Hey everyone! I hope everyone is doing well, and that the Lord has been showing up day in and day out in each and every single one of your lives. I feel like so much has happened in the past two weeks (i know, i know, i am running a little behind, but praise God for grace lol) and I am honestly so excited to update you on all the wonderful things the Lord has been doing!
As a quick recap if you do not know, or if you were just added to the newsletter…each week of the DTS (discipleship training school) we have a different theme that we study each week. Week 1 was culture week where we went in depth and compared the culture of the world with the culture of the kingdom. We talked about what it looks like to be in the world but not of it. Week 2 was gospel week and it was honestly so fruitful! It was such a beautiful reminder of the precious blood of Jesus and honestly week 2 brought so much conviction and repentance. It put into perspective how easy it can be to see the gospel as something common and honestly hearing about the good news re-ignited my fire for the Lord in such a fresh way. If you want to hear more about weeks 1 and 2, feel free to visit Imagebearers.ca and read the last 2 blog posts!
Week 3: Freedom Week
This week was freedom week and it was so so powerful. It revolved around deliverance, healing, repentance, and renewal of the mind. I think it was so edifying to discuss the importance of the renewal of the mind, and how big of a role it plays in staying delivered! Sometimes we can think things are a demon or that we need even deeper deliverance, but a lot of the time it can be that we have not allowed our mind to be renewed.
Monday was the intro to the theme of freedom where we talked about our original design and purpose. One can only be free by knowing one’s God-given design, identity, and purpose. Your design is how God uniquely made you, your identity is everything that the WORD says about you, and your purpose is why you are on planet earth. We specifically focused on original design.
What is original design you ask?
Your original design is how the Lord created you to be. It involves your personality, your spiritual gifts, strengths, etc. It is certain characteristics and attributes that are unique to you that you do not have to strive for. Meaning that no matter environment you find yourself in, you bring these qualities about.
We had done an exercise where we opened up the floor for the prophetic and we went into deep prayer asking the Lord to give us details in regards to our original design. This was definitely life changing and reaffirming for me personally. I have never received an original design word straight from heaven in this capacity before!
In the second part of Day 1 I had black voices track! (By track, I mean class). Black Voices is a Circuit Riders sending movement where young black individuals are trained up and empowered to go forth in whatever and wherever the Lord calls them to go! What I personally love about Black Voices is it is not a means of glorifying race but rather it is based on Revelation 7:9 that says that ‘every nation, tribe, people and language’ stands before the throne of Jesus. This is a means to reach every people group! Surprisingly enough, less than 1% of those who are in missions are black.. and so the heart behind the Circuit RIders Black Voices movement is to train up young blacks (no matter what percentage of black you are (full, half, a quarter, etc) to go forth and minister to people of color!
Black Voices track consisted of a deeper study based on Moses and how important it is to move in what God calls you to in HIS TIMING. This was so freeing for me, as I have fallen victim in times past in regards to running ahead of God and trying to accomplish what He has spoken over my life in my own strength.
Day 2 of Freedom Week we talked about strongholds. These sessions were also so freeing as we discussed that strongholds are roadblocks that the enemy begins to build in our mind as an attempt to keep us stagnant. Strongholds are meant to keep you from walking in your original design. These can look like false identities or habits, etc.
Days 3 and 4 we went through the 4 R’s which I believe is life changing for every Christian and in all honesty I believe it is a necessity for us all!
The first R stands for Repent: Meaning that you repent for coming into agreement with whatever the lie is, or for whatever behavior or sin you find yourself dealing with.
The second R stands for Receive: The beautiful thing about the blood of Jesus is that it speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. While the blood of Abel speaks of justice, the blood of Jesus speaks of mercy and because of mercy we can receive His forgiveness. Which is something that I realized I personally lacked.
The third R stands for Rebuke: Rebuking the lies of the enemy.
The fourth R stands for Replace: To now replace the lies of the enemy with the truth of what God’s word says!
We also have evangelism outreach every Wednesday. Our entire school (150+ students) are split into small groups and assigned specific college campuses in the Southern California region. Outreach has been so beautiful and we have been seeing so much fruit of what the Lord is doing already! On this specific Wednesday, the Holy Spirit had led us to talk to a sister who was already a believer but was struggling with certain sin cycles. Funny enough, the Lord had already prompted a sister I was with to share her testimony.. and it just so happened that what the Lord had set her free from was the same thing the person we had started a conversation with was currently dealing with. It was so beautiful to see the sovereignty of the Lord and to be able to pour into her and encourage her with testimony and scripture! Our group also had the privilege of planting a couple of gospel seeds and we saw salvations as well! Glory be to God!
On Friday, we had the surprise of our outreach reveal! If you don’t know, I am in Discipleship Training School until December 12th (on December 13th, I will be ministering at a women’s conference in Sacramento – I think there are only 25 tickets left if you would like to come, feel free to shoot me an email!). After Discipleship Training School, we are all assigned to a specific state, or nation for outreach specifically gearing towards high school and college kids, although there will also be time for street evangelism and divine appointments. And so, on Friday they had surprised us with the reveal, and i got news that I am going to…… *drumroll please*
I AM GOING TO MEXICO FOR RESEARCH!!!!!!
MEXICO!!!!!!!!🇲🇽 I literally could not believe it! But then at the same time, I feel like the Lord was giving little God winks, as He had told me before I had even known I was going to CRX to start learning Spanish.. and then a couple days before the outreach reveal, all of my YouTube videos were in Spanish lol. I had also put Mexico as one of my desired places to go. But, the wonderful thing I love about CRX is that there is so much prayer that goes into it that they send you where they feel the Lord calling you to go! Apparently, this was the fastest that CRX has ever released the outreach locations in all 10 years of them doing this, and honestly it is such a blessing because we now have time to get to know our tour groups and just intercede for the nation of Mexico as well as each other.
This week was honestly so life changing, and i personally found myself in a place where the Lord was highlighting so many strongholds or mindsets that I thought were normal or I was just accustomed to because of my childhood and other various traumas. But by His mercy and grace, He showed me certain things to repent of, what it looks like to receive His forgiveness, rebuke the lies of the wicked one and replace it with the truth! I also learned so much about the beauty of vulnerability. What an honor it is to be in kingdom community where you are met with such grace to grow in Christ, where shame and judgement have no place. It has been so healing to be able to walk with such wonderful women of God (if you know, you know i have 22 house mates lol) and even just the people I encounter on a daily at school.
In only 3 weeks the CRX experience has really changed my life.. and I can’t even imagine what the Lord will do in the next 7 weeks or so. This is honestly my first time in an environment like this, and also the fact that it is a bunch of young folks on fire for the Lord is so inspiring and gives me so much hope for the upcoming generation. The Lord is doing something so special and I am so blessed and grateful to be apart. I thank the Lord for His provision as He has shown time and time again that where He guides, He provides. I thank you to everyone who is covering me in prayer and financially supporting. It is only through your generosity that I am able to continue walking in what the Lord has called me to. If you would like to sow financially feel free to click on the button down below.
I pray the Lord continues to be glorified and that laborers continue to get sent into the harvest as it is surely plentiful and ripe. Love you family, talk soon!
Yours in Christ,
Rachael Niles
