God spoke to me through a girl named Gabby

This past weekend, I was able to spend two nights with the Carry the Love team at Georgia State University. In essence, Carry the Love is a campaign that travels across the country to hundreds of college campuses to inspire a generation to love like Jesus. Originally, I was planning on driving up to UGA Thursday night because CTL was going to that campus for one night and my two other friends were going as well! But, due to prior commitments, I wasn’t able to make it to Athens. I’m not gonna lie, I was pretty bummed about it for a while but thankfully God had much bigger plans for me at GSU and I’m so so grateful I not only was able to spend one night there, but two nights!

Carry the Love spends two nights at each campus; the first night focused primarily on worship and activation while the second night is centered around evangelism and equipping. Going into the first night, I didn’t really know what to expect except for the small pieces of information my friend Caroline had told me about what happened at UGA.

The first night was revival, to put in the simplest words. The small room we were gathered in was filled to the brim with the presence of God. I’ve seriously never experienced anything like it.

The night started off by the band leading amazing worship and the room LIT UP. People were going crazyyyyy! So much dancing and jumping and just pure love for the Lord. During one song in particular, I started praying that God would acknowledge me either through Him or someone else, but specifically acknowledging that He’s been hearing my prayers recently.

We sang a handful of songs before the main worship guy said, “Hey guys listen. I never do this this early in the night but I really feel like this room needs it. Everyone close your eyes. I want everyone who’s ever struggled with fear, anxiety, or depression to raise your hands.” I got prideful and didn’t want to admit that I struggled with those things publicly; the mentality of “if I don’t acknowledge it, it doesn’t exist” was very prevalent at that moment. But then I remembered I serve a God who knows my fears and anxieties and my heart. So I raised my hand, feeling a bit shameful. And then Nate, the lead worship guy, said, “Okay actually we’re gonna take this a step further. I want everyone who’s raising their hand to come to the front.” I didn’t know exactly what was gonna happen but when a group of us got to the front, Nate went on to say if anyone felt led to pray over these people that they should and we continued on with worship. A couple songs went by and I could feel a girl, Gabby, tap my shoulder and say, “Hi I was just praying and God told me to pray over a girl wearing green,” (Spoiler alert: I was wearing green), “ and I was instantly led to you, can I pray over you?” She starts praying over me and I instantly start crying. I mean, really crying. I cannot emphasize how much it felt like God was standing there, holding my hand, saying these words to me. She was saying things I didn’t even know I needed to hear; let alone mentioning things that I had been praying about!

He was there, speaking to me through a girl that I had NEVER met before, seeking after me when I felt shameful and undesirable by Him. It still blows my mind!! The fact that OUR CREATOR told a stranger at GSU, who didn’t even know my name, to pray over ME??!? And not only did she pray over me but she was saying things that I have praying about for the past MONTHS. Seriously insane. I have never felt more acknowledged and sought after by God. Throughout this time, it was as if I could physically feel the shame and guilt be lifted off and all that was there was love and desire from God.

Oh man, I was feeling NEW. Instant revival. I started feeling significant in a time when lies were telling me I was insignificant. I think God was waiting for Friday night to speak to me through Gabby. Not so I could dwell in my doubts and fears for longer, but  so that I would have to surrender to Him. So that I would have to surrender my fears and anxiety publicly, and come to Him in my rawest state. Not pretending to be perfect and collected and like I know what I’m doing, but messy and imperfect. And what I saw as failure and shame, God saw as beautiful and desirable. And in my vulnerability, God saw an opportunity to use Gabby, a woman of faith, to speak to me. An opportunity of healing and reminder of His presence.

And this was only a couple of songs in.

Worship continued on and was overwhelmingly moving. One song that really resonated with me was called, “I Really Love You” by the Circuit Riders (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sYv5oyvpUf8) and it talks about how God completely uproots and changes our story while using us, who are faulty and imperfect sinners, in the process. If you have a couple of minutes (5 minutes and 43 seconds to be exact), I would definitely recommend giving it a listen!!

After worship, the Carry the Love team spoke to us about how only 5% of students are part of a campus ministry. 5%!! That means nineteen out of every twenty students walking around college campuses today don’t know a love like Jesus. It’s a very overwhelming statistic! There’s not doubt about that. But there’s also no doubt that God is still saving people, today.

They went on to describe how during worship, not even ten minutes prior, a middle-age guy walked down the hall to see what was happening. (Keep in mind, we aren’t are on the first floor of the Student Center; we were on the fourth floor, meaning he went searching for us.) He asked one of the team members, “Is this a cult?” which created space for the team member to reach out to this guy about Jesus and the gospel. Long story short, this guy, who had no purpose being on the GSU campus, came to know Jesus!! And all this happened WHILE we were worshipping!! This man’s encounter shows that we serve a God that is still saving and reaching lives, even if they seem “unreachable.”  Even though only 5% on campuses are involved in ministry, we still see people coming to know Jesus day after day. God is working through a generation that is starving for His love. Hungry and thirsty for an eternal type of love. He is breaking chains! Actively healing! Revival is real and happening!

Throughout the whole night, right when I thought that God couldn’t show up anymore in that room, He did. Over and over again. I have never tangibly seen the presence of God so much. We saw active revival happen over and over over again to people!!!

But that’s just the tip of the iceberg of what Carry the Love was like. But this is just one story; in a sea of countless stories where God is showing up, breaking chains, and freeing people.

Thank you so much for reading blog post #2! I really appreciate it! I can’t wait to share more stories like this!

With love,

Lauren