Hey Fam! Happy Thursday!
This past Tuesday, as I was seeking the Lord’s heart on how to lead the prayer meeting at the Sarasota House of Prayer, He reminded me that it was National Religious Freedom Day.
As I read about what this day commemorates, my heart became so grateful that I ended up beginning the meeting with a time of thanksgiving. Here’s a screenshot that explains what it’s all about:
According to statistics, 360 million believers in the world are living under persecution. On average about 13 of them are killed EVERY DAY for their faith. This one bill, passed 238 years ago, gave our nation a foundation of freedom that has not only prevented persecution throughout the generations, but has also allowed for crazy radicals like us to boldly take Jesus right into the midst of public places and get away with it. Amazing.
I felt the Lord’s heart that day was to pray for the church to receive a fresh outpouring of Acts 4 boldness, so that we would use these freedoms for what they were meant for- to speak freely and unashamedly about Jesus all throughout the land!
Acts 4:29 And now, Lord, take note of their threats, and grant that Your bond-servants may speak Your word with all confidence, 30 while You extend Your hand to heal, and signs and wonders take place through the name of Your holy servant Jesus.” 31 And when they had prayed, the place where they had gathered together was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.”
Receive a fresh outpouring of that today In Jesus Name!
Speaking of prayer, last Monday at The Front I shared a 5-minute message the Lord gave me in a dream about it being a time of war and how we need to prioritize prayer and intercession. You can hear it (along with another prophetic word the Lord gave me for 2024) here:
What’s so amazing is that just a few days later, Jonathan Cahn came to Christian Retreat and shared a prophetic message that totally confirmed the dream! Here’s one clip:
I encourage you to watch the entire message, it is quite powerful.
On to the weekend…
As you probably remember, it was a pretty chilly and pretty wet weekend, so the crowds weren’t huge, but it was still great.
On Friday, there were a number of people that stopped to listen and several receiving prayers. The highlight for me was meeting a young man from Miami who was there visiting his girlfriend. When I asked him if he knew Jesus as his Lord and Saviour, he said that he was raised in a “non-religious home”, so he didn’t really know anything about the Lord. I shared the gospel with him, and then I asked him if I could pray for Jesus to reveal Himself to him and he said yes. After I prayed for him, he started following me on Instagram, which I thought was a good sign. Now he will see God stories on his feed, which is so cool!
His girlfriend on the other hand had knowledge of the Lord. She was so appreciative of what we were doing, and she was confirming to him that what we were saying was true. What a blessing to get to be there when God broke new ground in this young man’s heart!
BIG thanks to Amber, Laney, Augast, Thom, Mike M, Mike K, Rochelle, Isaac, Mauricio, Jenny, Gene, Winne and August for coming out to serve! Great job!
Saturday was a night I won’t forget. Even though it was cold, there were still hundreds of people in the park and a good number of children were coming up, listening and getting ministered to. At one point, four young kids came up and two of them asked me if I remembered them. I had met them a few months ago and they said, “we told you we would be back!” They were greatly impacted by what happened last time and they were anxious to come back and see us again.
They ended up going around the park with us and handing out tracts, which was so cool! Then, before they left, Mike K asked them if they wanted to receive the Holy Spirit…and they did! I mean VERY tangibly too. They were all crying and visibly showing how their hearts were being moved. I’ve never seen anything like it happen to kids that young. We couldn’t get many pics but here are a few:
Here’s one of them talking about it afterwards:
And here they are when they started speaking in tongues!
It was such a powerful move of God!
BIG thanks to Mike K, Rochelle, Isaac, Ricardo, Mike V, Sandy, Rene and Brian for coming out to serve at Riverwalk!
And speaking of Riverwalk, it was really cool to get a Facebook memory this week that it was two years ago when these 3 guys got baptized at the park.
It’s amazing to be reminded of what God did in all 3 of these guys, but the young man in gray stands out the most. His name is Dakota, and he was living in a condo at the Riverwalk with his family. One day, he heard the music from his balcony, and he came down to see what it was. He ended up getting set free from homosexuality and he dedicated his life to Jesus. After that he would come and preach the gospel and share his testimony on the microphone, which was so amazing! He now lives in Tampa but he’s doing great.
On Sunday, we were greatly impeded by the rain. We pushed back the arrival time and we still got rained on. We finally made it back to the beach around 5 though and it was a really nice evening. Many more people than expected came, and most were receptive. A number of them also received tracts and several were prayed over. A young woman in her early 20’s also prayed to receive the Lord, which was awesome!
BIG thanks to the WARRIORS who came out that night- Mike M, Amber, Laney, Brian and Hugo- you guys rock!
This weekend we are celebrating a milestone- 200 weeks at Bayfront Park! Hope you can join us for that and for the rest of the weekend!
Love and blessings!
C, S & N