Sean Feucht

Good news! No bowel movements today! Score!

This morning was the usual Thursday morning fast. We fasted for our outreaches. We had a good Fiji 1 team prayer. We were by far the loudest team, and the most unruly. Outreach should be hilarious. My favorite quote from this morning:
Hannah D: "Will we get to ride bikes in Fiji?"
Dave: "Uh..."
Steph: "More importantly, will we get to ride horses?"
Hannah (holding onto a large peice of bamboo with a hook on the end): "CIRCUIT RIDERS!" (Makes horse riding movements)
Haha... Hannah and I will definitely be distractions for each other...

Goldie introduced us to a few people this morning. And I am not proud to say that I know them all much too well. They are:

The 'Good' Girl (or the Perfect Pastor). This person never says "No." They always do everything that they are asked to do and always do what everyone expects them to do. They go through the motions and are always sweet and kind and nice, and wear a 'plastic' smile. 

BUT! Sometimes you have to say "No." Sometimes you have to take care of yourself. It is a good thing to perform good acts, but not out of bondage!!

This person always craves the approval and acceptance of others. They give from obligation and feel like it is selfish to care for themselves. But these 'good' acts are acts of the flesh and not acts of the spirit and therefore are not of life or of God.

Ms. Tough (or Mr. Rambo). This person covers, copes, hardens and survives. They are proud of the strength of their flesh. They loath weakness, scorn tenderness, and push past their own feelings. And since they do this, they expect others to do the same!

BUT! It is important to let God be your strength. When you only rely on your own self and on your own flesh to survive, this hardens your heart and blocks God from being able to help you!

Ms. Armour-plated (or Mr.). This person fears vulnerability. They are very guarded and emotionally impenetrable. They feel safer if they don't have to show emotion. 

This person is similar to Ms. Tough - they need to let God in. God can help deal with emotions. It is very unhealthy to bury them deep inside!

The Graduate. This person is searching for significance. This person wants to prove his or her worth through works. They strive under stress for competence, and struggle to earn relationship.

BUT! God has made each one of us significant in our own way! We don't need to prove or earn anything - all is ours by birth!

Ms. Perfectionist (or Mr.). This person is never satisfied, never content, and constantly wonder "What is wrong with me?" This person is constantly dissatisfied with his or her self. They constantly try harder because they are dissatisfied with their performance, and they keep pushing and pushing. They get discouraged at 'failure' and give up on their self and on God.

BUT! We will never find identity when there is self-rejection. We need to give it to God and trust that he is big enough to help us be who we are meant to be!

Ms. Bundle of Fun (or Mr.). This person is the party person. They are never serious and never get close to anyone. When in doubt, they make a joke, trap their feelings away and 'laugh it off.' 

The Rebel. This person has been dominated in their life, so they rebel. Their way of being their self is by being different. They fear being controlled again, and thus refuse to cooperate. They keep safe by doing their own thing.

I realized that I am all of these people. Awesome. God, you've got some major work to do in order to give me a heart transplant. Good luck, man.

The next thing Goldie talked about was gifting. God gives everyone gifts. And usually our gifts are our greatest strengths and our greatest weaknesses. They are sites of spiritual warfare because the enemy's greatest fear is that we would find out who we are and become it. 

I guess one of my gifts is discernment. I am good at evaluating situations and people. I am able to see their strengths and speak truth and life into them. The downside of this is that I can also see their weaknesses and can become judgmental. 

I am also very passionate and very compassionate. I care a lot for others. This means I tend to pour myself into others. Which is a good thing. But since I pour so much out, I require for a lot to be poured back in. But I often don't receive enough encouragement and care etc. so I can become bitter and resent people because I am trying so hard to help them, but I am not receiving anything in return.

I also think that one of my giftings is music. I have such a passion for it. I love playing music, singing, and writing songs. But this is such a personal gift that the enemy can grab right onto it and fill me with insecurities and doubt in myself and my abilities. This leads me to become discouraged and not pursue music as much as I should. I need to stop letting my insecurities get the best of me and just do it because I like it and it is a passion of mine and a gift God gave me.

This afternoon we went on local outreach. I went to the Old Folks home. Oh how I missed the old people. I chatted with Bruce for most of the time. He was in a surprisingly good mood today! Normally he is super grumpy and it is hard to get him to talk. But today he was a chatterbox and even smiled in a grumpy way! Yay Bruce! He told me a really funny joke: So, this guy walks past this cemetery one night. And he hears some music. So he goes into the cemetary to check it out. But he realizes that the music is playing backwards. So he goes to the source of the music and when he checks under the head-stone he sees Beethoven and he is "De-composing"! Bahaha. Oh Bruce. And another guy named Rex gave Brent, Hannah R and I quite the pep-talk. He said "You guys are so lucky. Back in my day we didn't do it right. But you guys, you can really do it. So just go out there and grab onto it and don't let go. You can really do it. So go get it!" and when we asked what 'it' was he would say, "Now isn't that a good question!" and then would start the pep-talk all over again. Ohhh Rex. What a guy. 

This evening we went back over the hill to Taurunga. We are getting kind of tired of driving all the way there. We are so tired! We need some serious down time! But this famous guy named Sean Feucht was putting on a worship service, so we went to check it out. I am glad we did. It was awesome. Sean is one of the guys that started a thing called "Burn Night". This is basically just a really long worship session. Him and Andy Byrd were reading about David (I think) and how he had musicians that would play music and worship in the temple non-stop for 30 years (I think) and those 30 years were extremely prosperous. So, these guys, Sean and Andy, wondered what would happen if they worshipped and prayed for 24 hours straight. So they tried it, and crazy stuff happened like bars and brothels shut down in the neighbourhood. So now burn night is a big thing and this Sean fellow travels all over the world doing Burns. He is visiting New Zealand and put on a short worship for us. It was awesome. He's a great musician and he was really able to bring us into a place of worship. And then he told some crazy stories about his travels like miraculous healings in Turkey and being saved from gun-point by singing out in tongues in Africa. Crazy stuff. But the message of his talk was that there is a season in your life where you need to dig a well of intimacy with God. In this time you just need to spend time with God and grow in faith and just get to know Him. If you haven't seen anything crazy or had God speak to you yet, don't lose faith. It is just because God is waiting until your well is deep enough, because only then you will be ready for what He has for you. Woah. Love it! I'm so jacked now!

I'm so ready to get up super early and go to prayer. YESSSSSS!

I also was a really bad person and bought two of Sean's books - Fire and Fragrance, and Culture of Revival: a revivalist field manual. And I bought two CDs. Oh man. I am such a splurger. At least the money went to a good cause right? ... and at least it wasn't shoes, right Dad? Bahaha

Special event for the evening... at the Sean Feucht thing Hannah D was wearing her little beanie hat thing that she always wears, and she usually tucks her butt-length curly brown hair into it. But today when she took her beanie off, her hair was chin length! What the crap!?!?!!? Holy moly. She is awesome. And it looks so good! I am pretty sure that all of the girls are going to chop their hair off now... except for Kat. She refuses. And me because I know that I would regret cutting it. But everyone else...

Gute Nacht!