I believe in empowering young people to transform their generation, and that this can only come from an encounter with God. Last month my team and I hosted our fifth annual Young Saints Conference, where we saw radical breakthrough and transformation happen in hundreds of lives.
14 months earlier I had asked myself this question: What message do I feel the Lord speaking to this generation?
Finding their identity in Christ.
I processed my thoughts with my team and asked them to seek the Lord with me. Soon after our conversation, Donta Nelson, The Creative Director and Jr. High Pastor of Young Saints said he felt like the Youth Conference theme for 2019 would be Behold and Become. Instantly, I knew it was God.
People have found identity in the opinions of friends, destiny, work, being successful, ministry and a whole lot of other things. I too have found myself wrapped up in what I do at times, leading me to repent and adjust again. Any identity that you have to work for can also be taken away.
Everything in life has a creator. Ever since the fall of man in the Garden of Eden, humankind has been trying to find their identity on there own, independent of a creator. We’ve been on an endless treadmill of searching and false finish lines.
Discovering your true identity comes from letting go, not hanging on. It comes from losing your life to find it. Our identity is shaped by what we worship, and if you’re not worshipping God, you’re worshipping whatever you value more than Him. When we value “likes” on Social Media more than what God thinks about us, we’ve created an idol and allowed the opinions or the lack thereof to shape who we are.
You become what you behold. When we behold the opinions of others, we become what they say about us. Therefore when we behold the Lord we become like Him.
Back to the opening night of the Youth Conference.
Dante Bowe opened the first song for worship, and you could feel the excitement in the room as 1,500 people lifted their voices inside the Civic Auditorium here in Redding, California. There was a wrestle going on in the atmosphere as several things were happening in the room: some felt the exhaustion from traveling and adjusting a new place, and some were spiritually bound and in need of an encounter with God.
Dante Bowe, Mari Helart and the team sang the solutions of heaven and pierced through the atmosphere by singing about the nature of the Lord. Lisa Bevere preached and declared the Word of God, ripping through the atmosphere with heaven’s truth over this generation as a prophetic Mother.
The next day, worship was at another level as we lifted up the name of the Lord. Kids were pressed up against the stage as their hunger for more was increasing. The Presence of God was thick in the room, and you could feel His heart.
Our next speaker was David Hall, an Australian preacher and one of the funniest speakers I have ever heard in my life. At times, the presence of God was so strong in a moment that many people couldn’t stand and were so overwhelmed they fell over. This is normal when God is moving in power. The hunger in the room electrified the atmosphere as the Lord drew near, and hundreds received a fresh touch from God.
In the afternoon, around 100 youth pastors gathered in a room where I was able to share my heart and encourage them. Those men and women are the culture shapers of America. Many of them were sleep-deprived as they were working really hard to see their kids encounter Lord. They are precious people and heroes for many.
Worship in the final session was full of the presence of God. You could cut the atmosphere with a knife as everyone sang the anthems in unison to the Lord. It’s like you could feel people coming alive in His presence, and being awakened to the reality that God is our loving Father and we are His sons and daughters.
I feel a deep conviction in my heart for this generation to understand what it means to be born again—so that is what I spoke about. We made time for an altar call, and many were running up front to repent and surrender their lives to Christ. It was a divine moment as people were set free from sin, and I know many will never be the same.
Afterward, we brought up teenagers from our Student Leadership Team who have learned how to partner with God and hear His voice. They received words of knowledge from God (factual information about people in the room) and then spoke them out. Close to forty people received healing that night. It was supernatural!
To close, our entire leadership team walked around and prayed for everyone. It was a joy watching the Holy Spirit touch everyone in a very unique and loving way.
Every time we have a conference or event, we later hear testimonies from kids who encountered God and were set free from porn addictions, gender confusion, self-hatred and more. During these encounters, they are established in the Father's love and given their true identity as sons and daughters; no longer sinners but saints. Our hope and prayer is that once young people have an encounter with God, they will go home carrying that encounter for someone else.
I can’t wait till next time!