Dear Heavenly Father,

It has been almost a year since you came down and touched my heart in a powerful way. Through the year you have taught me many things, but the greatest of these is LOVE. I’m always amazed with how much you LOVE me. Do you remember the one time I asked You, “why do I LOVE you God?” You answered, “because I LOVED you first.” That meant a lot to me, and everything you do means a lot to me. Sometimes, I feel like I could explode with gratitude. It seems like I can never thank you enough. It seems like I can never LOVE you enough.

Lord, I used to not care about anybody except for myself. You changed that. You gave me a new life, and in this new life I am constantly conformed to the likeness of you. It’s not anything I have done Father, but it is all by your hand. You gave me the ability to LOVE, and it is my desire to use that wonderful gift to glorify you in all ways!

Many won’t understand, and some are very cruel with their words. It breaks my heart to think about your children treating you the way they do. I just look at everything you have done in my life, and I can’t figure out how anyone could not LOVE you.

Your LOVE is something that is impossible to comprehend on Earth. Occasionally, you open the Heavens in my life, and I can feel your Presence. In that Presence, I feel perfect LOVE. It is so overwhelming that it brings me to tears, and causes me to fall to the ground. Sometimes I think that if I could feel the fullness of your love, I would probably explode. It’s so powerful, so wonderful, and so important in my life.

Father, I want to know more of your LOVE. I also want to LOVE others as you LOVE them. You have given me many gifts, but they are all useless without the Gift of LOVE.

May our hearts be softened for our neighbors. May we rise up and take our stand in the LOVE war. Out of our LOVE for you, may we love others. In Jesus Name!

Happy Valentine’s Day God. You are my One True Love. There is no one like you!

LOVE,
Justin

The moment I first heard people speaking in tongues, I was baffled…to say the least. I had never heard of the gift of tongues, and I was amazed to see this manifestation of the Holy Spirit right before my eyes. However, my past in the occult left me cautious to welcome anything that seemed out of the ordinary. I started to search for scriptural evidence of this gift, and what I found astounded me! The Bible verses that exist on this topic are so detailed. There’s no room for interpretation, and yet I managed to have never heard of the gift of tongues! After meditating on these Scriptures, I came to realize that this gift was perfectly normal, and what was abnormal was the people who rejected it.

I never prayed to receive tongues. I was watching a teaching by Patricia King, and she started to talk about the gift. After listening to her, I thought how neat it would be to have a private prayer language to speak with God. I just couldn’t understand how I would go about speaking in another language. Was the Holy Spirit going to grab my tongue and start moving it for me?

Patricia said at the end of the teaching that if the Holy Spirit was in us, the gift of tongues was too (Mark 16:17), and all we had to do was open our mouths and let it out. It finally made sense, but I was afraid of what was going to come out. I ignored my fear, and surrendered my tongue to the Holy Spirit. When I opened my mouth there were a few mumbles, and then it became stronger. I could hear what sounded like real words that I had never heard. I prayed in the Spirit for two hours that night. I guess you could say I had a lot of built up things to say to God!

In the days following, I really wanted confirmation that this was from God, and not just something in my head. I asked Him to confirm that it was a gift from Him, and I said, “if it’s not from you, I don’t want to do it.” One day, I kept saying a word that sounded like “makoya”, so I decided to see if I could find anything. Of course, I didn’t know how to spell what I was saying, but I typed my first guess (makoya) into reference.com, and this is what came up! This was the first confirmation. I also had confirmation in certain Bible verses that the Lord led me to. For instance, Matthew 7:9-11, which basically says that if we ask God for something good, He is not going to give us something bad. I also noticed how this prayer language made me feel. I would start to feel confident, and a new authority would come into my voice. Even when I switched to English, my English prayers would be stronger. This is supported in 1 Corinthians 14:4, which says that tongues is for edifying ourselves.

Do you speak in tongues? What was it like when you first started? If you aren’t speaking in tongues, don’t fret! I don’t hold the belief that it makes someone any less of a Christian, but I do believe that everyone who has been baptized into the Body of Christ can do it. What’s holding you back?

During worship last night I felt in my spirit to pray for more faith. Almost immediately, the gift of faith was released, and I experienced God in a whole new way!

In 1 Corinthians 12:8-10 Paul reveals the nine gifts of the Holy Spirit, and the third one is the gift of faith. The Amplified actually says it’s a “wonder-working” faith. This seems to be a gift that is often overlooked, but after last night, I have grown a whole new appreciation for it.

Faith is one of the core principals in Christianity. Without it, there would be no way of surviving this world. You can believe all you want, but without faith, the tiniest pebble in the road will cause you to fall. It is by faith in the unseen, that our natural realm begins to transform.

I believe it’s the supernatural gift of faith that opens the door for the other gifts of the Spirit to operate in our lives. Without faith, who would attempt to speak in tongues? Without faith, who would lay hands on a person so that they may be healed? It is only with the release of faith that our incapable beings become capable of carrying out God’s will.

After the Holy Spirit imparted this “wonder-working” faith, wonders did indeed happen! I received specific words from God, and I felt the extremely heavy and tangible presence of the Lord. I saw in my spirit that there was something coming down from Heaven and flowing towards my friend Lisa. As I explained what I was seeing, she was obviously feeling it. I don’t know what she was feeling exactly, but it almost made her cry, and she started to fall backwards. It was as if this unseen force was pushing her down.

I love when my Heavenly Father plays with me like this. It makes me feel like a child again, and it brings joy to my heart. Wouldn’t it be nice if I could put that feeling in a bottle, and drink it whenever I wanted? His presence comes so unexpectedly though, and if I could control it, it would be too easy for me to say, “I’m doing this.” Knowing that I can’t activate His presence whenever I want confirms that it is not by my power, but it is by the power of the Holy Spirit!

It all goes back to faith. So what can you say about this gift?

This has been a powerful day. I’m still in complete awe, and I love God more than ever! A couple of things first, and then I will get to the point.

God has been preparing to move me out of my job for awhile now, and today was the day that it happened. Church was so awesome this morning, and I knew afterwards that I was done. I was over so many things there, but one thing was I couldn’t stand feeling so wonderful, and then going to a place that made me feel so miserable.

So I went in, and told them I was done. Praise God, I was freed! Then I decided to go back to church for the 1:00pm service. Another awesome experience! The teaching was right on, and everything I have been doing was just confirmed there. After that I went to Gina’s. We hung out for a little bit, and then we went to Living Waters for a convention called, “Releasing the Mantle”. One of the guys from John Paul Jackson’s Ministry, Aaron Evans, was there and we had a fantastic time!

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