Weekend with God

I consider myself a Godly man. But this Friday I battled that thought. I came home Friday from a long day of teaching and was in sweatpants by 4:30pm. I had no plans for the weekend, this is very unusual. I started thinking about what I could do with the time. Should I call my brothers, should I call my friends, should I go rent some movies and just have a chill night? Then I decided to pray about it. God what do you want me to do with tonight? I didn’t like his response, “spend it with me.” I have to be honest I couldn’t help but think “But God that sounds pretty boring no offense. I work hard all week to get to this point and now you want me to spend an entire night just doing God knows what.” I quickly realized my desires were turning selfish. I was shocked that I considered a night devoted to the creator of the universe boring. This is the reality though, we get so busy that we don’t like to do things out of character. I’m so used to being busy and going from one place to another that even in my down time I like to relax and get my mind off everything. “Okay God, what do you want to do tonight?” It didn’t take long before I found myself on my knees thanking God for all he had done in my life. I began praying for everything to come. “Lord, I want to serve you in any way I can.” Those words would come back to bite me.

As I prayed I began to have God move in my heart, he was telling me to write my testimony. “God I already wrote about how you healed me from drinking.” I could hear him speak to my heart “Zach it didn’t end there, tell about everything I healed you from.” Oh no, I thought, don’t ask me to go there. “God please don’t ask me to share about my sexual sin that is too much.” If there is one thing I have learned from this past year in my walk with Christ, it is that you have to be obedient to whatever He asks if you want to be blessed by God. I decided to text a few friends to get their opinions, the cell phone began shaking in my hand as I began to text, a few tears turn into waterworks. My friends responded with love and encouragement as always, “just write it down, God will lead you after that, maybe you just need to get it out of you.” I continued to pray “God you brought me here, if I can use anything to help encourage or bring people to you then use me, use my stories and most importantly let others see the wreckage you brought me from.” At this point I need to point out that I do not feel led to share this testimony, not yet at least. After writing for a few hours I decided to spend more time in prayer, God filled my heart with peace since I was doing his will.  

 

I then began praying for my future wife, asking God to bring her to salvation, that He is blessing and protecting her mind, body and heart. All the sudden I felt an overwhelming sense of warmth, God spoke to me a few words which will give me peace when I doubt his timing “I have her” There has never been more joy in my heart than at that moment. God always tells me that my wife will be my biggest earthly blessing,  not my job, not my mission trips, not preaching, my wife. She will be worth the wait and I found comfort in knowing God already has her, that I don’t have to worry about what she is doing, that I don’t have to lose sleep about how God is going to move in her life. The words echo in my heart even as I write this “Zach, I have her”. What He is repeatedly telling me is “Zach, trust me, continue to seek me, she is doing the same. Zach continue becoming the man I want you to be for her, she is doing the same for you.” I can tell you right now as a man who went to nine weddings this year, I repeat, NINE WEDDINGS, that it gets old being single but God reassured me she will be worth the wait and that He has her. Don't get me wrong, I am extremely happy for all my friends who got married this year and the past but I have to be honest, it gets difficult to watch others move on with their relationships while your standing still. He even gave me a vision that night of her praying on her knees, I couldn’t tell what color hair she has, how tall she was or even what she was wearing. God just wanted me to notice that she is His, she is praying for me and that in His timing we will be linked  together.

This may sound corny to some of you reading this but I can care less. If your biggest heart ache was money and in an instant God paid off all your debt and the future looked bright you would be jumping for joy too. I realize using money is a poor example to the things that God has in store for us, that relationships are our biggest earthly blessing and God just gave me the biggest insurance policy I needed to continue driving into the unknown. “I have her” will be enough  gas to get me into her presence, it will be the promise that God continues to provide in my life.

The remainder of the evening I could focus on other things, I began preparing my sermon for the next My Generation. I will be teaching on how God loves us. There is so many different ways to approach this so I took the suggestion of my pastor, Joe Barber, which was to  listen to six other sermons on the subject. I didn’t realize what God was doing at the time but he was filling me up with wisdom, knowledge, peace and joy. I woke up the next morning and got right back at it, reading the Bible and seeking what God was trying to tell me. What started off as a crazy idea to spend a whole evening alone with God turned into the most healing, prophetic and joyous weekend of my life. I realize now that  I need to do this more often. That God asks us to do this in His word. My thought process was “I am a man of God but I still need to be entertained.” Gods thought process for me was “Seek me and I will give you an abundance of all things your heart desires.” Never again will I question giving my time to God. This is one of the most important gifts God gives us and we must use it wisely. That being said if there was one thing that I took away from researching and studying about How God loves us its that he desires a relationship with us over everything. He would rather spend a night alone with me than have me out ministering or being the light for others. He is jealous for our love, our time, our  energy and our focus. He doesn’t want our left overs, our scraps, which to be honest we all tend to do sometimes.

I have talked to Christians who tell me they pray in their car, while they are eating or while they are laying in bed at night. I have to be honest, I am guilty of this myself but God does not want our left overs. God wants us to be available all the time and to recognize that the time he awards us is a gift. He asks that we give him the firsts of everything. That when we wake up the first thing we think about is God, when we get paid the first thing we think about is giving back to God, to give back what he has already blessed us with. When He sees us in relationship with others He wants to be the focal point, He is and always will be wanting to be the center. If there was one message I would give to anyone questioning, wondering where is God and if he loves me, I would speak over and over again how CRAZY he is about you!! He is so in love with you. He will do whatever it takes to get your attention, he doesn't want part of you, he wants all of you and He wants to show you more than you could ever experience without him. He wants to show you true life, He wants to show you that there is a way to live that this world cannot offer you. There is hope, security and it isn't a possessions, popularity, a job, relationship or dream, it is a person, Jesus Christ.

 

 I'm so overjoyed right now because I just spent an entire weekend with the creator, the one who spoke the land we walk on into existence. The one who said let there be light and BAM the sun was created. I am absolutely consumed by  the overwhelming love that I have felt this weekend. A love that can not be replaced by any entertainment but only the presence of an amazing God who is completely smitten by you. He desires a relationship with you. Never in my wildest dreams did I think another boring Friday would turn into an abundance of peace, joy, love, hope and a closer relationship with the one who carried my sin to Calvary on a cross. Jesus wasn't just sent here to teach us how to love each other, He was here for a bigger purpose.  God knows we live in a broken world and part of his divine plan was to reconnect God to man and man to man and he did so through God in the flesh, Jesus Christ. There is and was no other way to complete this tasks. This blog post is just a taste of what I have experienced these last 48 hours, I plan on doing this more and turning it into a message for the upcoming My Generation. For the first time I am not nervous about preaching, I am excited and determined to convince people who come to My Generation that God is so crazy about them, I know because I have felt it.

 

If I could encourage you to do anything after this weekend with God, I would encourage you to put him first in everything you do. Wake up and pray, be purposed about it! All things come easier when you involve God. The next My Generation will be Friday, February 8th at 7pm at Lancaster Community Church. The address is 230 North Columbus Street, child care will be provided. Please help us by sharing this post on Facebook  or clicking "Like" on this message to help us get the word out to others. Thank you for reading and please leave a comment below or email me if you have any prayers, questions or concerns at MyGenerationMinistry@gmail.com. God Bless You!!