In October I got to go to the Go Conference in Estes Park, Colorado. During the conference God really started something that I would like to tell you about.
Testimony by Matt Woods
I am somewhat hesitant writing this and telling you about what I am about to tell you. I am hesitant partly because what I am about to tell you is so fresh, having happened in the last 24 hours, and partly because part me of thinks it is too good to be true. However, with this hesitation I am met with great faith, because I do not believe that this message could be kept in, or that this movement that I am going to tell you about could be stopped. The reason I believe this is because I am confident that this movement has not been started by the zeal of men, but by the zeal of God who I know can accomplish all things, especially this task (Isaiah 37:32).
As you most of you know God has really been moving in my life the past few months, and really rearranging everything. This journey has led me to Discipleship Training School (DTS) out in Denver, Colorado, where I am continuing to seek my calling from God on my life. I have been in the DTS for 4 weeks now, and every week God has been moving and doing great and amazing things, however it was this past week that I believe will be pivotal in not only my own life, but for history.
This past week my DTS took part in what is known as the Go! Conference in Youth With A Mission (YWAM). The Go! Conference is designed to do pretty much what it sounds like, to get people to go and serve. This year there were around 200 or so YWAMers present at the conference, and when you have that many people earnestly seeking and following Jesus Christ, something amazing is bound to happen, and it did!
On Thursday night one of the most anointed men that I have ever heard speak, taught at our last major session of the conference. His message was not unexpected. Everyone knew he was going to issue the call to go, but I do not think we realized how powerful that call would be. Fred challenged us, asking, pleading, that we would be the generation that rises and seeks God so hard that we would fulfill the Great Commission by making sure every unreached people group would receive the life giving gospel of Jesus Christ, which is not all that new. Until he told us that he believes that we can do it, and hopes that we will.
He then went on and told us about places of strategic missions in the world, and showed us key spots where missionaries need to be, in order to prevent a major set back of the spreading of the gospel for centuries. The 6 locations were the eastern cities of China and their leaders, Northern India and the Himalayas, Central Asia, Iran, the entire continent of Europe, and a line that goes across Africa known as the Sahel belt, and this belt is important because it divides the Northern Muslim countries of Africa from the Christian southern countries of Africa, and the line is slowly being pushed south by Muslim missionaries. He then went on an explained the strategic significance of each of those areas, and then issued a call to go and win the world for Jesus.
After this dynamic presentation Ian, a good friend of mine, and I went back to our room, and knew that God was calling us to pray because He had something big in store for us. Part of the reason we thought this was because we were on historic ground. You see there have been 3 major missionary movements in the history of the church. The first was the 1st centuries church rapid expansion into through Christ's disciples. The second came through Count Zizendorf and the Moravians, and the thrid was the student volunteer movement which received a major push in Estes Park, Colorado at the YMCA, the very place where our conference was being held. Ian and I walk back to the room and knew that we had to pray. So, we invited the guys of our DTS to a night prayer to seek out the Lord and to respond to this calling on behalf of our generation. And we begin to pray as a body of guys that God would show us what He had planned and what He desired for the conference.
That is exactly what God did! 20 minutes into our prayer God speaks to a couple of us, and clearly tells us that he wants to start the 4th major missionary movement, and that he wanted to start that movement at that conference, with us. Now we realized that we were emotional and excited from the amazing challenge that Fred had issued us, so we continued to pray, but soon we found our self praying door by door for every person in our dorm building. Then we were led outside and went and prayed building by building asking God to come and set the stage for a radical mission movement to be begin, and to spread from the YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park. As we are praying for all of this we are completely baffled by what is going on, and we knew that we had to get leadership, but by this time it was 1:30 in the morning and we were almost positive that all of them would be asleep. But we went anyway to their rooms hoping God would lead us to a leader so they could confirm or calm us down. So, we ending go to the building where all of the leadership are sleeping and to make a long story short God leads us without any knowledge of where his room is, to Fred Markert's room. We share with him our story and what we think God is doing, and then he prayed for us, and said I believe in your generation and I have hope that it starts with you. After that Fred writes his email on a random piece of a paper so we could email him to get the resources of his presentation that he gave that night. In order that we could go out and spread that as well to mobilize a force of people to spread God's gospel to the ends of the earth.
We then go back to the room wondering still if this is really happening, and we pray that if this is really what God is trying to do to put the entire leadership on board with this idea of a great mission movement with out us even talking to them. When we get back to the room we begin to pray that God would give each of us direction and to strategically place us in his mission field based on what Fred had shared with us. As we are doing that I open up the paper Fred had given me, and it was a welcome letter from the conference staff, and on that paper were a set of prayer points. The fourth point down said that the staff believed that this conference was going to launch the fourth major mission movement into the world. And we realized that God had been working this plan out even before He had told us, and that this was not just us, but that the zeal of the Lord was ready to take back His earth.
We woke up Friday and went and shared are story with a staff member named Amos, and he told us we had to share this story with the rest of the conference. And that is exactly what we did, and God showed up and responded in such an amazing way. It started by Ian and I sharing the testimony from Thursday night. After that all of the guys who prayed that night together were called to come forward 11 in total. God then spoke to Brian Hoganm, a missionary from Mongolia and current church planting coach, and said to him, I used 11 guys once. I gave them the Great Comission, and here are 11 guys who am I giving it to again and who are going to lead the way to help fulfill it. We then received word that our intercession for Juarez, Mexico was working, and that God had placed his hand over the city, so that no murders would occur in a city where it averages 7 a day. On Thursday, there were none, and we asked God for a week, and we believe he will do more than that. Then the entire conference was called up front and laid on hands on the 11 and annoinuted us to go and become this movement. Then God used us and the staff to annoint the rest of the conference to the same. God went from moblizing 11 to almost 200 people in 12 hours, and with that growth rate just imagine what he can do. Once we had prayed for one another we began to network to see this mission come true, and for those of us who felt called to Africa we started a team of around 20 committed people who are going to go and strengthen and push back the Sahel Belt for Christ. Then the coolest thing is God started to heal his people through the prayers of one another, so that He could send out an army that was whole and lacking in nothing. And it is continuing to grow and more teams are being formed even as we speak. October 30, 2009 is going to be a special day in history when God mobilized a few to share a message that mobilized millions for His kingdom.
I am writing to you this story because I want to extend the invitation to you. Throughout the Bible God commanded his people to go more than 8,000 times, and he is waiting for his people to stop waiting for a greenlight because he already gave them 8,000 greenlights and He just wants us to go and wait for a red one. So, I am inviting you come with me. Come on this journey let us strategically fight for God's kingdom here on earth. Billions of people are dying and they have never heard of the name of Jesus, and that is the greatest injustice that we can change. So, if you have tasted of the goodness and sweetness of Christ would you come, would you share that message with me wherever God calls you.
I and all of those who already accepted the calling of seeing our generation fulfill the Great Commission need help spreading this message. You can help this movement grow in so many ways. You could pray that this does not die down, but that it keeps it zeal and vibrance and becomes everything I just told you it can be. You could also open up your churches, schools, or any place where we can come and share this message of God's strategic mission in the world. You could support someone who has received the call and going. We cannot do this on our own. Must of us who accepted the calling our poor kids who need support and guidance and need to be sent. So, would you send us? Finally you can come with us, and literally change and claim the world for Christ.
God has started the next major mission movement in church history. The only question that is left, is, will you stand up and be part of it?
Matt
P.S. - we are hoping to produce a video testimony of the evening with Ian and I to post on youtube, so that others can hear our story and receive the call and invitation that Christ has given us, so that can join with us and realize this is the movement that God has been stirring in all of our hearts. Let us not shrink back in a time such as this. We are hoping to do that in the next few weeks, and will send out emails when it is done!
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I hope you took the time to read all the way down here, because it surely is an amazing story! if you have any questions, please email me! :)
frauke
1 comment:
NICE!
By the way - I SUCK at your game!!! (Lost 3 times, in case it doesn't keep track)
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