One day Isaac and I got a phone call from my in-laws, Kim and Carl. They were calling us to invite us to come share a quaint Air-Bnb with them. This Air- Bnb was unlike anything we’ve ever stayed in. It was actually a Silo remade into a house. Of course, we love to try new things, so we were totally down for this adventure! The week leading up to this “one night get-away” had been rough for Isaac and I. We had a few strange attacks from the enemy and had no clue why weird things were happening to us. We battled through them by ourselves and left our parents out of what we were going through. To make a long story short, the day eventually arrived that we would stay at the Silo. When we walked in we didn’t know our live’s would be changed forever.
The silo was beautiful. We were the first people to ever stay inside of it. Every detail inside was picture perfect. The owner of the silo actually lived on the property, so we got to wave to her as she drove by. It was such a sweet atmosphere.
A little after we arrived, we all sat around the fire on the deck that overlooked a pond. We began to talk about all things Jesus and sharing the gospel with unbelievers. That is nothing new when it comes to either of our families. Jesus runs through our veins. As we were talking, the owner walked up to us and Isaac’s mom asked her if we could say a prayer over her and her rental property. She agreed and we all went inside, grabbed hands, and prayed. When she left we all just smiled at each other and thanked God for setting that divine appointment up for us.
While inside, Isaac picked up his guitar, took a seat on the tall staircase, and we began to just sing. I crawled up beside him and began to sing with him. After awhile that singing turned into worship, and worship turned into sobbing. Isaac’s parents began to pray over us and then Isaac prayed over them. I am normally more vocal when it comes to prayer, but for some reason I felt restricted. I felt hushed. It was the enemy. Moments later, Isaac’s mom grabbed my hands and put them on their forehead. She began to champion the authority that I walk in and told me to pray for them. She called me out so that I would fully walk in what was on the inside of me. By the end of the prayer Isaac’s parents were both on the ground. We all couldn’t function. It was loud, it was quiet, there was laughter, there were tears, there were shouts, and lots of sniffles. Two hours went by and it only felt like 30 minutes had passed. The sun went down and it was completely dark outside. There was a point in time where we all looked up at each other and laughed. We were laughing because if anyone happened to be watching us through the open blinds, they had some great entertainment!
After our “2 hour God encounter” AKA “cry session” I walked into the bathroom. I knew I had mascara all over my face and I probably looked a hot mess. I looked in the mirror in disgust, and began to wipe the tears off of my face. In that moment God spoke to me (in the most gentle way possible), “Naomi, stop trying to be so pretty.” I was shocked. “Um, okay God. What do you mean?” He revealed to me that His presence is all that matters. He told me that I don’t have to and I probably will never look “pretty” in His presence. But it will ALWAYS look pretty to Him. We are the most beautiful to Him when we surrender. When we fall on our face. When we worship. Get your mascara all over the place. Stop trying to be pretty- you already are. He created us for His pleasure and purpose.
After I got that revelation I realized that we hadn’t eaten dinner yet. I looked at the clock and it was after 9pm. Somehow I wasn’t hungry. God reminded me of the the scripture in John about the story of the Samaritan woman. In John 4, Jesus tells the woman to drink from His well, and she will never be thirsty again. I think I got a taste of what He meant. He truly is the bread of life. He really is the only thing that satisfies. I’m not saying to go starve yourself. What I am saying is that, He can fill us up in ways nothing else can. There’s nothing like His presence. It's hard to put into words what REALLY happened that night, but just know... His presence is real and He wants you to encounter Him. It doesn't look the same every time. Don't put God in a box. Just because it's not dramatic doesn't mean He isn't speaking to you. He loves you and wants to commune with you.
In Revelation 2, It talks about enduring and persevering all for the Lord’s namesake, and not growing weary in well-doing. The verse ends with saying, “I have this one thing against you, that you forgot your first love.” I don’t ever want to be so busy doing things for Jesus that I forget to love Him. I want to passionately pursue Him and not grow weary while doing that. But more importantly, I never want to forget the love that I had for Jesus from the very beginning. I never want to forget the moments of me laying on the floor with tears streaming down my cheeks. I never want to forget the hours that I would lock myself in my room just to worship, and hear His voice. I never want to forget that He has been, and always will be after my heart. I want it to be said of me, like it was said of King David, that I’m after His heart too.
