SYATP Recap
This week has been exciting with preparation for the annual See You At the Pole gatherings at local schools.
Sunday night, Joshua House hosted a regional SYATP Rally in the Armory. We had over 120 teens and leaders attend from all around central PA. Some of the schools that were represented (that I knew of) were: Tyrone, Altoona, Bishop Guilfoyle, State College, Huntingdon, Williamsburg and Central. The KeyChurch worship team led us in praise and worship, Theron Glenny led some fun games and Mizpah Glenny shared a word with the students to challenge them to live for God this school year. It was great to see so many young people gathering to pursue God.
On Tuesday, I spoke at the Refuge Youth SYATP Rally with nearly 100 students and leaders gathered. I was very excited to have the opportunity to speak to the youth at the place that I was deeply impacted by God when I was 16 years old. I asked a number of people to pray for the evening and a pastor/prophet friend of mine said to me, “God is going to use you in the prophetic tonight. There has been a bubbling in your spirit so you must begin to speak and it will increase, especially with words of knowledge. So be bold. Have an awesome time in God tonight!” This greatly encouraged me and I asked the Lord if He had any words of knowledge that he wanted me to speak forth. On the travel back from my daughters’ volleyball game in Penn Cambria, I had a sense that He wanted to healed these things: someone’s left knee, someone having a shooting headache like a migraine, back problems and someone that had back problems because one leg was shorter than the other, ringing in someone’s left ear and someone in a wheelchair that may be in leg braces. This was new for me to do during a message time, but I wanted to step out in boldness believing that God wanted to heal some people.
Words of Knowledge for Healings
I first called out left knee problems and a young man stood up. I prayed for him and asked him to walk around to see how it felt. With shock on his face and in his voice he declared that it felt better! I asked completely or how much? He said about 80% better. So I prayed again and then asked how it felt. He exclaimed that it felt completely healed! Wow, I was pumped, so was he and so were the other students. Bethany Marshall stood up as well, but didn’t feel healed at that point but came to Jess and I after the service and felt like God was healing it.
Next I called out the headache like a migraine and a young girl raised her hand. I prayed for her and asked how it felt and she immediately said that the headache was gone! This made me smile and leap inside and you could tell that the teens were getting excited. I followed with asking about back pain. A young girl, Cera, stood up shyly. I asked her if she knew if her one leg was shorter than the other and she yes. I had her sit down on the stage steps to see and sure enough one leg was shorter than the other. So I prayed for her back to be healed and her leg to straighten out. I’m not sure if her leg grew (it seemed like it did) but as she stood up she explained that her back felt completely fine and so did her leg! Praise God. I prayed for another person’s back to be healed and it immediately was as well. Then I mentioned that I saw a picture of a person in a wheelchair and leg was in a brace but there wasn’t anyone in the service with that problem. So I encouraged them to be on the look out for this person and pray for them. After the service, several young ladies came up front asking for prayer because they were nervous during the service. Just like during the service, two more backs were healed. One of the young ladies expressed that she knew who the person was in the wheelchair…it was her dad and he was in an accident but she hasn’t spoken to him since. I could see that there was deep hurt so I asked if I could pray for her heart towards him that God would heal that as well. She collapsed into her friends arms and the Lord ministered to her deeply. I then encouraged her to ask God to help her forgive her dad and go pray for him. Jess was with me after the service and prayed for several young ladies as well.
Message: Marked to Make a Difference
God gave me a message to call the teens to be ‘Marked by God’. In Galatians 6:17, the apostle Paul states that his body bears the marks of Jesus. Likewise we are to be ‘marked by God’. I shared how I was marked by God when I was 16 years old when the Holy Spirit rested on me at a tent revival meeting at the very location that this service was being held (before a church building was built there). I was never the same after that and I challenged them to ask God to mark them so that they will never be the same. We walked through the first 4 chapters of Acts talking about how Jesus said that we would receive power when the Holy Spirit would come upon us to be His witnesses…(Acts 1:8). And I love how Peter and John declared to those persecuting them that ‘they cannot help but speak about the things they have seen and heard.’
I concluded stating that ‘the kingdom that is in your will create a kingdom or culture around you. If a slave is in a palace, he will eventually make that palace a prison. But if a prince is in a prison, he will make it a palace. When the Kingdom of God is in you, then you can make a difference wherever you go. When you pray at SYATP, when you walk through the halls at school or down the street in your neighborhood…God wants you to make it a better place and change the culture around you through you.