being jake wood

I’ve never really been the guy with nothing to say, but lately I’ve been learning a lot about silence and more particularly the “power” of silence. I felt like from day one that God wanted me to step back as the youth pastor and let Him do what He wanted to do. Although hard, it’s been amazing to see who God brings up and out within the group and leaders. Kim has really stepped into her spiritually. But that’s for another day… soon.
Today was our free day, or shall I say part free day. After we toured the city with 23 people we ran back to the church where Dapo sent our small worship team over to practice and meet some of the other people who will help out with Saturday’s outreach. They led worship and I was SO proud of them. I know they felt it was rough, and it wasn’t perfect. But the spirit they brought was amazing. Then Chris came up and shared his testimony which was great for our team who probably never heard all of it. After that Kim went up and shared something on her heart about her being called to be the “mother” to youth, and how proud she was to call our group “her” kids. It was of course followed with much weeping, but also a very honest and sweet spirit into the room. After she stepped down, Jackson got up and broke down and shared how we need to bring “this” back home. It was at that moment that a gentle spirit filled the room and weeping broke out. Not just a simple cry, but a genuine move of the spirit. As I watched and felt the spirit moving I felt pulled back. More than anything I wanted to jump into this newfound spring of the spirit but I was held at the beach. I went forward to pray for Jackson and encourage him to pray aloud what was on his heart. After this more weeping broke out and I had the overwhelming sense that something special was happening. I immediately found the need to kneel because God was doing something and I was humbled to even be in the same room. Visions of past revivals flashed through my head and I felt like if I did anything it would quench what the spirit was doing. I could only kneel and say nothing. This was Holy ground. So there I was laying prostate with my face in the carpet while the spirit moved around and over me. I’ve never felt a desire so strong to be in the middle of what God was doing and yet be held back. It’s as if God was telling me “this is what’s going on over here, and while that’s happening I’m going to show you what to do after this as the shepherd.”

The shepherd. This is a new place.

By this time it feels like what the first disciples must have felt in the upper room. Excitement and yet a little scared. There was no music that brought this about. There was no teaching or preaching that brought this about. Just a group of teenagers who wanted more of God. Teens who decided to knock on the door, to ask from their father, or dare to imagine something more than just a “worship” service. And God answered.

While I’m on the floor and the spirit is moving all around, I feel God continuing to pull me back to almost observe. And then I have what only can be described as a vision. I’m whisked away and shown flashes of images that continue to roll like a movie reel in my head. Over and over they continue, some of them I immediately understand and others I still have no clue as to what they mean. Here is what I saw.

It was a vision of the church, and more specifically Freedom Life Christian Center and the youth ministry. Over the church the Holy Spirit was hovering like a cloud, moving back and forth. Then, what can only be described as an egg cracking in half, the Holy Spirit began to spill out over the top of the church.

Then I envision what seems to be a small fisherman’s boat out at sea. It is a stormy day and the waves are literally crashing the boat back and forth while waves dump sea water onto the deck and off. It was a picture of boat in a storm. On the boat is the crew that is on the trip with us now. I don’t see everyone, but I have the sense that everyone is there. Around the deck each member is casting lifelines out to what appears to be people in the ocean. People scattered throughout are being pulled in one by one by our group. I can make out Hailey feverously casting and pulling, casting and pulling. It seems like they never rest. And yet there are more and more people that are drowning.

I’m then brought to a quiet forrest where I’m held breathless by an image. The image of a beautiful deer. She is standing right in front of me around a well lit backdrop of trees and leaves and vegetation. I’m quiet not to stir her, for fear that she might be startled and run away. My every move is calculated very carefully, knowing that the slightest error can send this majestic creature far away. She is something else and I can’t believe I’m seeing this. Feelings of joy and excitement fill me up and yet I’m so scared that I’m going to mess up this moment. “Tread lightly”, I tell myself.
“Only a handful of people in this lifetime have ever seen something like this.” I understand it is a rare moment. And just as quickly as the vision came, it left.

I’m then dropped into not one but many different revival settings from times past. I can’t make out anything specific except for one. The Topeka Kansas revival. I envision hundreds of students just like the ones I’m with now… pleading and begging for God to forgive them of their sins and the spirit of God moving on them just as he did tonight. Empowering them with something bigger than themselves. I think then of John G. Lakes. How did he walk into this? How did he handle it? How does God use him? I feel a tie to Lakes. I don’t fully understand. I need to read about that revival again.

I’m fully concious at this point. No emotions have clouded my vision and what I’m seeing. I feel fully aware and fully “in” the moment that God has me. I feel razor sharp. I run to find a pen and paper and scribble down what I just saw. I cannot forget any of this.

Most of the visions I feel I can understand except for the deer one, which I have a grasp on but feel like God will reveal something more to that soon