day 075. [riley]

Really quick, this is Riley Sullivan from New Life. I hope I typed down the right church, haha.

You see, he prayed over me last night. He prayed over me at the exact moment that God stripped me of everything that had defined me. At that moment though, I felt like I could trust Riley and just let him know what exactly happened at that moment. Hence why I ended up talking to him today about what God did that night.

Anyways, moving on, ha. Morning chapel had something to do with how God is our new system rather than making him part of our old system. In other words, once God is a part of us we don't try and make it so that he has to work with what's already going on inside of us. Instead we need to make him our new system meaning that there's nothing for him to work with. It's a fresh start. I really felt that this was one of the ways God was telling me how I need this season of my life to be now that I'm stripped of everything and have been called to this life of obedience. (I apologize now for using the word obedience throughout the posts of the week, haha).

It was good to hear this because I have fought so hard to try and make God part of my system when he wants nothing to do with it.

And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. If he does, the wine will burst the skins, and both the wine and the wineskins will be ruined. No, he pours new wine into new wineskins. - Mark 2:22

What kind of wineskin are you? Just think about it.

To be honest, as I look at my notes from evening chapel I draw a blank as to what Shane was trying gto tell us. I do remember the altar call from this night because it really called me out. It was also a special moment between me and a few of my Living Word home skillets ;)

First of all, Shane called the following people to the altar:

1. Those that have had to perform/impress others for their whole lives
2. Those who just haven't felt accepted in their everyday lives

If you can guess, I went up for the first one. I can't even begin to tell you how many people I've had to try to impress in these 19 years of my life. My parents are just a scratch in the surface of the people. Trust me, there's a long list of people. You probably don't even know how many times I've failed to perform/impress for some of these people. The hurtful things that have been said after such a failure. They stuck with me. I let them define me. But God decided that it was the end of that tonight.

God pretty much let me know, through others praying over me, that I'm done. I'm done needing to perform/impress others. I need only to meet the expectations that God has called me too.

What made this night as special as it was, was because God had me pray over two of my Living Word home skillets. I first prayed for Steven Welch, seeing as he was right next to me. Now that I think about it, I didn't pray for him. I just spoke words to him that were from God. How God doesn't see him as another face in the crowd. How God knows him by name. How he is an individual that is noticed. It was a powerful moment between the two of us. I really do consider Steven to be that little brother I never got because my parents didn't want a third child, ha.

The other person I prayed over was Laura Nagel. I really did pray for her, haha. That was another powerful moment as well because my prayer consisted that Laura would stop searching for acceptance because it was right before her. It was in front of her. It was honestly a good moment for us.

Praise Jesus! Praise God! Love :)