family and it was like he was in 5th grade again - the sweetest innocent boy.

I was hesitant to write in because I did not know how long he would feel this way, but everyday he has asked me about church this weekend and today he called me from work letting me know that he had read online about LateNite and was going to check it out this Saturday.

He is 20 years old and I haven’t seen the life of God in him in years.

Thank you Celebration Church for your video and for letting God use you to change an entire generation’s perspective of what to expect at church.

The Awakening Promo Video