Knowing God

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“To Know God and make Him Known.”

YWAM is committed to know God, His nature, His character and His ways. Its from the overflow of knowing and enjoying fellowship with Him that we seek to reflect who He is in every aspect of our lives and ministry.

I heard Joy Dawson speak on this in 1978 with a passion that was strange to me.

As she shared with so much conviction about ways to get to know God my heart filled with faith that this is something I could also do. Vividly I remember walking into a bookstore and asked for the biggest notebook they have because I knew He was BIG and therefore I needed a BIG book. So for the next 3 years I made God my study and filled those pages with Bible verses and insights and revelations about who God is. Oh the joy of knowing Him. It was like a doorway of fellowshipping with this Trinity God and treasures were unlocked.

As Joy always reminds us “He is the event! The Bible is not primarily about man – it is about who God is.” I also discovered why it needed more grace for Moses to leave God’s presence than to go up the mountain. I went for a 30 day retreat alone with God on a mountain and it was more difficult to leave that place  than to have begun. My Mom said to me a week afterwards: You need to come down from the mountain because you never leave your room!”

Here are a few of the ways of how to get to know God (learned from Joy Dawson):

Let us acknowledge to God how little we really know Him. Tell God that you want Him to be the supreme desire of your life and ask Him to increase your desire and begin to seek Him. I love the way that Jeremiah reminds us “You will find Me when you search for Me with your whole heart (Jeremiah 29:13)

Begin to pray the prayers prayed by those who went before us. These are some of my favorites that have helped me to hunger and thirst for Him continually.

“As a deer pants for the water brooks, so pants my soul for You, O God! My soul thirsts for you” ~ Psalm 42:1-2

“O God You are my God, early will I seek You; My soul thirsts for You. My flesh longs for You, in a dry and thirsty land where there is no water. So I have looked for You in the sanctuary to see Your power and Your glory” ~ Psalm 63:1-2

MarietteAnother focus is to study the ways of God which are the principles by which He operates. His ways reflects His character. Meditate on and obey His word. I quickly learned the difference between knowing His acts from His ways. As I studied His ways it became obvious that it needed deeper digging and more time spent with Him.

If we want the imprint of the nature of God on us then the study of His Son is imperative because He carried the imprint of His Father. From 2 Peter it is clear that it is the knowledge of God and not the knowledge about God.

“But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. To Him be glory both now and forever. Amen. (2 Peter 3:18)

~ Mariette Louw has been a leader and speaker in YWAM for many years both in Scotland and internationally. She currently lives in Glasgow. 

Street Art Evangelism

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street art

‘What’s you biggest dream?’ I asked the man.

‘My biggest dream is to be in heaven and see angels,’ John answered. ‘And I hope that if I was to go to heaven, I would feel at home there.’

‘Well I believe God has a home for you in heaven. Could I pray for you?’

‘Yes, that would be great. I have anxiety and depression that I have been hospitalised for. I’ve not been able to work for six months. It’s awful.’

‘I’ll pray for that now then…’

 

‘What’s your biggest dream?’

‘Good question. I think my biggest dream is to be happy,’ Matchek from Poland answered.

‘That’s a very general dream, what if you were to be a little more specific?’

‘I have gone through a lot of change in the last year and I dream about feeling peace in my life…’

‘Well I believe God wants to give you His peace. Can I pray for you?’

 

‘What’s your biggest dream?’

‘To pass my exams!’

‘Are you studying here in Edinburgh?’

‘Yes, but we are from Thailand and China’

‘Oh wow! Well I believe in God, and I believe he wants to bless you guys, would it be ok if I pray for you and for your dreams?’

 

During the Mission Explore Weekend in Edinburgh we took to the streets with the youth to do evangelism. We were there to talk to people about their dreams and to offer to pray with them. We got to speak to loads of people: Koreans, Qataris, Swiss, Polish, English, French, American, Thai, Chinese, Singaporean, Scottish, etc and nobody I spoke to refused prayer.

It struck me how many people I met that don’t have anyone at all that pray for them. What a blessing it was to be able to share God’s love with them in such a simple way and see their faces light up as they encountered the living God on the streets!

Mission Explore Weekend (part 2)

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Last weekend we had a Mission Explore weekend in Edinburgh. It was a great time with a bunch of youth from Scotland, Wales and Scandinavia. One evening we did some exercises in hearing from God. The youth both got to hear from God for themselves, and for each other.

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As we asked God for words for each other, one of the guys felt God say that he sees his friend as a warrior. Another heard God say ‘Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious’ over her friend, and that God meant that he has so much he wants to say to her but there aren’t enough words to explain to her how much he loves her.

Everybody was encouraged both by what God had said, but also that it was so easy to hear from God.

The next morning we split into small groups to do treasure hunting. We started by sitting down and asking God who he wanted us to meet when we went out, what they would look like, where we would find them, and even what their names would be. Then we went out in our groups to try and find them.

When the groups came back and we asked ‘did you find your treasures?’ it was great to hear how group after group had found the person God had spoken to them about.

One group was looking for a man who would be sitting on the street. They had a clear description of what he would look like and what his name was. They went out and found him and decided to buy him a meal from McDonald’s. As they gave him his meal and talked to him, they found out that they had all the details right and it also happened to be his birthday. They got to pray for him and he was very thankful.

Another group was looking for a man in a bright yellow jacket with hip problems. They found him explained what they were doing, and asked if by any chance he had a problem with his hip? Yes, he did. So they were able to pray for him and he and his wife were very thankful.

It was wonderful to see the young people stepping out in faith as they listened to God and then blessed people on the streets of Edinburgh!

 

Mission Explore Weekend in Edinburgh

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Our Mission Explore Weekend in Edinburgh has just finished: it’s been an action packed weekend, full of God moving in and through us all. We spent time in God’s presence, worshipping, praying for each other, washing each other’s feet, listening to God, eating together, doing evangelism, eating together and sleeping on church floors – all in a weekend with a bunch of youth going for it with God!

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On Saturday afternoon we were out on the streets doing evangelism. We had four different groups: one group was asking people to join our chalk street art project and draw or write down their biggest dream, another group was handing out treats and bible verses, another group was playing the swap game (which is a game where you start out with a pen and go up to somebody to ask them if they want to swap the pen for something of higher value, they might give you a different item, which you then try to swap with somebody else. Once you have something nice you pray about who God wants you to give it to and then you go and find them and bless them). And the last group was giving out Gospel bracelets (a Gospel bracelet is a bracelet with differently coloured beads which represents different parts of the Gospel story).

We have lots of testimonies from the time of evangelism, but here is one: One of the groups that were giving out bracelets got talking to a couple about what their dreams were. To begin with the man said his biggest dream was to be happy, but as they dug a bit deeper, it came out he had problems with anger and that he dreamt of being free. They spent a long time talking to this couple and, using the Gospel bracelet, they got to share the Gospel story and got to pray for both the man and his wife who were very thankful.

Passion for Jesus

On Saturday morning we asked God for an increased passion for Jesus and boldness to take risks with Him.

In the evenings we had time to worship and listen to God together, and to talk some about who God is. Here are some of the things the youth took away:

‘I connected with God when I was drawing. I had lots of pictures in my mind as I was listening to the songs.’

‘God speaks in different ways and I can hear from him’

‘I was given an encouraging prophetic word, about how God sees me’

‘God has a plan for me, even when there seems to be no way; he still has a plan for me’

‘I was inspired by the outreaches and the opportunity to step out of my comfort zone’

‘I made new friends’

‘There was such a sense of family’

After an intense weekend we are all tired but also very thankful for all God did.