Chapter 3

3.

"Lydia." Lydia woke up to Dana's voice. "It's time to be getting ready to go down to orientation."

"Ok," Lydia mumbled, rubbing her eyes and stretching. She hadn't thought she was going to be able to fall asleep with the city traffic roaring outside and being in a strange place. Yet a few minutes after shutting her eyes exhaustion had overcome her. After that she slept soundly. She now felt much better after a couple hours of sleep.

While Dana got dressed Lydia got her Bible and Global Awakening manual together, and did her hair. At last they were both ready. "Do you know where we're supposed to go?" Dana asked as they headed down the short hallway to the elevators.

"No, I don't." Lydia pushed the elevator's down button.

"Hey, Lydia," Peter, one of the young men who helped in her youth group said. He and Terrelle were coming down the same hall Lydia and Dana had come down. "Hey Peter, Terrelle. This is my roommate, Dana; Dana, this is Peter and Terrelle. They're from my church. So do you guys know where we are going?"

"No clue." Terrelle shrugged his shoulders, following the others into the elevator. They got down to the main floor and found themselves in the lobby/bar room. Here they met up with some other Global Awakening kids who were also on their way to the meeting. Lydia, Dana, Terrelle, and Peter followed them out of the building along the walkway to another building. There were, in fact, three buildings to this hotel.

After wandering around awhile and inquiring of people they finally found their way down to the conference room where they were supposed to be. At the front of the room, there was a low stage on which a worship team was gearing up to play. The rest of the room was filled with rows and rows of chairs. In the first few rows sat the rest of Lydia's youth group. It was good to see them again. She hadn't seen any of them since that morning. She waved excitedly to Cat.

"I should probably go find my team leader and let him know I'm here," Dana said, turning to Lydia. She had come here by herself and was being put in with a different church group.

"All right," Lydia watched as Dana's brown head disappeared into the crowd before walking toward her own group.

"Hey, where have you been?" Beth asked sounding a bit agitated. "I didn't even see you at lunch."

"In my room, for the most part. My roommate and I went to lunch at about quarter to eleven. Other than that we have been in our room."

"Oh, we must have just missed you at lunch then."

"Yeah. Who are you roomin' with?" Lydia asked.

"Rose," Beth answered. Lydia gave her sister a questioning look. Beth had wanted to room with someone new as much as she had, but Rose was from their youth group. "She was the one who was behind me in the line."

Worship started a few minutes later. Lydia went to the back where there was some room and started dancing. As the notes of the songs filled the room, Lydia's heart began to soar! She danced with all her might. God's presence wrapped around her like a comfy blanket.

After worship, Randy Clark, the man in charge of this missions trip, got up to talk. He had gray short cropped hair and was in his fifties. He introduced his interns and other workers. He then had youth from past Global Awakening missions trips give their testimonies. One that really caught Lydia's attention, came from a guy in his early twenties with carrot red hair.

"Hi everybody, my name is Randy. Last year my roommate and I were praying and soaking in the Holy Spirit when we found a bucket filled with something we guessed to be spiritual anointing. Now mind you, we were seeing this in the Spirit. "Cool!" I said, "Let's go find someone to dump this on." It took both of us to carry it because it was extremely heavy. We got to the elevator as the doors were opening. In it were a group of kids.

"On the count of three," my roommate said, so we started swinging the bucket and counting. Now remember, this bucket was in the spiritual realm so the teens in the elevator couldn't see it. They looked at us as though we were out of our minds.

"Three!" When my roommate got to three, we dumped the anointing on them. They fell under God's power, and just at that moment the doors shut.

"Wow! Let's do that again!" I said. We went back to our room, and prayed some more.

The Lord filled the bucket up again. We dumped it on another group of kids, and the same thing happened to them. We did this several more times with the same amazing results! I tell you God is AWESOME!!"

Thunderous applause filled the room. "Wow! That's incredible!" Lydia murmured. More fantastic testimonies followed. Lydia's excitement grew as the stories went on.

Once all the testimonies were over, everyone helped stack the chairs. It was time for the impartation. All the youth and youth leaders stood about and Randy Clark, his interns, and Bill Johnson prayed for them all. While they prayed the young man who had led worship, played the piano.

Before they began to pray, though, Bill Johnson got up on the stage and gave a speech. "The two greatest tragedies I see in life, are having Christians who have the Spirit of the resurrected Christ in them, wake up morning after morning with no intent of shaping the course of world history. The second one is to see soldiers in the army of the Lord go to bed night after night with no blood on their swords. The great thing of this event is that y'all got up this morning to shape the course of world history, and by the time you go to bed tomorrow night, there will be blood on all your swords."

Since no one came to pray for Lydia, she just worshiped. Her heart soared away on the wings of the music up into the vision world. She found herself in a beautiful, silvery gown dancing in a ballroom with Jesus. As He was twirling her around, her gorgeous gown was replaced with armor.

"What does it mean, Lord?" Lydia asked in her heart.

"I'm now sending you out into battle, but I don't want you to forget to dance," He replied.

Lydia continued to worship her Lord and Savior, oblivious to the grunting and yelling of those around her. It was nothing new to her; the Holy Spirit had touched her church before. No, it had never been to the intensity it was now, but that didn't bother her any.

A few moments after Jesus had called her to battle, she was basking in the love of the Heavenly Father. He had her wrapped in a warm embrace as if to remind her that not even the fiercest battle could separate her from His love! Even though she wasn't afraid, because she already knew He was on her side, it was always great to have a special reminder! Every Christian soldier who is sent out must have an experience like that on the day their Chief Commander commissions them.

God's presence was so thick in that room it could of been cut with a sword. It enveloped Lydia like a big warm blanket. Never in her entire life had she physically felt His presence like that before. She had always tried to imagine it, but to no avail. Yet, this was the real thing! This couldn't be thought up in a weak human imagination. It was too tangible, too life-like to be anything but the genuine presence of Lydia's beloved Lord!

Then she felt a pair of hands in her own upturned hands. She opened her eyes just a crack to see who it was. It was Randy Clark himself. She closed her eyes again. She was glad to be prayed for, but was too enraptured by the love the Lord was pouring down on her to care much about who was praying for her.

Several minutes later Lydia could still feel pressure in her hands. She opened her eyes again. Randy Clark had moved on. What was even stranger was that the pressure in her right hand seemed heavier than the pressure in her left hand. "What's with this, Lord?" Lydia asked, confused.

"It's a sword," came the answer.