Are we to rise up?

At this 10:30am, Gwen Wilkerson passed away. She is the mother of the head pastor of my church and married to David Wilkerson who also recently passed away in April of 2011. I can't imagine how hard this must be for our head Pastor Gary Wilkerson and his family. My deepest condolences go out to his family.

Her recent passing away reminded me of when another great man of God, Pastor Adam Taylor passed away as well back in May of this year. So many of our great leaders in this battle of the faith are passing away in these recent years.

It makes me wonder if it will soon be our time as the next generation to rise up to their position and take on the responsibility of saving the lost that we were made to take. All these leaders are known around the country and the world for their faith, but what are we known for? Many adults think of us teens as the generation that is simply technology driven, always wanting the newest and best thing, and is that what we want to be known for? 

Recently, my hometown of Colorado Springs just experienced one of the worst forest fires we have ever experienced. The city was covered in smoke, and everyone was terrified of having to evacuate and what would become of our beloved Rocky Mountains. However, through this several of my friends and I learned and rediscovered certain gifts that God was giving us. We started praying constantly about the fire. Several teenagers also posted on their facebook accounts of having nightmares for some and visions for others. My friend, Charity Segovia posted this one day:

"Last night I had a dream. The fire was raging and getting close to us, several were evacuating but my friends and I stayed behind to rebuke the fire. No matter what we did, it continued to burn. Then some men in a truck came to take us away (one of whom was an Atheist) and I stood and ordered the fire to leave. All went out but a single white flame - that of the Spirit - and many came to Christ. We then all danced before the Lord to praise Him. Papa, let this be prophetic."

Charity also posted that she received the gift of tongues a few nights later. I looked through my sketchbook later that day, and I don't even think there was a real reason I was. I, then, discovered a drawing I had done back in November. It was a drawing of a princess rising from the ashes that her palace had now become. Everything is broken  and shattered and is crumbling all around her. At the time I didn't know what to draw in the background so I drew our beloved Rocky Mountains. It was based off the scripture verse in Isaiah when it talks about beauty coming from ashes. Now nine months later, our beautiful mountains are burnt. But it is comforting because in the scripture it says beauty will come from ashes. So there will be beauty from these ash covered hills.

Later that night, I went to my youth group as did many students all over the city each going to their own churches. There was also a huge youth conference going on as well. I'm sure other churches around the country were also joining us in prayer. My church also had an adult prayer meeting going on at the same time as our youth prayer meeting that night. So on that Wednesday night there were thousands of Children of God seeking his face for our city and our home. We were truly blessed that night. Towards the end of the night we broke off in to smaller groups and started praying for one another, several of us were praying in tongues. The adults I was later informed were also praying in tongues and as soon as they did, they started to hear a little pounding on our roof. A gentle patter making a beautiful melody on our roof. The rain had begun. Most of the girls ran out to see the beautiful site. It was sprinkling, at our church. Some became discouraged at how low the intensity of the rain was, but I believe that what we saw was simply a sign of what God was and was going to do on our mountains. The next morning the fire was significantly more contained. The rest of the week the weather seemed more cooperative and cooler. This was most definitely a miracle done by God.

It was also amazing to see how all these young people had such great faith in their Lord. The adults seemed so worried, and yet we weren't. It was so cool! This whole things reminds of the verse that says: 

"And in the last days it shall be, God declares, that I will pour out my Spirit on all flesh, and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and your old men shall dream dreams;" Acts 2:17

I am so excited to see how God is going to use this generation and how he is blessing so many with his gifts. I, with prophecy, Charity, with visions, and so many others. What do you all think?



**sorry about the weird highlighting issues, I can't seem to get if off this post.**