Rio De Janeiro

 

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil

We are yearning, longing, burning for our bridegroom King. He is ever-present yet He longs for so much more from us to be completely united and given to Him because His raging jealous love burns with desire for our full affection. He constantly calls us to come closer and dive deeper in devotion so that the fullness of His purpose for us as Sons, Daughters and heirs can be fulfilled as we are sanctified and consecrated, set apart from the world to reveal and invite all into the Kingdom that cannot be shaken, to come to the desire of all nations, Christ Jesus our Savior King. We left home, family, control and comfort, to fulfill His purpose for our lives. This does not mean that somehow we have arrived and super-christians. We have so much further to press in to fully embrace Oneness with Him. He is perfectly holy and has no mixture in Him. So He calls us to cast off all compromise of conviction and despise the demon of mediocrity so that no veil may lay over our hearts and minds but that with clear vision we may view from eternity’s perspective placing no value on temporary treasures that fade with the wind and are simply a deception of false security and comfort attempting to fill the void that aches for Him. Within our soul we grown for Him so we naively numb the pain through seemingly innocent passtimes that our good and the enemy of the full eternal destiny that Love paid the price and sacrificed His life to offer freely to us but few only want the crumbs and settle for less disregarding the high cost of sacrifice that was paid on our behalf to redeem us from corruption and give us abundant life which is so much more than forgiveness and a ticket to heaven. He is desperate for us to be desperate for Him and Longing for us to long for Him and when we become truly hungry for the bread of heaven and crave and desire Him above any earthly thing than we will begin to rise above every obstacle and fly on new wings with heavens perspective and Joy that vanquishes every opposition of dissolution and settling for less than always more.

We are currently on this journey together as a team and family here in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. We have been delayed here a while but not inconveniently as the Father is working to bring us into a deeper purity and oneness to release a greater glory and fully fulfill His purpose for us as a community on this journey. There are thirty of us from many different nations living together in small places and can at times become hectic but as we refocus on the goal of this journey which is Christ Jesus Himself we are again refilled with excitement and expectancy that He has so much more for us. We had an amazing last couple of weeks here as our team stayed in poor flavelas (slums) and ministered the Gospel of His love. We stayed a few days in what was said to be the most dangerous flavela in this part of Brazil. In so many places we go people tell us how extremely dangerous it is so we were not too worried. In this place what people were talking about was pretty visibly evident when we got there. As we walked to a worship meeting we were going to have out in the street with a church we passed many members of the drug trafficking gang that ran the area. There were strapped with pistols, large automatic rifles and machine guns. We loved on them not being nervous by the weapons in their hands and even hugged them and prayed for them. We had the opportunity to pray and prophecy over the gang manager and some of the members the last night before we left and they were extremely thankful that we came and their faces lit up with as we spoke life and destiny into them. We were staying with a mission there that did not expect we would even follow through and come because most teams always back out because of fear from hearing how dangerous that area is. We did not have to worry about theft there because they cut off the hand or kill anyone who steals. They don’t want cops to come in so they keep the neighborhood afraid to steal by taking these extreme measures. We realized the main danger was not the trafficking gang but if the police came, in a moment shootouts can take place and people could be caught in cross-fire. There was one moment when a couple of our women had a gun drawn in their faces because they were using a cell phone and the gang thought they were giving information about what was happening in the neighborhood, but when realized that they not a threat it was put down.

The gang manager that we prayed for testified afterward that they were about to go to war with another flavela that night but after we prayed for them he felt such a peace and life that he was confused and decided that they would not go.