Tonight, Brandon, my younger brother, was baptized. “I want to follow my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ” were the words he shared before he was baptized by my mother. When he went under, even though I was holding the video camera, I could feel tears running down my cheeks. This was a very emotionally amazing moment. I pray he continues to move towards God.
After all the baptisms, (47 total lives saved publicly!), we went into the worship center, and at that time began one of the most powerful nights of worship I have ever been apart of. At first we all just stood infront of our chairs, but then, since we were allowed to, we decided to go to the front and worship with space to move around. When the song “I Love Your Presence” by Bethel Live came to its chorus, I felt God wanted me to kneel down, but I didn’t; at least during the first chorus. Then, the second chorus came around, and I truly felt if I didn’t’ kneel down, I would be sinning against God. So I kneeled down, but not out of my own strength (if it had been out of my own strength I probably wouldn’t have had enough courage/strength to do it), but out of God’s strength I knelt. During the time of kneeling, when that chorus came around, I lifted my hands up, and at that moment, I felt God like I never had before. He wasn’t saying anything, I was just in His presence. Tears started falling from my eyes; tears of joy. This experience was like none I had experienced before. God’s presence was definitely at Valley Creek during this Beyond! After that song, Becca Reynolds, one of our pastors, came up and we started to mediate and dig deeper into God. She had us imagine a door. My door was made of brown wood, and the word on top of it said: LOVE. Then she had us imagine a key, and my key said FAITH and GOD’S STRENGTH. Behind this door was what God had in store for us, and this key opened that door. For me, LOVE was behind this door, and I needed FAITH and GOD’S STRENGTH to open this door. So, I put the key in, and the door opened away from me (inward), and behind the door was God. He was so bright, brighter than anything I have ever seen. They started singing the song, “Lead Me On” by Rachel Moreno and Valley Creek Worship in the background, and once this started, God held His hand out, and I grabbed it, and He took me on a journey. It seemed like we were walking through clouds…like our idea of what Heaven would be like. As we were walking along this path, we stopped at this one scene. It was a scene of a couple with the dad holding their baby. Then the dad looked up, and it was me. (While in Germany, Christoph, one of the pastors over there, prophesied over me that I would have a happy, loving family…and not to worry about them). This vision truly helped to confirm what Christoph had prophesied over me. (Every time I read over this or think about this vision, I always tear up, and am at a loss for words.) The next scene we stopped at was me picking up my future wife after we had just gotten married. Both of these truly confirmed LOVE, what my door said. And God and I continued to walk along the path looking at different scenes. Another was me infront of people preaching. And of all the scenes I did see, I know the three that were truly from God were my future family, my future wife and I, and me preaching. As crazy as this may sound, it is very true, and I know and believe what I saw. Those visions just helped reassure me to not worry about my future and who I’m going to marry; that God has it all under control. He will never leave us nor forsake us! He will be there every step of the way.
“God goes before us, walks with us, and walks behind us – God sets up devine meetings, helps us along the way, and protects us.”
I am still at a loss for words. There is so much I could say, but all I can say is how amazing Beyond was! Beyond was, is, and will continue to be a life-changing night of worship for all 47 newly saved Christ-followers and the hundreds of people there worshiping God freely! I pray for each person who was baptized that they continue to follow You Lord, and even if they may fall, that You will be right there to pick them right back up, and help them get realigned on Your Path. I pray You, God, continue to work through each and everyone of them. I pray God has touched and continues to touch each person who was at Beyond! I pray all this excitement and all these blessings don’t overwhelm us; that we don’t worry about trying to remember everything. I pray that instead of trying to remember everything, that we choose to follow You whole-heartedly God, and know that You can and will do anything and everything we ask for and believe in! I pray you continue to help us walk on this journey with You. We may struggle sometimes. We may get unaligned sometimes. But we know, no matter how many steps…whether 5 or 100 steps…that we are only 1 step away from Grace…YOU, LORD GOD! I pray blessings over each person at Beyond and over anyone and every person who reads this post. I pray this all in Your Son’s majestic and all-might name, Jesus Christ, AMEN!
Blessings,
Ryan
