Last week, I found myself sitting at the front row of a conference that topped 500 people. The session started in the usual manner, but I was told that tonight was going to be the best night of my life. When the speaker was announced, I was pleasantly surprised to hear the name. Taking out my notebook, I began to scratch away, desperately trying to keep up with his message. He started out by saying something along the lines of, "You have heard from many speakers, all of them powerful, but everyone of them assumed something; that assumption being salvation." "So I came all this way to hear a salvation message to a bunch of Christians?", I thought. But as he began, my attention was fixed on him...

　

The conference is the National Convention. The speaker, Brett Harris (in case you are not familiar with the Harris family, Alex and Brett Harris wrote a fantastic book called, "Do Hard Things", I highly recommend reading it.). Although Brett spoke that afternoon, it was not Brett who moved 500 people--if there is one thing I have learned over the past 19 years, it is that humans cannot do anything for Christ, humans must do all through Christ. Because without Christ, we are wretched sinners on our way to and even more wretched eternity--it was God. God is real. Is He real in your life? How could you tell? You can tell by the fruit you bear. Galatians 5:19-23 tells us, "Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness...they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance."

　

...he began his message with the word "Deception". Deception changes our perspective in such a deceptive way, that, in our perception, we are deceived into thinking deception never actually happened (credits for that go to me, not Brett Harris). If you are not careful, deception can change you. He made the analogy of us being either a lamb, or a wolf. But some of us try to be wolves in lambs disguise. It doesn't work. As Brett puts it, "There are two types of people in this world, those who are with Christ and those who are not." There is no in-between. Wolves can dress up in a lambs disguise and fool little pigs, but what will happen when sheering day comes? You can live your life deceiving yourself into thinking you are Christ's, but what will happen when you stand before Him? To be sure we are not deceiving ourselves, he gave us a checklist. The checklist was questions aimed at challenging you as to who's fruit you are bearing; God's, or the world's. After having filled three pages with my pathetic hand-writing, he went through the checklist. He asked us if there was anyone who could not say that they are bearing God's fruit to stand and shout, "Jesus is Lord!" (<---that still gives me chills). 500 people, all assumed Christian, and you are asked to stand up and declare yourself unsaved? Sounds crazy, but with God, the illogical happenes. I was shocked to hear one stand up and shout, "Jesus is Lord!", and if that wasn't awkward enough, a whole bunch more got up and shouted, "JESUS IS LORD!!". One by one they flooded the front where I was sitting and began praying for God to be there master. Wolves in lambs diguise making a commitment to lead genuine lives. I have never experienced a power, an atmosphere, so great that you could feel God's spirit bearing down on you. God met us in that gym that night, and His power was there. There may be some that believe this was an emotion made by man, but there is no possible way that man could create an atmosphere so indescribably...awful.

Before the conference, I had been in close contact with someone who did not believe God was real. I guess you could say he was an atheist. I tried to debate with him, but he was so convinced he was right, that it instead started to take a toll on my faith. I cannot say this with certainty, but I believe there is not way that we can try to prove God to someone by using human stadards. God is the one that works in hearts to change them, not us. We can live the perfect life and have all the answers to their questions, but if they do not want to believe, if they have decived themselves into thinking there is no God, we cannot change them. Because, as Brett Harris said, "You want what you want and cannot change what you want, unless there is a miracle." That miracle being God. Having attended this conference, my faith has been restored. Having witnessed such a power, I can only assume that it was God alone.

God is real, and Jesus is LORD!!