Exploding with PRAISE!

Oh my gosh oh my gosh OMGOSH!  I just spent the most incredible night ever literally BEING the church with a bunch of wild-eyed believers.  And then...I can't even believe what just happened! 

So first of all, Joel, Matt, Briana, Daniel, and I lead worship for Oasis Church and all of us are literally exploding with praise.  We all get rocked by Jesus.  No one left that building without encountering the Lord!  Then after getting filled up at Oasis Church, worshipping our hearts out and receiving prophecy and scriptures, we (me, my friends, and a few more I met tonight) went to IHOP (Pancakes) to eat late dinner/breakfast.  All of us come from different churches and denominations but we all love Jesus and we love each other.  It was incredible unity to watch, just a bunch of Jesus-lovers not really caring about what organization we were in but just how God has been at work in our lives lately.  Even people I had never even met before I now got to know and fell in love with them!  Such unity, such love in the body of Christ.  How it SHOULD BE.

So we get our table at IHOP and after conversing with our waiter Paul* for a bit, we find out it is his birthday and he hasn't seen his kids all day and he has had a long long day.  He shows us his little wallet pictures and I see how much he adores them.  So upon hearing that it's his big day, we sing him Happy Birthday and get the whole restaurant involved.  He later tells Joel in a quiet voice "Thank you SO much for being nice to me.  I've had a really hard day."  But we weren't done blessing him.  We engage him and his server friend Joe* in conversation, laughing and laughing just having an amazing really great time being connected. Then in response to a story Joe tells us about singing to his patrons, we decide to sing to HIM.  So all 10-15 of us start singing beloved songs like "Eye of the Tiger", "In the Jungle", "Three Little Birds", and "Don't Worry".  The entire restaurant joins in and is super happy and we are all having an amazing time.  We get all sorts of requests and a guy even gave us a tip!  Well as for our server Paul* and his birthday, we left that man some uncharted tip of 200+% just dropping 20 dollar bombs all over the place.   He was BLESSED.  Then we asked him if we could pray for him.  He told us that he actually just within the last 9 weeks has been exiting his drug and alcohol lifestyle and completely finding Christ at a Methodist Church, as are his kids.  We start praising God and praying and proclaiming freedom in his life, thanking God for the work he has done in this man.  And we just pray for continued blessing and for God to bring to completion the good that he has done. C'MON!  So good!  God totally set it up for this awesome man to be encouraged!!!

Then before we leave, Joe* has one last request.  He asks us to sing "My Redeemer Lives", a song his mom used to sing to him all the time.  Joel leads us in song and we joyfully and worshipfully praise the Lord at the top of our lungs in the middle of an International House of Pancakes!  Then the manager comes over and says "You guys can't do church here."  And everyone leaves except me and Naraly.  We stay behind to exchange numbers with Joe* and Paul*.  I asked Joe* about his mom because I had a feeling that she passed away, and she did.  I hug Paul and Joe goodbye and go outisde with Naraly.  We all get together and praise God and hold hands to pray.  Then all of a sudden I see JOE* walking over.  He asks us to pray for him, for financial peace and guidance.  And we lift him up in prayer, speaking scripture and encouragement over him.  He just gets BLOWN UP!  He decides he wants to find a church.  It's been tough since his mom died, and a lot of people in his old church judged him for certain things(so not the heart of Jesus to condemn - ugh!), but he is finally ready now to plug in with other believers!!!  YES!  And then we just keep encouraging each other and the night never ends! 

Let's see, what what miraculous about tonight.

1) Unity in the Body of Christ manifested
2) Worship and prayer and happy goodness in the middle of an IHOP
3) Laying hands on and Encouraging an ex-drug/alcohol addict to keep following Christ and recieving his identity, blessing, and inheritence - and hearing about his entire family coming to Christ through him!
4) Laying hands on and encouraging a young man who has still been greiving the loss of his mother, but from his encounter with us tonight is making the decision to go back to the Church!


COME ON!  This should not be a suprise.  This should be a nightly occurance.  We get filled up and wherever we go just explode people with Jesus.  Let's be MOBILE EVANGELISTS.  Let's be REVIVALISTS.  Let's be ON FIRE and READY.  Let's be RADICAL LOVERS!  Selah.


Thank you Jesus for tonight!  Amen
- Katrina Doyle





*Paul and Joe are pseudoynms to replace their real names, out of respect for their personal testimonies so that they remain anonymous