The Activation Experience

We got out of our comfort zones today and entered the zone of the unknown – where we literally had no idea what would happen, putting our trust in the Lord! Activation, also known as ‘Ask The Lord’, is when we ask the Lord what He wants us to do and what He wants us to say to us. We then go out on ministry in pursuit of the people or things that God put on our hearts.

After a teaching session in the morning, we talked about how to hear the Lord’s voice and then practiced with a partner. My partner and I both had a hard time at first and didn’t think we heard anything for each other nothing for each other, so we went to talk to Gabe – one of the guys who works for Adventures Guatemala. He told us to ask the Lord individually how he sees us. I got nothing again, but then God showed Gabe a tender and loving image to share with me. Gabe told me that he saw a little girl with a teddy bear who was getting tucked in by her father.

The past two years, I have told myself repeatedly that the Lord does not cause all of the pain, tears and struggles,  but He allows them so we can fully come to Him and rely on Him. I just said that because I knew it was the right thing to say, but I only half believed it. Deep down inside, I had so much anger, grief and sorrow towards God because I was deceived by Satan’s lies that everything in my life was all of His fault. I blamed the Lord for something He did not even do. Later that morning, during my quiet time with God, where it was just me and Him, I just started weeping and laying everything before Him. I told Him that I’m so sorry, but I also thanked Him because He is refining me and creating me for who He wants me to be. I opened my Bible and the page it turned to was in Mark where it says ‘I believe; help my unbelief’, which is what I prayed because I believed in the Lord God, but when tribulations came, I doubted. Then I look to the right and read ‘truly, I say to you, whoever does not receive the kingdom of God like a child shall not enter it. And he took them in his arms and blessed them, laying his hands on them’ (Mark 10:15-16). Immediately God told me to turn to Luke 8 where Jesus heals a man with a demon. Just as Jesus instantly went toward the hopeless man who was chained with shackles, He is actively chasing after and pursing me, who was chained with anger. Jesus changed us from slaves to free children of God. Since I labeled the doubts as lies, I now live in so much joy and freedom, and I can truly feel the love and grace from the beautiful, wonderful, and powerful name of Jesus! I realized that I was the lost and wandering sheep and God, being the Good Shepherd, came after me until I was found. My Heavenly Father told me that even though I falsely accused Him and ran away, He still loves me unconditionally and endlessly. In Luke 8, the Lord told the man to return to his home and what the Lord has done, and that is my calling as well.

After lunch, we went out into San Luis and broke into teams to ask God what He was telling us to do and say; we stepped into our first session of “activation”. The whole time I could not get the Lord’s great love out of my head. We started walking and saw a woman pop out her head from a red door on the side of the road, so we walked in obedience towards her and introduced ourselves. I began sharing my testimony and God totally used it. Recently, she and her husband separated and she had two young children. She said she was doing the best she could to provide for them. I saw my mother’s strength inside of that woman, so I told her how, even though my mother did not have a great job or even a job at all, she trusted in the Lord to provide and He did in so many ways. The woman said she also believed in God and had peace. She invited us inside, and we saw two walls and hanging clothes, which was the exact image one of the girls, Abby, got from God in our prayer time beforehand. One girl, who was inside, told us that she has not been to church for three years. This ended up aligning with Julia’s testimony, so she shared how God changed her life. We invited them to a church close by to them and it seemed like they wanted to go. Before we left, we asked them if there was anything they needed prayer for. They asked for prayers for peace, and that the mother had an accident and had a bad part in her leg which caused pain a lot. While Julia and I prayed for the one girl, Abby and Kelsey prayed for the mother and her children. The mother was not able to test her leg out because she said it on hurt occasionally and most of the time when it was cold. However, we pray and believe the Lord would take away the pain completely. After a while, I started playing with the little boy with a bouncy ball and he jumped all over the place. At one point, he tripped and fell on his knees, so he came to me. I knelt down and put my hand over his scratched knee and prayed for healing and that he would feel God’s loving arms wrapped around him. Once I said ‘amen’, the boy put his knee down, stood there for a bit to stretch it out, and started running and jumping again.

In that moment, I was totally overwhelmed by the demonstration of God’s love and protection for His children! Then we passed out bracelets and told them that God is weaving their story together. It was a wonderful first day of activation – learning to hear the Lord’s voice and step in obedience to his promptings!