I shared with our team last night the first miracle I ever saw. It is the thing that I continue to go back to whenever my heart is filled with doubt or fear. It dawned on me that I’ve never shared it here, so here goes.

I got a call on Sunday from a friend asking for prayer for a missionary. “Ezekiel” is a pastor in Africa. On Friday his wife called and said his 8 year old son wasn’t there when she went to pick him up from school. Ezekiel hadn’t seen him either. A couple of hours later they received a ransom note.

Someone had their son and wanted 1 million dollars (about 14K US$) for his safe return. Needless to say, Ezekiel doesn’t have a million dollars laying around. They contacted him later and lowered the ransom to the equivalent of $4,700.

Ezekiel came up with $1,700 and called for prayer. As a network of believers began to pray, Ezekiel felt led to contact the kidnappers. He told a friend that he couldn’t pay them off because it would “open the door for other pastors to possibly have their children taken”. He contacted his sons captors and told them: “I’m not giving you any money and I want my son back. You’re not dealing with me. You’re dealing with God.”

He sent his wife and younger child to another village to protect them and prayed. On Monday the Holy Spirit directed him to a certain part of town to look. Ezekiel obeyed.

Ezekiel found his son and took him home.

God is real and God is good.

I’ve been in youth camp the last few days here in NC. This is the camp that I grew up going to. This is where my heritage is. I first felt called into ministry in the back of this chapel and surrendered my musical gifts to the Lord on this altar. I’ve had the chance to worship with old and new friends and it’s been a great opportunity for me to come back and minister to kids around the same age I was when all those things happened for me.

We’ve had some marathon worship times this week and our speaker has only hit the stage twice. It’s been a great time of sensitivity to the Spirit and seeing kids interact with God. Last night was a pretty intense. As we began to worship a simple song came forward that I felt the Lord was directing at one of the brothers at the camp. I called him up and began to sing three simple words. “He is faithful.” One of the pastors here got up and spoke about God’s ability to seal and keep us. After worshiping for a few more moments we felt the Lord was calling us to give an invitation for people to receive prayer. It was a powerful time of seeing God impact people’s lives and speak words into their lives.

I prayed for several kids last night and the Holy Spirit revealed specific words for most of them. We talk a lot in our church about Spiritual Gifts and it is always great to see them in true operation. We had tongues and interpretation, words of knowledge, wisdom and prophecy. I’ll be honest and say that I’m always amazed when God decides to speak directly to a person’s situation and destiny. He has a way of cutting through to the heart of the matter. The fact that He loves us and died for us is amazing enough on its own. The truth that He remains invested, interested and involved in our daily grind and the over-arching destiny of our lives is almost mind blowing for me.

After having prayed for several kids I walked back to my cabin tired, humbled and fulfilled. Sometimes when God decides to use you in a meeting in a specific way pride is lurking at the door. I could feel myself feeling good about what had happened. That was when it was time to remember that I am completely unworthy. My usefulness to God is only there because my righteousness is not in myself. Whenever I feel a little pride creep in because of something God is doing in my life, I remember the words of Paul. He said:

My favorite place to worship in my church is…where the kids worship. Our 4 year olds-5th graders all worship together in their own worship space on Wednesday nights. I love all our other teams and can experience the Lord wherever on our campus, but that is my favorite place to be during worship. They jump around and do some things you can’t get away with in “big” church. (some of that is for good reasons) They worship with such abandon, innocence and enthusiasm.

Something about kid’s worship always gets me. The Bible says that, “Out of the mouths of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise”. Interestingly enough, in this passage (Matthew 21:12-16), Jesus had just gotten a little ticked with the manipulation of people in the temple and cleaned house. Afterwards, the blind and lame came to Him and He healed them. What should have been beautiful about this visit to the temple is that the Messiah was finally there. He had come to bring purity and healing to His house; to re-establish it’s purpose. The chief priests, some of whom were benefiting from the scams, were furious. The children, on the other hand, cried out and were saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David”. Their innocence allowed them to see what the spiritual leaders refused to recognize.

Kids worship with a purity and innocence that is so easy to lose as you get older. When children worship, really worship not just sing songs, I find myself broken. There is nothing like seeing kids with hands raised in worship, singing like it is the most important thing they could ever do. And if they start crying as they worship; forget about it, I’m officially done leading. I can’t even continue when I see kids truly experiencing Him. Having a 4 and 6 year old seals the deal. When I hear them sing from their heart, in the car, the house or on Wednesdays at PowerKids my passion for Jesus is renewed. I love seeing kids experience God’s presence.

I was praying with Judah, my 6 year old, the other day about having a “Transformer’s Mind” (another topic) and I sensed the presence of the Lord, so I asked him how he felt during the prayer. Did he feel anything “different”? His response…”I felt kind of tingly. Like I knew Jesus was there. Kind of like spidey-sense.” I don’t know about you, but reading that just made my spiritual “spidey-sense” go off. Lord help us to keep our childlike sense of wonderment, amazement and enthusiasm for Your presence.