White Out Wednesday

Aren't these pictures stinkin' sweet?! And yes, we are wearing headbands!! What is White Out Wednesday, you might be asking? Well my friends, let me explain. Last month the Wesley Foundation in Athens, GA had "Fun February." For the last Wednesday of Fun February, they decided to have "White Out Wednesday" modeled after our fantastic football team's Blackout game against Auburn. The night before we covertly mounted black lights all around the sanctuary and over the stage. So Wednesday night around 500 or so students strolled into the sanctuary wearing their white shirts, jackets, vests, pants, etc. The opening song was as usual (Everything Glorious by David Crowder), then there was the announcements and video. Then the entire sanctuary went pitch black and the lead guitar player started playing the opening lick to Typical by MuteMath. As soon as the full band kicked in, the black lights turned on! It was pretty sweet. As you can see in the pictures, everyone in the band wore white headbands.

So the entire main worship set was under the black lights. You might be thinking that would be a little on the irreverent side, but I will tell you that it had the complete opposite effect. Maybe it was the fact that nobody could really see the people around them, but worship escalated to new heights that night!

The set included:

Dancing Generation (Matt Redman)
My God Reigns (David Ruis I think)
We Make a Way (another old school song)
I Desire (Elliott DeJarnett)
Diamond (Vineyard)

The worship was intense and incredible. All around the room the Holy Spirit was invading students' lives and hearts and ministering to their spirits. After Bob Beckwith's message we had another extended time of worship under the black lights. Worship was interspersed with people coming up to pray or give prophetic words, or simply give a short testimony on how God is moving in their life. The service officially ended around 12:30am! (unfortunately I had to drive back to Marietta that night/morning)

Folks, the Lord is doing new, exciting and powerful things in Athens, GA. He is taking worship to new levels and He is releasing a healing anointing. I had the priviledge of playing drums again at Wesley this past Wednesday. I will say firsthand that last week was not a unique, isolated, one-time event. About 550 students showed up with ready hearts to encounter Jesus, and we did. We did a song called "God of this City" off of the new Passion CD. This song has a special anointing on it! If you don't have the new Passion CD, go buy it now!

The chorus says:
Greater things have yet to come
Greater things are still to be done
In this city

This is prophetic call to every city across the globe. We are crying out for greater things to be done! Lord will you do greater things in our city?!!

Anyway, I mentioned the word healing and you might be wondering if I was going to share some of the testimonies of how the Great Physician is healing folks over there. Two Wednesdays ago one girl stood up and asked for prayer during worship for her left knee. She had just torn her ACL and the doctor said she has to have surgery in order to have the chance of playing sports again. Well, folks prayed for her and her knee was completely restored! Last night there was a girl there who had been deaf in one of her ears for some years now. During worship people started to pray for her and then she was able to hear the people around her singing. She covered her good ear and she still was able to hear folks singing and praying! You want one more?! There was young man there who got struck in the eye with a bottle rocket last year and as a result, was blind in that eye. The doctors said he would never see again out of that eye. He was getting prayer and then all of a sudden he was able to see his hands. They kept praying and he could see his feet. They prayed more and he could see outlines of people 15-20 feet away! A 4th time they prayed and he was now able to see pictures on the opposite wall! He actually has a black dot on the affected eye and they said that as they prayed for him, the Lord shrunk this black dot down to a very small size. Glory to God!! He is truly revealing Himself in powerful ways.

These are just a few of the many testimonies of the Lord's healing power resting on students, staff and basically anybody that walks through their doors! I encourage any and all of you to make the trip to Athens on a Wednesday night [Not next week, it's their spring break. You would be there by yourself and I wouldn't want you to be mad at me!]

Again my prayer is that God will continue to move in greater ways in Athens and especially here in Marietta! In order for this community to be transformed, we need the Holy Spirit to move...for real!! Please join me as we cry out for more!

Grace and peace.