I have just gotten back from a life-changing trip, leading a team into Central Australia on a prayer mission. Each individual has their own story about how God changed their life, and together we were commissioned to release fresh life over this nation. For me, this was an assignment which God gave me five years ago and I have been going through intense life situations to prepare me for the completion of this assignment.
This photo was taken at sunrise near Uluru on the morning we had communion, September 2015
When God told me this trip would be like no other trip I have led, I did not understand the weight of what He was telling me. He told me that this trip would be a matter of life and death. As it was, two people on the team almost died, and two others had very real encounters with the spirit of death. I have experienced firsthand that my God is powerful and not one life on the team was lost! All glory to God!
I am so grateful to those who have been praying for me over the last couple of months, as the lead up to the trip was just as full on as the trip itself. We saw God's light shine through in such beautiful ways. We went to the hospital on one of the days. I offered prayer to a couple of people sitting out the front. They were both healed of severe lung issues. (Language is limited when it comes to the indigenous people. They don't go into details, but they do understand the spirit and they are very honest.) One couple on the team were out late one night and came across a demoniac woman. She was screaming out, but could not speak. As they prayed for her, a deaf and dumb spirit came off and she could hear and speak again. Praise God!
It was amazing to see the transformation of the team over the week that we were together. They went from being unsure of what they were doing in Alice Springs, to being completely confident in what God was showing them and seeing changes manifest immediately around them. It was difficult to be faced with death and overcome it, but I kept thinking of these quotes. St. Joan of Arc said, "I am not afraid, I was born to do this." And as Mordecai said to Esther,
"And who knows whether you have not come to the kingdom for such a time as this?" Esther 4:14 ESV
There are assignments which require years of preparation before the Lord, overcoming certain things, maturing in certain areas, being positioned according to that particular season, and so on. God revealed to me that certain things must be overcome for the authority to be given. We only have authority in those areas which we have overcome personally. Until we have overcome an area in our own lives, we do not have authority over that area in other people’s lives or over regions and nations.