The Return of ATF

As the evening of Thursday April 28, 2011 rolled around, I looked at my husband Mike, who had already tucked himself into bed, and said " I just cannot get my head around the fact, that tomorrow we are taking a group of hoot'en, holler'en teens to Acquire the Fire"  He replied without moving a muscle under his covers..."me either".
I am going to be real, and say, it was probably one of the last things on my "Things I Want To Do" list.  Sorry Amp!. Although I love you guys crazy, I just wasn't feeling it.  BUT GOD!  He shows up in spite of our feelings, and emotions, our wants or our selfishness, and He gave me the strength to go.

I knew something was going to happen on the weekend that the enemy was trying to stop, when our transportation for the trip was being sabotaged.  The fifteen passenger van we were going to take was broke down and we were looking at putting together a plan B.  That plan included my car, Mike's truck, and the truck of a volunteer going to help chaperon the youth.  Then that plan began to unravel when Mikes truck wouldn't start, and my car started smoking under the hood.  Uggggghhhh!  I just started to pray.  I knew this was an attack.  Good news ya'll!  God is still on the throne and He heard the prayer.  Just in time the van was repaired, Mikes truck started, and the smoke under my hood turned out to be a very unfortunate mouse who was barbecued Chevy Trail Blazer style.  Needless to say, the transportation issue was no longer an issue.

Friday night at the event, as usual, they held a break out session for all the youth pastors.  Normally this is a "things you need to know" session.  So out of duty, I followed the herd down and around and up and down into a secret cavern in the bowels of the stadium.  But what happened next in that room was not at all what any of us expected.  Instead of just getting a run down of events and things to know, God showed up. And when God shows up, He does it big.  Within minutes I found myself jumping to my feet along with every other youth worker in the room, and we began a spiritual battle on behalf of our kids.  These were men and women, warriors on the front lines, fighting and pushing in the gates of hell for every teen in that arena.  Getting back areas that the enemy has taken from them.  Reminding the devil how big our God is and that he will not win this war! We began to yell and scream and claim victory over the lives of the youth in our groups.  We called their names out loud, one at a time.  We cast down strongholds, confusion, distraction, and all hindrances to what God was going to do in their lives over the weekend. We proclaimed it as good as DONE in the Name of Jesus Christ.  And we thanked God for all he was going to do, even before we were able to see the results.  It was amazing.  We all walked out of that room catching our breath, with tear streaked faces, in great anticipation of what God was going to do next.

As God moved among our young people throughout the weekend, we continued in prayer.  Knowing that God had heard our petitions, we were expecting great things. The climax came Saturday night.  We gathered in the stadium after our dinner break, and started  the next session with praise and worship.  As the music played and all the people sang out, in a dimly lit, almost dark stadium,  I witnessed something that I have never seen in all my years in youth ministry.   An arena filled with 13,000 youth  fell completely silent, no music, no voices. The only sound was that of the weeping and tears coming from teens throughout the room.  God was moving in a big way.  This is what we as youth ministers were praying for on Friday night!  This was the victory we had been proclaiming all weekend!  For two hours our teens pressed into God on their own accord. There was not one thing we as leaders had to say to encourage them or help them get into that Throne room.  Not a word was spoken. All we could do was look around the stadium in awe and wonder, at the Glory of the Lord that  filled that place. The teens found themselves not only on Holy Ground, but totally engulfed in the arms of God.  They had arrived. They were in the presence of the Lord, before His throne.  They wept before their King, and He gave back so greatly to each one of them. 

On our way home we talked with the teens, most of them shell shocked and without words for what had just happened, and the response from them was much of the same. "I am not sure what just happened, but I have not been this broken before God in a long time, if ever."  There were many questions put to us as we drove home.  "Do you see things when you pray?"  "Are there really angels that follow us and protect us?"  "Do you ever see things in the spirit?"  I don't know what happened when these teens met God while sitting in a plastic chair, in a stadium in Lansing, but I do know He stirred their spirits. They are eager to see things with other eyes. To see into the spiritual realm.  To see as God sees.  They want to know the secret things of God.  They are pushing in, and wow!, hasn't that been my prayer all along?

Lives were changed, souls were blessed, and I was completely undone.  To know that even when I was too tired to tackle another youth event, God showed up, and God delivered, and God not only blessed my teens, He delivered "exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think".  Our God is an awesome God!