Westward 2012, debrief

So, this trip to Colorado has officially changed my life. It would take an extremely long post to explain everything and I've already talked about some of it, so I'll briefly go through a few more things God showed me.

Now I know for a fact that God wants me in Colorado, and is going to get me there. All week long, Godly people were approaching me and telling me God has something big in store for me out there. On the last day, one of the teachers at Charis Bible College (someone who I had only just met and did not know my story at all) prayed over me and said, "This week God has given you many divine appointments," and, "God is opening doors for you which no man can shut." Wow...and this at the end of a week full of both of those happening nearly every day.

During the week, God not only encouraged me, but also convicted me. Since last winter I have been getting into drinking despite knowing my bad family history with alcohol. Earlier this summer God let me know it wasn't a good idea and that I shouldn't take part in something that has hurt my family so much already...but I ended up ignoring this after a while. This week God brought back the same point He already made and said it with such force that I've been totally freed from it; not that I was being controlled by it, but rather freed from following that path at all. My roommate Justin's jaw dropped last night when I came home and dumped half a bottle of Jager down the drain. Both of my roommates are excited about it and are very supportive of God doing this in my life, which is great. Today I told my mom about all this so that I wouldn't have to keep it from her anymore. Needless to say, she's also really happy about it, haha.

On the bus coming home, I opened my Bible to the book of II Corinthians. I was looking specifically for the passage about Godly grief in chapter seven, but God took me elsewhere. After I didn't find what I was looking for in those words, I glanced over verse four of chapter seven:

"I am acting with great boldness toward you; I have great pride in you; I am filled with comfort. In all our affliction, I am overflowing with joy."

This is Paul talking to the church in Corinth, but when I read it again, God spoke to me:

"Casey, I am acting with great boldness toward you, and I have great pride in you."

I was immediately comforted and started crying (to myself, of course...don't want to embarrass myself on the bus). Those words kept me going the entire trip home, even though I could hardly handle them.

God has definitely renewed me this week. I love what He's doing in me. I have a new desire to search His Word and a newfound trust in the power of the Holy Spirit in me.

Last night when I was thinking about these things, a verse popped into my head which I had heard many times, but which I now think I had gotten all wrong up until now.

"Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall. No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it." I Corinthians 10:12-13

I used to think this was saying, "You can fight through every temptation. God gives you some way out in each situation; you just have to buckle down, hand on, and push through it." No. This is all about letting God take control. It doesn't say "a" way of escape, it says "the" way of escape. That way of escape is the Holy Spirit in you. Defeating temptation is not a matter of trying to use God's strength and just getting over it; it's allowing the Holy Spirit to take control and letting the temptation die as you look to Jesus' sacrifice and the freedom God has given you through it.

That seems to be all for now. I'm really excited to see when God will open the door fully so I can take one of the biggest steps of my entire life.

Peace.