For the Love of General Conference

Fall is my favorite time of year! It brings cooler weather, pumpkin everything, boots, tights, scarves, MY BIRTHDAY, and my favorite event of the year: General Conference. GC is my favorite event of the year and it's NEXT WEEK! I'm super pumped and so I'm going to dedicate a whole post to recounting some of the many reasons I love GC. And when I say I love GC I mean the following phrase will be uttered by my someday husband during his vows or the deal's off, "I promise to take Lana to General Conference every year so long as health and finances allow." I've only missed one so far in my my life and I don't plan on that number going up any time soon.

One of my favorite non spiritual parts of GC is getting to travel to various locations around North America. Just going to GC I've been to: Salt Lake City, UT; Louisville, KY; Milwaukee, WI; Des Moines, IA; San Antonio, TX; Detroit, MN; Greensboro, NC; Nashville, TN; Birmingham, AL; Phoenix, AZ; Toronto, ON; Richmond, VA; Columbus, OH; Tampa, FL; St. Louis, MO; and Houston, TX. It's so fun to get to explore new parts of the US and Canada while spending time with people of like, precious faith.

I also love the opportunity to hear and mingle with ministers I'd normally never have a chance to hear. I grew up getting to hear Bro. Urshan, Bro. Haney, Bro. Stoneking, Bro. Billy Cole, Bro. Steve Willoughby, Sis. Vesta Mangun, and so many others. What a heritage we have and what a great opportunity to hear some of the most anointed voices in Pentecost. Oh how I cherish these opportunities. How I cherish the hours and hours I've spent in the global missions section getting to chat and mingle with our missionaries -- my heroes! 

Another thing I love is getting to spend several days surrounded by THOUSANDS of apostolic believers. It's so fun to walk down the street and be greeted by "strangers" who are our brothers and sisters in Christ! "Praise the Lord" is a common greeting around town all throughout conference. I'm always amazed at conference by how friendly everyone is. Often I find myself chatting with strangers as if I've known them my whole life. It's such a place of unity and kindred spirits. It's amazing to join together and worship with so many fellow believers! I remember in Florida being on a trolley and having a sing along of several hymnal songs with everyone on the trolley. And yes we sang page 369 if you know what that is!

It's also amazing what an explosive atmosphere there is at GC. When people gather together in unity powerful things happen. One of the most life changing evenings of my life occurred in Columbus, OH in 2006. Thanks to unity and many months of work there was a powerful crusade service on Sunday night wherein over 1000 people received the gift of the Holy Ghost in one service here in the United States. Did I see every one of those people receive it myself? No, but I prayed with several who received it in the balcony! We like to say that things like that only happen over seas, that America is too hard, but Columbus, OH proved to many that if we work together it can happen here too so we should go ahead and dream big! If we dream big, God will do big things!

I could ramble on further but I won't. Please, comment with your favorite conference memory and let me know if you're going to St. Louis next week! Hope to see you there!!

Potential and Purpose

We've been having revival with Rev. Tim Hadden the last few weeks and it's been amazing! He mentioned something in one of his sermons that hit me in the heart and I can't stop thinking about it. It wasn't even his main point but it's something to think about. Rev. Hadden was preaching and teaching on the purpose of light and was addressing the point that EVERYTHING God creates has a purpose. That includes you and me, not just the plants and animals. 

Not only does God create things with purpose; He expects His creations to fulfill their potential. If you look at the parable of the fig tree in Luke 13 God obviously has no use for the fig tree if it's not going to produce. I got to thinking about that and can't get away from it. What if I'm not fulfilling my potential? What if I'm not living up to my purpose? Will I be cut down? If you look at the parable of the talents in Matthew 25 it's plain that God expects His servants to fulfill their potential. His words for the servant who didn't use his talents were especially harsh. The servant who buried his talents was called a "wicked and slothful servant" (Matthew 25:25). God help me not to be that "wicked and slothful servant." So I challenge you today to take stock of your life and evaluate what God has given you, what your purpose is and if you're fulfilling it because I personally want to be called a "good and faithful servant" and I'm sure you do too!! Join me. Let's make sure we fulfill our purpose for the Kingdom!