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Dear friends and family,
All of our anticipation and excitement for the road trip was relieved when we finally left for our road trip on February 15th, after a month of training and preparation. Our first stop was in Asheville, NC at the Billy Graham training and retreat center, where we ministered at a youth retreat. From there, we stopped in Hendersonville, NC, where we did some work with Youth for Christ and walked around the city and did some listening prayer. We then came to Townsend, TN, from where I write to you now, and we have been operating with and out of Church of the Cove. With them, we have been getting involved in any ministry that we can sink our hands into. For me, this has been the biggest impact in RAD so far because I have the chance to take all that I’ve walked through so far into the marketplace and the real world. Through that, God has been putting words in me that I never thought I’d speak, showing me things that I never thought I would see, and going before me in battles, that I never thought could be won. It has been so powerful because I never thought the Holy Spirit could be so real in me.
As much as I would love to sit here at elaborate to you about all the amazing ministry and breakthroughs we have seen God do in people’s lives, I can’t skip over telling you that God has brought the team to a place of embracing the challenge of holiness. We were supposed to leave Townsend on Monday, but we really felt like God wanted us to stay behind and undergo some serious confession and repentance. It us undeniable that we all have a hidden fear of being found out—a loom of secrets that haunts us wherever we walk, yet we find ourselves walking around in a prostrate manner as if our hearts were consistent with our masquerade of emotions that we put on to hide our shame. Even worse, we continue to walk around in our mask of emotions and become so accustomed stuffing our real feelings and emotions, that we continue in a cycle of creating a life that we live on the outside, but only wish that we lived on the inside. This fictional life we live destroys us all the more every day as we try to search our heart for some kind of truth to offer people, yet any part of who we really are continues to be blown apart by the hidden landmines of secrets within us. David, the psalmist knew this very well, “When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all the day long.” Psalm 32:3
I’ll honestly tell you that this is a place that God has brought me to kicking and screaming, but I’d hate to think that I’ll continue being fake and with that, reproducing fake people. As matter of fact I have not only been hesitant about dealing with the reality of my heart, but terrified, for this is the maximum security prison I have lived in for so long, which has been guarded by fear and insecurity, where no one, not even God, was allowed. However, I know God has called me out of the iron bars of my mind, not only to bear more fruit among other, but more so for His good pleasure. As hard as this is to fathom, I believe God is a whole lot more concerned about me being free, so I can know Him more intimately, because as a loving Father, He desires for me to draw nearer to Him. It really blows my puny, little, and finite mind that God is so passionately pursuing me that He would expose memories and wounds that have lurked the dark and unexposed corridors of my heart. Memories and wounds, which have compiled themselves as coals, which the enemy constantly uses to feed the furnaces of unhealthy and ungodly belief systems. This is the hardest thing I’ve ever faced in my entire life, but I have to ask myself, isn’t the freedom to be intimate with the Most High King—a Beautiful Savior—and to operate in my fullest capacity that God has set apart for me worth it? It sure doesn’t feel like it is worth it, while I’m staggering through the fire of holiness with balls and chains attached, but I can look forward to a much easier yoke and lighter burden on the other side, as is Jesus’ promise in Matt 11:30. It is also beautiful to know that the rest of the Lord will revive me and that I no longer have to wearily tread the path before me. Even while I continue to walk through this fire and will face it again, God has promised, “…When you walk through the fire you shall not be burned and the flame shall not consume you.” Isaiah 43:2
We still have two weeks left to go wherever in the nation that God may send us, until I get to come home to the Sunshine State for a few days. I think some of us we’ll also be going to Augusta, GA to do a renovation project, which a lot of you who are reading this will attend. As I’ve expressed, we are not all wallowing in a bed of roses and ease, so please unite in prayer with us. We’ve also seen a greater example of the power of prayer on this road trip, so I ask with all the more joy. Our finances for the road trip are in pretty good shape, but a lot of us are still short on our tuitions and our cabins still need quite a bit of work. Please pray for opportunities for outreach, as we are waiting on the Lord to move. Please also pray for RAD’s finances, student, staff, and the Finney’s finances, building materials and helping hands with expertise to help with the cabins. Finally, please pray for joy in our team because when we got through the fire of change, it isn’t like Jesus revokes the fruits of the Spirit. They are still ours for the taking! Thank you to any of you who have lifted us up in prayer, fasted on our behalf, sent a donation, are currently supporting us, and/or have helped on the cabins. It means the world to us that you have shared this journey with us and paved the road for the journeys of future classes. God bless all of you who have taken an interest in this ministry and also in me, for reading this letter!
In His love,
Matthew C. Griffis
