If you live in Little Rock or the surrounding areas, you may have heard of Summit Church and what is going on there for the past month. If not, I'll tell you what I know.
God is moving in that church in powerful ways. They have had four weeks of straight church. They didn't bring someone in for revival. They simply let God work.
A few stories I know of:
One of my friends goes to that church, and on one of the first nights of this movement, God kept telling her to go to the alter and empty her wallet and urge the rest of the church to do the same. She fought and fought because she didn't feel comfortable doing it. Then the preacher told the congregation that someone was in the congregation that had a message for them and they needed to come forward. She fought it still... but was now doubting her fight. More and more people came up to the front... confessing sins... testifying... there was a line to get the microphone to share with everyone.
Finally, it was her turn and she did as she was told. Over $5000 was given that night! Read more about that night here scroll down to April 4th post. She had $40 in her wallet and she left it on the alter. Later in the service, someone came to her and told her that God told them to give her $80.
People are praying for each other, praising God, being blessed left and right... it is truly amazing just to hear what is going on in this church! And all because they moved aside and let God do His work.
I have another friend that goes to First Baptist of Little Rock. The story behind this is that the preacher from Summit used to preach at First Baptist... the church split, and he created Summit. There was a lot of hurt that came with the split.
Anyway, the preacher at First Baptist called the preacher from Summit and told him he thought someone needed to come to their church to share what was going on. The Summit preacher agreed, but thought he wasn't the right one for the job (due to the bad way things had gone when he left). The First preacher thought that the Summit preacher was the man for the job, so they agreed to pray about it for 3 days, then make a decision. Turns out, it was time for him to return to that church.
This happened last night. Not only did he speak for an hour to the congregation about what is going on at his church, but he brought others from Summit that had left First Baptist. And apparently, God had some plans for them!
They also had an amazing service with people confessing their sins from the split... even the preacher from Summit! That church began healing last night, one lady left with $1500 to help her get back on her feet after her husband died and left her with a failing business, and lots of others felt the Lord in a very intimate way.
This is my knowledge on the subject. God is telling me the purpose of this blog is three-fold.
1) There are churches in the area that are battling spiritual warfare and not allowing the Holy Spirit to work. And this has to stop. God has amazing things in store for this area and breaking down these walls is essential to realizing God's promises.
2) To get those who are involved to share their testimonies in the comments section. These stories are powerful. They have affected me and I haven't even gone to one of the services. So, if you have been to any of these services, please comment below on what your experiences are. Or something that God is wanting you to share.
3) I know there is someone reading on the verge of making the commitment to Christ. I may not get the most comments after each post, but I will not stop. Because there are people out there getting thirstier and thirstier for Christ's love and if I can be a tool for getting someone to it, how can I not agree?
So there you have it. I will be forwarding this link to those that I think have something to add. I hope they will continue as well.
And I leave you with a few verses:
Jeremiah 29: 13-14 "If you look for me wholeheartedly, you will find me. I will be found by you," says the Lord. "I will end your captivity and restore your fortunes. I will gather you out of the nations where I sent you and will bring you home again to your own land." -- this verse gives me chills in reference to this post
John 15: 5 "Yes, I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who remain in me, and I in them, will produce much fruit. For apart from me you can do nothing."
Some of these things are on their website. Check it out: http://thesummitchurch.org/
**So I went to the website and was so moved that I have just decided to embed some of the videos here.**
Tears of Joy - Lexi Phelps from The Summit Church on Vimeo.
Our Financial Worries Are Gone - Montina Dunn from The Summit Church on Vimeo.
Making His Deeds Known from The Summit Church on Vimeo.
A Life Surrendered - Michelle Tedder from The Summit Church on Vimeo.
And now after going through these videos, God is telling me to confess to you all something I've been running from. That stinkin' God gets me every time ;-)
I am making the public commitment now that I will get up at 5:30 am every morning to pray.
I say that first, because for a while now (like months) I have felt God telling me to get up at 5:30 to pray. And I did it for about a week. Then I stopped. I was tired and this was sleep time and as long as I read during the day I'd be fine.
Then several days would go by that I didn't pray. Sure I'd get a good day every once in a while that brought great word, but I also missed a lot.
Then God started actually waking me up at 5:30 am. It is ridiculous. I'll wake up every morning, look at the clock, and it is somewhere between 5:25 - 5:35 am.
This morning, I woke up. 5:28 am. You know what I did? I laughed. I laughed and rolled right back over and went to sleep.
So right, now I'm setting my alarm for 5:30 am. And when it goes off, I'm getting up and praying and exercising.
Please share your stories in the comments section. Someone is really going to benefit from these stories.
Okie Dokie, so I went with a friend to one of the services at Summit. It was kind of a random thing; I had heard from my friend about the cool things God was doing and it worked out for us to go on that particular night. It was Good Friday,which I didn't realize till we were on the way. When we got there, we settled into our seats and into singing songs of worship.
ReplyDeleteHere is the thing about me and the church. My parents have been very hurt by the church and in turn I have been very hurt by the church. Mine and my mother's hearts have been in a place of confusion about where God wanted us to be and to do with the church since this hurt happened. And that is the thing about Christianity. There are people who say they are Christians and they really really do love Jesus and seek to live in a way so that others feel the love of God. And there are people who are Christians, and may believe or say they believe that Jesus saves, but they hurt others so much by judging others in a way that is not their job to judge, or by not living like Jesus wants us to live. Its so sad that Jesus gets misrepresented like that, because Jesus LOVES so much. He loves everyone in the world, not just people who say they are Christians. He loves us even before we realize that we love him or want to love him back.
So back to my story, I went to a Summit service on Good Friday, which turned out to be this beautiful prayer service. People would just walk up to the front and were given the mic to share what was on their heart or share something they needed encouragement in or share how God had shown up in their lives in a powerful way. And then the pastor would ask for people to stand up and surround these people who needed prayer, and you know what, people did! Strangers praying with and for strangers to our God. It was great to see the family of God love each other in the way we were meant to.
One man's testimony in particular has stuck with me. He began sharing the story of his relationship with his father. His entire life he felt estranged from his dad and unloved. His dad was physically present in his life, but never gave verbal encouragement to his son, never told his son how proud he was of him. So this man, the son, went through the majority of his life doing extreme things to try to make his dad proud. He went into an extremely dangerous branch of the military and rose to the top of the ranks, but his dad never came to award ceremonies or congratulated him. And his dad died, and never told his son that he was proud or how much he loved him. So this man, after his father's death, was left with this sad and disappointed feeling. The man continued to talk about his 3 failed marriages and how he, in the past, had not lived with purpose for God. His story was so sad and honestly, depressing. You could feel the disappointment he felt with himself and his life. And here is the great part: he began talking about how God his Father had led him gently back to Himself, that he was now in a godly relationship with his 4th wife, that he now lived with purpose and in the knowledge of the goodness of God and the love of God. And he said he wanted to be baptized, right then and there, because it would be an honest symbol of the transformation that had taken place in his heart. So the pastor baptized him! Right then and there! And after the man was dunked under the water in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit; and was hugged by the pastor, the pastor said that the man's heavenly father, God, was proud of him, at that moment.
And then the congregation was led to pray for other member's in the congregation who struggled with their father/son/daughter relationships. And it led to the softening of my heart towards my own father.
The end. of my story. but not of yours, whoever you are :D