Here I am, down on my knees again. Surrendering all. Find me here, Lord as You draw me near, desperate for You. I surrender. Drench my soul, as mercy and grace unfold, I hunger and thirst. With arms stretched wide, I know You hear my cry. Speak to me now. I surrender. I wanna know you more. Like a rushing wind, Jesus breathe within. Lord have Your way, Lord have Your way in me. Like a mighty storm, stir within my soul, Lord have Your way, Lord have Your way in me......

I surrender by Matty Crocker (Hillsong) 

God generally speaks to me mostly through songs. But so far this year he has put a different fresh emphasis on the meanings behind the songs. A few weeks ago, I was struck by the meaning behind ‘I Need You More’ by Bethel. Just the sheer thought of needing something you couldn't see but feel, more than the air that you physically need to breathe, just blew me away. I mean really the lyrics are very clear, In the fact that they actually say “I need you more than the air I breathe” Bethel doesn't disguise it’s words. I just didn't really know what words I was actually singing. I mean don’t get me wrong I do want him more than the air I breathe. I'm just becoming more aware of what of words I'm actually saying. And I would dare to say to those of you reading this that you don’t either. Which is fine but I think there’s always points in your life when stuff gets brought up or you figure things out for yourself. And I may merely just be putting this out into the void for now. But I believe it will help you who read my posts out there. If not, well hey blogs are meant for documenting where you are in your life. So here’s me right now. :)  

‘I Surrender’ by Matty Crocker has always struck me ever since I first heard ‘Cornerstone.’ Again it wasn't really the words that grabbed me. I was more struck at the overwhelming presence the song was carrying. The first sentence “Here I am” just hit me right away. Well really it was just the first word “Here” is drenched in God’s presence. I can’t really describe the feeling except to say you feel so safe, so happy, so loved and like everything now makes sense. It’s a very odd but very good feeling :) Anyway I went off on a tangent that I am famous for doing. :) 

So from listening to the song I completely out of it in Gods presence, so much so that I tended not to sing the words because I’d just be crying because God was doing stuff in me, which is fine lol but I want to make a declaration through the song. So tonight when I was about to spend time with God I started crying again. lol Yep this happens to me a lot when having personal time with God. :) Anyway I literally put the song on repeat an decided I really wanted to really understand the words instead of just letting them pass me by. And there is some serious meaning behind the song! It’s very much a taking an action song. I mean the first line is “Here I am, down on my knees again, surrendering all.” WOW a huge statement of faith and action right in the first line. There’s no warming up to it. It’s just straight in there. I'm on my knees and I want to surrender all. Here’s a question, what does that look like to you?? To me, that says I'm not messing about here and I'm ready to give everything up to god. And I mean EVERYTHING!!!! And more than anything in that sentence it says to me that I'm ready for whatever.

I could literally just go through all the lyrics of the song and pull stuff out of it but hey we’d be there all day lol. But I just want to share the last bit of the song with you. “Like a mighty storm, stir within my soul, Lord have your way” Gosh!! I wish for those of you who actually read this that I could be with you when you’re reading this just because then you’d see just how excited I am at this. :) What is a storm to you guys?? It’s not a gentle wind is it? It’s not a slight rainfall. It’s a full on, all gears on full, crashing of things, impacting storm. This certainly isn't a statement to just let it pass by. I really urge you to really think about it. Then when you sing these words, you can sing them in declaration and you’ll actually know with a thorough knowledge of what your actually singing and ACTUALLY put into action what your saying. WARNING: This can seriously impact your relationship with God. I just have one question to leave you with. Are you ready for this?? 

Just a bit of homework for you ;p listen and take a deeper look at Furious by Bethel. Awesome stuff!! :) 

I LOVE To Pray!!

So about 2 years or so ago i would definitely not be making the statement "I love to Pray" the whole prospect of it was if I'm honest quite daunting! And yes i have always believed that prayer is completely instrumental to our walk with God. I guess i just didn't enjoy it, I think it was just the thing that i did because i knew it was what i was meant to do. And i didn't really find any joy in it. I think a huge part of this was my spiritual maturity and that i loved God i just wasn't IN LOVE with him!

But over the past two years or so God has been dealing with me on the prayer subject, Because to go where i was going and am going with my life none of it would be possible without serious intercession.

God threw me right in the deep end with serious serious prayer meetings! And i was thinking i do know how to pray but not for long. Which is really weird when i think about it now because when i was a child i used to pray HUGE prayers not just about myself, about the world, cruelty and world hunger. And i used to take so much joy in knowing i was making a difference even if i wasn't seeing it with my very eyes! I sometimes think that my relationship with God was actually stronger when i was a child than the years that have followed it. I think I'm only just getting back to that childlike faith now.

Anyway I'm getting distracted like i always do lol.

So yeah i was thrown into these meetings and ill be honest i was totally totally out of my depth. Because these other people praying had this deeper love going on with God that I'd hadn't felt in a long time.

And so after these meetings funnily enough the subjects at youth, church and just randomly popping up were about prayer. And so i began to become scared that i really can't pray because even people younger than me had these extravagant prayers and a passion that i just didn't have. But sure enough God showed me that wasn't true and suddenly i found my prayer voice had come back and i started to get the passion again! I wasn't completely there but i was getting there at least.

Not long after we started having youth prayer meetings once a month and that's where things really started to change i started to let go more and more.

But I'd have to say when i was completely transformed prayer wise was when myself and two friends were asked to pray for the young people at The Gathering. I was totally up for it but completely freaked! because i was like i know it's not about how good the prayer sounds or is ! but it's scary praying for people younger, the same age or older than me! So i did some huge covering of myself in prayer then. But it wasn't until i actually got out there and started putting my hand on the shoulders of the young people that i completely changed. God took me over completely i found myself saying things i would never say. But were completely apt for the young people. And then people started going out in the holy spirit and i actually said God yeah i want that so much but I'm scared. In the end i said so what if God wants to use me to put the holy spirit on them then who am i to come between his plans for the young peoples lives. And sure enough strange strange things started to happen i even started to see and feel the pain in peoples lives. It was an incredible experience i would never want to change it. It was just amazing!

And since then i just have the greatest passion for prayer it's just incredible. It's literally like picking your mobile up an calling him and although it doesn't work the same where he replies right away in a clear voice. You DO hear back from him in much better ways then if you'd just heard it from his mouth. Because then you learn at the same time!

This by the way was not what i planned to say at all. but you know how God works i guess someone needs to hear this :)

Let me know if it's you!

Prayer works! Even when its just a passing comment. It doesn't matter if its half-hearted God still hears an answers ! And how do you think you get to the point of passion in prayer if you don't start somewhere! :)

Love lots Rhexxxx

A Revolution Is Brewing! :)

So last Saturday we had some guys from YWAM Boston in America come to show us and give us some practical advice on how to do some street evangelism!

The day started off with a few meetings on the subject of why we need to evangelise an how you can do it! Which i found so helpful because my friend and I were going out in our lunch times to go and meet with the people in the Eccles town centre and we had no idea what to do now that we think back on it.

After the meetings we then went out into Eccles town centre to actually do some street evangelism and it was tough there was only one person who received it really well. We even prayed for her in the end! :)

I went around with Lauren for most of the day an i have to sayy she's just awesome! She has such a passion to see peoples lives changed! And to just talk to people and show God's love through her! I'm so glad i met her because all though i only knew her for a few hours i consider her to be a dear friend one thats going to be potentially a huge part of my future life in some way or another! Lauren if your reading this, then this is what i believe Gods placed on my heart lol :)

25 people gave their lives to Christ on that Sat as a result of a few teenagers spending just 2 hours in Eccles talking to people about God! If this is what you can accomplish with just a few people an a few hours imagine what you could do with all the christians in the world and every hour of the day! Exciting things i know!

So the day finshed off with a worship concert with Ian Yates and Band! Love those guys they are soooo down to earth and soo talented and annointed. We said our goodbyes and went home!

So as a follow on from what we'd been feeling from what God has placed on our hearts, the gathering and now the YWAM team we decided as a youth group to form Lighthouse Youth Outreach which is just the youth going out into Eccles to do street evangelism every sunday! An today we decided to do 1 Sat a month and still go out to Eccles every Sunday!

Today was our first official day as Lighthouse Youth Outreach in Eccles! And it was awesome. 2 People came to know Christ and all though it seems like a small number its a start to greater things!

I met with various people most werent at all interested in knowing God but it was great just to chat with them! We gave out mini Creme Eggs and said Happy Easter to people!

There were many that were just blessed to recieve some chocolate and some were really up for an in depth conversation which we were soo happy about.

There was one lady towards the end of the day that myself and Adam (a close friend from church) got to speak to ! And we just told her why we were out there and asked her what did she think about God and she just simply said she believed there was something out there and that she definatly believes theres a devil. But her main point of the whole conversation in the end was the world is sooo messed up and all these diasters that are happening so if there was a God why would he let it happen? which is something we hear alot and it was really hard to explain to her why. And everything i said she tried to turn the conversation on its head all the time. Which i know is gonna be something im gonna come across alot. It was quite scary answering all these kinds questions for the first time.

There was a point when Adam & Joel(one of our youth members) were talking to this guy who appeared to have a good knowledge of the bible, but he obviously didnt know the love of the lord because he was drunk out of his head and really not with it in general. But whilst they were there i felt this spritual disturbance and i just started to pray against it an pray for the town of Eccles. I then felt God say to me you need to get the young people to pray soo i ran to tell them and got Rachel to come pray.

And from that day i've felt a burden to pray for Eccles, because it is our home town. I live in Wythenshawe but because my church is based there its my home. I know that my true home is my church so i know i need to pray into it. And everytime i've been to Eccles i just really feel that theres alot of hurting,heartbreak and people who feel like they've been abandoned so its a town that needs saving, a town that needs healing, a town that needs love, a town that needs God! :)

And nothing ever begins unless you start it! So i challenge you today to do start something! Even if it sounds crazy you have the power in your hands to start a revolution!!!

SO DO IT!

Rhe xxxxx

The One God Has For You :)

Tall, dark, handsome..... some of the things that first spring to mind when you think of your 'Perfect Guy.'

But It's good to look beyond the looks and beyond the intial first impression of his Character.

You need to look for things that will not only add to yours and his character but may help to build your relationship later on.

The No. 1 first thing that should be evident in his life should be GOD!

For example for my 'Perfect Guy' some of the core standards I'd want him to have is for him to be 100% SOLD OUT for God & for him to be madly, deeply, truly in love with God! They are at the top of my list and they are MUSTS!

But then i have silly things like being able to play the guitar so he can serenade me and i would like him to like the movies i like! They would be great but they aren't core standards for me!

I could probably list all the things i would love in a guy. Things that are very important and things that aren't so much! I think if you need to it's good to actually list it, so that upon meeting a guy you can make sure he has your core standards. Trust me this WILL matter later on.

Two of my friends and I have these conversations a lot saying we don't want to compromise on the important stuff and that God will give us the guy we want if its right!

And i just wanted to say obviously i know what its like to be a girl and like these 'perfect guys,'

to like guys sometimes so much that you'd cry if you didn't speak to them and it was your ONLY chance to talk to them. And your life would feel so over before it even began, Oh yeah been there my friends! :)

But NO more because I know God loves me and only has the best of the best for me!

He wants to give me someone who will fit my character perfectly,

Someone who can deal with my crazy hyper times,

Someone that i can partner in ministry together with.

And someone who although may not meet every thing on my list, but fits perfectly with God's list for me. Then he will beyond anyone i can imagine!

So i just wanted to say to you today that God knows the one he has for you! Never ever think your not good enough for that guy that is the nicest guy ever or so gorgeous you can't believe your eyes. If God wants you to be with that guy you will be! Because God thinks the world of you and wants only the best of the best for you.

Also I think its important to remember that we think way to much about finding 'the one' when in actual fact you don't need to because it's not your job to find him or worry about the whole thing. When the timing is perfect he will find you because God will have sent him to you!

So remember to pray

And wait for The One God Has For You! :)

Rhea xxxx

God's timing is perfect <3 div="">

The Heart

So I don't know whether you all know my testimony or not but I will post my full testimony at some point in the near future.

But I'm just gonna share with you one of the many experiences that make up my testimony!

(A very long story short btw)

When i was 12 all i wanted to be was a vet and help all the sick animals. I had really good grades, good enough that if i kept progressing then i would have possibly been able to get into veterinary school. And at some point when i had turned 13 God told me he wanted me to be a singer & Evangelist.

So i want to be quick making my point as you'll get bored with reading my testimony when i post it! And so basically i've been gearing myself up for that calling on my life. And it still feels abit crazy for me, because this kind of stuff doesnt really come naturally to me!

But recently i've been feeling abit down because it feels as if i were left behind because some of my friends have had the chance recently to really step up and do the things that i really thought would really help me be the person i believe God wants me to be!

So i've been abit like how am i supposed to give people the message God wants me to bring if i cant say it from the platform.

BUT i've learned lately that the best place to start sharing your message is the crowd! It's more personal and in some cases it really affects and benefits people in a better way! Because it would be more tailor made for them!

And are we not all messengers?? We all have a purpose in our lives! and we will whether we realise or not give a message from God to somebody at different points in our lives!

So although I may not be learning from the stage, I'm learning from the best place 'The Heart Of It All.'

The heart of it all is basically Gods people! The different personalities & characters. The people who like to drive fast cars, the people that like to kick back and watch a film or maybe even the game. God cares about all those people even you! So he'll send out people like me and you to reach the normally unreachable, the broken and chained and the ones who have just been left behind by the crowd!

So if you feel some of these kinds of things or just anything really please don't hesitate to email me and I'll give you an email back! :)

Rheaaimeex@hotmail.co.uk

Rhea xxxxx

The Gathering 2011 Revolution Fires

Hellloooo!

SO this weekend just gone was Elim's national youth conference (Serious4God) and the actual event is called The Gathering!

And this years theme was REVOLUTION FIRE'S with the sub title START A REVOLUTION WHERE YOU ARE!

The Seminars took many different forms there were ones like Revolutionary girls,Revolutionary boys, Revolutionary in your schools, Revolutionary in uni, Revolutionary leaders, Revolutionary in work, Revolutionary in music and Revolutionary in media.

All these sessions proved to be excellent in equipping young & ol

der revolutionaries with practical and inspirational ideas and stories.

I know that these sessions got all our youth pumped up to get out there and make a difference.

The sessions that I went to were Revolutionary in Uni's with Rich Wilson (who is the national team leader for Fusion) & Revolutionary Leaders with Dave Gilpin.

My Sessions

Revolutionary in Uni's -Rich Wilson took this session and he basically spoke and gave examples of inspirational people that went to Universities and then actually whilst being there did these amazing things!

And here are some of the 'World Changers' that were mentioned:

The Sung & Unsung heroes! :)

Samuel Mills - was only 20 years old when he an four other students decided to meet for what is now known as the Haystack prayer meeting. And Samuel who was one of the most influential student of the five lead some missions to Africa.

Nicolaus Zinzendorf - Basically started off 24/7 prayer with his friends from University.

William Wilberforce - I think everyone knows this story but just in case you don't I'll give you the facts.

William Wilberforce did something truly amazing he stood up for what he believed in and won! He was a leader in the abolishment of the slave trade. He came up against some terrible things including his own health and yet he still kept on fighting. Because he had that call upon his life and he knew it! I have a huge passion for William Wilberforce's story. I think its one of the most moving stories I've ever heard.

Josephine Butler - Josephine stood up for women's rights and played a huge part in further education for women. She also campaigned tirelessly for the 'contagious diseases acts' and also played big part in raising the 'age of consent' from 13 to 16!

John Wesley - John Wesley was the founder of the Methodist Movement! He was great at bringing groups together that really wanted to push on with God!

The question we were mainly left to ask ourselves was Are We Going To Be Active??

We (Rich,Jess, Rach & I) were asked if we'd like to pray for some of the kid's that might come

forward to receive the holy spirit. And so we all said yes that would be awesome!

And so we had to miss our third session for a little meeting to pray about it and also discuss some technicalities! :)

In this meeting i experienced

so many different feelings all at once because as much as i wanted to pray i never really considered myself a prayer warrior (thats what i call people who pray in their own time alot an also pray over people) I mean sure i pray at home with great passion but when it comes to praying in front of people my insecurities i guess got the better of me!

But on this weekend that all changed! All i literally said was "God i can't do this in my o

wn strength, i need your strength, give me the words to say and let m

e be your vessel!" And as much as i'd like to say that i felt great and fired up right away, that simply wasnt the truth! All i got at first intially was this underlying peace and i wasnt particularly worried either. But i honestly believe that because God knows my character he didnt bring it all at once because not only would it be too much, i may have lost the urgency in my praying prior to the actual next session in the big room all together!

The Holy Spirit Falls in the room

So the session before the big concert with LZ7 was the main big session and instead of doing a big meeting with a really inspirational final speaker, we just had like a time of pure worship and praying for the Holy Spirit to come and take us over!

This was where we came in to pray. We had already been in the auditorium before the session just to pray over the seats and that people would really be filled with the Holy Spirit. It was amazing actually because we went in there an there was just us, then we turned round after what felt like 10 minutes but couldn't have been and all the seats were filled.

So as the evening progressed there was an alter call for those who wanted to make a commitment to the Lord. And one of our own youth members went up with all these other young people! So we went up to pray with them and i prayed with these two girls Rachel & Emily and so we prayed together. Then we all sat down and Mark Pugh i think it was explained we were going to invite the Holy Spirit now to come an take our lives over! And he also explained how we were going to do it section by section. So we started off with a bit of worship then we went up to start praying with people. And i was so calm about it all, I was saying things in my prayers that i had never said before! I got more profound words for people than i had ever had before!

So we had been praying for a while and for all the people that i prayed for not one of them went down in the Holy Spirit and i was like "God why are they not going down? Am i not doing or saying something right?" looking back on it, it was quite funny! And as soon as i realised that it doesn't matter if they get go down in the Holy Spirit because they're still receiving it! I got these two girls who were actually staying in the same church as me and i as i was praying they BOTH were falling backwards an i was like "Ahh this is why you do it one at a time an with one person behind haha" So a friend of there's came to pray with one of the girls and i was praying with the other by this point i was screaming my prayers an losing my voice! it felt awesome and weird at the same time! :) And then this girl fell to the floor crying so i kept praying for her. Then about 10 minutes later i see some familiar faces it was Rachel & Emily from before( the ones who had given they're lives the same night) I was at this point with my my buddy Rachel an we started off praying together but then when Rachel (Rachel & Emily) started crying we started really praying over her life that anything that had been in the past that had hurt her any chains that needed to be broken were cut free and that for any of her past mistakes would be washed away. She was shaking alot and really really crying and i think we prayed for like 40 minutes for her i really felt i couldn't leave her because God was obviously doing something in her life that wasn't to be stopped.

So the end of the night came an we went to bed.

We got up in the morning and i saw Rachel (Rach & Em) and she gave me the biggest smile! She had been set free!

This weekend has changed my prayer and devotional life forever! :)

It was a truly amazing weekend one that I'd never ever trade! The Gathering's still got it!

Let's not forget - START A REVOLUTION WHERE YOU ARE!!!!

Raquelita - My Best Friend

So as i understand it your supposed to talk about what your thinking and feeling in blogs. So this is whats going on now!

My Best Friend Rachel:

My best friend Rachel (also known as Raquelita & Davey Crocker) & I are leaving our homes to go on our next part of our journey at the same time. But to two different places.She's going to Keele - she just calls it a layby as theres pretty much nothing but fields surrounding it! (I'd love that)

And I'm moving to Bristol so in a car about 2 hours away maybe as opposed to the 3 hours from Manchester (My Home town).

And it's only recently been hitting me! I can't believe i have to live without her craziness for 5 years. She's going to be gone for 4 years longer than i! My course is only a year! Anyway enough about the depressing stuff were taking a chance at an adventure and God told us to go out into our mission fields. I want to talk about the memories we've shared over the past few years and all the fun we've had working together in this past year.

So Rach & I first met at 'The Gathering 07' - well it was in the minibus on the way and we were only there for the day. So i was scared to talk to Rach coz she was with her bro Jesse and they had Canadian accents which made them really scary! NO I'm kidding! It just didn't happen that we spoke to each other even though there were only like 4 youth members including myself so pretty shameful really haha.

But not long afterwards probs about a few weeks after i went to her house i think with my mum and some other people but Rach & I were the only younger people there. And sooo inevitably we started talking and the first thing i noticed was how mature she was for her age. Theres about 4 years between us! which isnt much but most people the same age as me hang out with people about the same age or literally like a year older. From that night on we have been best friends ever since. With MANYYY crazy memories. Dont worry i wont bombard you with them all just a few of my selected favs.

Were recently - when i say recently i mean roughly 7 months ago started working together at our church and its justtt been soo amazing!it allowed for us to spend some major quality time with each other! We've spent many a time at West One (Local retail sales centre) going through the rails searching for some fab bargains and ending up getting back to work late.

I was literally at her house pretty much 2wice a week staying over and it has been soo fun to be apart of her family. Rachel's Parents (Alex& Nancy) have language students staying at their house sometimes and its really nice to be apart of it.

Christmas & New Year was a definite highlight my mum got to spend some time with Rachel's parents as we went to their house for a meal for christmas eve and new year we went for a meal! it was such a nice chilled out time!

Also at christmas we had our Youth Travelling Supper where i dressed up as the cat in the hat and Rachel was thing 1!

Anywayyy i could go on butt i wont because i seriously could go for hours reminiscing.

Rachelll you are the bestest friend i could ever ask for! you've been there for me in my ups and downs. Given me the best advice and encouragement. We've had the best times these past few years. And you put up with my craziness haha.

Your my fave buddy to talk boysss with! haha! ahh PK! hehe!

Anyway Rach your the best and thats all there is to it! im going to miss you like crazyyy!! :'(

To those of you reading this thank you! haha xxxxxx