Everyone has had a moment or two where seemingly everything changed. Speaking naturally that moment could be graduating, your wedding, the birth of a child, and so on.
Spiritually, the moment you were saved or baptized in the Spirit would classify as a life changing time in your personal history.
I've experienced all the above. Those were all times of great transition in my life.
Recently, I had another life-changing, ministry-changing moment.
Ruach 2014, the vision of my friend and local pastor Kevin Wallace, held in Chattanooga, TN during the last week of October was nothing short of transformational for me.
I did my best to update the daily happenings of the conference until I fell asleep due to exhaustion in the middle my day two recap. Having a few days to decompress and really understand what I learned in the conference has given me a new perspective on the sheer magnitude of the event.
I'm in a unique place in ministry. I have the call and I have some clarity on what God desires for me to tackle in the days ahead. However, I find myself in a "between-phase" of ministry.
That between phase has me balancing what God is doing in me now and what God wants me to do later. Maybe we're all there at some point or another, but I have always had a difficult time balancing now versus later.
So, when the conference kicked off with a Worship session taught by Ricardo Sanchez, I was hit squarely between the eyes with the realities of the now-phase.
I learned about things I was not doing very well in my current ministry as a worship pastor. God used this time of worship & training to engage my heart in the now.
Daniel Kolenda's session on Day Two brought an even greater awareness to my now and not yet dichotomy when he addressed ambition versus having a heart that desires God. It's too easy in today's all-encompassing ministry atmosphere to get our eyes on the work of God rather than the God of the work.
God used the first day and a half of the conference to really systematically dismantle some devices of that the enemy was using against me in my spiritual walk.
It was only after the experience of having some of these mental constructs broken down that He could breathe fresh life into me.
Throughout the final day and a half, The Spirit used some mighty men and women of God to really speak into my life--some on a face to face basis, others through confirmation of the Word spoken in the conference setting--that really dealt with my later.
After a jam-packed month of ministry, Ruach was such a wonderful time of refreshing and refilling for me.
I am so thankful to have experienced Ruach 2014. Everything from the speakers, to the breakout sessions, to the hospitality & selflessness of the volunteers really blessed me.
Beyond all that, the timing of Ruach was perfect for me.
Ultimately, I received a renewed purpose and a refreshed spirit that will help carry me from now to later.
That's what I call life-changing.
