Reflections on the Uprising

WOW!!! It really could be left at that. What a great weekend the Uprising youth and young adult conference was! I haven't blogged in forever. Pretty much because the majority of my waking moments the past few weeks were spent on getting the church building (not yet fully complete) in functional order for the conference. So much thanks to all who were involved in that aspect of the event! You know who you are and you are truly amazing, selfless people. I love the fact that I run this race with you! Also so much thanks to all of those who gave of their time in setup and tear down, and during the event doing all that was necessary to have a well run and well facilitated conference you all rock! Thank you to those who gave of their finances! You can't do big things for God without the means. Ultimately God provides but he always uses earthly vessels to facilitate his purposes on the earth. The Uprising was put on debt free by a ministry with virtually no budget. God's provision is crazy awesome!

The conference was kicked off Friday night and Ivan really set the stage for everything that was to come with his prophetic insight to the shifts that needed to take place in the spiritual environment. It was amazing to see how the atmosphere changed as Ivan heard from the Lord and began to call out words of knowledge. When deaf ears start opening up you can't help but sit up and take notice. There were many salvation re commitments and healing that took place Friday night and throughout the rest of the weekend! Too many to try listing here. I'd like to get a testimony page on the website. If you were healed, saved or delivered during this event and you'd like people to know please let us know by emailing info@dvi8ministries.com. Saturday was more of the same goodness of God! The shift that took place is the worship from Friday night to Saturday was noticeable. Just about everyone was highly engaged in worshiping God. It's so awesome to see people worshiping God like he truly is the God of the universe! I preached on Saturday morning. I think I had like six pages of notes...but I couldn't stick to them long. I'm not even sure what all I said. I'll have to listen to the playback. But eventually we made our way to Ezekiel 37 and began to pray and prophesy over dead, dry, disjointed things in the lives of young believers inhibiting them from being the army God has called them to be. Saw more miracles....one of my favs of the weekend took place when a young man the size of Pastor Ray came up to have tendinitis in the knees prayed for. He couldn't bend his knees much at all when he came up. God touched him immediately as we prayed and he could bend and move his knees much better but not all the way. We pressed in for a complete healing and got it!! He was a high school football player and it was cool to tell him he's going to be playing ball with no tendinitis this year! I believe God has great things in store for that young man. Pastor Ray Arnold brought an amazing word on "Being the Uprising" Saturday night. Every person in the place was prayed for and touched by God. Several people have already shared with me how Ray's words both in the sermon and in personal moments with him have confirmed things in their spirits, and changed their life! Thanks so much Ivan and Ray for being with us for the Uprising it was great to hang out and we know that God always moves through you guys!


So here we are on Tuesday and if you're like me...which you're probably way more holy! The flesh is already attempting to rear it's ugly head! I always find it amazing how the enemy will attack the things you've made commitments on during an amazing time with God. Now...you could be like most church people and not talk about that. Or you could and should get honest with yourself and realize: if you want to bring to maturity in your life the seeds that were planted in your heart at the Uprising it's going to be a fight! The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak the Bible says. Theres always temptation...even if the temptation is not direct explicit sin there is always temptation to conform to the world and fit in and not be a freak for Jesus. I'm all for not being a weirdo for the sake of being a weirdo...but I'll not let today's American Christan society dictate to me how radical I should be for Christ...I'll reserve that right for the Bible. Remember the kingdom of God comes in seed form. To bring a seed into a state of maturity 3 things are needed. 1. Soil - which represents a good heart...a heart that wants to be right and wants to live for God. 2. Water - which is a representation of God's word and Jesus himself directing our life. and 3. Heat - Which represents a burnging heart for God! To maintain the level of heat that hit you at the Uprising it's going to take a conscious act of your will to preserve that flame. It's going to take a decision that "I'm going to do the basics of Christianity (prayer, bible reading, Christan fellowship, accountability, ect) daily!

My hope and prayer is that the seeds of a weekend begin to over time transform the landscape of a city as fruit is produced! One of the primary purposes of the fruit is to produce more seed which begins a glorious cycle of continuous multiplication as long as you continue to plant new seed and put pressure on the seed in the areas we talked about to produce fruit. Love you all thanks to all who attended the Uprising this year....greater things are yet to come....greater things are still to be done in this city in Jesus name!!


Chad