Trading Your Expectations For Being Expectant

Trading Your Expectations For Being Expectant

The difference between having “expectations” vs being “expectant”.

Sometimes it’s easy to allow our personal expectations of God to be in the forefront of my mind, instead of simply being expectant of God to show up. Being expectant doesn’t necessarily mean you know what will happen, but you understand that God is who he says he is and will reach your heart exactly how you need. Your personal expectations base God’s presence only off of what you’ve experienced before, but being expectant lets God bring new revelation.

Being expectant of God

With that being said, you might think, “how in the world do I let go of my expectations and instead start being expectant?!”. The truth is, this process looks different for everyone because we all have personal and unique relationships with God. Everyone takes a different route in learning God’s nature and consequently develop different expectations of him. But, being expectant of God is something we can all do because it welcomes him to bring new revelation of his love to us. For example, some expectations might look like thinking God only speaks to us when we do certain things, pray certain prayers, or even sit in a certain place. But, eventually you might stop hearing God clearly when doing these things. This is likely because your expectations have gotten in the way. We must fully be expectant of God, so that we can actually receive more truth from him. 

God brings new revelation

God knows what we need because he’s a lover of our hearts, but sometimes our expectations of him aren’t aligned with his character. He simply desires a relationship with us, not a programmed schedule. Imagine if we let our detailed expectations go, and trusted that God can do the impossible? Being expectant of God means we recognize that he’s within our waiting, our questions, and the minor details, but our expectations can keep us from receiving new revelation. Being expectant opens the door for progress within the process. We can exhaust ourselves if we only rely on our expectations. God speaks differently to us as we grow older with him, because our relationship is intended to mature. Spiritual growth requires us to be expectant, even if it looks different than last time.

The letting go of our expectations

The point is, we can always be expectant of God to meet us where we are, but we shouldn’t decide how he’s going to do it. We should be expectant by anticipating God bringing new revelation of himself, instead of giving him a list on how to do it. Often times our expectations are actually innocent, but can easily derail our growing process with God. There are times when he’s trying to show us something new, so that we can go deeper with him. Being expectant can further your relationship with God, rather than sticking to how it’s always been. Remember: God is with us in all things, even if you don’t know what to expect. 

What would it look like if you traded up your expectations for being expectant? What doors is God asking you to open so that he can bring new revelation to your situation? Are you letting God reveal more of himself to you, or holding fast to old expectations?

 

To learn more about this topic please refer to: https://www.biblegateway.com

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Who Is The Man in White?

Who Is The Man in White?

Who Is The Man in White?

Across the 10/40 Window, there are surfacing testimonies of Muslims having dreams and visions of this man. In some cases, the man speaks to them. But in others, He brings nothing but silence and an overwhelming sense of peace. So who is the man in white? This phenomenon is the perfect conversation-starter for missionaries to share the the love of Jesus with people who may not have been open to it before! Can you believe it? It’s as simple as going up to someone and saying, “Have you ever heard of the man in white?” Even if they find themselves clueless, the question is enough to make them wonder.

In short, and really the only answer you need, the man in white is Jesus. You probably could have guessed! The man in white reveals himself in Matthew 17:1-2 (ESV), “¹ And after six days Jesus took with him Peter and James, and John his brother, and led them up a high mountain by themselves.² And he was transfigured before them, and his face shone like the sun, and his clothes became white as light.” But, what may surprise you is that the man in white, Himself, is bringing Muslims to the Gospel.

The Power of Testimony 

In Acts 4:33 (ESV)  the Bible says, “³³ And with great power the apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.” As Christians, we acknowledge that there is power in our personal stories of how we came to know the Lord. Our current outreach teams are experiencing this first hand! Through combining power of Jesus and the power of their testimony, they helped two men discover Jesus! 

“A few days ago, my team went to a coffee shop to write encouraging letters to give to women that were highlighted to us. There were two women and a young man that invited us to sit with them! They were all Turkish, but have lived in London for years. So, they spoke English. Praise God! We got their WhatsApp and met with the younger guy at another coffee shop later.

We shared our testimonies with him and he shared his story with us. He even told us that he had dreams of “The Man in White.” He continued to explain that, he never saw the man’s face, but always saw him at a distance, or from the back. We told him “THAT WAS JESUS! And that he wants a relationship you! The reason He seems distant is because He wants you to come near to Him and seek His face.”

The man was blown away! He had so many questions and was curious to know more about Jesus. Of course, with excitement told him about Jesus’ love and pursuit of us. Eventually, the man ended up saying, “I want that. I want a relationship with Jesus.”

We asked if we could pray with him for salvation, but he wanted to do it in his own time, to make it his own relationship with Jesus. We respected that he wants that intimacy. He said he would message us when he received Jesus, so we could celebrate with him!”

This story is amazing on it’s own, but it doesn’t stop there…

“The church that we are attending has a young adult group that meets every Friday night, and the Lord has been moving in incredible ways. As we were sharing a testimony about the person who was having dreams about the Man In White (see above), a newcomer shared how he has been having dreams of a voice speaking to him. The voice was saying things like, “everything is going to be alright,” and “I’m going to fix this.” We got to pray for him and tell him Jesus was speaking to him! This made him incredibly happy. He had to leave, but before he did, we were able to pray for him.”

The Power of Prayer

Testimony isn’t the only thing that has power! In John 14:13-14 (ESV) it says, “¹³ Whatever you ask in my name, this I will do, that the Father may be glorified in the Son. ¹⁴ If you ask me anything, in my name, I will do it.” There’s power in our prayer! YWAM Redding wants to invite you in praying for:

  • The millions who have already encountered Jesus through dreams!
  • More dreams and visions of ‘the man in white’ across the world, especially in the 10/40 Window.
  • Our current and future outreach teams.
  • Our current and future students.

Want to be apart of what the Lord is doing in the lives of Muslims?? Come join us in a Discipleship Training School and reach the Middle East! 

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Words of Knowledge and Their Place in Missions

Words of Knowledge and Their Place in Missions

The term “words of knowledge” gets used a lot in our community and in Redding in general. But what really is a word of knowledge and how is it different from a prophetic word or word of encouragement?

What’s the Point?

A word of knowledge, just like a prophetic word or word of encouragement, starts with Love. When you’re representing Christ to the people around you, it’s a good idea to ask God what HE is wanting to show them or speak to them. Our example is Jesus, who only did what he saw the Father doing. He will only ever do (or say) the MOST LOVING thing, so let this Love be your motivation and directive.

Words of knowledge, prophetic words, and words of encouragement are all things that we hear from God for another person. It’s a way that we can show them that God sees them, loves them, and wants to speak to them and encounter them. They produce faith and hope.

1 Corinthians 14:1 “Pursue love, and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts, especially that you may prophesy … v3 the one who prophesies speaks to people for their upbuilding and encouragement and consolation… v4 the one who prophesies builds up the church.”

Prophetic and Encouraging

So, once again, how is a word of knowledge different? Well, let’s start by explaining the other two. Words of encouragement generally speak to an individual’s identity in Christ. You may have even heard the phrase “calling out the gold”. This is to say that you identify the beauty and God given truth about who someone was designed by God to be. It may sound like this, “You bring so much joy into every room you enter, even without trying to!” or “You are such a great example of the Father’s love to your kids!”

A prophetic word is different in that it speaks about God’s plans for someone’s future; calling forth what may not yet be present in someone’s life, but will be according to God. It may sound like, “I see the Lord giving you ministry opportunities with kids. He wants to use you to bring healing love and acceptance to children who feel unloved and unwanted.” or “I see you working to bring business to developing nations, creating job opportunities and community for persecuted believers.” or even “God is giving you the gift of joy to see and speak hope in all situations.”

Words of Knowledge

A word of knowledge is a little harder to describe in short. But it speaks to something that the person you are ministering to is currently experiencing or has experienced in their life. It highlights a specific experience, situation, or detail about that person. For example, I’ve seen God tell someone the other person’s birth date (day month and year), or the name of the street they lived on as a child. I’ve had God tell me the name of someone’s brother or relative and about the current state of their relationship. Most commonly I’ve seen words of knowledge be about physical ailments. For example, knowing that someone has a right shoulder injury or chronic neck pain. I’ve even seen it be as specific as, “you were riding your bike as a kid and flipped over your handlebars and ever since then you’ve had lower back pain.”

God gives us words of knowledge about other people to raise their faith for what He is wanting to do in light of their circumstances. If you suffered from migraines every day of your life, had been prayed over dozens of time, and then were asked to be prayed for again, what would your faith level be for that healing? But what if someone came to you and told you, “You’ve suffered from chronic migraines every day since you were 21 because of a drunk driver hitting your car, and God wants to heal you today.” If that was your situation, your faith that you were about to be healed would absolutely skyrocket! And you would have no doubt that the God who always sees you and intimately knows you and loves you is the one who healed you!

Words of Knowledge and Prophecy in Missions

Words of knowledge, prophetic words, and words of encouragement, in the end, only glorify God. They show people that God is real and is alive and active in our lives today. It tangibly shows them that God sees them and loves them more than they could ever imagine. They back up our claims that Jesus is the Son of God come to save and redeem the world.

We recently had some of our DTS outreach teams over in the Middle East, and they had some opportunities to minister powerfully through words of knowledge. As a fuller example of how these gifts glorify God and how we can use them in missions and ministry, check out this amazing story from one of our teams.

Outreach Testimony

“One family we met at one of our creative events was Muslim and they had decided to come just an hour before we started. In the events there’s worship, testimonies, poems, and the gospel message.

When people were mingling afterwords, some of our team went to talk with this family. One of our guys talked with the son (who was 10-12), and heard from the Lord through a word of knowledge that the boy had nightmares. He asked him if he did, and the boy said yes. Our guy told him (as the Lord spoke to him) that he felt like these nightmares were satan coming to steal from him – and the boy immediately said “Yes!” and went on to share that in the dream there were snakes attacking him and literally saying that they were stealing from him. So he was able to pray over the boy’s dreams and the Lord brought peace!

The mom asked how our guy knew about the dreams, and so he started sharing about how God speaks to us and shared more of the Gospel. The mom was surprised/a little unsure about how God could speak to people – and then as they’re talking about hearing God, our guy gets another word of knowledge that she has pain in her knee. So he asked her about it. She was so shocked and said yes, asking how he knew. Again he shared that it was God speaking, even in that moment! A couple of our team prayed for her knee, and it was totally healed! She was amazed and by the end of the night, was so interested in Jesus that she got our team’s numbers to continue meeting up to hear more about this God who speaks to people. Praise God!”

Your Turn!

We want to encourage you that these things aren’t just for the super-spiritual. God wants to (and will) speak to you and minister powerfully through you

Want to take a season to dive into the things of God? Learn about how God wants to use us to reveal His glory on the earth by doing a DTS!

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A Prophetic Journey into YWAM

A Prophetic Journey into YWAM

 

We asked Rachel, one of our new Encounter DTS students, to share about her powerful journey which lead her to YWAM Redding. Through prophetic dreams and words, the Lord guided her each and every step. When the Lord wants us somewhere, He will make it clear as we seek Him! 

 

I was finishing up my second year at a ministry school when I asked the Lord to give me a prophetic word for the next season. I told Him that I wanted so deeply to be wherever He wanted me to be. I immediately felt like the word was “adventure”. Twice after that, I had people pray over me and the first thing they said was, “I see a new prophetic word. I see the word ‘adventure’.”

I was still discovering what this word meant to my life when I had a dream that I would be spending my next birthday in California. I wrote down the dream and continued to seek the Lord about what He wanted for the next season of my life. Soon after that, a mentor of mine came up to me and told me “I can really see you at YWAM. I think you should look into it.”

Then, in March, I had another dream. I was standing outside of a town surrounded by mountains, and I saw a vision of fire rolling into the city. This dream had revelation for me spiritually, but I wasn’t really sure what it meant.

Continuing to seek the Lord, I was looking back at my notes and realized someone had previously prophesied missions over me. Because of this I decided to go on the YWAM website and look up bases in California, typing “adventure” into the search bar. I saw the Redding location pop up and it immediately stood out to me. I started to message them back and forth and one of the emails they wrote me was an EXACT prayer someone prophesied over me!

I continued to pray, asking the Lord to continue to reveal Himself and His heart for the next season. When the fires happened in Redding, I got extremely discouraged and scared. I wondered why the Lord would send me somewhere getting destroyed by a fire.

When I went to my friend for encouragement, she reminded me of the dream I had in March! The Lord revealed to me how beyond time He is, and that He knows me better than I know myself. I was so mesmerized by His willingness to speak so specifically to me! It grew my faith so much and I am so excited to give everything I have to be where I know the Lord wants me.”

 

Want to learn more about the school that Rachel has come to be a part of? Click the button below to discover our Encounter DTS!

 

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A Muslim Man’s Journey to Salvation | Outreach Testimony

A Muslim Man’s Journey to Salvation | Outreach Testimony

Our current Discipleship Training School outreach team was just in Russia for the World Cup. YWAM outreaches teams have been going to large international events for years to do ministry and reach out to the nations that attend the event. Our team had an amazing time using the World Cup event as an open door to minister to people from unreached Muslim nations that have never had a chance to hear the Gospel.

Here is an inspiring testimony from their outreach in Russia written by one of our current students:

“On one of our days during ministry in Russia, my wife and myself had a chance to go out on ministry together. We began our time praying, we specifically asked God to lead us to people whose hearts were ripe, we wanted to reach someone who wanted it!

As we were out and praying for direction we both felt led to stop and chat with a man (that we will call Ken) at a park. We quickly found out that Ken was from Yemen! Which is a majority Muslim nation and currently unreached that is currently in a civil war. He was studying in Russia as there are not very many opportunities to study in his home nation. After briefly talking to him we felt like this was an open door to hearing the Gospel.

Ken came from a Muslim background but during the conversation we found out that he was way more curious about experiencing God. Which is amazing because in most conversations with Former Muslims or current Muslims there is usually an aspect of  defending Islam that takes place in conversation. Later we found out that one of his friends from Africa had been talking to him about Jesus and was reading the gospels with him! His roommate has moved away. Ken now lives with other Muslim men. My wife and I were delighted to be part of the story God was weaving in his life since his heart had clearly been prepared through all the discussions he had with his former roommate, it was an answer to prayer.

Ken was interested in a faith that was tangible and experiential, so my wife and I shared our testimony. After we had a chance to share he exclaimed “how can I have that?” We shared with Ken about accepting Jesus. He was afraid to pray in public because of the laws against praying in public in Russia. Ken wanted to know how to ensure that He had received Jesus once he prayed on his own. We explained about our own experiences of being born again and filled with the Spirit. We had also shared with Ken about our own experiences of God speaking to us through dreams, and he said he really wanted that. We prayed that he would be able to receive dreams and revelation from the Lord. Ken left awestruck as he walked back home.” – Ebby (current DTS student)

Romans 10:9-10 says because, if you confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. For with the heart one believes and is justified, and with the mouth one confesses and is saved.”

While Ken may not have prayed a prayer of salvation he did confess with his mouth that he wanted Jesus and wanted to have the Lord in his life. He understood the full story of the death and resurrection of Jesus and had a good understanding of what it looks like to be born again. Ken even wanted to make sure that he could be sure that he was able to receive Jesus as his savior! He didn’t have to pray a prayer to enter into salvation. The only requirement we see in scripture is confessing that Jesus is Lord and that he was raised from the dead.

Now all of heaven is rejoicing at Ken’s story to redemption and salvation! We are so excited to be a part of welcoming him home!

If you would like to learn more about what it looks like to minister to Muslims you should check out our school of Islamic Studies! The heartbeat of this school is to equip our students to go out and share the Gospel within unreached people groups. Click here to read more information!

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End Bible Poverty Now

End Bible Poverty Now

This past month our base leadership team was invited to a conference in Kona, Hawaii. The conference gathered leaders from various YWAM bases who have been actively involved in Bible distribution and ending Bible poverty. Together they learned about the vision and heart behind the YWAM covenant, End Bible Poverty Now. They learned about the partnerships that YWAM has created with foundations such as Wycliffe, Faith Comes by Hearing, The Jesus Film and others, who are actively involved with ending Bible poverty. Together, they are all working towards one goal – the translation and distribution of The Gospel unto the last of the nations. Everyone has a different role and part to play in this vision, but together they have all agreed to:

  1. Pray
  2. Translate
  3. Publish
  4. Distribute
  5. Educate
  6. Motivate

These six things are what make up the End Bible Poverty Now Covenant, and YWAM Redding is beyond excited to have the privilege of taking part in this!

The Back Story

1967

The End Bible Poverty Now movement started with a small spark in Loren Cunningham’s mind in 1967. He was on a trip in Mexico when their bus broke down, so they started to share the Gospel in the local village. While there, woman wearing a faded red dress approached them and asked for a Bible. She shared with them that she couldn’t find one in her own village or in any of the surrounding villages. Loren and his team searched and finally found one Spanish Bible to give to her.

As they were driving away, Loren reflected on this situation, and God began to speak to him. He showed Loren the great need to bring Bibles to nations and people who don’t have access to the Word of God in their language. He contacted the Bible Society and shortly thereafter they distributed 50,000 Bibles in Mexico.

1983 and 2020

President Reagan declared 1983 to be the year of the Bible. In the two years that followed, the entirety of Hawaii received the Word of God. In 1999 Wycliffe Bible Translators declared that the translations for the last nations who have yet to receive a Bible in their own language would be finished by 2025. This is when the term “Eradicating Bible Poverty” was coined. Shortly after this, in 2003, Loren declared that every remaining language without a bible would begin being translated by 2020. This is how the official goal of End Bible Poverty Now was established. We want at least a portion of the Bible to be published and accessible to people in every country, tribe, and nation by the year 2033.

Becoming a Bible Hub

YWAM Redding is proud to announce that in our partnership with this movement, we are officially a “Bible Hub” for Ending Bible Poverty Now! This means that we are a west coast resource center for the storage and distribution of Bibles! In addition to hard copies, we will have the ability to produce Bible SD cards in any translated language. We will also be able to provide Jesus Film projectors and other materials to outreach teams. Surrounding bases can request any of these resources so that, together, we can get God’s Word to the nations!

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