I found my church in Dallas today.
God is so faithful.
Last night, I was Google searching churches in the area so that me and Carly could find one to try out this morning. We don’t know the area very well yet, so I was mostly looking for one close by. I found a church called The Oaks Fellowship that’s only about 2 miles away from us, so Carly and I decided we’d go to their 11:30 service this morning.
This morning, we woke up and got all dressed up for church and left around 11:15 so we could get decent seats (it’s a church of about 3000 people). I typed the address into my phone and we were on our way. But when the GPS thing said we were there, all we could see was a random field on the side of the highway. Uh…
So we kept looking. And looking. For a good twenty minutes. We ended up coming across this school, but it looked like a church, so we decided to go inside. It ended up being a black church of about twelve people. That was cool. It wasn’t what we were looking for, but they were very gracious and sweet and tried to help us figure out where The Oaks was.
So we left and kept looking. At around noon, we gave up and decided the address must have been incorrect. So we came back to campus and went to lunch, deciding that we’d try to find an afternoon service to attend somewhere. At lunch, we sat next to our next-door neighbors, Mindy and Savanah, along with a guy we met the other day named Ethan. They told us that they were planning to attend Savanah’s church, One Cause, which had a service at 3pm. They invited us to ride with them and we accepted.
So, 2:30 came around and we met up with the girls and headed over to One Cause. Savanah told us on the way there that this was actually only the church’s second service… like, ever. It was brand new. It has a main branch in McKinney, but they had just opened the smaller branch here in Dallas last Sunday. I thought that was interesting; I’d never been to a brand new church before.
It only took us about ten minutes to get there, and when we pulled up, we were met with a really awesome scene. The church is literally in the hood, in the middle of a residential area, and some kids were riding their bikes outside and around the church. A mom-aged lady in jeans and a t-shirt was standing out front, laughing, and socializing with these kids, motioning for them to come inside for service. I immediately thought that was really cool.
We parked in the extremely sketchy parking lot and walked inside. Everyone was so incredibly nice right away. The pastor made his way over to us and introduced himself, and then asked us all where we were from, what we were studying, etc. He was so genuine and kind.
We made our way to our seats and worship began. The presence of God was there and everyone was so full of joy. The passion and genuine gratefulness of the people there was undeniable. Everyone was so excited to worship the Lord. It was incredible.
This is the crazy part. Pastor Eric (as he introduced himself) preached a sermon entitled “Faith: The Master Key”. Now, for this to mean anything, you have to be aware of the revelation I’ve had in my life in the past couple years. Two years ago, early in the morning when I was babysitting before school, I was reading a book called “The Purpose and Power of Prayer”, which I still carry with me to this day. In those early morning moments, I had the realization of the authority that I have in Christ. I understood that my prayers were not only effective, but that they were absolutely critical in allowing God to function in my life and on the earth. Since those moments, my life has been completely changed, and God keeps showing me new levels of understanding concerning that revelation.
So, anyway, Pastor Eric began preaching about faith, and its necessity in our lives. He taught that faith is not only believing, but that faith requires action.
He said, “Not only is faith to be our initial way of entrance, but it is to become our lifestyle.”
Faith is not a key, it is the key. It is the key to entering Heaven (John 3:14-16; John 5:24; Romans 10:9). But the same faith we have in Jesus to save us is also the faith we must activate daily and as a lifestyle so that God’s will can be done on the earth.
He taught about the fact that God’s will is already complete and perfect in Heaven, and it is our job to bring His will to earth. God gave us authority (Psalm 8:6-8; Ephesians 2:6) and it is our job to exercise it.
Jesus paid too high a price for us to be ignorant of His word and to be lazy in our faith. Without knowledge and understanding of the Word of God, how are we to exercise our authority on the earth? God has given us so many promises in His word. That means He has already given us everything we need in Heaven. The Word says that “whatever you bind on earth will be bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be loosed in Heaven” (Matthew 18:18; Matthew 16:19). But when you study it out in its original text, it actually literally means “whatever you bind on earth has already been bound in Heaven, and whatever you loose on earth has already been loosed in Heaven.” That means that we are to follow after Heaven’s example. God’s perfect will is already in place there, and like I said earlier, it is our job by faith to execute His will on the earth.
I said all of this because I am so passionate about this particular revelation and I couldn’t be more amazed that Pastor Eric preached on this. It confirmed and strengthened what I already knew to be true. I’m so blessed. I know that that place is where God has placed me and I couldn’t be happier. My church hunt only took one try (kinda).
Something else? This is awesome: the church’s main vision is to be a church for the homeless population of Dallas. The reason they have 3pm services is - first of all, because Pastor Eric still preaches at the main branch in the mornings - but also because they want to begin having Sunday morning services there for the homeless. They want to have busses go downtown and pick up whoever wants to come, bring them to Sunday morning church, and then feed them lunch. By the time that’s over, it’d be time for the 3pm service.
The most awesome part about all that is that they need people for that Sunday morning service. They need a worship team, greeters, ushers, and kitchen workers (for the free lunch). They need me. And what an honor it is to be able to be a part of something so awesome.
I realize that was extremely long and if you’ve read this far, thank you. I’m just so thankful that God didn’t waste any time placing me where He wants me. He is so faithful. He keeps proving to me that He has me exactly where He wants me and that He is ordering my steps. As long as I follow Him, I’ll end up exactly where I need to be, every time.
Thank you so much for reading. This has been a post.
“Your Kingdom come, Your will be done, on earth as it is in Heaven.” -Matthew 6:10
