Seriously!

It is Thursday morning and I am still thinking about what happen at our last 212 service. Not only that but again God is keeping my heart engaged with the fact that “something “ great is going on!

I was watching some of the testimonies of students from the past Sunday night and 3 students were healed from vision problems! Not only that but one student had tremendous back pain and was healed. There were many more healings that took place, but I wanted to share another great story with you.

After the service many students/leaders stayed after to just worship God (side note: this has happened the last 3 services). After the meeting I noticed parents walking into the room and embracing their teenager. I also saw students praying for their parents. I know God supernaturally healed broken hearts that night and began to restore relationships.

I was standing in awe of God’s hand restoring brokenness with His love between parents and youth. I leaned over to Jamie Pridgen and said “Can you believe what’s going on right now?” He then turned to me and quoted 2 scriptures.

Malachi 4:5-6

(5)Behold, I will send you Elijah the prophet

Before the coming of the great and dreadful day of the Lord.

(6) And he will turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, And the hearts of the children to their fathers, Lest I come and strike the earth with a curse.”

Luke 1:17

He will also go before Him in the spirit and power of Elijah, “to turn the hearts of the fathers to the children, “ and the disobedient to the wisdom of the just, to make ready a people prepared for the Lord

Honestly, in my mind I said “great”. But the Lord wanted to make sure I got it. After the 212 meeting  I went to Atlanta House of Prayer. Just to pray and thank God for His healing power. One of the leaders of IHOP came over and began to pray for both Olivia and myself. In the middle of the prayer he began quote Malachi 4:5-6 and Luke 1:17! AHHHHHH, I hear you God! Again, I was in a place of “what just happened”. My prayer at the moment went form level 4 to 10. I could sense God’s heart toward mending broken relationships between parents and youth!

Pray with us that God continues to move and heal the broken hearted! 212 invites you to join us this coming Sunday at 6:00.

Blessings

Rolando Gonzalez

On my quest to continue to write blogs, I find out that Wednesdays really is the only day that I can sit down on focus on this. I have to give out major props to Stephen H. James F. and William and the reason is……Last Sunday night the moment I got up to preach we sent these guys out to on a “treasure hunt”. In case you haven’t heard Luke 15:8-10 talks about a woman who loses a silver coin and searches the whole house carefully until she finds it. This lost silver coin represents a person. The bible says that there is joy in the presence of angels when a sinner repents. In other words a major party for someone who gives their life to Jesus..…….Why? Because this is a person will now spend eternity with God!

So when Stephen H, James F, and William went out during our 212 service to find a treasure, angles are preparing to throw a party for anyone who gives their life to Jesus. Last 212 we challenged everyone to go out this week and find someone to pray for.

Till the next Blog (what an ugly name)…Rolando

So we have the place for what is known as “Blogs” on our website that we haven’t really taken advantage of. So we are going to start blogging about ……everything. Today I am going to blog random stuff. Just to get me into the practice of “Blogging” (by the way what an ugly word “blog”). Being that for many students this is the first week of school, I will just like to say that school is cool…?? That is just a cheesy way of saying that your school was made to encounter God’s kingdom. What a great opportunity just do something radical for Jesus. Signing out…Rolando

Some pretty cool things have been happening during our 212 services for the past few weeks. Now that we are going to start blogging (what are a weird word) about all kind of stuff….Let me throw this out there…..If you have been to a 212 service and God has done something in your life……………..I think the correct phrase would be “Blog about it”.

Prayer is simply talking to God. Most students don’t have a problem talking, but when it comes to talking to God, we seem to run out of words. Why is that? It could be because we are talking to an invisible God. When we talk to a friend, we can see and hear them. When we talk to God, it can seem a little strange because the response from Him is very different than your friend.

God never intended for prayer to be a boring. Instead He designed it to be a way for us to communicate with Him. Have a opportunity to know His thoughts and giving Him an opportunity to respond to our prayers.

Read Matthew 6:5-15

This prayer that Jesus is talking about is “alone” prayer between you and God. He says to go into your room and shut the door. Meaning that God really wants to spend some alone time with you. When you are alone with God, it is easier not to get distracted. And when you pray he says not to “babble”. In other words speak from your heart. Even though God know everything about you, like a good father knowing about their own son or daughter, he still wants to hear from you about your own life.

Don’ t feel that you need to spend hours with God. God, our father, enjoys every minute with you in prayer. Here are some keys that can help fuel (or give you things to think about during prayer).

1.) After reading a chapter or verse ask God to help you understand it more and how can you apply what you just read into your life.
2.) You don’t have to speak every second. When you pray allow time of silence to meditate on the bible or just wait to see if you get a response from God.
3.) Talk to someone to help you stay committed on a time and place of prayer. I found in my life that when I just try to pray through out the day, I don’t really spend that intimate time with God.

There are many more way to fuel your prayer life, but try these for a start.

Why is it that people’s words about us carry so much weight? Have you ever walked away from a bad conversation and thought about it for days? Ever said something accidentally and hurt someone? Why can’t we easily forget what people say about us and why do people hold so much importance on what we say?

First of all, words carry so much weight because every word we say carries a spirit of life or death on it. I know what your saying “SPIRIT!”  It is funny how we believe that there is a God, angels, and even a devil, but we don’t want to believe that we can carry spirits on our words.

Let’s look at the bible:
Proverbs 18:21
²¹Death and life are in the power of the tongue,�
   And those who love it will eat its fruit.

Death and life are not things to take lightly.  Did you know that when you speak negative words to people it can have an ill effect on them?  When was the last time you said “I can’t stand you!” Hopefully never, but if you have said this does the person listening return a smile and a hug?  Usually not, because when you say something it carries life or death (positives or negatives).

Just like you can say something negative you can say something positive.  Have you ever said the phrase “I love you” to someone who loves you? If you have this statement can create a uplifting moment because again life and death are in the power of words.

Proverbs 21:23
²³Whoever guards his mouth and tongue�
    Keeps his soul from trouble

Just like this scriputre says “Guard your mouth and tongue (words)”. When you guard your words you are THINKING BEFORE YOU SPEAK.  And like the old adage “If you don’t have anything nice to say don’t say anything at all“.

Prayer Moment:
Ask God to show you areas in your life where you can bring life and not death. Maybe the way you speak to your parents needs to change or even the way you talk about yourself needs to change.

Have you ever heard someone tell you that you should love God? There are a lot of things that people can make you do, but love is one thing that no one can force you to do. Even God being all powerful will not make you love. A question I get a lot is “How can I love God? I want to, but I don’t feel like I do.”

Let’s look at the bible for a moment:
1 John 4:19
¹⁹We love Him because He first loved us.

The Bible says that God first loved us. In the beginning God did create the whole world and He had you in mind. The crazy thing is that God knew when He created man and woman, they would betray Him because of our sinful nature. Still knowing this, He created us because of the great desire to love inside of Him.

The plan of the cross was a plan of love. Even though it was bloody and painful Jesus did it willingly because of love. God allowed His son to die a murderer’s death because of love. He is so desperately trying to get into our lives that even today when we hear the story of Jesus something deep inside of us says “Yes” to God.

Exodus 34:14
¹⁴(for you shall worship no other god, for the LORD, whose name is Jealous, is a jealous God

His name is JEALOUS…Wow…Jealous for what?…YOU!
Our God is so desperate that He would name Himself Jealous God. Ever seen a jealous boyfriend? They begin to act strange when they feel threatened and even get emotionally hurt. Our God is so desperate that He would do just about anything to win your heart. He would go to the point of being vulnerable to share His heart and suffer the consequence of us rejecting Him.

Don’t get me wrong our God is no wimp. He is all powerful and He will destroy anything that gets in the way of you loving Him and Him loving you.

Nahum 1:2
²God is jealous, and the LORD avenges;
The LORD avenges and is furious.
The LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries,
And He reserves wrath for His enemies.

What does that make you feel like? That the all powerful God is jealous for you? Even though you have weaknesses and you will make mistakes. God loves you deeply and wants to spend time with you. He will fight against anything standing in the way of your heart!

Prayer Moment:
Ask God to reveal His heart to you and ask Him to show you anything that is stealing away your love for Him.

Enjoying your summer yet?  I hope so, because your days of no alarm clocks and no homework are numbered!!  August 11 (the first day of school) is creeping around the corner!  You must redeem the days you have left!  Enjoy every afternoon nap, even if you woke up at 1 in the afternoon from playing video games till 4 in the morning.  Swim every chance you get, even if you’ve eaten in the last thirty minutes.  Watch every single episode of Saved by the Bell!  Wait . . . scratch that.

Yes, finding things to do in the summer can sometimes prove to be exhausting.  So let 212 help.  This upcoming Wednesday, July 2, come to 212 at the Movies.  6 PM at Discover Mills mall, we’re meeting at Lunar Golf to play putt-putt in with black lights for only $5!  Make sure you wear something that will look crazy underneath the lights.  Whoever has the best score wins a free ticket to the movies!

As soon as we’re done seeing just how frustrating it can be to send a small white ball into a hole, we’re all going to go see the new Disney movie, Wall-E!!  This has to be one of the coolest movies you will ever watch.  We have tickets discounted to $8 for the first 50 people who show up in front of AMC at Discover Mills by 7:15.  If you can’t make Lunar Golf, just make sure you meet us at 7:15 for your ticket! 

So there you have it.  A way to get rid of your summer time blues for only $13!  This, my friends, is amazing.  Come out and make some new friends at 212, or invite someone who’s never heard of us.  You won’t regret.  By the way, My birthday is Friday.

See ya later,

Stephen Hataway